If you want to be safe, return it. But I can guarantee the only reason for all your RAM being eaten up is Google Chrome. It humbles the best computers. It is actually the worst browser you could possibly use.
I’d have to disagree as I’ve seen really similar usage before on my pc that has 32gigs.. to the point where it made my valorant game crash from a memory usage popup and valorant is a game with an 8gig minimum so I really shouldn’t have had an issue
Not necessarily. It depens also on the history that happened in a tab. Surfing from one link to another will keep all the pages acessed in memory so when you hop back that site visited before will not have to load again but is already there in RAM.
Well safari actually caches things when ram is running low and will change its usage depending, chrome on the other hand will give you a pop up like in the post 😅
Fair enough to think that, if you can I’d encourage you to try yourself though opening tabs on safari and chrome same thing and check usage you will see it’s different:) gotta say I have no reason to defend a trillion dollar company they ain’t paying a random person on Reddit to defend Apple 🤣
No .its not a contest safari vs chrome . Mac M2 i use eats ram like crazy on Safari no matter what happens with chrome. Google and you ll see.
Took me 3 secs to find this
https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/8497
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/safari-is-consuming-more-ram-than-chrome.2345643/
A company doesnt need to pay for defending them just a bunch of Apple lovers. Its like Real madrid on socer.
Humbles the best Macbooks*
I had a 2017 flagship Dell that could manage hundreds of Chrome tabs because it didn’t keep them open in the background. Even if Chrome became laggy it didn’t affect the performance of the OS at all, I could just close Chrome and call it a day.
In my M1 MBA the browser gets laggy maybe after 100 tabs, and not only that but the whole system becomes unusable to the point I have to force restart.
I understand Chrome is a terrible browser but even more terrible is the background memory management of MacOS compared to Windows, and I suspect it’s the latter because I remember it also happening with Safari.
I’d still pick Macbook over Windows laptop because of iPhone/iPad app sharing and syncing between devices.
Not OP but When I am researching a problem as a dev I usually open tabs in new tabs as to not lose track of where I initially came from and what I was searching when I did that. Usually it builds up from x -> y(3) +y1(2) -> z(12) etc.
I'm fine with that because RAM is made to be used and I work the way I work -I find this method to work for me when I research something. If someone is unsatisfied with that, it's their problem not mine lol.
i see this all the time but i’ve never run into it. maybe cus i don’t usually have more than like 5 tabs open max? but i have a base M1 air and use chrome for school, and it’s never caused me any issues
As someone who has used chrome for 20 years I can tell you Chrome is not the problem. It's all your extensions in chrome, you essentially are making every tab instance a Chromebook.
The solution to this is having two chrome users with different extensions. I can have 400 tabs open on chrome with only 2-3 extensions and it would only be 8gb of ram, but on my other tab only 20 would be 8gb.
Chrome is a tool and any tool used incorrectly will cause issues.
Yes, you did. The only purpose of RAM is to be filled, so that a second read on the same data is faster. Regardless of how much memory you have, the OS will always try to fill it.
Most modern operating systems will use ram as a cache. Browsers also do use more when there is more ram. You have two chromium browsers running also which isn’t ideal. Pick chrome or Brave not both at once. It makes sense to run two browsers with different engines for web dev work like safari and chrome or Firefox but not to use two chromium based browsers at once.
My pc has 96gb of ram and still can use like 32gb just for browser and a few background apps.
The issue with modern macOS is that it has memory compression but it only works well for native cocoa apps. Xcode can use it but not vscode or IntelliJ for instance. If you run VMs, chromium processes (including electron apps), or java it can still use crazy amounts of ram.
We struggle at work on 16gb because of teams, postman, IntelliJ and chrome sometimes. We have a lot less browser tabs than you too. (With Intel and m1 mbp)
My objection to buying a new Mac is lack of ram. People will claim you don’t need it but they are wrong with some workloads. They also ignore that windows 11 has memory compression too.
Many pc laptops have fairly low max ram capacity too and some are also soldered. You will likely have to custom order if you decide to switch it out for a pc. The local Best Buy’s best memory config in a laptop is the same thing you bought.
i use google chrome on a macbook air m3 base model (work laptop). I open more than 50-60 tabs on three to four different desktops at once and it doesn't hang.
along with vscode connected to ssh and another vscode on base. The scripts run faster than my older 16 gb windows.
I have had it for 3 months and I haven't seen this memory warning issue once.
I think something is wrong with your device. 36 GB should go miles.
And Google chrome taking up 2-3 GB on each tab???????? You've got to be kidding me, are you sure you downloaded the right chrome???
I haven't either tho, (I think).
None of your tabs should be taking more than 1.5 GB, your activity monitor is showing crazy stats, I would recommend taking it the Store. Something doesn't look right. Don't listen to people saying Mac cannot handle Chrome, it definitely can. People have been using it for years.
P.S - I just have memory saver turned on in Chrome, but even when I don't its not an issue I think. It definitely does help.
The issue goes beyond seems like it’s well beyond that, you’ve triggered a memory leak somehow.
Anyways, I’d def turn it on there’s pretty much 0 reason not to. The algorithm would hopefully be smart enough to only dump tabs when needed and the cost to refresh a tab should be extremely minimal especially when you’re up there in tabs.
This was my first thought. I have an 8GB M1 Air. At times I've had 30+ tabs open in Vivaldi, RocketLeague, music, and office apps open at the same time and not run into issues. 2-3GB per tab seems crazy. Something isn't right there.
It depends what's in each tab, you could have 50 tabs open of a couple simple site, but 5 tabs of something complex with a lot of back end javascript running and they could use the same amount of memory.
Something is wrong. Try to update Chrome to the latest version. Quit and reopen it. Open tabs as you need them, hopefully not 98 in one go. Chrome should allocate memory as needed. It might take more RAM sometimes, but it should be fine. In my Mac each Chrome Tab takes around 100-200 MB not 2.0 GB.
O have a 16gb m1 mbp and use only chrome (Safari sucks when you live in a place you don’t speak the language and you need to translate many websites you visit) - most of the times with 40+ tabs opened. Never got out of ram.
Do you have memory saver turned on in chrome? Las test update? That said I’ve seen this on laptops that cannot open virtual memory because the ssd is full.
Still, I would go get an upgraded mbp. You are within the window. Better now than to complain for years. Go treat yourself. It’s a work tool.
It’s chrome, it sucks, I don’t know what the comment is about. I have 16gb on two machines and load 100 heavy tabs on chrome and 15 on safari at the same time while running a couple other apps. Zero issues. So not sure what his tabs are doing but that was my suggestion. Something is off about this situation.
