Is 8GB RAM in M1 Macs the Ultimate Gamechanger? Find Out How It Makes Your Mac Overperform!
The latest M1 Macs from Apple have been making headlines for their impressive performance and energy efficiency. One of the most significant improvements that these new Macs have over their predecessors is the integration of the M1 chip. This new system on a chip is faster, more efficient and more powerful than any previous Mac architecture. An important part of the M1’s performance is the added ability to leverage 8 gigabytes of RAM - making it the ultimate gamechanger for Mac users.
RAM, or Random Access Memory, is the temporary storage memory your computer uses to access and operate running applications. With more RAM, your Mac can handle more applications at once, without stuttering, freezing, or crashing. Historically, Macs have been a top choice for creatives and professionals who need to run resource-intensive applications like video-editing software, music production, and graphic design. RAM has always been a vital component of maintaining performance when multitasking. The impressive 8GB of RAM included in the latest M1 Macs raises the bar for performance, allowing users to accomplish more on their machines than ever before.
The new M1 Macs use a unified memory architecture for their 8GB of RAM. This means that the memory is shared between the CPU and GPU, resulting in faster data transfers and a reduction in bottlenecks. This shared memory concept is an innovative solution that doesn’t sacrifice performance, while at the same time providing a more efficient system overall. It’s all thanks to the M1 chip, which has been designed from the ground up to work seamlessly with Apple’s hardware.
The M1 chip integrates its graphics processing unit into the core of its central processing unit, resulting in a speed boost and less time spent moving data around. The result is incomparable performance, with the M1 chip equipped MacBook Air being claimed to perform tasks up to 3.5x faster than the previous generation MacBook Air, with more power than you’d expect. This makes the new Macs ideal for video editing or graphics-intensive tasks, indicating that Apple’s new chip is capable of doing much more than just running basic applications.
The 8GB of RAM in the new M1 Macs provides users with more speed, more power, and more flexibility. Even when running multiple applications at once or working on large files, the M1 chip and unified memory can provide smooth performance, without heating or slowing down the Mac. This helps provide a more efficient and fluid experience to creative professionals - getting work done faster and more effectively, while reducing stress and strict task schedules.
In conclusion, the 8GB of RAM in the new M1 Macs is indeed the ultimate gamechanger - providing faster data transfer, consistent and fast operation, all within a more efficient system on a chip. Apple has once again raised the bar in the computer market with its new M1 chip and 8GB of RAM, and creative professionals will surely appreciate the improved performance they bring. The new M1 Macs are ideal for anyone looking for top-of-the-line performance in a slim and elegant package – encouraging users to push their limits further and maximize their work productivity.
Not only are the M1 Macs faster, cooler, and have better battery life than pretty much any comparable rival, they manage to do it with half the standard amount of RAM. How is this possible?
Key Takeaways
- 8GB is plenty for almost all use cases.Only extremely RAM-saturating tasks like 4K video rendering seem to benefit from 16GB RAM.Seriously, it’s fast.
The new M1 Apple Silicon Macs come with only 8GB RAM as standard, and yet they seem to perform as well as an Intel Mac with 16GB RAM or more. What’s happening? Can you really run Lightroom, or Logic Pro, or Final Cut, or even non-optimized apps like Ableton Live, in 8GB? Is Apple’s least expensive Mac, the MacBook Air, really capable of high-end professional work? It is. And a lot of that is down to some extremely clever use of memory.
“I’m trying to do some more tests with it, because it seems weird, but memory won’t fill up that quickly,” Andrea Nepori, tech writer for Italy’s La Stampa, told Lifewire via instant message. “It’s like they were able to leverage the level of optimization of the iPads, but on Macs.”
RAM vs SSD
First, what is RAM, exactly, compared to SSD storage? Imagine you’re working on a task at your small desk, and that you have a big filing cabinet next to it. The filing cabinet is the SSD. When you start your task, you pull out the stuff you need and spread it out on the desk. The desk is RAM. It’s small, compared to the filing cabinet, but you can see everything, and it’s right there to hand, so you can grab it instantly.
In computer terms, having more RAM is like having more desk space. Your computer can work on more open apps and documents at once, without slowing down.
When the tabletop is full, the computer can “swap” data back to the SSD. This usually slows things down considerably, because an SSD is typically 10 times slower than RAM. Why don’t we just add more RAM? Because it costs more, and it can’t store anything when switched off.
How the M1 Does RAM
The usual wisdom is that you should buy a computer with as much RAM as you can afford, so it can do a lot more tasks simultaneously before slowing down.
The M1 Macs handle this all a little differently. To extend our analogy, imagine you leave the top drawer of your filing cabinet open, and you have an assistant standing over it, a person who always knows what you’ll do next. They can clear off the papers you haven’t looked at in a while, and drop them into that top drawer. And they can also anticipate when you need to look at that photo, and put it back on the desk just in time.
To put it another way, why keep your coffee cup on the desk if you could have it magically appear on the desk whenever you want to take a sip?
It’s like they were able to leverage the level of optimization of the iPads, but on Macs.
That’s how M1 Macs work. They make liberal use of their SSD storage to swap out data, but they do it in such a smart, predictive way that you’ll almost never notice.
For example, to test the new Apple Silicon version of Adobe’s Lightroom, I opened it up, and quickly cycled through full-screen photos with the arrow keys. Then I switched to the Mac’s Activity Monitor app, which monitors things like RAM and CPU usage:
That’s Lightroom using over 8GB RAM, when the computer only has 8GB. Note the size of the “swap.” An extra 9GB! And yet Lightroom remained completely responsive, with zero slowdown. What you don’t see here is that I also had a bunch of other apps running, some doing their own intensive tasks.
Will You Ever Need 16GB?
In all the reviews I’ve read and YouTube videos I’ve watched, the one time you’ll need more than 8GB RAM is when the app you’re using actually needs to shove as much data into RAM as it can. For instance, when rendering and exporting big video files.
In this side-by-side test from Max Tech, at 09:41 on the video, you’ll see that the 16GB MacBook Pro renders 4K video much faster than the 8GB model.
Interestingly, both Macs in that test were still responsive, and you could keep using them for web browsing and other tasks despite them running under heavy load.
In conclusion, then, most people will be just fine with the base 8GB model. Get the 16GB if you render video, or use other apps that really do require a lot of RAM. But if you’re in the position where you need a very high-end machine, you might consider waiting until Apple updates its professional Macs to Apple Silicon.
These initial M1 Macs are so impressive that it’s easy to forget that they’re the most basic, entry-level machines. Then again, they’re so capable that they might redefine what a “pro” machine actually is.
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