M3 MacBook Pro — How much RAM do you ACTUALLY need?

How much RAM in a Macbook M3 do you really need? Is it worth it to overpay? Today we will tell you about how much RAM the MacBook M3 has, and how much you will actually use in 2023 - 2024! Watch the video until the end to find out!

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[jeromescott]

So many YouTubers forget how RAM intensive running a VM is. I have an M2 Max 16” with 32 GB of RAM because I’m using Parallels for certain programs. Not to mention a Docker container to run SQL Server Management Studio. Yes, 18 GB is a good baseline, but it’s not just video editing and music production that uses RAM.

[DBX]

8GB is a joke in 2023. I don't know why Apple would even try that with a system called the Macbook Pro.

[StelmachsWorld]

Just got an m3 pro w/ 18gb and 1tb and it is great!. I hardly ever go past 14 gigs even while multitasking with lightroom and premier, safari tabs with youtube and spotify. The only time I encounter yellow memory pressure is when working with 4k footage in after effects, but I haven’t seen any swap so far.

[timdanyo]

I just ordered the M3 Pro with 18 cores and 36 gigs of RAM. I feel it's the sweet spot for performance to price value.

[Tradefy]

Working since 2021 on my M1 mac book air with just 8GB and I couldn't be happier, I don't do too much power intensive stuff, except trading but what I can assure you that if you use your notebook lightly, 8GB is more then enough. In case you do power hungry stuff, I cannot imagine you need more then 16GB and an upgrade to 32GB is probably a waste of money. It really depends on your work and I think its an ego problem if you really have to upgrade the RAM etc and throw your money out of the window. 400USD for 18GB of Ram is insane! The new Macs starting from M1 are amazing machines! For disk space, I would rather buy external drives and cloud bases solutions and if locally needed and speed is the priority, build a PC.

[tomscott]

I’m a graphics designer and using photoshop illustrator indesign, lightroom and general productivity. Photoshop can use 16gbs easily in my experience. I smash 64gb on the daily and get ram low errors through istat menu all the time. So ye “I can’t think of anyone” who could use 96, I could saturate that with my workflows. If you’re a pro using your machine everyday you don’t shut programmes down because it takes time to get back to where you were. I don’t think I’m in the 5% but ram is ram and the more you have the more the system will use. Kind of sick of hearing this advice from apparent people who “know” what others need.

[DonutAgain]

64gb is good enough for me with two 5k displays vRam shared, another reason is that 64gb has more memory bandwidth than 48gb or 95gb variants.

[yayayak]

Came from a windows Asus gaming computer but never gamed, as I use it to produce EDM on FL studio. Got the m3 pro 18 gb with 12 core cpu and my GOD this thing is a beast. Everything runs so smooth with all the multiple plug ins and the heavy cpu orchestral sounds. Added benefit it the battery life/ quietness I can produce anywhere I go.

[DefinitelyNattox]

I have an M3 Pro MacBook Pro with 18GB of ram and 1TB of storage. It’s fantastic, and I don’t see myself needing more than 18GB for the foreseeable future. If I need to get a new MacBook 4 years from now, then so be it.

[retrofizz]

I personally recently bought a used base model air m1. I'm doing some 1080p video editing, and simple photoshop and figma stuff, and it's doing fine. But it's also because I have a gaming pc I can rely on in case there's really something out of the ordinary I have to do. Picking an 8GB model was totally a conscious decision, and I know that in case I need to upgrade, I could just give it to my parents who only do browsing and mailing exclusively, or maybe some Netflix.

[drm]

For the sake of accuracy, swapping doesn't actually mean that some of the SSD is used as RAM. It means that data that isn't immediately needed gets copied onto the SSD, then it becomes temporarily inaccessible. When it's needed again, the current content of the RAM is saved onto the SSD and the required data gets copied back from the SSD to the RAM, hence the name "swap".

So through an everyday analogy, imagine that you have 5 cars. You need all of them, but only one fits in your garage. Therefore, the other 4 you store 2 blocks away in a warehouse. Every time you need a different car, you need to drive your current car to the warehouse, swap it to another one, then drive away. When you need your other-other car, again, you need to drive to the warehouse and replace your cars. You can potentially use all of them, but it takes time to get access to one that's not currently with you.

I'm oversimplifying it a bit, but you get the idea. Once your machine starts swapping, your performance goes downhill. The reason is that data in the RAM can be accessed within a few nanoseconds while data stored on the SSD can only be accessed in the range of a few microseconds, which is 1000x slower.

[Quirkiest]

I’m sorry that advice is waaaay too vague. Basically “buy lots of RAM on your M3 MacBook…if you think you need it”…Seriously? I think you guys need to do some more homework (benchmarking) before you release a video claiming to have the answers.

[PLANETWATERMELON]

Great video. Most people can stop watching at around 6:30 as anyone who is even looking at more than 16/18gb of RAM knows it and doesn't really need to watch this. But, fun to watch none the less.

[fatgezimbela]

I am in medical school now, but when I was a data Engineer/Scientist for the US Gov making huge ML/AI models, I worked with streaming data (so over 200GB of changing data, sometimes TB) and easily could have used 128 GB of ram.... I had 64 GB of ram, and I had to run some programs while I was sleeping so they could be done in a reasonable time. To give you a real life use case. When presenting my work to stakeholders with live demos, we usually had to use a subset of the data. but due to the nature of the work and how important it was to be 100% accurate, when really using it, we had to use all of the data.

[Justin-wwxk]

I just bought a 14inch M3 Pro 12C/18C GPU, 18GB Ram, 1TB. Thinking about returning it for the exact spec except opting for the 36GB Ram. Can’t decide.

[hardchemist]

I buy a high-end Apple laptop once per decade initially as a desktop replacement (which is what Apple silicon has given us in these MacBook Pros), then mid cycle (at the 5 year mark) a newer technology desktop will enter into the equation. Rinse and repeat, or at least that's how it's been for the past 3 decades, more or less on this end. Just got an Apple refurbished store (plus military discount) for a 14" M2 Max with the GPU bump, 64GB and 4TB. Saved $1500 just through the two discount mechanisms. Talk to you again in 2033.

[Fridu]

I use always around 50 GB Ram as I run a virtual Windows 11 machine and a virtual Linux Machine on my MacBook. For this I have the Max with 128 GB Ram, so it never swaps.

[akennedy]

I’m thinking of either getting the M3 Pro 16” with 36gb, I want it for some light 4k video editing and photoshop, is 36gb an overkill? Should I just got with the 18gb with 512gb storage? Thanks!!

[TheThaiLife]

Thanks for personifying the entire Apple product marketing ladder.

[raw_pc]

128GB is the way to go if you are a graphic designer/3d modeler who is working in blender3d, photoshop, illustrator + windows in VM (Parallels) to run something like 3dsmax at the same time. I know because I'm one of those people. Multiple projects opened daily. Also 2x 4K monitors help a lot in this workflow but require additional resources. So yeah, if you can afford it and need it go for as much RAM as you can. You won't be able to upgrade later so choose wisely.