M3 MacBook Pro 8GB vs 16GB RAM - How BAD is base model?

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Timestamps ⬇️
8GB vs 16GB with Apple M3 - 00:00
Baseline Performance - 00:53
Web App Performance - 01:49
Blender 3D Rendering - 02:15
Lightroom Photo Editing - 03:07
Multitasking - 05:21
Performance when Multitasking - 06:34
Video Editing - 08:04
Photoshop when Multitasking - 09:08
Is 8GB Enough? - 10:02

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[MaxTechOfficial]

Blender 4.0 Is now working with 8GB M3 Macbooks (make sure to update MacOS and Blender)

[thestype]

Offering any new Mac with 8GB RAM in 2023 is an insult, especially when they call it a "Pro" device. Thanks for the comparisons! They are the best from all over youtube.

[AvocadoAtrocity]

The 8GB is also shared with the GPU. So it's even less than 8GB available. 😭😭😭

[pichomor]

I’m a full stack software developer and my workflow consists of multiple instances of Webstorm and multiple browser tabs and believe me, 16gb is the bare minimum you need. I’m using an old intel 16” mac and I know Apple Silicon works more efficiently than Intel but 8gb is 8gb of ram.

The words “8gb ram” and “pro” can’t be in the same sentence.

[ucxoyun]

It's not really the matter of how bad it is, its a matter of charging 1600+ for just that

[AndyJMacLeod]

People hate that Apple is so mercenary about its upgrade costs. The only reason the base model starts with 8GB is because Apple know people want at least 16GB, so will probably upgrade.

If someone doesn’t upgrade, they feel unhappy about their new machine. If someone does upgrade, they feel unhappy about being screwed for money. Either way, Apple is giving its customers a less enjoyable experience.

[patricktrossbach]

It’s shameful that 16 gb isn’t the standard and is deemed a premium upgrade.

[joeltucci]

Another issue with the ram is that most 3rd party vendors only sell Apple’s stock configs and while they used to offer one stock model with upgraded Ram but they no longer do. So if you want to upgrade ram but not CPU you have to buy from Apple directly or from a very small number of 3rd party vendors. So if amazon has a sale you can’t take advantage of the sale if you want more memory. So that 8 gb upgrade often costs you more than $200

[parjau]

I remember the tests you did with the M1 units where there was not a huge difference between 8GB and 16GB except at the very limits of multitasking.  
With the M3s, the differences seem massive!

[byCeevu]

They missed out on such a great device price wise. Imagine the 16gb M3 Macbook Pro for 1599$...

[kraigbailey]

These real world tests are always SO enlightening and valuable! Thanks!

[rileyhance]

you’re probably better off finding a base 14 m2 pro for the same 1600 usd. same ssd speed, double ram, double external display, quieter and cooler under load, faster multicore, 40% higher gpu performance, only downside is about 10% slower in single core workloads.

[ramseyrodriguez]

What's surprises me is that Apple didn't wanted even to upgrade the base RAM to 12GB? Even 10GB could have been a massive upgrade, to keep up with the browsing needs...

They are cruel.

[jayba]

Thanks Max! Great testing to reveal how 8G of RAM really is to compare with 16G. Once again we know that don’t ever, ever buy base model of MacBook. On the other hand, Apple charges $200 for RAM upgrade to 16G is crazy…. Man we are in 2023, not 1993…..

[aero]

Excellent review, the results are clear throughout multiple practical tests. 8 Gb clearly slows down quickly and can even not execute some features in some of the programs. The 8gb version should not be called "pro"

[accentontheoff]

As always thanks for the detailed analysis for music producers.

[SonicMasterEX]

Don’t worry guys, they will up the RAM when they found another new bottleneck 😊

[JustAPersonWhoComments]

Great job on the thorough analysis and insights into the practical differences. This definitely helps in making an informed decision before investing in the M3 MacBook Pro

[alextgordon]

It will also ruin your SSD to have so much swapping happening all the time. It's not even 8GB of RAM, it's 8GB of shared CPU and GPU RAM, once you deduct the memory used by the GPU then you have even less RAM left over for applications.

[siwi]

wow, that is an astounding difference. well done MaxT