6 ms·

I'm just glad 32GB has so far been more than enough RAM for any system I've used.

5e92cb50239222b 5y ago
Meanwhile, new machines with 4 GBs of RAM are still being sold in my country. Most laptops within reach of a typical family have 8 GBs, and no slots to add more.
- oldsecondhand 5y ago
  Good thing we have SSD, so we can swap faster ;)
dijit 5y ago
"so far" I had 512M in 2003~ which was more than enough until 2009 when max available memory was closer to 4G, but usually 2G even in the high end. From 2009 to 2015 my personal memory consumption went from 512mb to 16G- which is a meteoric leap. I suspect that the only thing holding back developers from using more ram between 2015 and 2021 is the fact that intel basically capped the upper limit to 16G on laptops, and most developers are using laptops.
sto_hristo 5y ago
I barely get away with 16gigs and only because i'm on linux laptop. I see 32 becoming the new barely-get-away pretty soon.
- x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
  Yeah, once you start throwing VMs into the mix, it's really easy to burn through 16GB of RAM.
- mytailorisrich 5y ago
  My work computer is an i5 laptop with 8gigs of RAM and I run Linux in VirtualBox. Needless to say, my productivity could be better...
- ghshephard 5y ago
  One anecdotal data point - I have two systems that I routinely work with every day - My Dell XPS 7590 (16B) that runs Ubuntu 20.04 and my 8 GB MacBook air M1. With just a moderate background app stack (terminal, libre, slack) My Ubuntu system routinely comes to a crashing halt at ~40 Chrome tabs, but the 8 GB MacOS system seemingly can handle > 75 Safari tabs without even noticing with a much heavier app stack loaded, including slack, terminal and microsoft excel (I rarely bother to even exit apps on my Mac - on my linux system I'm always trimming to get RSS down) The underlying operating system and applications (particularly the browser) make a huge difference. I always tell people that as long as they aren't doing AV editing or any type of numerical analysis on large matrices, VMs, etc... (and if they are, they already know they need more resources) that 8 GB on a Mac == 16 GB on a Linux system (It's actually far better based on my experience, but I like to be conservative). It is very much non intuitive, but the vast majority of people really don't need anything more than an 8GB Mac. The speedy SSD makes a big difference as well.
- forinti 5y ago
  I have an old laptop with 3GB of RAM. It runs Ubuntu Mate. I can use it to log on to my work computer or just browse the web. But it really doesn't make sense to get a new computer with anything less than 8GB.
ezconnect 5y ago
I have been running 32GB for 5 years now and I haven't seen it used to its max.
rad_gruchalski 5y ago
At the beginning of the year, I have picked up a second hand R720 with 192GB. Haven't used all of it yet but the mental peace of having it right here is so satisfying. Used all the 44 cores, though. It cost me half of the money I would have had to pay for a laptop with 64GB.

Meanwhile, new machines with 4 GBs of RAM are still being sold in my country. Most laptops within reach of a typical family have 8 GBs, and no slots to add more.

oldsecondhand 5y ago
Good thing we have SSD, so we can swap faster ;)

dijit 5y ago

"so far" I had 512M in 2003~ which was more than enough until 2009 when max available memory was closer to 4G, but usually 2G even in the high end. From 2009 to 2015 my personal memory consumption went from 512mb to 16G- which is a meteoric leap. I suspect that the only thing holding back developers from using more ram between 2015 and 2021 is the fact that intel basically capped the upper limit to 16G on laptops, and most developers are using laptops.

sto_hristo 5y ago

I barely get away with 16gigs and only because i'm on linux laptop. I see 32 becoming the new barely-get-away pretty soon.

x86_64Ubuntu 5y ago
Yeah, once you start throwing VMs into the mix, it's really easy to burn through 16GB of RAM.
mytailorisrich 5y ago
My work computer is an i5 laptop with 8gigs of RAM and I run Linux in VirtualBox. Needless to say, my productivity could be better...
ghshephard 5y ago
One anecdotal data point - I have two systems that I routinely work with every day - My Dell XPS 7590 (16B) that runs Ubuntu 20.04 and my 8 GB MacBook air M1. With just a moderate background app stack (terminal, libre, slack) My Ubuntu system routinely comes to a crashing halt at ~40 Chrome tabs, but the 8 GB MacOS system seemingly can handle > 75 Safari tabs without even noticing with a much heavier app stack loaded, including slack, terminal and microsoft excel (I rarely bother to even exit apps on my Mac - on my linux system I'm always trimming to get RSS down) The underlying operating system and applications (particularly the browser) make a huge difference. I always tell people that as long as they aren't doing AV editing or any type of numerical analysis on large matrices, VMs, etc... (and if they are, they already know they need more resources) that 8 GB on a Mac == 16 GB on a Linux system (It's actually far better based on my experience, but I like to be conservative). It is very much non intuitive, but the vast majority of people really don't need anything more than an 8GB Mac. The speedy SSD makes a big difference as well.
forinti 5y ago
I have an old laptop with 3GB of RAM. It runs Ubuntu Mate. I can use it to log on to my work computer or just browse the web. But it really doesn't make sense to get a new computer with anything less than 8GB.

ezconnect 5y ago

I have been running 32GB for 5 years now and I haven't seen it used to its max.

rad_gruchalski 5y ago

At the beginning of the year, I have picked up a second hand R720 with 192GB. Haven't used all of it yet but the mental peace of having it right here is so satisfying. Used all the 44 cores, though. It cost me half of the money I would have had to pay for a laptop with 64GB.