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submitted 10 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

8GB RAM on M3 MacBook Pro 'Analogous to 16GB' on PCs, Claims Apple::Following the unveiling of new MacBook Pro models last week, Apple surprised some with the introduction of a base 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 chip,...

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[-] ApeNo1@lemm.ee 211 points 10 months ago

I think they simply mean analogous in price.

[-] iminahurry@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

What, no! 8 GB Apple RAM costs 4 times that of 16 GB regular DDR4 RAM module.

Edit: 5 times.

[-] Gnonpi@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

The interviewee seems to be meaning it as memory usage (quote from them): "Comparing our memory to other system's memory actually isn't equivalent, because of the fact that we have such an efficient use of memory, and we use memory compression, and we have a unified memory architecture.

Actually, 8GB on an M3 MacBook Pro is probably analogous to 16GB on other systems. We just happen to be able to use it much more efficiently."

[-] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 22 points 10 months ago

I mean, i played with memory compression on linux too, but it's not a factor x2 and you trade that with more CPU utilization/less battery life. And even though software is not worse in efficiency on this side, webbrowsers, VMs and games still need the RAM.

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[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 128 points 10 months ago

My dick is 2 inches long. That’s analogous to 10 inches on Mars.

[-] bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 10 months ago

Enough with this Martian slander

[-] Synthead@lemmy.world 113 points 10 months ago

RAM is RAM. If you're able to manage it better, that's nice, but programs will still use whatever RAM they were designed to use. If you need to store 5 GiB of something in memory, what happens with the other 2.5 GiB, if they claim that it's 2x as "efficient?"

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[-] raptir@lemdro.id 109 points 10 months ago

Holy crap, apple charges $200 to add 8GB of RAM. I just bought 32GB of DDR5 for the Framework I have on order for $95.

[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 34 points 10 months ago

They have so much prestige and influence under their name that their super fans would buy anything from them at 1000% markup all because it's a status symbol.

Hell, they could sell bottles of piss and the super fans would gladly sell off all their sperm/eggs and all unnecessary organs just to get a drop of it because sTaTuS SyMbOl.

[-] Wolo@lemmy.wtf 25 points 10 months ago

That might be true but it’s also embarrassing for all pc brands who get slaughtered by apples performance as soon as they actually attempt to make things. For example there isn’t a single laptop in the windows world that can match anything apple does

[-] Calcium5332@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Any laptop with a recent GPU will beat an Apple Laptop for performance. Some higher end CPUs too.

Apple has really good power efficiency, which is great when unpluged, but plugged in laptops with 200 to 300W TDPs are still better.

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[-] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 18 points 10 months ago

Hahahahaha

I have friends who spec for their clients every day (I only do it occasionally). Mac laptops cost anywhere from 50% to 100% more than equivalent Dell and Lenovo laptops (ignoring the even less-costly brands, because none of us spec those).

They all have access to the same hardware. And MacOS, despite the gaslighting in this article, isn't any more performant on the same hardware in the real world.

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[-] WallEx@feddit.de 20 points 10 months ago

And now look at the actual chip prices and you'll know, why apple is so fucking rich

[-] abhibeckert@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

DDR5 runs at 52GB/s. Apple uses RAM that runs at up to 800GB/s (if you have enough, gets faster the more you have since it runs in parallel... but it's never as slow as DDR5).

[-] Albbi@lemmy.ca 39 points 10 months ago

Huge doubt here. Apple RAM is LPDDR5. That's Low Power DDR5.

Citing this site:

LPDDR5 runs up to 6400 Mbps with many low-power and RAS features including a novel clocking architecture for easier timing closure. DDR5 DRAMs with a data-rate up to 6400 Mbps support higher density including a dual-channel DIMM topology for higher channel efficiency and performance.

I'm looking at the Apple M2 Wikipedia page and it has the 800GB/s number you have, but that's gotta be something like RAM speed times number of RAM unit blocks for overall bandwidth.

Apple RAM is not magically 15 times faster than DDR5.

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[-] BURN@lemmy.world 28 points 10 months ago

Faster isn’t everything. Less, faster ram is only applicable to a few application, where more, slower ram is going to benefit everything.

It’s definitely comparable because that’s what it’s competing against. 16gb of Ram is 16gb of Ram, no matter how fast it is. Pricing it at 2-3x the cost for any other equivalent isn’t competitive at all.

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[-] anon_8675309@lemmy.world 76 points 10 months ago

More apple gaslighting.

[-] mlg@lemmy.world 57 points 10 months ago

Lol no. My poor linux kernel barely keeps everything stable in 8GB and even then by shoving stuff into swapon zram.

I can just barely run a game and have a ton of FF tabs open + an IDE + discord + multiple desktops

WIndows basically dies once you hit the swap, and it usually starts at like 2GB used.

I'm assuming MacOS lies between Linux and Windows in memory management and performance, so it'll definitely start lagging if you open too much.

And this is all ignoring the fact that this is a scam statement that should be struck down by the FTC. You can't call an 8 gallon gas tank equivalent to a 16 gallon gas tank even if your car has better MPG. In that case you advertise the MPG. And in Apple's case, it would be something like "X% less RAM usage per system process" which we all know doesn't actually exist because its snake ass Apple.

