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When I started my current job they gave me an M1 Mac with 8GB because it’s what they had on hand. I could barely run my IDE and a web browser. At least 1GB was
by Osiris 3y ago
When I started my current job they gave me an M1 Mac with 8GB because it’s what they had on hand.
I could barely run my IDE and a web browser. At least 1GB was for video memory, and it was swapping constantly.
I couldn’t run docker containers because of how much input lag I would get.
8GB is barely usable and shouldn’t even be an option for a Pro machine.
I used it for a week before switching to a personal desktop with 64GB.
- changoplatanero 3y agoI work at apple and i use a m1 mac with 8gb for all my work
- Osiris 3y agoHow? What apps are you using? As soon as I plug in an external monitor it turns into molasses. If I try to do a screen share for a video call, it lags. My memory pressure graph was always maxed out. If I ran the test suite for one repo the system became unresponsive. Docker would eat 4GB with only two containers (just redis and postgresql for local dev) I had to manually tune docker to use a little as possible. It was a nightmare.
- aurareturn 3y agoYou're clearly a dev who requires at least 16GB. For many office workers, 8GB is fine.
- Osiris 3y agoI supposed if you only used your $1800 MacBook Pro to use the web browser, then yeah, 8GB would be fine.
- aurareturn 3y agoI wouldn't buy the $1600 M3 14" MBP if that's what you're referring to. I can get an M2 Pro with 32GB for $1800 used easily. That's what I'd spend my money on if I had to get a laptop with $1800.
- fragmede 3y agoDocker on Mac runs a VM, which can't ballon (inflate/deflate memory usage), so it's no wonder 8 GiB isn't enough for you. For those who don't need to use docker and don't that fixed overhead, they're not going to have the same problems. Chrome, Slack, and iTerm can still fill 8 GiB, but you need many more tabs to get there than if you had to run docker.
- pxmpxm 3y agoI am now certain you've never used office 365.
- ge96 3y agoWhat kind of comparison is that 8 to 64. 8 GB for windows also sucks as well or Linux (save with tiling manager), software just bloats over time. Imo 8gb is not enough as baseline, today's 8gb is 16. I remember 4GB being good in 2015.
- rrrix1 3y ago4gb was good in 2005. 16gb was good in 2015. Personally I won't use a computer (as a daily driver) without 64gb of RAM today. Everything eats memory like it's going out of style.
- ge96 3y agoYeah it depends what you use it for ofc. At that time I was just working on LAMP stuff with Kate or Bluefish as my editor on Linux Mint ha. I like leaving computers running for months (sleep at night) with a bunch of (context grouped) virtual windows the issue is when the OS resumes (windows or Mac) the stuff shifts around it's annoying (multi monitor).
- lotsofpulp 3y agoI use Office/Safari/Photos/Whatsapp/VLC and sometimes Chrome on my 2015 MacBook Air with 8GB, and it seems to work OK.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago> What kind of comparison is that 8 to 64. Apple charges $200 to add 8GB, but you can get 64GB for less than $200.
- 3y ago
- henry2023 3y ago8 Gb is fine, running docker on a dev instance is not
- matsemann 3y ago"You're holding it wrong"
- benterix 3y ago> running docker on a dev instance is not Why? This is what Docker is for.
- danaris 3y agoThe point is, this is not what the lowest-end Mac laptop is for. If you know you're going to be running Docker, and you buy a computer with 8GB of RAM, I'm afraid I have very little sympathy for you. You should know exactly what you're going to get.
- pmarcelll 3y agoThis thread was started with "When I started my current job they gave me an M1 Mac with 8GB...", which is the main point, in a professional environment the person responsible for purchasing new machines might not even know about these requirements, or will likely believe that the developer just wants a nicer machine for no reason, when others in the office use the base model without a problem.
- danaris 3y agoThen I sympathize, but it's no more Apple's fault than it would be Google's if the people responsible for purchasing new machines had bought them a Chromebook.
- Zanfa 3y agoI prefer my 8GB M1 Air to my 64GB Intel iMac for basically all of my Node/Rails/Swift development, with Docker running almost 100% of the time. The only time I’ve seen the iMac be “better”, was when I had a Java project that had around 20 different packages that you needed to have open IDEs for.
- cma 3y agoHow many silicon process nodes ahead is the M1 vs your intel iMac?
- Zanfa 3y agoA few, 14nm i9-10910 vs 5nm? M1, but that's an implementation detail. The main point is that the amount of RAM is not the limiting factor.
- pxmpxm 3y agoThere is no reality where that 8gig heap machine will outperform a 64gig heap machine in any objective measure. I'm sure you will hedge with your statement with something like "well it feeels faster" or some such nonsense.
- Zanfa 3y agoNot only does it feel faster, but it also beats the iMac at single-core performance, looking at bundle build times. If I could fully utilize all the RAM + cores of the iMac, it would obviously come out ahead, but that's not the case for most frontend dev work. Not to mention it cost about 1/3 of the iMac and the battery lasts forever.
- valianteffort 3y agoThe market for people who bought 13" MBP was college kids or adults, "pro-sumers" who didn't want an air. Few of them need more than 8GB of memory, but the additional battery life, storage, HDMI, SD, display support, speakers and XDR display make the base 14" M3 worth the extra few hundred to them over the air. The M3 Pro is the base for actual "professional" users.
- al_borland 3y agoDid the company have various agents and other things installed? My company installs so much garbage on systems that they can make anything suck. Any time I have issues, it has nothing to do with what I'm trying to do, and has everything to do with the monitoring/management software. Windows, MacOS, more ram, less ram, doesn't really matter. They've found ways to destroy every system ever deployed. My M1 MacBook Pro has actually handled it the best. My old Intel MacBook Pro would constantly be ramping up the fans, at one point burning through the whole battery in less than an hour if I unplugged it. No such issues with the M1 so far. There are still issues, but mostly crashes, not performance issues, which is a first in nearly 18 years of various desktops and laptops at the company.
- bluedino 3y agoI had an old job give me a bottom of the barrel, refurbished HP Desktop. I popped in some RAM I had laying around and bought a $75 SSD, my machine was then the envy of the office.
- emeril 3y agohaha, I remember doing the same thing with various garbage laptops I got years ago at work, it was worth it to just spend like $50 of my own money to not have headaches and finish my work much faster...
- crazygringo 3y agoI don't think memory was the main issue. It sounds like there was some software installed that was using up the CPU -- some background utility run amok. I've got an 8 GB M1 MBA and run Chrome and an IDE effortlessly, even when connected to a 4K monitor, and with tons of tabs open. I'm not saying 8 GB is enough for everybody, but it's perfectly fine for an IDE and web browser. I'm pretty sure your issue was something else.
- loky4i4 3y agoIdk what you've done with that laptop but my m1 8gb is running fine with IDE, multiple chrome tabs and docker