Apple is still heavily criticized for the 8 GB of RAM in its entry-level MacBook Pro, but is once again fighting back and not giving up.
Source: Chloé Pertuis – Frandroid
Apple has not yet fully justified the positioning of its entry-level MacBook Pro. This is what we discovered when the manufacturer introduced its new laptops with M3 chip: the first price only offers 8 GB of RAM.
If the debate is coming to the fore again, it’s because Apple is targeting professionals with these MacBook Pros. And obviously the company is adamant about the reasons for this choice.
For Apple, 8 GB of RAM is enough
In an interview with the Chinese website IT Home, Bob Brochers, responsible for product marketing at Apple, spoke about the sensitive topic of MacBook Pro RAM.
He would therefore like to remind people of the special functionality of memory in machines that integrate Apple Silicon:
We use a unified memory architecture, so it is not exactly the same as memory in other systems because we use this memory efficiently. Combined with our Apple memory compression technology, the performance of 8GB of memory in the Apple MacBook Pro M3 is close to that of 16GB in other systems.
Since the introduction of the Apple M1 chips in 2020, MacBooks have used a unified memory architecture that shares RAM and video between the CPU and GPU to deliver significant performance gains across the system.
Memory compression was implemented ten years ago in Mac OS
The combination of these two technologies is enough of a palliative to justify a base model MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM, according to Apple. In reality, the first tests of the machine show a completely different feeling.
The Verge site in particular didn’t mince words about this first-class MacBook Pro:
In my experience, RAM is still important and it’s ridiculous that the base model only offers 8GB. Of course you have to spend within your means, but I think these days it’s in everyone’s interest to buy at least 16GB. Don’t be like me.
For professionals, we’re talking about even heavier tasks like video editing, photo editing, 3D rendering or even machine learning.
However, it all depends on your usage, but it is anachronistic to provide so little RAM on a professional computer when it is already busy due to a simple web browser.