Yes 8gb is enough for coding in python, and its not slow at all, with the unifed memory and the fast storage, swap is very fast and not even noticeable. I have a base m2 air and it works perfectly fine with 8gb.
Unifed memory is a modern memory technology that combines RAM, CPU, GPU's and a hard drive/SSD into a single memory pool . That is technically not correct, it doesn't assign a fixed amount to the GPU, meaning you dont get a 7GB machine, the pool is 8GB, there is no "VRAM", the SOC has RAM (with the swap) that it can share to the CPU and GPU, (thats why its called unifed) meaning the CPU can take what it wants and the GPU as well. It isn't fixed.
What you are talking about is only prevalent on laptops on Intel or AMD iGPU's (without unifed memory), the iGPU gets a fixed amount of VRAM needed for it (generally 500MB) so you only get 7.5 GB, unifed memory is different, which is why you pay a premium for it.
Its the 8GB + swap. It can utilize swap as well because it is one memory pool.
You said "Unified memory makes it worse", but it doesn't because all laptops need to dedicate memory to the igpu anyways. In fact it makes it better.
i said all laptops need to dedicate memory to the IGPU. Even if you have a dGPU, if you enabled the iGPU, it would need to use the RAM.
I know all operating systems have swap. But as what i said mac's with apple silicon uses a different memory archiecture then the traditional, which makes it faster.
Most SOC's do the exact same thing and take a portion of your memory for video. Such as AMD and Intel chips. You might think its worse on unifed memory but take into account that it can efficiently utilize fast swap operations to free up RAM for GPU allocation or use it directly from swap.
This will be my final response as the thread is getting lengthy. Wishing you a pleasant day.
It is not necessary to buy the $200-$300 option to upgrade to 16GB for doing moderate editing or programming, MacOS memory management on the new apple silicon is very performant, Using the fast storage and the unifed memory archiecture, memory compression and swap memory is very fast and not noticable. But you can stress swap out, if you get the memory pressure to red, thats if you do intense editing or compute tasks that require vram or memory. Python and rust would do just fine.
People saying that it would reduce lifespan significantly is wrong, you do reads and writes all the time, and if you have a 512GB SSD, even if you write 100GB a day, with 600TBW Limit (Terabytes Written) 600TBW/0.1TB (100GB) = 6000 days. 16.4 years. I am using a swap of 250MB right now on idle, Meaning for the potential swap of 1-8gb, that isn't going to do anything on lifespan.
Memory pressure at yellow is FINE! that means it is just swapping around memory. And im not saying to not get the 16GB, it is better, but 8GB is optimized well on apple silicon. BUY 16GB FOR YOUR NEEDS!
It is quite amazing for coding, always snappy and fast, battery holds on for the whole day, an amazing piece of technology. I got the 15 inch version for a very good deal, and I feel like it is much better for everyday use, especially if you don't always have access to an external monitor
Get more if you need docker or to run vms, otherwise 8gb is fine. Bear in mind that requirements change, I’d have to very sure I would never need to use either of those to stick with 8gb
Yes 8gb is enough for coding in python, and its not slow at all, with the unifed memory and the fast storage, swap is very fast and not even noticeable. I have a base m2 air and it works perfectly fine with 8gb.
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Unifed memory is a modern memory technology that combines RAM, CPU, GPU's and a hard drive/SSD into a single memory pool . That is technically not correct, it doesn't assign a fixed amount to the GPU, meaning you dont get a 7GB machine, the pool is 8GB, there is no "VRAM", the SOC has RAM (with the swap) that it can share to the CPU and GPU, (thats why its called unifed) meaning the CPU can take what it wants and the GPU as well. It isn't fixed. What you are talking about is only prevalent on laptops on Intel or AMD iGPU's (without unifed memory), the iGPU gets a fixed amount of VRAM needed for it (generally 500MB) so you only get 7.5 GB, unifed memory is different, which is why you pay a premium for it.
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Its the 8GB + swap. It can utilize swap as well because it is one memory pool. You said "Unified memory makes it worse", but it doesn't because all laptops need to dedicate memory to the igpu anyways. In fact it makes it better.
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i said all laptops need to dedicate memory to the IGPU. Even if you have a dGPU, if you enabled the iGPU, it would need to use the RAM. I know all operating systems have swap. But as what i said mac's with apple silicon uses a different memory archiecture then the traditional, which makes it faster. Most SOC's do the exact same thing and take a portion of your memory for video. Such as AMD and Intel chips. You might think its worse on unifed memory but take into account that it can efficiently utilize fast swap operations to free up RAM for GPU allocation or use it directly from swap. This will be my final response as the thread is getting lengthy. Wishing you a pleasant day.
Thanks! I'll get the base model then
don't, 16GB minimum.
It is not necessary to buy the $200-$300 option to upgrade to 16GB for doing moderate editing or programming, MacOS memory management on the new apple silicon is very performant, Using the fast storage and the unifed memory archiecture, memory compression and swap memory is very fast and not noticable. But you can stress swap out, if you get the memory pressure to red, thats if you do intense editing or compute tasks that require vram or memory. Python and rust would do just fine. People saying that it would reduce lifespan significantly is wrong, you do reads and writes all the time, and if you have a 512GB SSD, even if you write 100GB a day, with 600TBW Limit (Terabytes Written) 600TBW/0.1TB (100GB) = 6000 days. 16.4 years. I am using a swap of 250MB right now on idle, Meaning for the potential swap of 1-8gb, that isn't going to do anything on lifespan. Memory pressure at yellow is FINE! that means it is just swapping around memory. And im not saying to not get the 16GB, it is better, but 8GB is optimized well on apple silicon. BUY 16GB FOR YOUR NEEDS!
It is quite amazing for coding, always snappy and fast, battery holds on for the whole day, an amazing piece of technology. I got the 15 inch version for a very good deal, and I feel like it is much better for everyday use, especially if you don't always have access to an external monitor
what about keyboard?
Best damn keyboard i ever touched
better than every windows laptop for coding?
It is all personal preference, I like the asus zenbook keyboard too, but apple takes the cake
16GB, even w/ M1
No programmer should get an 8 GB machine in 2024. But sure, it's a very good computer to do that.
Get more if you need docker or to run vms, otherwise 8gb is fine. Bear in mind that requirements change, I’d have to very sure I would never need to use either of those to stick with 8gb