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Apple keeps flogging 8GB of RAM for its Mac computers but it's still a dead horse (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 2 years ago by Dragxito@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[+] dinckelman@lemmy.world 71 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

On an Air, 8gb is the bare minimum that is realistically viable, for people who don’t do anything than browse the web

Thanks to the modern web, web browsing of one of the most RAM intensive tasks. Add a few Electron based apps and you're in hell.

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[-] sushibowl@feddit.nl 17 points 2 years ago

Practically all of us know that the difference between these memory modules is pocket change, when mass produced like this, but for those extra couple cents, they get an extra 100$ from you

This is called capturing consumer surplus through segmentation. There's a pretty good explanation of it here.

The long and short of it is that some people are just perfectly fine spending more money on a macbook, and apple wants to give them a good enough excuse to do so.

[-] golli@lemm.ee 16 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I think it's mostly to have a price tag that doesn't immediately turn off people.

Yes, Apple is expensive in general, however people are generally fine with paying a premium. But if they'd come at you immediately with the full price for a reasonably specced machine, it would still turn many people away.

Instead they fix you on with a high, but still somewhat reasonable price and then upsell you in steps for everything. Like sure you could buy the 128gb iPhone pro, but then the storage will fill up fast with photos and videos. A great camera system being the huge selling point of the device.

On a side note I actually find the 256gb non upgradeable/replaceable ssd much more egregious, than the 8gb RAM.

As you say, for people with basic needs (and that is actually a quite large group), it is enough for daily use. Those people just browse the Web, view photos and write short documents in word. However especially if they have an iPhone and take lots of picture/videos, they will still fill up that storage fast. And then it gets really frustrating, unless you maybe pay even more to outsource everything to the icloud and pay monthly.

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[-] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 67 points 2 years ago

8 is fine for a tablet.

8 is not fine for a brand-fucking new state of the art laptop.

[-] OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world 48 points 2 years ago

"With an apple silicon architecture, 8gb is like 16gb" -some stupid apple flunkey

[-] T156@lemmy.world 31 points 2 years ago

The irony is that it's arguably the opposite, since the GPU and CPU just have a shared memory pool, rather than having dedicated memory and the shared memory pool.

So if you're watching a 4k video, you might have lost a gigabyte or two just for VRAM.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 20 points 2 years ago

It's because they think that people only do one thing at a time.

[-] arin@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

New feature turns off the screen to flush graphics memory so the cpu can process data.

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[-] Grass@sh.itjust.works 65 points 2 years ago

It's totally so they can list a really low "starting at" price and then upsell marked up parts in the configurator.

Disclaimer: I didn't read the article and just came in to shit on scummy business practices that I made assumptions about.

[-] jose1324@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

Your assumption is based and factual

[-] smileyhead@discuss.tchncs.de 64 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

8GB of RAM is perfectly usable for basic things, but on a new computer, with that price, non-upgradable... ech...

[-] Dragxito@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago

Less is more, removing features is a innovation - apple

[-] billiam0202@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

removing features is ~~innovation~~ courage.

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[-] shalva97@lemmy.world 52 points 2 years ago

my 3 year old phone has more RAM than that

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[-] hahattpro@lemmy.world 47 points 2 years ago

this is a trap to upsell you 16 GB or sell you upgrade

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[-] PiratePanPan@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

> most powerful chip available in a laptop and arguably one of the greatest overall laptops ever

> 8 gb ram

my phone has 12 GB of ram what the fuck is apple on

[-] extremeboredom@lemmy.world 42 points 2 years ago

It's a strategy to push customers toward the more expensive models. Their markup is massive, it's a blatant profit move.

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[-] Entropywins@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago

My 6 year old CHROMEBOOK has 16gb...

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 33 points 2 years ago

My 13 year old MB has 16GB.

It came with 8GB and at some point I spent $50 or so to add another 8GB.

You know, back when upgrading Macs was a thing.

[-] Moreless@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago

Ok Gramps, we need to get you to bed now

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[-] _sideffect@lemmy.world 34 points 2 years ago

Let's put 100hp in this new apple truck that weighs 9000lbs!

What? Our competitors have 350hp? It doesn't matter! Our 100hp is very efficient and performs just as well!*

*only when compared to light usage and not towing or driving on inclined roads

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[-] PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee 27 points 2 years ago

My mid-range smartphone from 2022 has 8gb of ram. I paid $250 for it brand new.