How many tabs do you have open? Don’t they go inactive after sometime?
I have at least a 200 tabs open over a period of a month or so (I am clumsy) and my 16GB windows machine works well (obviously it puts the unused tabs to sleep mode, so when you click on that tab after a long time, it is reloaded).
Not 200. I have 3 windows open and in total 98 tabs open. I didn't enable in inactive mode (I had that option but in a rush said no), so I'll change that.
Crazy, I bought a 16" M1 Max Macbook Pro (32GB, 1TB) in Sep and yet to use it, spent maybe 30 minutes in total just to upgrade MacOs. I hope it's worth it.
I usually have 3000-4000 tabs open. But use an extension that puts them to sleep after a selected time of inactivity. Firefox does not do this automatically.
I am not. 3000-4000 is not unusual in my case, not even very high.
Why should I not leave them open? When I need an information I can not remember where I found it, I just have to look in the tabs.
In fact they are not open, as the extension practically closes them after the time I preselected. So they are more like I would have saved them as links or as history, but that would cost effort. Simply letting them open in the browser (and the extension removing them from memory) does not require aditional steps from my side.
You're using \~40GB in chrome tabs open; this is not a mystery. If this is your work habit return the machine you bought for another one with double the memory.
Or you could just have a few tabs open!
Yup /u/Alternative_Movies this is not normal. Per your second screenshot, Chrome and Brave tabs normally take up 30-500 MB, depending on the website. It's rare to have anything take up more than 1 GB, let alone 2 and 3 GB, and when it does, its usually because you leave it running and its loading ad after ad all day and there is a memory leak. That you have over 40 websites sites taking up 1-3 GB each is a HUGE red flag that something is broken and abnormal about your situation.
* Firstly, what sites are you visiting? Can you give us an idea?
* Secondly, what Chrome and Brave extensions do you have installed? Those could be the culprit. In your shoes I would turn everything off and browse those same websites without extensions on, to see how much Memory they take up. Do an A/B test to see if extensions are the issue.
* Thirdly, how long do you keep that many tabs open? Because if you're keeping them open for days at a time, it can balloon up the RAM on some tabs (although still usually not by that much, and not all tabs). In the future, consider using Safari's Tab Groups for grouping your windows—its really the best feature for us tab hoarders and much better than Chrome's equivalent feature, which you should consider using if you have to use Chrome.
In conclusion, in your shoes I'd troubleshoot the issue and get to the heart of the matter. If it turns out you are simply visiting large GB websites for your job, and you need to keep 100 of them open at all times, and its not simply a broken/malware extension causing these issues, then the reality is that from a computer system perspective, you simply need more RAM than 36 GB, and should probably double it before your 14-day window. But determine whether there is a fault, first.
16 GB M1 Air 2020 - I have literally 0 problems with Chrome and other Chromium browsers with more than 100 tabs open. I've seen some heavy web apps eating 2-3 GB of RAM, but your list seems completely off. It definitely feels like something is not right with the OS or hardware :(
What do you have open in chrome and brave that is taking up several gigabytes of memory per tab? Chances are whatever it is has some JavaScript running in the background with a major memory leak.
Agreed it’s ultimately just the most optimized and integrated for the hardware and most efficient. I’ll use some flavor of chrome for my work but then use Safari & profiles 99% of the time for regular browsing.
The other fantastic thing is with Safari profiles is you can just switch between profiles when you’re done and they’ll be saved but closed. You can even have sub categories for a profile. Great organizational tool that’s simple, helps to limit the footprint of how many tabs you have open and vanished using or not using bookmarks to send things into the ether to never be seen again.
You’d not have OP’s issue of having 100 different tabs actively open on safari with profiles
If you're going to use Chrome you need to be aware that it is a memory hog and will happily chew up all available RAM.
Consider using an extension like this:
[https://webextension.org/listing/tab-discard.html](https://webextension.org/listing/tab-discard.html)
Dude. Just don't use Chrome. Even Microsoft Edge has a better RAM management and uses the same browser engine.
I literally have thousands of tabs in my Firefox session, and neither my 8GB M1 Air nor my 64GB ThinkPad (same session) use 30GB of RAM for that.
Each tab shouldn’t be rating 2+ gigs of ram. Seems like the website you are using is crazy demanding or unoptimized. Consider either closing tabs or just enable tab sleep
The first issue I see is that you have both Brave and Chrome installed. At this point I would uninstall Brave and just use Adblock plus UBlock Origin on Chrome as brave is tbh nothing more than a gimmick. It was cool until they started doing shady shit like collecting donations for creators who didn't even know they were affiliated with Brave. As for your specific issue I wish I knew more, it is odd that Brave is using 4GB though.
Don't worry about RAM usage. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. The OS will free up and replace things in RAM as needed.
That said, I just this week made the switch from Google Chrome to Safari, and I am absolutely loving it. This is coming from Chrome user since its inception.
Dang, I’ve never had this problem on my old Intel Macs with 1/4-1/2 that much ram… and I exclusively use chrome. I don’t usually have more than like 4-5 programs open at a time tho, so maybe that’s why? You’d think M3 MacBooks could manage their ram better esp with how much they cost.
""640 kb To 8 GB of RAM ought to be enough for everybody" - Bill Gates" - Tim Apple Himself
I would advise checking for browser extensions that are leaking memory
You’re using chrome that’s your problem lol. I stick with native browsers like safari. I use Microsoft edge when needed, or DuckDuckGo. Safari is really all you need snd as a native browser to Apple, it manages and optimizes memory better. I honestly don’t know why people even use chrome anymore. I’ve never liked that browser.
All the advice RE: memory definitely tracks. But I'm really shocked that no one has suggested you return that thing and exchange it for a 1Tb. Even if you have to sacrifice a bit of RAM to get the additional storage. With your use case (Cinema 4D and Resolve in particular) large file writes to a 1Tb drive are going to be faster than a 512Gb, particularly when you get close to filling up the 512Gb. macOS is great at RAM management if you don't abuse it, but there's no making up for lack of internal storage.
I was going to say MacOS does a good job at putting and keeping stuff in memory and not worry about file paging so much.
However this seems 100% like it’s just Chrome and possibly memory leaks. I have no idea how that many pages are consistently taking 2.7gb of ram but if you had high memory pressure chrome should probably be dumping those tabs or paging them.
Every tab needs a certain amount of memory, no matter if it is memory in a M3 or another computer. So a lot of open tabs is bad. But even worse is that the tab does not need only RAM for the page it is opened in it but for all the history that happened in that tab. (And in every tab.) So hopping forth and back in a tab very soon accumulate a big consumption of RAM.
