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Even Apple finally admits that 8GB RAM isn't enough

There were a number of exciting announcements from Apple at WWDC 2024, from macOS Sequoia to Apple Intelligence. However, a subtle addition to Xcode 16 — the development environment for Apple platforms, like iOS and macOS — is a feature called Predictive Code Completion. Unfortunately, if you bought into Apple's claim that 8GB of unified memory was enough for base-model Apple silicon Macs, you won't be able to use it. There's a memory requirement for Predictive Code Completion in Xcode 16, and it's the closest thing we'll get from Apple to an admission that 8GB of memory isn't really enough for a new Mac in 2024.

poorlytunedAstring ,

For the record, on Windows 10, I'm using 9GB (rounded up from 8.something) to run Firefox and look at this website, can't forget Discord inviting itself to my party in the background, and the OS. I had to close tabs to get down here. Streams really eat the RAM up.

Throw a game in there, with FF open for advice and Discord running for all the usual gaming reasons, and yeah, way over.

Notice I haven't even touched any productivity stuff that demands more.

8? Eat a penis, Apple. Fuckin clown hardware.

howlingecko ,

Also for the record, I have experienced an 8GB Mac Mini run Firefox with at least 20 tabs, Jetbrains Rider with code open and editable, Jetbrains DataGrip with queries, somehow Microsoft Teams, MS Outlook and didn’t seem to have a problem. Was also able to share the screen on a Teams call and switch between the applications without lag.

Windows OS couldn’t handle your application load? Eat a penis, Microsoft. Fucking clown memory management.

Telodzrum ,

MacOS’s memory scheduler is leaps and bounds better than what Windows uses. It’s more apt to compare the RAM on a machine running MacOS to one running a common Linux distro. Windows needs more RAM than the other two by two to three times because it’s fuckterrible at using it.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

To be fair there are only two reasons I hate it:

  1. People incorrectly use term UMA
  2. It's crApple

On Linux if you don't compile rust or firefox 8GB is fine. 4 is fine too.

Nicoleism101 , (edited )
@Nicoleism101@lemm.ee avatar

I have everything from apple but I know that 8gb is basically planned obsolescence in disguise.

We pay serious extra cash for just a ‚notch’ more refined experience. However I had to try to buy every possible thing from apple at least once in my life to see if it is worth it and basically only M4 iPad Pro 13 is truly worth the money and irreplaceable for me.

Everything else is nice for someone who is super lazy like me but can be easily replaced with not much difference for cheaper shit

Treczoks ,

I'd love to have 8GB of RAM. The SOC I'm working with has only 2K ;-)

AVincentInSpace ,

Come on, man, AVR chips aren't SoCs except in the technical sense.

Treczoks ,

No AVR, it's a small LPC from NXP. Chosen for the price, of course, but I have to somehow squeeze the software in it. At this point, even 8k would make me happy...

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

NXP, fancy. I expected ST, AVR, nRF, WCH or some chinese cheaptroller.

Why them? Something to do with NFC?

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

Man, microcontrollers are namegivers of SoC.

Valmond ,

Bet your compiler isnt running on that hardware either ;-)

Treczoks ,

Luckily, no ;-)

Centaur ,

2 kilobytes?

Treczoks ,

Yes. 2 kilobytes. Coincidentally, this is as big as the displays internal buffer, so I cannot even keep a shadow copy of it in my RAM for the GUI.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

I've never seen backbuffer called shadow copy.

Treczoks ,

And I have never heard it called "backbuffer", so we are even.

uis , (edited )
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

I guess so.

Example: https://www.khronos.org/opengl/wiki/Default_Framebuffer#Double_buffering

EDIT: Wait. Do you have framebuffer at all? Because from sounds of it, you might not even have it at all. If you don't store entire frame in RAM, then you don't have framebuffer, not just backbuffer.

Treczoks ,

I never said anything about framebuffers. The 256x64 pixel display in 16 brightness levels probably has something comparable inside. I just tell it that i want to update a rectangle, and send it some data for that.

uis ,
@uis@lemm.ee avatar

It should have.

Then, if you don't store contents of entire screen in memory, which simple math says you can't, I was partially wrong(depending on if you don't count buffer in display as framebuffer) when interpreted "shadow copy" as backbuffer.

Centaur ,

Thanks for clarification.

0x0 ,

The Voyager space probes disagree.

superb ,
@superb@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

My daily driver is an 8gb MacBook Air, I’m living pretty comfortably lol

ssebastianoo ,
@ssebastianoo@programming.dev avatar

I have a macbook air m2 with 8gb of ram and I can even run ollama, never had ram problems, I don't get all the hate

sverit OP ,

Which model with how many parameters du you use in ollama? With 8GB you should only be able to use the smallest models, which ist faaaar from ideal:

You should have at least 8 GB of RAM available to run the 7B models, 16 GB to run the 13B models, and 32 GB to run the 33B models.

ssebastianoo , (edited )
@ssebastianoo@programming.dev avatar

llama3:8b, I know it's "far from ideal" but only really specific use cases require more advanced models to run locally, if you do software development, graphic design or video editing 8gb is enough

edit: just tried it after some time and it works better than I remembered showcase

yournamehere ,

maybe in a browser using external resources. open some chrometabs to feel the pain.
apple is a joke.

ssebastianoo ,
@ssebastianoo@programming.dev avatar

here you are

vscode + photoshop + illustrator + discord + arc + chrome + screen recording and still no lag

yournamehere ,

so not a single cool app and yet you own a computer

ssebastianoo ,
@ssebastianoo@programming.dev avatar

wtf does that mean

ryannathans ,

Wake me up when phones have enough ram to run good voice to text engines on the phone itself

sunzu ,

12 aint enough?

ryannathans ,

Think you need 16

can ,

How much do you need?

ryannathans ,

Last check about 10GB for the model. Anything less doesn't translate my voice to text accurately

can ,

What app are you using?

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

We already have that since iOS 15 if you have a phone that released after the iPhone X. It's time to become woke, sheeple.

can ,

So 8gb?

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

3GB, actually. That was on iPhone XR, which is basically the only budge iPhone Apple has made.

Muffi ,

Every time I compare specs to prices on Apples website, I get irrationally angry.

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