Would I regret buying the Mac Mini M2 (8GB version)?

[VietKinh]

I'm hearing all sorts of things regarding the 8GB from people, and it has me concern. Some say the 8GB will only last 2 to 3 years versus 10 years for the 16GB. I don't know what that means exactly?

I'm hearing so many contradictions. Online articles post that the 8Gb can handle around 75 browser tabs while others have said it can barely handle 15 browser tabs.

I haven't touch the macOS since 2009, and I'm hesitant to fully commit to it yet. $500 seems like a value purchase. $700 no longer feels like a good deal.

Edit: I plan on web browsing (75 tabs or more), YouTube/Movies, iWork Suite, Apps, and Parallel with Linux. No video-editing, GarageBand, or Artistry of any kind. Might do more but haven't had macOS since 2009.

Let me know your experience.

Thanks

 

[mcnallym]

I personally would not go with an 8gb Mac and expect to last for me.
and I rarely browse on my Mac.
thats what my iPad is for.

 

[Honza1]

This is all overblown by people trying to say something, anything, to simply say something. Made up mostly with unknown quality assumptions. No one knows if there will be major change in memory requirements in the future and what web pages you are visiting - and how browsers are improving (or not).
8GB on current M1/M2 is surprisingly good performance. Main reason behind this is that the SSD in current Apple devices is extremely fast, so paging to SSD is similar speed as real memory was just few years ago. As result, you have 8GB of extremely fast RAM supported by very large - and very fast - paging system. Most people do not see impact of paging and those who do had to design tests well beyond what general use is.
For web browsing 8GB is pretty much enough for any number of tabs. Especially since new browsers are stopping tabs which are not used and paging them to disk on their own anyway as way of providing good experience on OLD systems most people are using. Many still have years old i3 systems with 8GB RAM with slow HD/SSDs.
There surely are memory hog web pages for which base mini is not a good match. For most of us, no issues, for years to come.
Most web browsing today - and in foreseeable future - is done on tables and phones - iPad, iPhone, Android... which have lot less memory and cpu than current mini.
edit: there is different thread here about running Win11 ARM, in virtualization using Parallels, on base mini and it works. I tried it some time ago and others report success also. If you can run whole virtual Win11 ARM in 8GB, few tabs in web browsers are trivial.

 

[eRondeau]

You will be very happy with the 8GB M2 Mac Mini for at least a decade. I'm a 20-year Mac user and my main computer is a "base" 8GB M1 Mac Mini and it's awesome. I have never once regretted buying it, or wished I'd bought something else instead. It flies through everything I ask it to do, including light video editing using iMovie and desktop publishing using Pages. If you really want to spend $200 more, buy an external USB-3 or Thunderbolt drive for external storage and/or backup. For 95% of people 8GB is ideal.

 

[thebart]

It depends on what you are using it for. Elaborate on what you plan to do with it and people can better advise you

 

[spatlese44]

I’ve been struggling to answer this one myself. The fact is that my base model M1 does everything I want fantastically. Bump up the spec on an M2 with more ram and bigger SSD and your $500 computer is $880. I’m probably going to go with the base model and wait to spec a future machine higher. I’m holding out for M3 to do that. I tried loading up tabs and sure, memory pressure may go into the yellow, but perf wise there’s no change. Don’t know about parallels and virtualization. With student discount, the base model is such a deal.

 

[sracer]

I'm hearing all sorts of things regarding the 8GB from people, and it has me concern. Some say the 8GB will only last 2 to 3 years versus 10 years for the 16GB. I don't know what that means exactly?

I'm hearing so many contradictions. Online articles post that the 8Gb can handle around 75 browser tabs while others have said it can barely handle 15 browser tabs.

I haven't touch the macOS since 2009, and I'm hesitant to fully commit to it yet. $500 seems like a value purchase. $700 no longer feels like a good deal.

Edit: I plan on web browsing (75 tabs or more), YouTube/Movies, iWork Suite, Apps, and Parallel with Linux. No video-editing, GarageBand, or Artistry of any kind. Might do more but haven't had macOS since 2009.

Let me know your experience.

Thanks

I have been using Mac OS devices with 8GB RAM for over 10 years without any problems. I do a lot of video encoding, audio and graphics work, and a lot of productivity tasks. I will also have a virtual machine running.

A few weeks ago I bought an 8GB/256GB M2 Mac Mini. It's been fantastic and I expect that some component in it will fail before I find 8GB RAM insufficient.

The money that I saved by going with the base model, I put toward a Satechi dock and an additional SSD for it.

 

[August West]

I have an M1 MBA w/8GB & just got an M2 mini with w/16GB. The air is just used as my sofa machine and doesn't do much but surf and email. Still, if I had it to do over again I'd spring for 16GB. Running Brave with a bunch of tabs open puts the memory pressure in the yellow so I usually run Firefox on it. It doesn't really cause any problems as far a performance that i can tell though. No such issues on the mini with 16GB. When it comes time to replace this air it will be with at least 16GB.

 

[VietKinh]

You will be very happy with the 8GB M2 Mac Mini for at least a decade. I'm a 20-year Mac user and my main computer is a "base" 8GB M1 Mac Mini and it's awesome. I have never once regretted buying it, or wished I'd bought something else instead. It flies through everything I ask it to do, including light video editing using iMovie and desktop publishing using Pages. If you really want to spend $200 more, buy an external USB-3 or Thunderbolt drive for external storage and/or backup. For 95% of people 8GB is ideal.

I am only concern about the 8GB of memory (having to close apps and tabs), and not the amount of storage. 256GB of SSD storage is enough for me since I would not be gaming on it.

In contrast, my windows gaming laptop has 32GB of memory and 2TB of SSD, so it's hard for me to imagine what 8GB of memory would entail. I usually have 5 browsers with 100 tabs open (more if Win 11 wasn't so intrusive) and a few programs running.

If I can get half of that performance on the 8GB M2, I would be satisfied.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

From my experience the memory issue is overblown. If you are planning to use memory intensive programs then 8GB might not be enough. I have several Macs from 8GB to 32GB of ram. For my needs, 8GB is an overkill. I decided to buy an M2 Mini with 8GB instead of a feel good configuration of 16GB.

My M2 mini will easily run a couple of Safari tabs, several Microsoft Edge windows and tabs, Firefox, Mail, Calculator. Memory pressure usually stays in the 40% range, memory usage is 6GB out of 8GB.

There are no slowdowns or beachballs.

 

[VietKinh]

From my experience the memory issue is overblown. If you are planning to use memory intensive programs then 8GB might not be enough. I have several Macs from 8GB to 32GB of ram. For my needs, 8GB is an overkill. I decided to buy an M2 Mini with 8GB instead of a feel good configuration of 16GB.

My M2 mini will easily run a couple of Safari tabs, several Microsoft Edge windows and tabs, Firefox, Mail, Calculator. Memory pressure usually stays in the 40% range, memory usage is 6GB out of 8GB.

There are no slowdowns or beachballs.

I am a graduate student, so usually have around 75 to 100 tabs open at all times on multiple browsers. Peer-review articles can quickly make a browser fill to 20 tabs quickly. Each browser is dedicated to each of my courses. I have no issue on my 32GB PC laptop, but that is 4X the memory of the 8GB Mini.

And considering macOS has so many amazing apps (not available on PC); I won't only just open browser tabs.

 

[Kelvinsin]

Gotten my m2 16gb last night. No any background app running, just opening 11 chrome tabs without any video/audio playback already taken around 10gb. Curious how to open “75 tabs with 8gb ram”….

 

[Realityck]

I'm hearing all sorts of things regarding the 8GB from people, and it has me concern. Some say the 8GB will only last 2 to 3 years versus 10 years for the 16GB. I don't know what that means exactly?

Both RAM and SSD size are two options you can select for current Mac usage and future. A web browser like safari makes more of available RAM to load more content faster in RAM instead of also using it also as a cache with the SSD. That's sorta double duty if you only get 8GB. Back in 2012 when I first used a 15" retina laptop with only 8 GB for the base model along with a 256 GB SSD, I noted all the online conversations discussing how selecting 16 GB over 8 GB made the life of the computer a lot longer as the MacOS grew in the size it takes up. These days the system could consume 3 to 4 GB and what's left is constantly shared with graphics (GPU usage) applications and their caches. The AS platform Macs such as M1/M2 System on Chip has everything soldered together in what's called unified memory architecture. The chief problem is when you buy your Mac, you can't acquire more RAM later on. So you have here people say 8 GB RAM is enough, well for now it is, but the MacOS system memory usage will only increase making what's left about 4 GB Ram more and more utilized instead of having more free RAM to use for everything you are doing. So lets say you a M2 8GB RAM MBA has that 4 GB RAM for mostly system and the other for everything else its using with part of your SSD storage being used as a RAM cache, if one simply goes to 16 GB RAM, now you are still using 4 GB for what the system uses, but instead of 4G for everything else, now its 12 GB. So yeah that little change will allow a decade of MacOS updates without issues. So short term you can survive with 8GB, but if your going to keep for years, I'd diffidently opt for 16GB. Hope that helps.

 

[dawnrazor]

Why does Apple sell computers with 8GB of RAM, because it will be fine, it’s the very least they can get away with in some machines, that’s not to say it’s right and many would argue that 8GB is not enough for computers sold in 2023… here’s the thing the cost implication involved in upgrading to 16GB is pretty low compared to making that saving and then finding out down the line that you have under spec’ed your machine. Apple counts on this… I’d get the 16GB and then forget about it as it won’t be an issue for you ever again…

I recently spec’ed up a M2 MBA for my wife, I didn’t think twice about upgrading to 16GB, you can get annoyed that you have to pay Apple’s RAM tax or just pay it and be safe knowing there is every chance your new purchase will be going strong in 8 years from now…

 

[VietKinh]

Both RAM and SSD size are two options you can select for current Mac usage and future. A web browser like safari makes more of available RAM to load more content faster in RAM instead of also using it also as a cache with the SSD. That's sorta double duty if you only get 8GB. Back in 2012 when I first used a 15" retina laptop with only 8 GB for the base model along with a 256 GB SSD, I noted all the online conversations discussing how selecting 16 GB over 8 GB made the life of the computer a lot longer as the MacOS grew in the size it takes up. These days the system could consume 3 to 4 GB and what's left is constantly shared with graphics (GPU usage) applications and their caches. The AS platform Macs such as M1/M2 System on Chip has everything soldered together in what's called unified memory architecture. The chief problem is when you buy your Mac, you can't acquire more RAM later on. So you have here people say 8 GB RAM is enough, well for now it is, but the MacOS system memory usage will only increase making what's left about 4 GB Ram more and more utilized instead of having more free RAM to use for everything you are doing. So lets say you a M2 8GB RAM MBA has that 4 GB RAM for mostly system and the other for everything else its using with part of your SSD storage being used as a RAM cache, if one simply goes to 16 GB RAM, now you are still using 4 GB for what the system uses, but instead of 4G for everything else, now its 12 GB. So yeah that little change will allow a decade of MacOS updates without issues. So short term you can survive with 8GB, but if your going to keep for years, I'd diffidently opt for 16GB. Hope that helps.

When people talk about the "life of the computer", do they mean that A) it will actually die (won't turn on) or B) it will be obsolete/outdated?

 

[Realityck]

When people talk about the "life of the computer", do they mean that A) it will actually die (won't turn on) or B) it will be obsolete/outdated?

More towards B (it will eventually be unsupported in several years. The Mac Mini's annually see a new MacOS version every year. At some point they won't be able to update to the most recent version, still they will get older MacOS release for 2 to 3 years later. A mac Mini can last beyond a decade easily.

macOS Ventura compatibility​

Apple released macOS 13 Ventura to the public on October 24, 2022 and the most current version os macOS 13.2.1. To run Ventura you will need one of these Macs:

• MacBook models from 2017 or later
• MacBook Air models from 2018 or later
• MacBook Pro models from 2017 or later
• Mac mini models from 2018 or later
• iMac models from 2017 or later
• iMac Pro (all models)
• Mac Pro models from 2019 or later
• Mac Studio (all models)

 

[JustAnExpat]

I'm hearing all sorts of things regarding the 8GB from people, and it has me concern. Some say the 8GB will only last 2 to 3 years versus 10 years for the 16GB. I don't know what that means exactly?