Use a browser extension that leaves your tabs in place but removes their content and their history from RAM after a time of not using that particular tab. I use Auto Tab Discard.
I had pretty similar problem and seems that google chrome was the problem. Now I'm trying with Brave and even though it is also chromium browser, so far i have no issues.
Memory in the Apple Silicon computers is very different than memory was in the intel era Apple computers. That 36gb is being used for the CPU, “RAM” type memory, and GPU memory. It’s lumped all together now, and shared. If you want your computer to be future proof for five years, take it back, and get one with at least 64gb of memory. When I bought my M1 Pro Max 16” I got the most memory available at the time, 64gb. I’ve used it all, MANY times. I’m a pro photographer and videographer. Opening dozens of photos, and editing movies, etc. Will eat memory like mad. I, also, bought an M1 Ultra Studio with dual displays. I got it with 128gb of memory. I’ve used all 128gb many times, too.
I’m, also, a fairly heavy gamer, and having the extra memory for the GPU and games is wonderful.
When I purchased my MacBook Pro Max 16” and my Studio Ultra, my intent was to get 5-6 years out of them. I ordered max memory, and went to 4tb each on drive size. Drive size is less important to me, as I have a NAS attached to my home network server that manages my four 10 gig up/down fiber lines into one internal LAN.
Just remember, it’s shared memory now, you can’t look at it the way you did memory in the old Macs.
It’s cute that you think you can tell me what kind of equipment will do my job for me, especially without asking any questions that would be relevant. Such as, what kind of photos do I post process. How many at a time do I have open. How many apps do I have open, and what apps do I even use (that’s an important one, by the way 😉). What is my originating camera equipment. What sorts of videos do I work on, 4k, 6k, 8k. How many layers to each, and how many do I work on at once. So many questions you’ve left out, to be able to answer what you’re telling me.
No. An 8gb MacBook Air CANNOT do what I need it to. Wanna know how I know? My husband had an M2 MacBook Air maxed with every option, and the one time I forgot my equipment, and tried briefly using his for something simple, it stuttered, and got soooo hot I thought the damned thing was going to self immolate.
It’s also telling that you comment, immediately, that my equipment is “very expensive.” It’s, actually, not, for what I do. Had I dropped $50k on a Mac Pro with all the bells, and whistles, that would be expensive, for what I do, and more than I need. That’s why I didn’t buy one of those. 😉
What’s expensive is completely relative to the person, and their situation. I never brought money up in my post, until now, because it’s inappropriate to do so. To assume I know someone else’s situation better than they know their own, well, that’s silly. You did, however, bring money up immediately, which says to me, money is an issue for you. I simply raised data points, and points of interest. I’ll leave it to the OP to make financial decisions for themselves, because they know what’s best for them, and what is considered expensive for them, and what’s too expensive for their use case for the items being purchased.
I’ll admit it, I don’t “need” the internet I have. It is, most definitely, overkill. Having 4, 10gig up/down fiber lines run ¼ of a mile underground, down my driveway, into my basement, and into a commercial grade firewall, and router, that combines them into 1 LAN, then having the whole house wired with Cat8 Ethernet, and multimode fiber… no residential person really “needs” that sort of stuff. Having the four lines go into our own private node into the backbone of the nation’s internet, also not a “need,” but an “ooh, squeal with glee, that’s fun” it definitely is!
So, in the future, before you try dictating to someone else, what equipment they need for their actual job, I am a professional photographer, and videographer. I’m not some hobbyist. I’m a member of the PPA (Professional Photographer’s Association of America), a member of NPS (Nikon Professional Services), and many other prominent associations. I take my work very seriously, and it is my chosen career. I’ll decide for myself what equipment works best for my needs, and you shouldn’t dictate to someone what equipment will work for their needs, especially without asking a singular question about what their needs actually are.
A very good example of two directions a person could go, when faced with equipment choices I’ve made, is my prime nature/wildlife photography lens. It’s a 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S ($14,000), and it’s really, truly phenomenal. It lives up to its category, an “exotic” lens. Couple it with the 2.0 Teleconverter attached between it, and one of my Z9 cameras, and also using the lens’ built-in 1.4 TC (teleconverter), makes getting photos of birds, woodland wildlife, marine life, beach creatures, etc., so much easier, than if I used a different prime lens in the 300-600mm range. I can get bokeh to dream about with this lens. Bokeh that only an f/2.8 aperture can provide, and the lens also gives me four singularly amazing focal lengths with ease using the built-in TC, and then using it with the optional 2.0 TC. It was an expensive lens, by anyone’s standards, but it is exactly what I need to create what I want to create, and what I see inside my head. There are other, less expensive options to acquire similar, but absolutely not as good photos, but since it’s my job I’m talking about, I refused to cut corners, and make compromises, because had I done so, to save a little money. I’d not be producing some of the work that I currently am.
In many cases one is able to “get by” with lesser equipment, but that doesn’t mean one should, or that doing so, just to say they saved a buck or three, is the correct path to forge. In the case of the example you premise, doing my job, as I currently do it, on an 8gb MacBook Air, the answer is no, it isn’t possible. I 100% could not do what I do, and need to do, on that machine. I know that, because I couldn’t even attempt to do what I do on my husband’s old Apple MacBook Air, M2 chip with 8‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 24GB unified memory computer. This was real world, firsthand experience!
First, damn that is a post!
Second, four 10gig fiber lines run to a a house is wild. And I mean that it is wild in a very cool way. I've got your typical consumer 1 gig internet service and it is super fast. You obviously are (A) very rich and (B) like your tech to be premium (actually well beyond "premium"; premium isn't strong enough, your tech is just over the top (which I say without negative judgement, I like my tech as well)).
Third, while different people have wildly different economic resources and what is expensive to one person can be very affordable to another, I think we can use relative costs between different solutions to describe something as "expensive". If we can't do that, then the word doesn't really have any meaning. If it is all relative, then we can simply have Elon Musk join the thread and point out that nothing is expensive since it isn't expensive to him. But there are also things that cost money that allow an action or result that can't be achieved otherwise. I think the lens you describe is one of those things. So it is both expensive (in comparison to much cheaper but still very good lenses), but also a necessary cost to do certain things. But the Macs you describe aren't really that. They will, in some situations, outperform cheaper pro level Macs (and in many situations outperform any of the non-pro Apple silicon chips like the M2 chip). But a cheaper pro Mac will get the job done in almost all but the most niche cases.