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[-] bulwark@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago

So are they going to make the software smaller? What about iOS? Physically how does 8GB = 16GB? Can't wait to see Photoshop open a RAW and run out of memory. I will say the M2 CPU was pretty slick and if I got one cheap I'd throw Linux on there.

[-] BURN@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

This ^

Architecture changes can happen as much as they want, but there’s certain tasks that require a fixed amount of memory, and between that and poor developer optimization I doubt these improvements will be seen by the end user.

The CPUs really are great. It’s hard to want any other laptop when the performance/battery life are so great on the M series

[-] jmp242@sopuli.xyz 24 points 10 months ago

I find it pretty easy to want other laptops because I don't use Apple stuff because I dislike their UX. I know I'm weird but if I never have to get close to OSX or iOS I'm pretty happy.

[-] BURN@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

I really like apples OS and their UX is miles better than windows and any Linux desktop I’ve used. The main computer runs windows, but if I never have to touch another windows laptop I’d be very happy. The trackpad experience alone makes it better than any windows laptop I’ve ever used.

Linux is flat out not an option in any way since Lightroom and photoshop don’t run.

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[-] BURN@lemmy.world 48 points 10 months ago

I call BS. My 8gb Mac Mini is terrible and constantly running out of memory.

I’m in need of a new laptop, but the lack of upgradeable RAM in these has really made it hard to justify. A minimum of 32gb, preferred 64gb (photographer working with very large files) costs hundreds extra and can’t be done by myself anymore. It’s also hard to find these ones used as the people who buy them have a specific use case and don’t replace them often.

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 46 points 10 months ago
[-] onlinepersona@programming.dev 43 points 10 months ago

Absolutely hilarious. But I've heard MacBoys parrot this exact same line of propaganda for years now.

16GB are totally enough! Apple will manage my 20GB of required RAM in such a way that it'll fit in my 16GB (actually ~15)

[-] kinttach@lemm.ee 19 points 10 months ago

I have not. As someone in the Mac community I can tell you that Apple enthusiasts are Apple’s harshest critics. They are the type of people who care a lot about details like this, and have been criticizing Apple for years on the amount of RAM in entry level systems, as well as the absolute rip-off prices they charge for RAM upgrades.

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[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 41 points 10 months ago

Just waiting for Apple to just start trademarking and "inventing" units...

Our new Mac has the highest amount of "Rapid Storage Blocks (TM)" of any Mac ever! Enough to run 30 "Safari Experiences (TM)".

[-] WereCat@lemmy.world 39 points 10 months ago

My 0.7l wine bottle can fit in 3l of water

[-] iminahurry@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 10 months ago

Yes, which is why anyone spending anywhere close to this on a laptop gets 32 GB RAM

[-] qwertyqwertyqwerty@lemmy.one 33 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

MacOS is pretty decent at memory management. That being said, 8GB of RAM is ridiculous in 2023. Newer and updated applications are tossing memory management out the window. Platforms like Electron wreck memory usage, and many apps popular desktop apps are using Electron now. 12GB is the new 8GB, for Macs. 32GB is the new 16GB for PC's. I wouldn't recommend a computer with less than 12GB of RAM for more than $300.

[-] Dkarma@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

You can't play games so you won't be able to notice the difference.

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[-] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 24 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks to RAM Doubler and DoubleSpace you won't feel the difference.

Edit: I had forgotten that it was first called Stacker before MS copied/reverse engineered it and sold it as DoubleSpace.

[-] BURN@lemmy.world 18 points 10 months ago

Downloadmoreram.com is going to get a lot more traffic

[-] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 23 points 10 months ago

Not if it’s sharing memory with the GPU. Then its 6Gb is analogous to what exactly?

[-] bobbytables@feddit.de 27 points 10 months ago

You see, it grows inverted exponentially. 6 GB equals about 22 GB. Your best option will be the 2 GB model which performs like 64 GB. If that still doesn't fit your needs you could always download additional RAM.

[-] Gruntyfish@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

"lol" said Apple "lmao"

[-] Vilian@lemmy.ca 19 points 10 months ago

and they wanted to bring games to mac??, like how?

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[-] ogeist@lemmy.world 19 points 10 months ago

Ha! Of course we will see this as a reduction in price, right?... Tim Apple?... Are you there?...

[-] vodkasolution@feddit.it 18 points 10 months ago

*half the ram, double the price! *That sounds catchy...

[-] crispy_kilt@feddit.de 15 points 10 months ago
[-] PeterPoopshit@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

Fucking lol

[-] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

I bought a 8gig and I’m usually running apps like Photoshop and Illustrator. I really feel the hit.

Work bought me 16gig M1 and it is noticeably faster when swapping around between apps.

Fuck 8gigs

[-] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 13 points 10 months ago

I don't even think I've ever even seen my work MacBook using under 8GB of RAM and I'm fairly RAM efficient in my workflow. You'd start Docker on that thing and half your RAM is gone already, add VSCode and Chrome and everything is trashing already.

For the average user? Yeah, compression and swap is probably good enough. For professional use? Hell no.

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this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
265 points (100.0% liked)

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