Still heavily criticized for the 8 GB of RAM in its entry-level MacBook Pro, Apple is once again defending itself and is not giving up.
Apple has not finished justifying the positioning of its entry-level MacBook Pro. We noted this when the manufacturer unveiled its new laptops with M3 chip: the first price only offers 8 GB of RAM.
If the debate comes back to the forefront again, it’s because Apple is targeting professionals with these MacBook Pros. And obviously, the firm persists in the reasons for this choice.
For Apple, 8 GB of RAM is enough
Interviewed by the Chinese site IT Home, Bob Brochers, in charge of product marketing at Apple, spoke on the thorny subject of MacBook Pro RAM.
He thus wishes to recall the particular functioning of memory within machines integrating Apple Silicon:
We use a unified memory architecture, so it’s not exactly the same as memory in other systems, because we use that memory efficiently. Coupled with our Apple memory compression technology, the performance of 8 GB of memory in Apple MacBook Pro M3 is close to that of 16 GB in other systems.
Since the introduction of Apple M1 chips in 2020, MacBooks have used a unified memory architecture, which shares RAM and video between the CPU and GPU, for notable performance gains across the entire system.
As for memory compression, it was implemented ten years ago in Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks when the manufacturer was already criticized for including too little RAM in its machines.
The combination of these two technologies is, according to Apple, a sufficient palliative to justify a base model of the MacBook Pro with 8 GB of RAM. In reality, the first tests of the machine show a very different feeling.
The Verge site in particular did not mince its words on this first-price MacBook Pro:
In my experience, RAM still matters and it’s ridiculous that the base model only offers 8 GB. Of course, you have to spend within your means, but I think it’s in everyone’s interest to buy at least 16 GB these days. Don’t be like me.
For pros, we’re talking about even heavier tasks, such as video editing, photo processing, 3D renderings or even machine learning.
However, it all depends on your use, but it is anachronistic to offer only such a small amount of RAM on a computer dedicated to professionals, when it is already saturated due to a simple web browser.