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by smoldesu 1263 days ago
Even with swap, 8gb is pretty paltry on a memory-hungry system like MacOS, let alone a system that shares GPU and system memory. 16gb is the minimum for me even though I really only edit/compile code, and even then it can be pretty easy to max out your system memory after a couple docker containers...

It might not be a 'trick' per-se, but anyone who intends to use a Mac for work should consider upgraded memory (IMO).
2 comments
2fast4you 1263 days ago
I will agree with your last point. If I had bought this machine for doing seriously development I would've gone for 16gb. Saying that, I've been pleasantly surprised with its power. I've been playing with Metal, throwing together a native version ShaderToy, and it hasn't felt unpowered once. Even when running the iPad emulator.

I did feel a little duped when I learned that some M1/M2 machines can only support one external monitor. Now I have to replace my two monitors with a widescreen.

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smoldesu 1263 days ago
IMO, the 'problem' is that MacOS will use 4-5gb OOB, and using an Electron app with a browser open will easily push that into swap space. For most daily drivers, even light users, they'll be happy to have upgraded memory.
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2fast4you 1263 days ago
Right now with just safari and a few background things I'm hovering at 6gb in use, so you're not wrong about how much memory is being used. Regardless I don't think it's a problem for light users. A light user imo would be just browsing and email. 8GB will give you plenty of headroom in that case.

I'm going to keep an eye on ram usage for the next few days. I'm curious what it will look like on a more full workload because if things have been swapping out, I haven't noticed.

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metta2uall 1262 days ago
I was "compelled" to get MacOS as I develop an iOS app using flutter. I needed a lightweight power-efficient laptop so got a second-hand 8GB M1 and can fairly comfortably develop (VSCode + dotnet + nodejs + many tabs in firefox) inside a Debian VM running i3 with zram & UTM... Perhaps it depends on how memory-hungry one's development actually is - a massive Java Eclipse project might not work nearly as well.
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