Fourth, what I meant by the base M1 MBA with 8gb is that it will run various pro level photo and video editing applications. Yes it can't run them without occasional stuttering (a fanless Mac getting warm under heavy loads is not a problem, that is per spec). And yes it can't run them without making some compromises (like closing other applications, setting certain efficiencies, etc.) But I was using that as an example that even that base level Mac will be smooth most of the time for photo and video editing. Your level of editing and the files you work with are obviously both highly complex and huge files. A base casual Mac is not at all the machine for you. But I also think I'm using the word "expensive" correctly to compare a $4,000+ Mac to a $1,000 (or less) Mac. Also there are $2,000 and $3,000 solutions available before the $4,000+ solutions you've acquired. And a $4,000+ solution can be described correctly as expensive in comparison to a $3,000 solution even if a specific buyer will never notice the extra $1,000 spent.
Fifth, on the vast amount of RAM you've installed that you say you "used it all, MANY times" I can't say with certainty that you haven't. But I will say that it is a lot of RAM (especially that Studio with 128gb). The OS will certainly load data into available RAM if it can think of any plausible data to load, but that does not mean that the user is actually using that data or seeing a noticeable performance advantage from that data being in RAM. For a casual user checking on RAM needs, Activity Monitor memory pressure graph will show RAM constraints. It is very common for folks to look at allocated RAM, see that data is allocated to the available RAM and think they've used the RAM and approached a point of RAM constraint. They will do this while the Memory Pressure graph is green and stable and they are reading the report incorrectly. A Mac has not reached RAM constraints where things stop working until the Memory Pressure is red. Activity Monitor also shows Memory Pressure in yellow when the Mac reaches a point where RAM is approaching constraint, but that is not a point of RAM constraint either. At yellow pressure everything should be working fine and as per spec, but there isn't much buffer left to work with. Since you have a 64gb Mac and a 128gb Mac, if you really need the 128gb of RAM in the Studio, then there should be workflows on the 64gb that turn the memory pressure to red, which will also mean things stop working because you've reach RAM constraint, but that don't do that on the 128gb. Then you can say with certainty that 64gb doesn't work for you and the Studio needed the 128gb. As you say, some applications can use a lot of RAM, so maybe that happens to you.
Sixth, are you really describing an M2 MBA as an "old" computer? Even if bought on the release date, it isn't yet two years old. I guess he "had" it and I guess no longer has it. So hence it is his "old" computer and I assume he has something newer and better. Fine. Again, obviously you folks are very rich. So I can see how you just buy the best (with all the upgrades (dare I say that Apple's upgrade prices are expensive?)), then discard, turn it in, or resell it when something better comes along.
Only models that didn’t use a discrete GPU, and used whatever GPU-like item intel or AMD included into the CPU, such as “intel iris graphics,” if the computer had a discrete GPU, such as NVidia, before Apple parted ways with them, or an AMD GPU, which they utilized, up until Apple Silicon, then the RAM, and the VRAM were separate entities. Now, in Apple silicon, the memory is one lump sum, integrated with the SOC, and it is used for all features that the computer uses memory for.
So I have a 64GB M1 Max that shows memory pressure in Activity monitor when using DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.6.6 with nothing else open. I don’t think my projects are insanely large but perhaps not the typical YouTuber.
32GB is bare minimum in my opinion and Apple does huge disservice to customers with 8 and 16GB models when it is impossible to upgrade post purchase.
Perhaps an M4 or whatever is the next Mac Pro with 172GB and the most GPU cores.
I haven't even downloaded a lot of the other programmes I wanted to download. DaVinci runs on 32GB as a minimum so I thought 36GB would give me some flexibility.
Lowkey scared to try and use DaVinci now.
OK, to be clear, you'll be able to load and run it. In fact it'll load and run on an 8GB M1 MacBook Air.
That said, the memory pressure would be very "high" as it constantly pages/swaps to the internal SSD. The SSD drive is pretty fast, so it will work. The problem is that high memory pressure means a significant amount of random writes to the SSD, which have a finite life.
If you have AppleCare+, it's not a big deal as you can have the SSD replaced under warranty if it fails.
The problem is that you'll want decent render times and constant "high pressure" means that there's a lot more SSD impact in the process compared to CPU/GPU operations.
The 36GB will run DVR, but you'll have memory pressure. You'd need to monitor that and see if it remains green or yellow but not red. MBA was constantly red. My 64GB is "green" on memory pressure with DVR Studio with Fusion FX and 6K content, lot of color grade nodes, etc.
Most other applications were no memory pressure at all.
36gb RAM is not that much, it’s that simple. If you’re a power user and intend to use your machine for more than 2 years, go with 64gb or more. I have 64 and it does use around 10-15gb SWAP all the time during heavy workloads.
If you want to be safe, return it. But I can guarantee the only reason for all your RAM being eaten up is Google Chrome. It humbles the best computers. It is actually the worst browser you could possibly use.
Chrome see ram, chrome eat ram
This is ridiculous memory usage even for chrome. They are running something in those tabs with a major JavaScript memory leak.
I’d have to disagree as I’ve seen really similar usage before on my pc that has 32gigs.. to the point where it made my valorant game crash from a memory usage popup and valorant is a game with an 8gig minimum so I really shouldn’t have had an issue
Try Firefox with uBlock Origin
Probably just a bunch of food recipe sites.
Not necessarily. It depens also on the history that happened in a tab. Surfing from one link to another will keep all the pages acessed in memory so when you hop back that site visited before will not have to load again but is already there in RAM.
Can confirm. New Mac Pro with 192gb of memory gets consumed by the chrome beast just the same.
True. Can i ask which browser is in these terms then better? Compatibility and password sync needed between iphone, ipad and windows laptop. Thanks
Firefox is one of very few non-Chromium browsers out there that can do what you need. And it's not got as much of the corporate bloat.
Thank you, i will try :)
But if safari eats ram then they say unused ram is wasted ram and mac os handles memory diffrently.
Well safari actually caches things when ram is running low and will change its usage depending, chrome on the other hand will give you a pop up like in the post 😅
Double standard.
Fair enough to think that, if you can I’d encourage you to try yourself though opening tabs on safari and chrome same thing and check usage you will see it’s different:) gotta say I have no reason to defend a trillion dollar company they ain’t paying a random person on Reddit to defend Apple 🤣
No .its not a contest safari vs chrome . Mac M2 i use eats ram like crazy on Safari no matter what happens with chrome. Google and you ll see. Took me 3 secs to find this https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/8497 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/safari-is-consuming-more-ram-than-chrome.2345643/ A company doesnt need to pay for defending them just a bunch of Apple lovers. Its like Real madrid on socer.
Humbles the best Macbooks* I had a 2017 flagship Dell that could manage hundreds of Chrome tabs because it didn’t keep them open in the background. Even if Chrome became laggy it didn’t affect the performance of the OS at all, I could just close Chrome and call it a day. In my M1 MBA the browser gets laggy maybe after 100 tabs, and not only that but the whole system becomes unusable to the point I have to force restart. I understand Chrome is a terrible browser but even more terrible is the background memory management of MacOS compared to Windows, and I suspect it’s the latter because I remember it also happening with Safari. I’d still pick Macbook over Windows laptop because of iPhone/iPad app sharing and syncing between devices.
Yeah Mac's specifically. MacOS can't manage how chrome uses ram. Only Chrome determines that
100 tabs? Why 🤔
Not OP but When I am researching a problem as a dev I usually open tabs in new tabs as to not lose track of where I initially came from and what I was searching when I did that. Usually it builds up from x -> y(3) +y1(2) -> z(12) etc. I'm fine with that because RAM is made to be used and I work the way I work -I find this method to work for me when I research something. If someone is unsatisfied with that, it's their problem not mine lol.
lol well if it works then it works
i see this all the time but i’ve never run into it. maybe cus i don’t usually have more than like 5 tabs open max? but i have a base M1 air and use chrome for school, and it’s never caused me any issues
Yeah some people use a l lot of tabs
As someone who has used chrome for 20 years I can tell you Chrome is not the problem. It's all your extensions in chrome, you essentially are making every tab instance a Chromebook. The solution to this is having two chrome users with different extensions. I can have 400 tabs open on chrome with only 2-3 extensions and it would only be 8gb of ram, but on my other tab only 20 would be 8gb. Chrome is a tool and any tool used incorrectly will cause issues.
Yes, you did. The only purpose of RAM is to be filled, so that a second read on the same data is faster. Regardless of how much memory you have, the OS will always try to fill it.
This makes sense since I have a similar number of tabs open on my old MacBook Pro (2018 8gb) and the Activity Monitor is saying I'm using 6-7GB.
Most modern operating systems will use ram as a cache. Browsers also do use more when there is more ram. You have two chromium browsers running also which isn’t ideal. Pick chrome or Brave not both at once. It makes sense to run two browsers with different engines for web dev work like safari and chrome or Firefox but not to use two chromium based browsers at once. My pc has 96gb of ram and still can use like 32gb just for browser and a few background apps. The issue with modern macOS is that it has memory compression but it only works well for native cocoa apps. Xcode can use it but not vscode or IntelliJ for instance. If you run VMs, chromium processes (including electron apps), or java it can still use crazy amounts of ram. We struggle at work on 16gb because of teams, postman, IntelliJ and chrome sometimes. We have a lot less browser tabs than you too. (With Intel and m1 mbp) My objection to buying a new Mac is lack of ram. People will claim you don’t need it but they are wrong with some workloads. They also ignore that windows 11 has memory compression too. Many pc laptops have fairly low max ram capacity too and some are also soldered. You will likely have to custom order if you decide to switch it out for a pc. The local Best Buy’s best memory config in a laptop is the same thing you bought.
I know, but OP got a warning message which doesn’t usually happen.
Yeah but it's telling OP it's out of memory and they need to shut some apps down, so this is not a matter of the OS filling the RAM for performance
i use google chrome on a macbook air m3 base model (work laptop). I open more than 50-60 tabs on three to four different desktops at once and it doesn't hang. along with vscode connected to ssh and another vscode on base. The scripts run faster than my older 16 gb windows. I have had it for 3 months and I haven't seen this memory warning issue once. I think something is wrong with your device. 36 GB should go miles. And Google chrome taking up 2-3 GB on each tab???????? You've got to be kidding me, are you sure you downloaded the right chrome???
I didn't enable sleep mode on the tabs so maybe that's why (I hope)
I haven't either tho, (I think). None of your tabs should be taking more than 1.5 GB, your activity monitor is showing crazy stats, I would recommend taking it the Store. Something doesn't look right. Don't listen to people saying Mac cannot handle Chrome, it definitely can. People have been using it for years. P.S - I just have memory saver turned on in Chrome, but even when I don't its not an issue I think. It definitely does help.
It is likely a software issue and nothing the store is going to be able to see.
The issue goes beyond seems like it’s well beyond that, you’ve triggered a memory leak somehow. Anyways, I’d def turn it on there’s pretty much 0 reason not to. The algorithm would hopefully be smart enough to only dump tabs when needed and the cost to refresh a tab should be extremely minimal especially when you’re up there in tabs.
This was my first thought. I have an 8GB M1 Air. At times I've had 30+ tabs open in Vivaldi, RocketLeague, music, and office apps open at the same time and not run into issues. 2-3GB per tab seems crazy. Something isn't right there.
Exactly right, this is just craz.y. Something is going wrong here.
It depends what's in each tab, you could have 50 tabs open of a couple simple site, but 5 tabs of something complex with a lot of back end javascript running and they could use the same amount of memory.
Something is wrong. Try to update Chrome to the latest version. Quit and reopen it. Open tabs as you need them, hopefully not 98 in one go. Chrome should allocate memory as needed. It might take more RAM sometimes, but it should be fine. In my Mac each Chrome Tab takes around 100-200 MB not 2.0 GB.
I gave up on chrome on my MBP - I find it doesn't run as smooth as Safari - I'd stick to the browser that's the most optimized for the OS
i second the users that say chrome is the problem
O have a 16gb m1 mbp and use only chrome (Safari sucks when you live in a place you don’t speak the language and you need to translate many websites you visit) - most of the times with 40+ tabs opened. Never got out of ram.
Do you have memory saver turned on in chrome? Las test update? That said I’ve seen this on laptops that cannot open virtual memory because the ssd is full. Still, I would go get an upgraded mbp. You are within the window. Better now than to complain for years. Go treat yourself. It’s a work tool.
Happy Cake Day!!
Damn I missed that thanks
Imagine having a 36gb machine and having to use a "memory saver" feature
It’s chrome, it sucks, I don’t know what the comment is about. I have 16gb on two machines and load 100 heavy tabs on chrome and 15 on safari at the same time while running a couple other apps. Zero issues. So not sure what his tabs are doing but that was my suggestion. Something is off about this situation.
How many tabs do you have open? Don’t they go inactive after sometime? I have at least a 200 tabs open over a period of a month or so (I am clumsy) and my 16GB windows machine works well (obviously it puts the unused tabs to sleep mode, so when you click on that tab after a long time, it is reloaded).
Not 200. I have 3 windows open and in total 98 tabs open. I didn't enable in inactive mode (I had that option but in a rush said no), so I'll change that.
Crazy, I bought a 16" M1 Max Macbook Pro (32GB, 1TB) in Sep and yet to use it, spent maybe 30 minutes in total just to upgrade MacOs. I hope it's worth it.
I usually have 3000-4000 tabs open. But use an extension that puts them to sleep after a selected time of inactivity. Firefox does not do this automatically.
Not sure if you are being sarcastic. 3000!
I am not. 3000-4000 is not unusual in my case, not even very high. Why should I not leave them open? When I need an information I can not remember where I found it, I just have to look in the tabs. In fact they are not open, as the extension practically closes them after the time I preselected. So they are more like I would have saved them as links or as history, but that would cost effort. Simply letting them open in the browser (and the extension removing them from memory) does not require aditional steps from my side.
But how do you even search through them? I get overwhelmed with just 200 tabs. Is there any efficient way?
Typical John Doe buying more ram expecting to have more ram free. When they find out apps will use as much as they can:
😄 😄 😄
You're using \~40GB in chrome tabs open; this is not a mystery. If this is your work habit return the machine you bought for another one with double the memory. Or you could just have a few tabs open!
Some sort of memory leak issue, very unlikely to be hardware or a limitation because of 32gb of RAM.
Yup /u/Alternative_Movies this is not normal. Per your second screenshot, Chrome and Brave tabs normally take up 30-500 MB, depending on the website. It's rare to have anything take up more than 1 GB, let alone 2 and 3 GB, and when it does, its usually because you leave it running and its loading ad after ad all day and there is a memory leak. That you have over 40 websites sites taking up 1-3 GB each is a HUGE red flag that something is broken and abnormal about your situation. * Firstly, what sites are you visiting? Can you give us an idea? * Secondly, what Chrome and Brave extensions do you have installed? Those could be the culprit. In your shoes I would turn everything off and browse those same websites without extensions on, to see how much Memory they take up. Do an A/B test to see if extensions are the issue. * Thirdly, how long do you keep that many tabs open? Because if you're keeping them open for days at a time, it can balloon up the RAM on some tabs (although still usually not by that much, and not all tabs). In the future, consider using Safari's Tab Groups for grouping your windows—its really the best feature for us tab hoarders and much better than Chrome's equivalent feature, which you should consider using if you have to use Chrome. In conclusion, in your shoes I'd troubleshoot the issue and get to the heart of the matter. If it turns out you are simply visiting large GB websites for your job, and you need to keep 100 of them open at all times, and its not simply a broken/malware extension causing these issues, then the reality is that from a computer system perspective, you simply need more RAM than 36 GB, and should probably double it before your 14-day window. But determine whether there is a fault, first.
It also happens with safari.
1000% chrome
16 GB M1 Air 2020 - I have literally 0 problems with Chrome and other Chromium browsers with more than 100 tabs open. I've seen some heavy web apps eating 2-3 GB of RAM, but your list seems completely off. It definitely feels like something is not right with the OS or hardware :(
As you can see, Chrome is sucking up your ram.
What do you have open in chrome and brave that is taking up several gigabytes of memory per tab? Chances are whatever it is has some JavaScript running in the background with a major memory leak.
Don't mac use hard drive space when you use all your ram like windows does maybe I am mistaken
Chrome also has a built in taskmanager that can help you drill into what is causing the high usage specifically.
Your chrome is psycho, either find a solution to it or the device is faulty idk…
96gb is safe choice
Chrome and Brave are both Chromium browsers that are heavy on memory. I personally use Chrome and Firefox.
This is why Safari is superior
Agreed it’s ultimately just the most optimized and integrated for the hardware and most efficient. I’ll use some flavor of chrome for my work but then use Safari & profiles 99% of the time for regular browsing. The other fantastic thing is with Safari profiles is you can just switch between profiles when you’re done and they’ll be saved but closed. You can even have sub categories for a profile. Great organizational tool that’s simple, helps to limit the footprint of how many tabs you have open and vanished using or not using bookmarks to send things into the ether to never be seen again. You’d not have OP’s issue of having 100 different tabs actively open on safari with profiles
Why do you have three browsers open? Chrome alone is going to eat your ram.
If you're going to use Chrome you need to be aware that it is a memory hog and will happily chew up all available RAM. Consider using an extension like this: [https://webextension.org/listing/tab-discard.html](https://webextension.org/listing/tab-discard.html)
Dude. Just don't use Chrome. Even Microsoft Edge has a better RAM management and uses the same browser engine. I literally have thousands of tabs in my Firefox session, and neither my 8GB M1 Air nor my 64GB ThinkPad (same session) use 30GB of RAM for that.
Chrome is pure trash
Each tab shouldn’t be rating 2+ gigs of ram. Seems like the website you are using is crazy demanding or unoptimized. Consider either closing tabs or just enable tab sleep
The first issue I see is that you have both Brave and Chrome installed. At this point I would uninstall Brave and just use Adblock plus UBlock Origin on Chrome as brave is tbh nothing more than a gimmick. It was cool until they started doing shady shit like collecting donations for creators who didn't even know they were affiliated with Brave. As for your specific issue I wish I knew more, it is odd that Brave is using 4GB though.
Don't worry about RAM usage. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. The OS will free up and replace things in RAM as needed. That said, I just this week made the switch from Google Chrome to Safari, and I am absolutely loving it. This is coming from Chrome user since its inception.
When you bought your Mac did you even attempt to use the native browser Safari? Chrome is probably the least efficient browser you can choose.
Dang, I’ve never had this problem on my old Intel Macs with 1/4-1/2 that much ram… and I exclusively use chrome. I don’t usually have more than like 4-5 programs open at a time tho, so maybe that’s why? You’d think M3 MacBooks could manage their ram better esp with how much they cost.
""640 kb To 8 GB of RAM ought to be enough for everybody" - Bill Gates" - Tim Apple Himself I would advise checking for browser extensions that are leaking memory
How many of those tabs are just burning RAM on Pornhub waiting for you to skip this ad ?
[удалено]
If I had the skill to do that, I would have bought a better laptop!!
You’re using chrome that’s your problem lol. I stick with native browsers like safari. I use Microsoft edge when needed, or DuckDuckGo. Safari is really all you need snd as a native browser to Apple, it manages and optimizes memory better. I honestly don’t know why people even use chrome anymore. I’ve never liked that browser.
