340
Apple’s MacBook Pro memory problem is worse than ever
(www.macworld.com)
Then stop buying it.
I have the feeling that a big chunk of apple consumers (I know there are many professionals and developers that love apple) don't even know what RAM is used for and will just buy it because it's the "cheapest version of the newest thing" without much critical consideration
How much ram do you need to pretend to be a writer at Starbucks? 64k ?
load more comments
(1 replies)
Wish I could. I hate working on Macs, but it seems like half of my mission-critical programs at work are Mac exclusive for some reason. Apple really pushed the “we’re built for art and artists” thing, so there are a lot of programs in the fine arts world that are Mac exclusive. Digital art, music, live entertainment, etc are all wholly dependent on Macs, purely because the programs needed to make those things are Mac exclusive.
load more comments
(6 replies)
The base models (the air's, not pro's), should have shipped with 12-16GB standard, and the pro's should have shipped with 16-24GB standard. I'd argue that a minimum of 24-32GB should really be the standard on something named a "pro" model.
Apple's M-based laptops are really great - excellent display, best-in-class speakers, good keyboard, industry-leading trackpad...But 8GB of RAM for $1600? Get out of here.
Do they still solder the SSD?
Of course
Well that's not very "green" coming from a company who stopped supplying customers with chargers "because of the environment." When a hard drive craps out the only solution is to replace the entire board rather than a single part with an industry standard connector?
load more comments
(8 replies)
Technically they don’t even have an SSD anymore. They just have a bunch of NAND chips.
The drive controller is in the CPU. Which is great for performance… especially when you’re reading data that is already cached by the drive controller you’re limited by RAM speed instead of PCIe - but it’s a bit of a headache when it comes to upgrades.
The band chips are on a daughter board on their larger desktops. And soldered on laptops and the tiny Mac Mini.
Yes. There is no internal upgradable parts. I believe you can only replace the battery cells, the fans, and the mainboard (motherboard with soldered CPU/RAM(VRAM)/SSD, and all connected modules like the USB chipsets, audio chipset, etc.).
load more comments
(1 replies)
Everything is soldered these days, RAM included, hence the issues and complaints. I find it extra comical that they tried to cheapen on the solder as well, but when that resulted in issues with GPU splitting away from PCB, they glued shoe rubber on top the chip so case pushes it to make contact and called it a "solution". Haha. Imagine the amount of savings they made on such a wast amount of solder per PCB. It might even approach range in pennies.
load more comments
(1 replies)
32gb might have been "pro" 5 years ago but not anymore, not when a run of the mill 32gb DDR5 kit can be had for $100
Apple won't even offer that for the 8GB models, the best you can do for those is pay $400 to get them with 24GB included.
And obviously everything is soldered and nothing is upgradeable.
load more comments
(8 replies)
People could rage about the memory cost all they want but as long as people keep buying the expensive upgrade, Apple wouldn't give a fuck. Why would they voluntarily shut down the money hose?
Raging about it can stop people from buying it, so I say carry on.
I mean, I get why people don’t like it but at the same time, no one forces you to buy one. I like Macs, I enjoy using OS X and would use it as my primary OS. I don’t because I don’t find the value proposition of their hardware worth it.
Their loss, they have a market, they just aren’t interested in it.
Their loss, they have a market, they just aren’t interested in it.
They are very interested in your money and parting your money from you.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I'm kinda of in the same boat.
My "main" computer is a M1 iPad at this point. It's fast, and I can do all my day to day things on it. If I want to play games I do have a PC for that, but Windows isn't that "pleasant" to use so I don't spend much time with it beyond games.
I was reminded how much MacOS is just a pleasant experience a couple months ago when I found a sale for old mac minis. They had a 2014 model for $60. I put a new SSD in it, and I'm typing on that machine right now. It can get Monterey, but nothing newer. But that still lets me send texts, and the machine unlocks with my watch when I wake it up.
All that to say is: I've now been looking at buying a brand new Mac Mini, but the memory and hard drive charges are insane. They always have been, but it's just ridiculous at this point.
load more comments
(8 replies)
I will be the devil's advocate here and say that having the 8 Gb ram config on their cheapest machines (MBA, Mac Mini) is perfectly fine, but having it as the base config on the MBP is borderline false advertising.
This is exactly what the article said
load more comments
(20 replies)
Yeah I’m a fan boy but I agree with this 100%. In the old days I’d just buy lowest ram config and then replace with after market but obviously we dont have the option anymore. It sucks because I could use at least 64 in my m3 but it was cost prohibitive.
load more comments
(3 replies)
I’m positive the minimum went up to 16gb like a generation or two back. It’s sickening that they went back over.
I have a couple of work MacBooks with 8gb for managers and they often complain of them going slow as molasses when having a good few tabs open in chrome. I’m talking less then 10 though, but heavy sites like email and AdWords and other horrible sites.
load more comments
(6 replies)
That's okay, because their 8GB is the same as 16GB on other machines. They are just that better. /s
I think what Apple has done with their M series of chips is actually incredible and very interesting. However actually purchasing their hardware is just out of the question when I'm just going to run a Linux distro on whatever I purchase.
I recently had the need for some apple hardware due to customer projects - and ended up buying an air with 16GB of RAM when it was available relatively cheaply.
The keyboard is shit - but keyboards are shit on pretty much any notebook nowadays unfortunately.
Both memory and storage are a problem - the rest is surprisingly nice. I also have a Windows arm notebook from HP, same 16 GB storage issue, but at least the SSD is user replacable.
We should get rid of 8GB base models in general - that's pretty much what you'd expect in a phone nowadays, but not in a computer.
If you think the keyboard is shitty now, the keyboard is even shittier during the butterfly keyboard era. If you get a mac 5 years ago you'll probably curse the keyboard daily. Their current keyboard is basically the best mac users can get in the past 8 years.
What don't you like about the keyboard? It's quiet, low profile, easy to type on quickly, lights up... not sure what else you'd want.
load more comments
(5 replies)
The base model isn’t really the base model. If you are buying a Mac you just have to accept you are spending $2k on it
load more comments
(1 replies)
Remember the G4 iBook? I used the crap out of that machine, it was built like a tank. I upgraded the ram, installed a new wifi card, swapped the broken keyboard and bought a new battery, all by myself. The little beast still runs, albeit suffering a lot with new modern, web based tasks.
The Macbook M1 I got from work makes me terrified to even use it, because it feels so fragile in comparison. I don't carry it around like I used to do with the iBook.
load more comments
(1 replies)
There's absolutely nothing wrong since their ultra zealous base will continue to buy their complete asinine bullshit products at their shitty premiums and anti consumer practices.
11GB idling?? Maybe not as optimized as it seems…
That's just cached memory. Pretty common practice for any modern OS to retain memory until 60% usage or so. Costs nothing and is snappier performance.
11GB idling is only after having done other things. When you launch it'll be less than 2 in my experience.
load more comments
(2 replies)
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 15 Dec 2023
340 points (93.8% liked)
Technology
55938 readers
3632 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS