8GB of dedicated VRAM is hardly enough these days...
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I can't believe, there's no Linux reference yet!
Give your "8 gigs not enough" hardware to one of us and see it revived running faster than whatever you're running now with your subpar OS.
Software and AI development would be hard with 8gb of RAM on Linux. Having you seen the memes on AI adding to global climate change? Not even Linux can fix the issues with ChatGPT...
I don't think anyone anywhere is claiming 8GB RAM is enough for software and AI development. Pretty sure we're talking about consumer-grade hardware here. And low-end at that.
The lede by OP here contains this:
[...] addition to Xcode 16 [...] is a feature called Predictive Code Completion. Unfortunately, if you bought into Apple’s claim that 8GB of unified memory was enough for base-model Apple silicon Macs, you won’t be able to use it
So either RecluseRamble meant that development with a feature like predictive code completion would work on 8 GB of RAM if you were using Linux or his comparison was shit.
My main development machine has 8 GB, for what it's worth. And most of the software in use nowadays was developped when 8GB was a lot of RAM
I'd love to see you run xcode 16 code completion on your superior OS. Send me a link once you've uploaded the vid.
Why limit it to proprietary software? Almost every linux distro can run Github Copilot X and Jetbrains, which both have had more time to be publicly used and tested and work better in my opinion.
Send me a video link of Mac having direct access to containers without using a VM (which ruins the point of containers). THAT is directly related to my actual work, as opposed to needing a robot to code for me specifically using Apple's AI
Pls provide source code.
I actually bought a m1 mini for a linux low power server. I was getting tired of the Pi4 being so slow when I needed to compile something. Works real well, just need the Asahi team to get TB working. And for my server stuff, 8gb is plenty.
You wouldn't happen to run a jellyfin server on that mac mini would you? Currently looking to find something performant with small form factor and low power consumption.
I’ve run Plex servers on Mac Minis (M1). Docker on MacOS runs well finally — the issues that were everywhere a couple of years ago are resolved.
It ran very well on the hardware. The OP of this post is right, 8gb is not enough in 2024; however I would also wager that the vast majority of commenters have not used MacOS recently or regularly. It is actually very performant and has a memory scheduler that rivals that found on GNU/Linux. Apple’s users aren’t wrong when they talk about how much better the OS is than Windows at using memory.
No I do not, but I don’t see any reason it shouldn’t work though. I have PiHole, Apache, email, cups, mythtv and samba currently.
Opens chrome on a 8GB Mac. Sees lifespan of SSD being reduced by 50%. After 2-3 years of heavy usage SSD starts to get errors. Apple solution: buy a new one. No wonder they are 2nd/3rd wealthiest company on the planet.
HP seems to think 4 GB is an acceptable amount of RAM to put in a modern notebook (although they don't charge even close to what Apple charges).
https://www.amazon.com/HP-Micro-edge-Microsoft-14-dq0040nr-Snowflake/dp/B0947BJ67M
Shipping with Windows S. That's Microsoft's version of a Chromebook for some light web browsing for 188 dollars. I wouldn't buy it but this doesn't look like a rip off at this price point.
S mode does allow you to turn it off, so it's more like a hobbled version of home.
The computer is as bad as one I saw several years ago with 64g emmc and "Quad core processor." not a quad core, it was literally the name that showed in system. It did have 4 cores: at 400Mhz, boosting to 1.1Ghz. Buyer changed their mind and we couldn't give it away.
Of course that notebook is bad but for the price point of shitty hardware, you get shitty hardware. Apple sells shitty hardware at the cost of premium hardware.
They could just raise the prize to $198 and slap another 4GB of RAM on it.
And if they raised the price to $250, they could go with a faster processor and better wifi!
They moved to on-die RAM for a reason: To nickel and dime yo ass.
I needed to expense a Mac Mini for iOS development, and everyone (Me, the company, our purchasing department) was baffled at how much it cost to get 16 GB. And they only go up to 24GB. Imagine how much they'll charge for 32 in a year!
Apple has said that 8gb was enough for "general use," meaning if you use the out-of-the-box applications (Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc.) then 8gb is enough for general use to get basic things done. Apple is not going to say how much RAM is required for a third party application to run. That would be impossible. (Especially Chrome).
This article says that the limitation is occurring when running Xcode 16 with code completion. This is outside the definition of general use. Most people who are buying 8gb Macs are not going to be running Xcode at all.
The article and most of these comments are way, way outside the realm of common sense and simply looking for a reason to attack Apple.
If you don't want to buy Apple, don't buy it... and in the process, shut the fuck up.