How Much RAM for Your Mac in 2023? ULTIMATE GUIDE!

two weeks ago I bought a 16" M1Max with 64 GB RAM, 1GB SSD since it is a older model I got a huge discount. I paid 500 Euro more that what an 15" Air with 1GB SSD and 24 GB RAM costs. So I think I got a very good deal.

Please advise i am more into video editing and switching to MacBook from Windows. I am not understand that should i go with 16gb or 32gb ram . I am planning to buy 16inch MBPro M2 with 10 core and 512 GB SSD. Please advise. I will mostly do video and photo editing.

Please add timestamps so people can fin the computer they are looking for...

Should I consider getting 192gb of RAM on a Mac Studio for physics simulations with huge files?

Will 32 GB AM (m2 max Mac book Pro) enough for editing with 4k-8k footage(RED, Canon, Sony). Short form video editor here.

Love your videos 🙂 I would recommend the 64GB of Ram if you are a heavy video editor (think weddings.) With a ceremony, speeches, first dances, and a highlight film; all one timeline (in Premier Pro) I'm constantly well above the 32GB threshold (Adobe still hasn't optimized Pr for the M2 Max yet [I called them, and they said they should be releasing the update in October 2023.] I've even been into swap memory (as high as 81GB of RAM running) toward the end of my project, and when rendering... So choose carefully Lol

Excellent. I ordered a Mac Mini M2 with 24GB of RAM. I shoot thousands of photos indoors, often at high ISOs. The Denoise AI in LR promises to revolutionize my work - the results are wonderful. I'm hoping Apple will fix the neural engine so Denoise will run as fast as possible; on a graphics-weak Intel NUC 12 Pro it takes 5 min or more to process a single photo. So, 6h 20m for 100 photos. Don't know if the extra RAM will help, but maybe it will speed things generally (page file ops)? Lots of questions.

Data? What’s your qualification, are we just supposed to believe you?

I would buy 64 to future proof it. I have a 10 year old iMac 27 with 1tb Fusion and 32gb of ram. Only is it recently giving me issues in City Skylines (very ram heavy) or video editing.

Why someone might want 64GB of RAM for future proofing if the performance difference between 32 and 64 is minuscule?
Is it worth to upgrade from 30 to 38 GPU for future proofing too?

Thank you - You just saved me $832 for not upgrading to 64GB of RAM - 32 is enough or as you call it "The Sweet Spot".

quick question, M1 max 64G (but SSD is very small at 512G) vs M1 pro 16G (8TB SSD) which one is better for video editing?

With 16GB normal / pro Users should be safe for the next 3-5 years; unless you have really large jobs or VMs you should buy a 32 GB Machine

90s: for simple usage like browsing and writing, it's enough with 4MB RAM. For advanced usage, consider 8+MB. 2023: for simple usage it's enough with 8GB, but otherwise consider getting more. Like… what? 8GB is 2000 times more than 4MB. If anything is twice as powerful, that's a lot. Ten times? Omg! TWO THOUSAND times? That's astronomical, a total MONSTER compared to back in the day, and we're still at the level where that is for ”simple usage like browsing”.

So im thinking of buying a 13" M2 Macbook Pro but i want to upgrade the Ram to 16gb and 512 gb for storage. But by doing this the price goes up to $1700 and for $200 more i can get the 14" version.

I want to buy a MacBook Pro 16 for long term I will hold it for at least 10yrs I am going to buy m2 pro should I go for 16 or 32 ,is 32 go ram for m2 pro waste of money for long term

great advice. Thank you. As I understand the general advice, first spend money upgrading the cpu/gpu before upgrading the ram, correct ? Otherwise , the lowest core count chips will not see full benefit of adding ram. What is the sweet spot combo of core counts and ram for 4k video editing ?

what if I buy for 5+ years? I see that 32gigs with fast ssd works with swapping today but 64gigs would decrease the load on the ssd. will these survive the intensive swapping for that long?

I’ve always wanted a 15 inch MacBook so I’m so excited. There is now a 15 inch MacBook Air I don’t need to get a 15 inch MacBook Pro 😀 Next year, I’m going to be upgrading from the M1 MacBook Air space grey 512GB to the 15inch MacBook starlight 512GB 💻😀

tldr: if you’re an advanced after effects user, you might need an insane amount of RAM 😿

@MaxTechOfficial what is your experience with the 30-core vs. 38-core GPU? Would you recommend one over the other?

I regret getting only 16Gb RAM in my Macbook Pro M1 Pro. It frequently pages massive amounts of data to my internal SSD.

32Gb of RAM would have avoided this.

@MaxTechOfficial Can you point to the virtual machine and RAM tests video you made with these new macs?

I have an m2 MacBook Pro with 32gb ram. My use case is mostly network design with Lucid charts, network scanning (fairly intensive), and occasionally dvd/bluray ripping to my media server. I rarely need more than 16 gb but on occasion it will hold a lot more ram per program than it needs. It’s a behavior of macOS. It dynamically resizes these tasks. So it might appear to use a lot sometimes but then I’ll do the same on a 16gb system and there’s no dip in performance and uses 12gb ram. So I mean you’re probably fine with 16 for most use cases unless you use Logic Pro or something with a ton of concurrent streams used by a beefy program.