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[-] mohammed_alibi@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago

Such a weird hill to die on for Apple. How much does it really cost to just add 8GB more RAM? $5?

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[-] ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 2 years ago

I like Apple. Got Apple Watch, AirPods Pro and iPhone. I love the design of MacBooks however I refuse to ever buy MacBooks.

Overpriced like crazy. For half of the price you can get a really great laptop.

I’m honestly even thinking to buy a €200 android device to get used to the system.

[-] woelkchen@lemmy.world 35 points 2 years ago

I’m honestly even thinking to buy a €200 android device to get used to the system.

Don't. Unless it's a slightly older Pixel A-series 2nd hand phone. Manufacturers of cheap Android phones skimp on everything and add bullshit crapware. Shit like that is the cause of many "Android sucks" comments.

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[-] Andromxda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 2 years ago

I’m honestly even thinking to buy a €200 android device to get used to the system.

Don't do that, I can tell you from experience: Most of them suck, especially cheap Chinese ones.

The Google Pixel 7a is currently $350 and it will get cheaper when the 8a comes out. The 7a will get security updates until May 2028. If you want to get into mobile device privacy/security, a Pixel is an excellent choice. You can install an alternative operating system called GrapheneOS, it's a much more private and secure, improved version of Android. It doesn't include Google spyware and thus also improves battery life. It also extends your feature updates, by default the 7a would only get feature updates until 2026, but GrapheneOS provides Android feature updates as long as the device gets security updates. That would mean 2 additional years of Android feature updates. I highly recommend it!

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[-] PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee 25 points 2 years ago

It's weird how you draw the line at MacBooks for being overpriced, considering every other apple device you name dropped is equally overpriced.

[-] deranger@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

I dunno, I’ve got a base model M1 and it feels like one of the best laptops I’ve owned. Overpriced is exactly what I feel it isn’t. $1000 for a decent laptop is not bad. Nothing below that price has a good trackpad.

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[-] kameecoding@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

The best way to have a MacBook is your employer giving you one, but trust me you kinda wont want to work on regular notebooks after experiencing macbook.

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[-] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 23 points 2 years ago

The 8gb ram MacBook works great for your average Mac user. The person who uses it for writing resumes and surfing YouTube which I'm sure is a huge chunk of the market. Devs/Gamers/power users can't make do with 8gb, but my sister in law who just does paper work and teams meetings all day is served well by her 2016 laptop, and wouldn't have any issue with an 8gb MacBook.

[-] ColdWater@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 years ago

Except it's cost 3x more than average 8GB ram laptops

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[-] TwoCubed@feddit.de 15 points 2 years ago

Given how terrible Teams performes, I'd dread to have merely 8GB to run it on.

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[-] accidentalloris@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

I daily drove a laptop with 8gb of RAM less than a year ago. Works just fine for most tasks. Granted, at Apples typical price point, I'd want more than that, but it is far from unusable. Running VMs wasn't fun though.

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[-] sturmblast@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

Apple has their niche, but you'll never find me owning a Mac. They are not useful for me. And fuck the proprietary nature of Apple in general.

That being said, I run 64GB of RAM and it's glorious!

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[-] sunbunman@lemm.ee 19 points 2 years ago

And I'm here contemplating upgrading to 32 GB...

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 years ago

Yup. My MacBook Pro for work has 16GB and I keep running out of RAM. I can't fathom being limited to 8GB...

I guess it works for basic browsing and whatnot, but for any kind of professional work, you're going to have a bad time.

[-] cdegallo@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

I built a gaming PC for the first time since ~20 years ago. Decided to dump 64gb into it for no good reason other than ram is cheap and I figured I might as well.

8gb...jeebus.

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[-] Harbinger01173430@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

Me, with my PC that has 32 gb of ram: 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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[-] Hux@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 years ago

I don’t disagree that 8GB is generally less than I would accept for normal usage, but the way this article is written you can tell the author really doesn’t have any reasonable grasp of memory management.

[-] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago

laughs in 64GB ram

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[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 17 points 2 years ago

Pretty sure my phone has 8GB of RAM. Apple should probably rethink this.

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[-] Bonehead@kbin.social 16 points 2 years ago

Oh come on...640kb is more than enough for everyone...

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this post was submitted on 18 Apr 2024

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