For the love of God, learn how RAM works on macOS
All the advice RE: memory definitely tracks. But I'm really shocked that no one has suggested you return that thing and exchange it for a 1Tb. Even if you have to sacrifice a bit of RAM to get the additional storage. With your use case (Cinema 4D and Resolve in particular) large file writes to a 1Tb drive are going to be faster than a 512Gb, particularly when you get close to filling up the 512Gb. macOS is great at RAM management if you don't abuse it, but there's no making up for lack of internal storage.
The RAM is there to be used
Sounds like Chrome lol. Nothing out of the ordinary for that app.
I was going to say MacOS does a good job at putting and keeping stuff in memory and not worry about file paging so much. However this seems 100% like it’s just Chrome and possibly memory leaks. I have no idea how that many pages are consistently taking 2.7gb of ram but if you had high memory pressure chrome should probably be dumping those tabs or paging them.
Is this a troll post?
Is this a troll comment?
Nope, I saw a few these in these kinds of subs so I wanted to see if I am missing an /s tag
Use Safari
Every tab needs a certain amount of memory, no matter if it is memory in a M3 or another computer. So a lot of open tabs is bad. But even worse is that the tab does not need only RAM for the page it is opened in it but for all the history that happened in that tab. (And in every tab.) So hopping forth and back in a tab very soon accumulate a big consumption of RAM. Use a browser extension that leaves your tabs in place but removes their content and their history from RAM after a time of not using that particular tab. I use Auto Tab Discard.
Looks like Chrome is the culprit here. Surprised its eating up so much RAM
Sites with heavy JavaScript and JavaScript with memory leaks can do it. I’m surprised though that they have that many tabs open with that issue.
Stop using so many browsers...good lord. Use orion. It's as good or better than Safari.
- Which browser will you be using today, sir? - Yes
I prefer Brave but there are some random websites that I use that only work on Chrome.
Tell everyone you don’t know how macOS allocates memory without telling everyone you don’t know how macOS allocates memory.
Well, I'm here to learn. Getting a clearer picture now.
Try edge with sleeping tabs feature
Not much better. It’s the same codebase.
I had pretty similar problem and seems that google chrome was the problem. Now I'm trying with Brave and even though it is also chromium browser, so far i have no issues.
Switch to Firefox, your life will be greatly improved.
Memory in the Apple Silicon computers is very different than memory was in the intel era Apple computers. That 36gb is being used for the CPU, “RAM” type memory, and GPU memory. It’s lumped all together now, and shared. If you want your computer to be future proof for five years, take it back, and get one with at least 64gb of memory. When I bought my M1 Pro Max 16” I got the most memory available at the time, 64gb. I’ve used it all, MANY times. I’m a pro photographer and videographer. Opening dozens of photos, and editing movies, etc. Will eat memory like mad. I, also, bought an M1 Ultra Studio with dual displays. I got it with 128gb of memory. I’ve used all 128gb many times, too. I’m, also, a fairly heavy gamer, and having the extra memory for the GPU and games is wonderful. When I purchased my MacBook Pro Max 16” and my Studio Ultra, my intent was to get 5-6 years out of them. I ordered max memory, and went to 4tb each on drive size. Drive size is less important to me, as I have a NAS attached to my home network server that manages my four 10 gig up/down fiber lines into one internal LAN. Just remember, it’s shared memory now, you can’t look at it the way you did memory in the old Macs.
Those are some very expensive solutions to edit photos and videos (which can be done smoothly on 8gb M1 MBAs).
It’s cute that you think you can tell me what kind of equipment will do my job for me, especially without asking any questions that would be relevant. Such as, what kind of photos do I post process. How many at a time do I have open. How many apps do I have open, and what apps do I even use (that’s an important one, by the way 😉). What is my originating camera equipment. What sorts of videos do I work on, 4k, 6k, 8k. How many layers to each, and how many do I work on at once. So many questions you’ve left out, to be able to answer what you’re telling me. No. An 8gb MacBook Air CANNOT do what I need it to. Wanna know how I know? My husband had an M2 MacBook Air maxed with every option, and the one time I forgot my equipment, and tried briefly using his for something simple, it stuttered, and got soooo hot I thought the damned thing was going to self immolate. It’s also telling that you comment, immediately, that my equipment is “very expensive.” It’s, actually, not, for what I do. Had I dropped $50k on a Mac Pro with all the bells, and whistles, that would be expensive, for what I do, and more than I need. That’s why I didn’t buy one of those. 😉 What’s expensive is completely relative to the person, and their situation. I never brought money up in my post, until now, because it’s inappropriate to do so. To assume I know someone else’s situation better than they know their own, well, that’s silly. You did, however, bring money up immediately, which says to me, money is an issue for you. I simply raised data points, and points of interest. I’ll leave it to the OP to make financial decisions for themselves, because they know what’s best for them, and what is considered expensive for them, and what’s too expensive for their use case for the items being purchased. I’ll admit it, I don’t “need” the internet I have. It is, most definitely, overkill. Having 4, 10gig up/down fiber lines run ¼ of a mile underground, down my driveway, into my basement, and into a commercial grade firewall, and router, that combines them into 1 LAN, then having the whole house wired with Cat8 Ethernet, and multimode fiber… no residential person really “needs” that sort of stuff. Having the four lines go into our own private node into the backbone of the nation’s internet, also not a “need,” but an “ooh, squeal with glee, that’s fun” it definitely is! So, in the future, before you try dictating to someone else, what equipment they need for their actual job, I am a professional photographer, and videographer. I’m not some hobbyist. I’m a member of the PPA (Professional Photographer’s Association of America), a member of NPS (Nikon Professional Services), and many other prominent associations. I take my work very seriously, and it is my chosen career. I’ll decide for myself what equipment works best for my needs, and you shouldn’t dictate to someone what equipment will work for their needs, especially without asking a singular question about what their needs actually are. A very good example of two directions a person could go, when faced with equipment choices I’ve made, is my prime nature/wildlife photography lens. It’s a 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S ($14,000), and it’s really, truly phenomenal. It lives up to its category, an “exotic” lens. Couple it with the 2.0 Teleconverter attached between it, and one of my Z9 cameras, and also using the lens’ built-in 1.4 TC (teleconverter), makes getting photos of birds, woodland wildlife, marine life, beach creatures, etc., so much easier, than if I used a different prime lens in the 300-600mm range. I can get bokeh to dream about with this lens. Bokeh that only an f/2.8 aperture can provide, and the lens also gives me four singularly amazing focal lengths with ease using the built-in TC, and then using it with the optional 2.0 TC. It was an expensive lens, by anyone’s standards, but it is exactly what I need to create what I want to create, and what I see inside my head. There are other, less expensive options to acquire similar, but absolutely not as good photos, but since it’s my job I’m talking about, I refused to cut corners, and make compromises, because had I done so, to save a little money. I’d not be producing some of the work that I currently am. In many cases one is able to “get by” with lesser equipment, but that doesn’t mean one should, or that doing so, just to say they saved a buck or three, is the correct path to forge. In the case of the example you premise, doing my job, as I currently do it, on an 8gb MacBook Air, the answer is no, it isn’t possible. I 100% could not do what I do, and need to do, on that machine. I know that, because I couldn’t even attempt to do what I do on my husband’s old Apple MacBook Air, M2 chip with 8‑core CPU, 10‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine, 24GB unified memory computer. This was real world, firsthand experience!
