Comment by Casteil
7 months ago
>Esp when the lowest setting isn't even meant to be purchased
All current models ship with 16GB so this isn't really true anymore.. 16GB will be good for most folks for years and years (most folks aren't doing heavy virtualization or other highly ram-intensive use cases).
>and the specs are so low they will underperform, or be obsolete in a few years.
...what?? People are still using OG M1 macs because they're still very capable machines. These things - especially the M4s - have crazy amounts of performance headroom.
>Esp when the lowest setting isn't even meant to be purchased
Yes, I'm glad they finally went to 16/18GB for the new processors.
M3 non-pro processors were shipping with 8GB. That was less than a year ago.
>People are still using OG M1 macs because they're still very capable machines.
If precedent holds up, they won't be for long. The 8GB M1s are already dead in enterprise. There's m1 8GB airs out there that are next on the obsolete block. Soon, some basic web browsing + the OS updates will throttle it to barely usable. (Still better life than a Chromebook, but low bar).
On an enterprise level, the 8GB M1s are no longer deployable for us. Add antivirus, a zoom call, slack, mail, calendar, and a few SaaS app tabs, and it's not usable.
Every yearly OS update there's closed-source overhead that's introduced to the users silently. After dealing with macs for 10+ years, it's the one of only things I can rely on.
Old macs work great until you give them updates, or run modern software on them. Or until a few years after they change chip designs.
As for trusting them to maintain the headroom a few years from now, I really doubt it. They will find a way to fill that headroom, they always do. My 16GB M1 pro practically dies trying to run Logic Pro now. All my shiny expensive intel macs of the 2019 series are now basically paperweights. They don't get extra years of good use like the M1 does. They're no longer deployed because they all started having performance issues right-on-schedule. i9, 32GB RAM goes for $400 on Ebay right now. Lower specced models going for ~$200. A huge loss in value and performance.