One nice thing about the 24GB memory option is that if you do need more than 16GB but don't necessarily need the extra CPU or GPU of an M2 Pro, then it's WAY cheaper. For the same storage, a 24GB M2 Mac mini is $500 cheaper than a 32GB M2 Pro Mac mini. As for who might need that much memory, I have run into memory issues on my 16GB Mac mini when running Civilization VI (which takes 8GB by itself), Steam, and Discord at the same time. I will often have to quit my other apps to avoid memory pressure, but I'm sure that with 24GB of memory it would run no problem.

But"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

If I want the 64gb of ram MacBook Pro M2 Max, should I get the 30 Core GPU or 38 Core GPU? Thanks

Would love some input on what we should do for our business.

Current Mac: 2021 M1 Pro 16" with 16gb ram, 1tb SSD, 10gpu

Decision between:

2023 M2 Pro 16" with 32gb ram, 1tb, 19gpu

2021 M1 Max 16" with 64gb ram, 1tb, 32gpu

We do video editing and typically are editing multiple projects per day (5-10) all 4K 10bit. We edit with FCP and are getting too slow of rendering and export speeds after edits, color design and especially if we add neat video or optical flow. These videos are usually under 3 mins.

Any info or suggestions help a ton, thanks!

Currently i am using the m2 mac mini with 8gb ram with 15 chrome tabs php storm, docker (redis,mysql, elastic), valet, table plus a few queue workers and it's not breaking a sweat. and all this for 599.....

Here’s a good question what kind of configuration would you recommend for someone that does browsing, emails and focuses on making logos designs android-shirt files using adobe illustrator, mock-ups on adobe photoshop.

Just got a M2 Mac Mini 8/512 for $655. I am going to use this for web browsing, email, video conf. and rarely editing photos. Originally I was going to get the 16/256 with an external SSD, but it would have been the full price of $800+SSD. With what I am using this for I am pretty sure it will be fine for 5+ yrs. and then I can sell it or just connect it to my TV and run emulators. Having the upgraded SSD is worth it for $55, faster speed and better TBW values are good to have for peace of mind due to the rare times if swap memory is ever used. I have way better speeds compared to any external SSD I would have bought, thunderbolt 3 drives are not cheap. With the $200+ I saved and more if I decide to sell this mini for around $100, my savings will be going towards a M4/M5 mac mini when it comes out.

I’ve got the M1 Pro MacBook Pro for CAD and Rendering as an industrial designer. I went for 16GB and totally regret got getting more. Fusion 360 eats through ram like crazy and all the Adobe apps are using at least 3GB with nothing even open. I regularly get the message to close apps because the system is short of ram. Fusion is usually at 45GB of ram at this point including swap of cause. If you’re doing creative work I would go for at least 32GB if you want your machine to last more than 3 years.

32 GB RAM is the new RAM base 👌

M1 MacBook Pro ( yes he has dis that model), 16 gig RAM, running "Draw Things", uses 11+ gigs for the GPU's, CPU hardly any RAM usage, no "swap", some cache.

You just saved my 1200 dollars🤗

I’m torn between the 16 and 32 gig and 10 core Vs 12 core max m2 mini. What combo is best. I produce music on it.

If got the new 16inch M2 with 16GB of ram do you think it be no problem running 2 27inch screens or would I need to get the 32GB of ram?

As a teacher, I want a Mac because of weight and battery life so the m2 air is what I want. But I'm used to my gaming pc with 32gb ram so I tend to have a lot of stuff open and chrome with 20 to 30 tabs so I think 16gb of ram would be all right?

Hello!
I want to buy a Mac Mini M2.
Are 8GB RAM enough for office, browsing, email?
Please answer me! Respect!

Suggest to give an additional update after the latest chrome's performance upgrading. I suppose the new outcomes should be totally changed beyond the previous one.

I still hope apple puts out an 18" macbook with faceid and touchid and user upgradeable ssd and ram. it would be my dream machine

me defenitly more than 8gb I got a 16gb model and still have 18gb swap during my day to day use and work. I guess 32 or 64gb would be enough for a power user be aware that swap reduces ssd lifetime and if you got the same swap like me the macbook with 8 gb would die within 2-3 years.

what about an m1 macbook air 8gb for $500?

Don't install CleanMyMac on your Mac. Trust me.

It's a mess how Apple rips off customers with parts for pennies. But apparently the customers want to be fooled.

The thing about apple is that they use this this called unified memory, and I'm confused if that's just other words for Ram or if there is actually a difference for every gigabyte

What bracelet are you using on your iWatch?

@Max Tech , I’m on the fence for 32gb vs 64gb for the M2 16inch as I plan on running lots of Docker stuff and various Linux/Windows VMs what would you recommend for the $$? Thanks!