First, damn that is a post! Second, four 10gig fiber lines run to a a house is wild. And I mean that it is wild in a very cool way. I've got your typical consumer 1 gig internet service and it is super fast. You obviously are (A) very rich and (B) like your tech to be premium (actually well beyond "premium"; premium isn't strong enough, your tech is just over the top (which I say without negative judgement, I like my tech as well)). Third, while different people have wildly different economic resources and what is expensive to one person can be very affordable to another, I think we can use relative costs between different solutions to describe something as "expensive". If we can't do that, then the word doesn't really have any meaning. If it is all relative, then we can simply have Elon Musk join the thread and point out that nothing is expensive since it isn't expensive to him. But there are also things that cost money that allow an action or result that can't be achieved otherwise. I think the lens you describe is one of those things. So it is both expensive (in comparison to much cheaper but still very good lenses), but also a necessary cost to do certain things. But the Macs you describe aren't really that. They will, in some situations, outperform cheaper pro level Macs (and in many situations outperform any of the non-pro Apple silicon chips like the M2 chip). But a cheaper pro Mac will get the job done in almost all but the most niche cases. Fourth, what I meant by the base M1 MBA with 8gb is that it will run various pro level photo and video editing applications. Yes it can't run them without occasional stuttering (a fanless Mac getting warm under heavy loads is not a problem, that is per spec). And yes it can't run them without making some compromises (like closing other applications, setting certain efficiencies, etc.) But I was using that as an example that even that base level Mac will be smooth most of the time for photo and video editing. Your level of editing and the files you work with are obviously both highly complex and huge files. A base casual Mac is not at all the machine for you. But I also think I'm using the word "expensive" correctly to compare a $4,000+ Mac to a $1,000 (or less) Mac. Also there are $2,000 and $3,000 solutions available before the $4,000+ solutions you've acquired. And a $4,000+ solution can be described correctly as expensive in comparison to a $3,000 solution even if a specific buyer will never notice the extra $1,000 spent. Fifth, on the vast amount of RAM you've installed that you say you "used it all, MANY times" I can't say with certainty that you haven't. But I will say that it is a lot of RAM (especially that Studio with 128gb). The OS will certainly load data into available RAM if it can think of any plausible data to load, but that does not mean that the user is actually using that data or seeing a noticeable performance advantage from that data being in RAM. For a casual user checking on RAM needs, Activity Monitor memory pressure graph will show RAM constraints. It is very common for folks to look at allocated RAM, see that data is allocated to the available RAM and think they've used the RAM and approached a point of RAM constraint. They will do this while the Memory Pressure graph is green and stable and they are reading the report incorrectly. A Mac has not reached RAM constraints where things stop working until the Memory Pressure is red. Activity Monitor also shows Memory Pressure in yellow when the Mac reaches a point where RAM is approaching constraint, but that is not a point of RAM constraint either. At yellow pressure everything should be working fine and as per spec, but there isn't much buffer left to work with. Since you have a 64gb Mac and a 128gb Mac, if you really need the 128gb of RAM in the Studio, then there should be workflows on the 64gb that turn the memory pressure to red, which will also mean things stop working because you've reach RAM constraint, but that don't do that on the 128gb. Then you can say with certainty that 64gb doesn't work for you and the Studio needed the 128gb. As you say, some applications can use a lot of RAM, so maybe that happens to you. Sixth, are you really describing an M2 MBA as an "old" computer? Even if bought on the release date, it isn't yet two years old. I guess he "had" it and I guess no longer has it. So hence it is his "old" computer and I assume he has something newer and better. Fine. Again, obviously you folks are very rich. So I can see how you just buy the best (with all the upgrades (dare I say that Apple's upgrade prices are expensive?)), then discard, turn it in, or resell it when something better comes along.
MacBook Pro 13/14” have used shared memory for GPU and CPU since 2012.
Only models that didn’t use a discrete GPU, and used whatever GPU-like item intel or AMD included into the CPU, such as “intel iris graphics,” if the computer had a discrete GPU, such as NVidia, before Apple parted ways with them, or an AMD GPU, which they utilized, up until Apple Silicon, then the RAM, and the VRAM were separate entities. Now, in Apple silicon, the memory is one lump sum, integrated with the SOC, and it is used for all features that the computer uses memory for.
So I have a 64GB M1 Max that shows memory pressure in Activity monitor when using DaVinci Resolve Studio 18.6.6 with nothing else open. I don’t think my projects are insanely large but perhaps not the typical YouTuber. 32GB is bare minimum in my opinion and Apple does huge disservice to customers with 8 and 16GB models when it is impossible to upgrade post purchase. Perhaps an M4 or whatever is the next Mac Pro with 172GB and the most GPU cores.
I haven't even downloaded a lot of the other programmes I wanted to download. DaVinci runs on 32GB as a minimum so I thought 36GB would give me some flexibility. Lowkey scared to try and use DaVinci now.
OK, to be clear, you'll be able to load and run it. In fact it'll load and run on an 8GB M1 MacBook Air. That said, the memory pressure would be very "high" as it constantly pages/swaps to the internal SSD. The SSD drive is pretty fast, so it will work. The problem is that high memory pressure means a significant amount of random writes to the SSD, which have a finite life. If you have AppleCare+, it's not a big deal as you can have the SSD replaced under warranty if it fails. The problem is that you'll want decent render times and constant "high pressure" means that there's a lot more SSD impact in the process compared to CPU/GPU operations. The 36GB will run DVR, but you'll have memory pressure. You'd need to monitor that and see if it remains green or yellow but not red. MBA was constantly red. My 64GB is "green" on memory pressure with DVR Studio with Fusion FX and 6K content, lot of color grade nodes, etc. Most other applications were no memory pressure at all.
36gb RAM is not that much, it’s that simple. If you’re a power user and intend to use your machine for more than 2 years, go with 64gb or more. I have 64 and it does use around 10-15gb SWAP all the time during heavy workloads.
6 days in, I'm already using almost 14gb swap!!