I'm hearing so many contradictions. Online articles post that the 8Gb can handle around 75 browser tabs while others have said it can barely handle 15 browser tabs.

I haven't touch the macOS since 2009, and I'm hesitant to fully commit to it yet. $500 seems like a value purchase. $700 no longer feels like a good deal.

Edit: I plan on web browsing (75 tabs or more), YouTube/Movies, iWork Suite, Apps, and Parallel with Linux. No video-editing, GarageBand, or Artistry of any kind. Might do more but haven't had macOS since 2009.

Let me know your experience.

Thanks

I suggest 16GB.

>Web browsing With 75 tabs open.

I don't know what application you're using (Safari? Chrome?) but some applications take up a lot of memory, and tabs will be shut down. More memory = less tabs sleeping.

>YouTube/Movies

I'm assuming watching YouTube/ Movies, right? It can do that without a sweat.

>iWork Suite

You shouldn't have any problems with 8GB with that.

>Apps

??

>Parallel with Linux

The only distribution you can use with Parallels are those that are complied for ARM. I think the maximum amount of RAM you can give the VM is 1/2 the computer's RAM, so it'll be 4GB if you get an 8GB machine, or 8GB if you get a16GB machine.

What are you planning on using Linux for anyway?

 

[JustAnExpat]

View attachment 2182960 Gotten my m2 16gb last night. No any background app running, just opening 11 chrome tabs without any video/audio playback already taken around 10gb. Curious how to open “75 tabs with 8gb ram”….

Remember, free RAM is wasted RAM.

 

[Realityck]

Remember, free RAM is wasted RAM.

you know someone online had the same thought.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/39z7a2

 

[lepidotós]

Right now, I'm using a full-fat OS (Fedora 37) with a full-fat desktop (KDE Plasma 5.27) and Firefox with 19 tabs open, one of them being YouTube, as well as a music player. I'm sitting at just about 6GB used, and I feel like I'd be just as happy with 8GB as I am with 16GB. However, I have the luxury of a replaceable SSD that I can replace when the swap kills it; with soldered-on SSDs, doing that is so much harder that it's usually called "impossible", leading to good boards being essentially made e-waste. I wouldn't feel comfortable with that, so I'd either go for more storage (more NAND space means more wear leveling, so a longer lifespan overall) or more RAM, whichever is more affordable where you are.
Though ultimately the only person who knows what's right for your needs is you yourself; I'd monitor your RAM usage a bit and plan accordingly. It might be that you only ever really use 4-5GB at your absolute peak, for which you'd be perfectly fine with 8GB. My personal peak is ~8GB so I would be hitting that swap ceiling, justifying the 16GB bump for me, personally. As for how long it gets software support, macOS usually supports ~8 years of Macs and the Linux kernel just barely deprecated support for the 80486 and Voodoos/Rage 128s/XGI (and that only because they depend on an interface that doesn't exist in the kernel anymore, if they still worked they'd stay in) but still gets built for the Motorola 68020, Sun SPARC, and PowerPC 750s so you're good on that front, with a trimmed down desktop running in under a quarter GB of RAM.​

Personally, I'm not that worried about RAM needs ballooning in the next decade; not while Chromebook-adjacent laptops and tablets or cell phones still come with less than 4GB. My Motorola Moto G Play 2021 came with 3GB RAM, and with phones being more popular than discrete computers these days, there's incentive to make websites fit into a mobile phone's capabilities. Maybe that means 8GB at the top end or 16GB for a show-offy flagship, but 4GB isn't yet rare.

 

[VirtuallyInsane]

View attachment 2182960

Gotten my m2 16gb last night. No any background app running, just opening 11 chrome tabs without any video/audio playback already taken around 10gb. Curious how to open “75 tabs with 8gb ram”….

I can navigate 80 tabs on Firefox and use other programs in the process, and I have an even older machine, an M1 MBP 13 inch with 8GB RAM. That's not normal. You might want to look into using content blockers for Chrome, or switching to Firefox if you're having that much bother with 11 tabs.

