MacMini enough RAM? A few month ago I bough the 27inch iMac and return it as it was too high and caused my neck and shoulders to ache: he C-arm cannot come off and I wasn't going to...

vanderhala Loc: Los Angeles, CA

A few month ago I bough the 27inch iMac and return it as it was too high and caused my neck and shoulders to ache: he C-arm cannot come off and I wasn't going to saw it off like suggested somewhere. Also it did not play well with my old 20" Apple Cinema display. I waited a few month and to consider buying the new MacMini with new apple chip, together with a BenQ monitor (271 or 2700PT: and what is the difference with the 2700Q anyway?), but I am worried about RAM size: maximum only 16 GB, while some of you here push 32 or even 64 GB to do photo editing. Even though I am only starting to do the latter, my question is: is 16GB enough? The connectivity of MacMini seems much better than f.i. the 13" Macbook, and I am not likely bringing a macbook along anyway. Thanks in advance for your input.

tcthome Loc: NJ

I don't do that much heavy (layers & such)editing, But when I checked my recourses panel, It didn't show much ram being used. The processor & network was being used way more when being slowed down. I understand editors like PS will use a lot of ram. I recently watched a LR vid with Julian Kost. She would open a brush for editing , use it with the adjustments using a lower opacity & move on to other adjustments with the same brush. The reason I bring this up is, in the vid she said one way to slow LR down is to use a lot of brushes. I watched the Apple M1 keynote & they said Adobe is working on a version to work with the new Apple design. Reviewers are saying it handles video editing at faster speeds than the past systems so it should be fine. Call or contact Adobe with the mini specs & see what they say. One thing to consider is if it is upgradable. Good luck with what ever you choose.

martin muller

Also learn if the RAM is permanently attached to the board or can be replaced by user or technician. Seems I am seeing more and more computers with attached RAM, not removable / not replaceable. Forces more purchases of new computers when the previous is no longer enough? Lower cost construction for vendor? Best wishes.

uhaas2009

Apple makes different models each year with different hardware components. Like my iMac I can’t update my memory-welded on Bord, but I can change the hard drive.....look up model number, EMC and serial number.....

https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/?search_keywords=A1418

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some people get the max of everything, just because it's available.

Memory -
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need-probably-less-than-you-think/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-much-ram-does-your-pc-need/

Processor -
http://gizmodo.com/dont-waste-money-on-intels-top-processor-1791426602
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404674,00.asp
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/intel-core-i9-vs-i7-vs-i5-cpu/
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-core-i5-vs-i7/
http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/core-i5-vs-i7
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/210703-intel-core-i5-vs-core-i7-which-processor-should-you-buy

vanderhala Loc: Los Angeles, CA

Thank you all.
It sounds to me from what I have read sofar that 16GB is the maximum and on the board, but will try to get more info from Apple

warrenvon Loc: Ellicott City, MD

The new Mac mini with the M1 chip is an integrated chip. The memory I part of the M1 chip and a such cannot be upgraded by the user. This isn't all bad as this on chip memory is what is called unified control memory that is used across the board by both CPU and GPU. It has been stated that this allows for maximum efficient use of the memory and allows the operating system to do more with less memory.

I run my MAC with 16GB of RAM with no problems at all. I'm not a huge post processor of my images so I may not be taxing my system all that much either.

Check out all of the M1 mini reviews on the web . . . .they all are very impressed with its off the shelf capabilities.

johonew

vanderhala wrote:

Thank you all.
It sounds to me from what I have read sofar that 16GB is the maximum and on the board, but will try to get more info from Apple

My understanding is that the RAM is also integrated directly on the M1 processor chip, so the new machines cannot have their RAM upgraded. With this, however, RAM access is supposedly much faster across the board, making it a more efficient machine overall. Rumors are that next generation 'M' chips may have more RAM in them, but who knows?

vanderhala Loc: Los Angeles, CA

johonew wrote:

Rumors are that next generation 'M' chips may have more RAM in them, but who knows?

Off course: the next newer is always supposed to be better. Thank you.

xt2 Loc: British Columbia, Canada

vanderhala wrote:

A few month ago I bough the 27inch iMac and return... (show quote)

I run with a 27" iMac and 64 aftermarket RAM ( a lot less $$$ than Apple Ram) and never have a stall or a slowdown when working with multiple open programs and rendering photos, etc. for what it is worth///and yes, I think it was worth the investment.

Cheers!

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

I upgraded my desktop from 16 to 32 RAM. A distinct improvement in performance, especially for panoram.as
Upgrade cards about $100 for Crucial cards

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

vanderhala wrote:

A few month ago I bough the 27inch iMac and return... (show quote)

I’ve watched many hours of reputable reviewers working all three of the new M1 equipped Macs as hard as they could. It’s amazing how well — and how differently — these machines and MacOS 11.0 Big Sur manage memory!

Intel machines NEED lots of RAM. But these M1 Macs, with unified memory architecture and memory located on the processor die, behave very differently.

MaxTech, iJustine, TWiT.tv, Luke Miani, Zone of Tech, and many other YouTube reviewers are gushing about this new platform.

These machines easily beat the pants off of almost every current Intel Mac. The consensus seems to be that the base 8GB is way more than enough for most people. At $699, the Mac Mini is a steal.

Even running old, unsupported Intel-based Mac software seems to work fine, in some cases even faster than it does on Intel Macs!

I urge you to watch these YouTube channels and follow their comparisons.

You might want to wait for the next few M1 Mac releases, but for the price/performance ratio, these are great.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

johonew wrote:

My understanding is that the RAM is also integrated directly on the M1 processor chip, so the new machines cannot have their RAM upgraded. With this, however, RAM access is supposedly much faster across the board, making it a more efficient machine overall. Rumors are that next generation 'M' chips may have more RAM in them, but who knows?

The way I read it, I don’t believe the memory (Samsung lPDDR4x) is actually on the M1 CPU die, which does also contain the GPU, but rather as part of the SIP (system in a package) package. As I gather, there are 8GB and 16GB packages available, so no, you shouldn’t be able to upgrade the memory. High marks for performance per watt (good as it gets) and bad marks for system upgradability (bad as it gets), carrying on the Apple tradition).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_M1

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

martin muller wrote:

Also learn if the RAM is permanently attached to the board or can be replaced by user or technician. Seems I am seeing more and more computers with attached RAM, not removable / not replaceable. Forces more purchases of new computers when the previous is no longer enough? Lower cost construction for vendor? Best wishes.

The RAM is absolutely NOT user-upgradable. It is part of the M1 SOC (System On Chip). But I’m okay with that. MOST people will be fine with 8GB RAM. The few “heavy lifters” among us will benefit *some* from 16GB.

This is a totally new approach to system design and architecture. Apple now controls the entire hardware AND operating system stack. It takes some research to wrap your head around it all that, “We’re not Intel, anymore, Toto!”

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

burkphoto wrote:

The RAM is absolutely NOT user-upgradable. It is part of the M1 SOC (System On Chip). But I’m okay with that. MOST people will be fine with 8GB RAM. The few “heavy lifters” among us will benefit *some* from 16GB.

This is a totally new approach to system design and architecture. Apple now controls the entire hardware AND operating system stack. It takes some research to wrap your head around it all that, “We’re not Intel, anymore, Toto!”

The M1 is a very interesting device - high density (5nm), very low power/core and integrated GPU. Sounds like a perfect device to build a HPC cluster around (if you can buy the device separately and an HPC manufacturer designed the server AND there was a parallel file system that would run on it).