Memory and storage are in a really strange place in 2024. Some devices have more RAM available than others have in storage, offering mind-boggling amounts of memory. The OnePlus 12, one of the best smartphones right now, offers up to 24GB of RAM, which puts many low and mid-tier computers to shame.

And yet, base-model Macs are still shipping with just 8GB of unified memory. Apple claims that its computers don't need a lot of memory because it uses a more efficient chip design. Well, I bought an M2 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM recently and used it for work to see whether Apple's claims about memory are correct.

Unified Memory vs Swap Memory

Two terms you'll hear a lot when referring to memory on Apple Silicon

First, it's important to understand what unified and swap memory are because these terms are crucial to understanding the performance of Apple silicon processors. A non-Mac PC has RAM and vRAM, with the former serving as memory for the CPU and the latter providing memory for the GPU. You'll likely see a standard configuration these days with 16GB of RAM and 8GB of vRAM, but numbers can climb much higher, especially on higher-end GPUs.

On the other hand, Apple silicon uses a system-on-chip (SoC) design that houses the CPU, GPU, RAM, and other components on a single die. The CPU and GPU can pull memory from the same pool of RAM, hence the "unified memory" moniker. This has benefits and drawbacks. On a PC, the GPU wouldn't be able to access system RAM if it needed more memory; it would just run out of space. Apple silicon computers, on the other hand, can access RAM directly, so it improves efficiency. However, it could mean that more RAM is needed to service both parts of the SoC, at least in theory.

Apple says that the unified memory architecture means you don't need as much RAM on a Mac as on a PC. "Comparing our memory to other system's memory isn't equivalent because we have such an efficient use of memory, and we use memory compression, and we have a unified memory architecture," said Bob Borchers, Apple's vice president of worldwide product marketing, in an interview with Bilibili. "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."

So, if system memory needs to go beyond physical memory, something called swap memory comes into play, taking a portion of your computer's SSD and using it as RAM, making up for the difference between needed and available memory. However, using Swap isn't often a good thing. RAM has much higher bandwidth and speeds than an SSD, so using swap memory can often make your system feel sluggish.

Using the M2 Mac Mini for typical use

Web browsing, photo editing, and powering two external displays

When moving over to the M2 Mac Mini as my primary work machine, I was surprised at how well it handled my typical tasks. I hooked the computer up to two external monitors and a few USB devices for primarily web-based processes and photo editing. These tasks use up to around 12GB of memory on my M3 iMac with 16GB, so I was surprised to see the Mac Mini work much more efficiently with only 8GB available.

Pixelmator Pro, my photo editing app of choice, was near the top of my RAM usage list in Activity Monitor. A bunch of open tabs were taking up a few gigabytes of memory combined as well, and some apps needed limited amounts of RAM, too.

However, throughout hours using the M2 Mac Mini for work, I never saw system-wide memory usage go far above 6GB. That equates to about 75% memory usage, which was the same percentage I experienced on my iMac with 16GB. This suggests that Apple silicon will use around 75% of memory whenever possible and can get much more efficient on systems with less physical memory.

How memory fares in benchmarks

Synthetic tests show RAM is quickly consumed in graphical tasks

However, my daily workload is fairly light regarding graphics, which may be why I didn't notice a difference in usability on my Mac Mini. Running the Cinebench R24 benchmark on my Mac consumed a massive amount of unified memory almost immediately after starting the test. At its highest point, physical memory hit around 7GB used and swap memory used more than 2GB. During the test, Cinebench used up nearly 7GB of the total ~10GB used by physical and swap memory.

Depending on your workload, your results might vary using a Mac with 8GB of unified memory. Web-based workflows are becoming increasingly common, and Apple silicon handles these tasks extremely well. But anything related to graphics seems to stress the 8GB memory on the M2 Mac Mini, and you'll start to notice the system slow down during tasks like rendering and video editing.

What I've learned using Macs with 8GB and 16GB memory for nearly a year

It's certainly possible to run into roadblocks if your demands expand

Almost a year after I upgraded my desktop Macs to Apple silicon models with 8GB and 16GB of unified memory, I've become a case study of why getting the base model is rarely a good idea. That's right — a few months ago, I started to run into serious memory issues on my Macs. If I had to pinpoint the reason for the shift, I'd guess that the emergence of artificial intelligence and machine learning are taking a toll on memory usage. AI and ML eat up memory, and even the most basic applications are starting to use it.

Take Pixelmator Pro, the photo editing app I still use daily, for instance. There's now a machine learning enhance feature that can automatically adjust the color of a photo, and it works surprisingly well. My new workflow involves importing photos from my camera, dropping them into one of many Pixelmator Pro templates, making framing adjustments, and using Pixelmator's ML Enhance feature for color adjustments.

In my initial tests, Pixelmator used a few hundred megabytes of memory. Now, it isn't uncommon to check Activity Monitor and see the app hogging as much as 6GB of unified memory, even while idling. Safari seems to be grabbing up more memory, too — my CMS routinely uses a gigabyte of memory for the tab alone, and the rest of my Safari tabs can exceed a gig on their own as well. The increased RAM usage across the board has led to app hangups and forced resprings not only on my Macs with 8GB of memory, but also ones with 16GB.

Perhaps my workflow is more demanding now, and that's the culprit. We'll never know for sure. But less than a year after buying my new Macs, I'm running into memory issues. If that's not a reason to buy as much memory as you can afford — not how much you think you'll need — I don't know what is.

Is 8GB of RAM enough on a Mac in 2024?

It was a bit surprising to see 8GB of memory remain the starting configuration for the best Macs at this point in time, but there appears to be some truth to Apple's claims that its products simply handle memory better than PCs. Initially, I thought I could switch from a Mac with 16GB of memory to one with 8GB of memory without any noticeable differences. Sure, there were limitations found in synthetic tests, but real-world usage matters much more — and my early impressions were solid.

However, after my workflow grew to include more machine learning workflows and advanced video and photo editing applications, the experience started to change. Safari began to get buggy and downright refused to load websites properly due to insufficient memory. Occasionally, my Mac Mini, iMac, or MacBook Air would hang up completely and require a full restart. This resulted in lost work, which no one ever wants to see. And these experiences weren't just affecting Macs with 8GB of memory — my computers with 16GB of unified memory suffered, too.

At the start of 2024, I said the average person might find 8GB of memory to be enough as long as they don't do graphics-heavy work. Realistically, people doing 3D rendering or video editing weren't considering a base-model Mac anyway, so this wasn't much of a knock against those computers.

The problems really start when you think about the Mac's ability to stay relevant and capable over time. Memory demands are increasing in perpetuity, and I knew 8GB of memory wouldn't be enough a few years down the road. I just didn't expect to run into those roadblocks so soon. I'm already looking at upgrading at least one of my Macs way earlier than I expected due to RAM limitations.

At this point, it's clear 8GB of memory isn't enough. The question now should be whether 16GB of unified memory is sufficient for future-proofing, and nine months after this experiment began, I'm not even sure about that.