As to answer the OP's question, @VietKinh my machine has been going for 2-3 years on 8 GB RAM and it barely gets warm, and it works fine. I think the question of RAM depends on how intensive the programs you are using are. Something like Firefox tends to be less memory-consuming than Chrome etc; iWork, since it is an Apple Product should be less memory intensive than Word, depending on the size of the apps, it might be fine, and Parallels, depending on how often you plan to run it should be alright as well.

I've been able to run Adobe CC, Reason 12, FL Studio, Microsoft Word, iTunes, Chrome, and Discord among other things that people might consider energy-intensive, and I have been fine. Granted, if I want more speed, or to do something super heavy (which is rare), then I have an iMac for that. I think that due to the efficiency of the M2 chipset as well, you could get off with 8GB, but if you want to leap to 16, that's up to you.

I do suggest asking around about how much RAM each of the apps that you mainly want to use will/can take up out of your 8GB of potential RAM, if it's less then just go with the 8GB, you don't need all the ram but if it's more, make the leap to 16GB. That's the way I would look at it.

 

[Yebubbleman]

I'm hearing all sorts of things regarding the 8GB from people, and it has me concern. Some say the 8GB will only last 2 to 3 years versus 10 years for the 16GB. I don't know what that means exactly?

I'm hearing so many contradictions. Online articles post that the 8Gb can handle around 75 browser tabs while others have said it can barely handle 15 browser tabs.

I haven't touch the macOS since 2009, and I'm hesitant to fully commit to it yet. $500 seems like a value purchase. $700 no longer feels like a good deal.

Edit: I plan on web browsing (75 tabs or more), YouTube/Movies, iWork Suite, Apps, and Parallel with Linux. No video-editing, GarageBand, or Artistry of any kind. Might do more but haven't had macOS since 2009.

Let me know your experience.

Thanks

Parallels alone justifies more than 8GB of RAM.

But, honestly, you can't upgrade it later and the cost difference, relative to the cost of the machine (which you'd have to replace if you later changed your mind and wanted more RAM), isn't that much.

Just make sure you go with 512GB of SSD at a minimum (also justified by Parallels alone, but also, for a variety of reasons, a must on an M2 Mac).

 

[JamesMay82]

my non scientific thought is go with 16 gig and only because my 2014 iMac came with 8 gig which is nearly 10 years old so I can't see us getting another 10 years out of 8 gig.

 

[Kelvinsin]

I can navigate 80 tabs on Firefox and use other programs in the process, and I have an even older machine, an M1 MBP 13 inch with 8GB RAM. That's not normal. You might want to look into using content blockers for Chrome, or switching to Firefox if you're having that much bother with 11 tabs.


As to answer the OP's question, @VietKinh my machine has been going for 2-3 years on 8 GB RAM and it barely gets warm, and it works fine. I think the question of RAM depends on how intensive the programs you are using are. Something like Firefox tends to be less memory-consuming than Chrome etc; iWork, since it is an Apple Product should be less memory intensive than Word, depending on the size of the apps, it might be fine, and Parallels, depending on how often you plan to run it should be alright as well.

I've been able to run Adobe CC, Reason 12, FL Studio, Microsoft Word, iTunes, Chrome, and Discord among other things that people might consider energy-intensive, and I have been fine. Granted, if I want more speed, or to do something super heavy (which is rare), then I have an iMac for that. I think that due to the efficiency of the M2 chipset as well, you could get off with 8GB, but if you want to leap to 16, that's up to you.

I do suggest asking around about how much RAM each of the apps that you mainly want to use will/can take up out of your 8GB of potential RAM, if it's less then just go with the 8GB, you don't need all the ram but if it's more, make the leap to 16GB. That's the way I would look at it.

12 safari tabs + 1 chrome tab (which writing this post) taken 10.6GB....Not try on firefox yet but does it really make so much different comparing chrome and safari?

 

[ian87w]

I am a graduate student, so usually have around 75 to 100 tabs open at all times on multiple browsers. Peer-review articles can quickly make a browser fill to 20 tabs quickly. Each browser is dedicated to each of my courses. I have no issue on my 32GB PC laptop, but that is 4X the memory of the 8GB Mini.

And considering macOS has so many amazing apps (not available on PC); I won't only just open browser tabs.

Better get at least 16GB if I were you, max it out to 24GB if you can afford it. Modern websites can take a lot of RAM.