One of the most asked questions on all Mac forums is whether it is ok to buy a MacBook Pro with just 8GB or it would be better to upgrade to at least 16GB. Answers obviously vary from person to person, but the common consensus is it depends on which applications you are going to use.

The problem with forums is that the more you read them, the more confusing it gets because people are suggesting solutions, but they do not know your circumstances. I don’t know them either, but I can help you to reach a decision by asking some questions and refuting some common myths.

Once you get all the required information, you (hopefully) will be able to make an informed decision which works best for you.

TLDR; Is 8GB enough for a MacBook Pro? In most cases, for anyone asking this question, 8GB of RAM would be enough for surfing the internet, checking emails and working with documents. People who do coding or computer design professionally and can actually benefit from additional RAM already know the answer.

Most of the reviews from reputable Mac publishers have said 8 GB isn't showing any limitations in their use. Unless of course they so some crazy things to purposely try and bring the M1 to its. One of the most asked questions on all Mac forums is whether it is ok to buy a MacBook Pro with just 8GB or it would be better to upgrade to at least 16GB. Answers obviously vary from person to person, but the common consensus is it depends on which applications you are going to use. One of the most asked questions on all Mac forums is whether it is ok to buy a MacBook Pro with just 8GB or it would be better to upgrade to at least 16GB. Answers obviously vary from person to person, but the common consensus is it depends on which applications you are going to use. Samsung ram Memory Upgrade DDR3 PC3 12800, 1600MHz, 204 PIN, SODIMM for 2012 Apple MacBook Pro's, 2012 iMac's, and 2011/2012 Mac Mini's (16GB kit (2 x 8GB)) 4.7 out of 5 stars 386 $63.00 $ 63.

And now let me prove my point of view.

Three reasons why you should never buy a MacBook with only 8GB of RAM

1. You change your mind every day

Last year you were an astronaut and were making deals with aliens on the board of Enterprise. Today you are a famous chef in a restaurant with 34 Michelin stars. And you suspect that tomorrow you may abruptly change your career and become a glorious JavaGrape and HDLM developer in a furniture store in Tinytown, AL.

As we all know, furniture store developers suffer from an outsized need for 16GB memory in order to track dozens of sofa purchases per year.

You asked the developer in the furniture store and she suggested to future proof your MacBook because otherwise, you will miserably fail as a glorious developer.

2. Buying a MacBook is like car shopping

You still remember the worst mistake of your life when you bought a 2 door Mini convertible in 2016. As soon as you signed the credit application you found out that the girl you met last week at your friends’ house is planning your wedding in May.

Within three weeks after buying a car you had buyer remorse. What were you thinking? How are going to fit your wife and three children that were born 10 days after the wedding to the Mini convertible?

No, you will not make this mistake again with your laptop. You will future proof and buy a MacBook with 43GB of RAM so you can watch pictures of your triplets in 3D.

3. Buying a MacBook is like buying a new iPhone

I met a lot of people who flip burgers in McDonald’s and they own last generation iPhones which cost a little less than MacBook Air.

“What’s the secret of the financial success of those amazing people?”, you wonder. How they manage to upgrade expensive iPhones every two years? The secret is simple and it’s called 18-month special financing (no interest if paid in full).

Let’s assume that the base MBP model with 8GB will cost $1799.00. With 18-month special financing, you will have to pay $100 per month (let’s ignore taxes). Can you afford payments? Ok, let’s move on.

Now, let’s add $200 and upgrade the memory to 16GB. Now, you have to pay $111 per month. Can you still afford the payments?

You nod. Your face lits up with a smile. You hide a heap of crumpled dollar bills in the back pocket of your Duluth pants and go to Apple site to apply for credit. Divinity 2 arrow crafting.

Two reasons why even 8GB is too much for you

1. What is RAM?

If you know that a Ram is a pickup truck from Dodge, you know that the right number is 3500, not 8. You frantically scroll the web page and finally ask me for help.

“Al”, you say, “there is no 3500 option. I would settle on 2500 or 1500, but I can’t find them either!”
“Calm, Padawan”, I reply, “8 is not 8. 8GB is 8 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 which is equal to …err… more than 3500 for sure. So pick 8 and don’t worry!”

2. You reading this article

If you’re reading this article there is a 93% chance that you are either a newbie or not very good with tech. If you were using Apple laptops for many years you would be scaring mortals on forums with unrealistic demands for computing power.

But, let’s get serious. We will use an elimination process to find those fancy people who will benefit from extra memory.

Why?

When solving any problem, it’s best to start with the “Why?” question. In our case, the question is, Why are people asking about choosing between 8GB and 16GB? There are two answers:

Apple allows to upgrade CPU, RAM and storage at the time of purchase and many people seem to start desperately googling to find out if upgrades are required or worthful. By the way, if are wondering if storage upgrade is required as well check my post about 128GB minimum storage for MacBooks.
The buyer knows that RAM in MacBooks is soldered to the motherboard and there is no way to upgrade it later.

If you’re already aware of limited MacBook upgradeability, then you should answer another question: If it was possible to add memory later would it solve your problem?

If you have previously owned a laptop, did you ever upgrade memory on them? Or did you buy another laptop?

In case if you have never upgraded old laptops, then chances that you would care about MacBook upgradeability are virtually zero. So stop worrying and go ahead with the new MacBook Pro with 8GB (or the same amount of RAM you already have on your current laptop).

Myth of future-proofing

When asking about RAM upgrades, most users talk about future-proofing their purchase. What does that mean?

Future-proofing is basically fear. A fear that one day Apple will release a new upgrade and I will not be able to use my MacBook. Or a fear that one day I decide to be a programmer or a designer and I will need more resources and now I am stuck.

Let’s first address the first fear. I always recommend having automatic upgrades on so the OS (operating system) on your laptop is up to date, has all enhancements (including performance improvements) and is secure. But the thing you don’t have to upgrade to the new OS.

In 2018, macOS Mojave introduced using about 2GB of RAM for itself. This figure stayed almost the same since 2013, which means that with 8GB of physical RAM, you have about 6GB for all applications.

If for some reason Apple decides to release a new OS which will demand 8GB then you don’t have to upgrade. If you made a mistake and upgraded you can always go back, especially if you have a Time Machine backup.

I work in the computer industry and I have customers who are still using 30-year old software!

Now, what about a career change? Well, I think I covered this already.

What’s the worst thing is going to happen?

Every time I am faced with a dilemma, this is a question I ask myself.

Let’s assume that I have only 8GB, and I installed an application that needs a lot of memory. In 99% of cases, it means that the application will run slow and only in 1% of cases it will not run at all. If there is not enough memory, the operating system starts swapping data between memory and the disk drive.

Back in the day, when we had HDDs, it would mean that the application will be unusable. Now, with faster SSDs, the performance is simply terrible but still tolerable.

Memory For Mac 8 Gb