I would much rather have an M1 machine with 16GB RAM, than an M2 machine with 8GB RAM.
So if money is the bottleneck, see if you can find an M1 Mac Mini somewhere.
So if money is the bottleneck, see if you can find an M1 Mac Mini somewhere.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Would I regret buying the Mac Mini M2 (8GB version)?
- Thread starter VietKinh
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
For your case? Get at least 16GB, more recommended... 8GB isn't bad persay, but it would definitely cap when you feed it sometimes 75+ tabs and a bunch of stressful work applications.
You can reset the Mac before you return. You can also move files to an external drive or online.
I believe the 14 days starts from the delivery date and you can easily verify this when you purchase.
Keep in mind the difference between the M1 and M2 is very very small.
If you’re that concerned about memory, and you probably should be, I wouldn’t even think about getting that M2.
Look at refurbished M1s.
Not sure what country you’re in but if you’re in the US…
Refurbished Mac mini Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 8‑Core GPU
Refurbished Mac mini Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 8‑Core GPU
The Apple M1 chip takes our most versatile, do-it-all desktop into another dimension. With up to 3x faster CPU performance. Up to 6x faster graphics. And our most advanced Neural Engine for up to 15x faster machine learning. Get ready to work, play, and create on Mac mini with speed and power...
store.apple.com
Not quite as low as $499 but if you look around you might be able to find one.
OP wrote:
"Now do I really want to cheap out and just get the 8GB or go up to 16GB or get the Mac Mini Pro?"
It comes down to:
What can you AFFORD?
IF you can afford the m2pro "base model", then by all means, buy it.
It is properly-equipped to serve for years ahead.
Once you have it, you won't regret it.
I WOULD NOT buy an Apple keyboard or mouse.
There are far better 3rd-party choices out there.
But then, I want a FULL-sized keyboard, number pad, and I want it to look like one of those huge old "IBM" keyboards.
For a mouse, there's only one word you need to know:
Logitech.
"Now do I really want to cheap out and just get the 8GB or go up to 16GB or get the Mac Mini Pro?"
It comes down to:
What can you AFFORD?
IF you can afford the m2pro "base model", then by all means, buy it.
It is properly-equipped to serve for years ahead.
Once you have it, you won't regret it.
I WOULD NOT buy an Apple keyboard or mouse.
There are far better 3rd-party choices out there.
But then, I want a FULL-sized keyboard, number pad, and I want it to look like one of those huge old "IBM" keyboards.
For a mouse, there's only one word you need to know:
Logitech.
Worth if:
a) you'd disable Spotlight (adding all possible drives and spaces to exclude list), Handoff, dodgy automatic background syncs including Time Machine;
b) you'd use terminal command sudo purge after active/heavy usage (yeah, counts will restore after some time but in lesser amount + in my opinion it will prevent SSD from exhausting; Swap is sort of RAM but on your SSD. Giving the fact that replacement not that possible...)
c) you'd restart/turn off system every day
d) you'd install too many system extensions and console/terminal apps/frameworks/scripts etc. because as for me they'll load eventually, taking your limited amount of RAM.
4Kb of RAM was enough to launch Apollo.
+ definitely useless to have RAM/memory/system optimizers enabled on 20GB+ RAM Macs, but you should look after similar in your case. Previously macOS was acting softer with RAM (weren't that amount of features) but now there are plenty reports of out of memory, strangely enough, more on newer M SoC systems (bugs? memory leaks?)
Ohoho, and immediately disable the feature in Chromium/Chrome/Edge, main goal is something like "optimize performance by preloading broswer" + similar for extensions.
It makes me mad, in my case over 4Gb I had to share all the time with a completely closed browser, WHY?!
mackeeper.com
a) you'd disable Spotlight (adding all possible drives and spaces to exclude list), Handoff, dodgy automatic background syncs including Time Machine;
b) you'd use terminal command sudo purge after active/heavy usage (yeah, counts will restore after some time but in lesser amount + in my opinion it will prevent SSD from exhausting; Swap is sort of RAM but on your SSD. Giving the fact that replacement not that possible...)
c) you'd restart/turn off system every day
d) you'd install too many system extensions and console/terminal apps/frameworks/scripts etc. because as for me they'll load eventually, taking your limited amount of RAM.
4Kb of RAM was enough to launch Apollo.
+ definitely useless to have RAM/memory/system optimizers enabled on 20GB+ RAM Macs, but you should look after similar in your case. Previously macOS was acting softer with RAM (weren't that amount of features) but now there are plenty reports of out of memory, strangely enough, more on newer M SoC systems (bugs? memory leaks?)
Ohoho, and immediately disable the feature in Chromium/Chrome/Edge, main goal is something like "optimize performance by preloading broswer" + similar for extensions.
It makes me mad, in my case over 4Gb I had to share all the time with a completely closed browser, WHY?!
How to Fix "Your System Has Run Out of Application Memory" on Mac?
MacKeeper ⭐ Do you get the "Your system has run out of application memory" error on Mac? ✅ Read our article to learn how to fix it
mackeeper.com
Worth if:
a) you'd disable Spotlight (adding all possible drives and spaces to exclude list), Handoff, dodgy automatic background syncs including Time Machine;
b) you'd use terminal command sudo purge after active/heavy usage (yeah, counts will restore after some time but in lesser amount + in my opinion it will prevent SSD from exhausting; Swap is sort of RAM but on your SSD. Giving the fact that replacement not that possible...)
c) you'd restart/turn off system every day
d) you'd install too many system extensions and console/terminal apps/frameworks/scripts etc. because as for me they'll load eventually, taking your limited amount of RAM.
4Kb of RAM was enough to launch Apollo.
+ definitely useless to have RAM/memory/system optimizers enabled on 20GB+ RAM Macs, but you should look after similar in your case. Previously macOS was acting softer with RAM (weren't that amount of features) but now there are plenty reports of out of memory, strangely enough, more on newer M SoC systems (bugs? memory leaks?)
Ohoho, and immediately disable the feature in Chromium/Chrome/Edge, main goal is something like "optimize performance by preloading broswer" + similar for extensions.
It makes me mad, in my case over 4Gb I had to share all the time with a completely closed browser, WHY?!
How to Fix "Your System Has Run Out of Application Memory" on Mac?
MacKeeper ⭐ Do you get the "Your system has run out of application memory" error on Mac? ✅ Read our article to learn how to fix it
I think you convinced me! Have you tried these two apps: Memory Clean 2, DaisyDisk (cost money)?
I read everyone replies even though I did not respond to every single person.
I decided to order the 16GB/256GB version because it is better to be safe than sorry. Mac have very limited gaming capabilities, so I do not see myself upgrading every four to five years like I would on PC. Since I will be ordering Apple Magic Keyboard (Touch ID) and the Magic Trackpad 2, I might as well not cheap out on a computer that I will have for many years to come.
This has been a long time coming for me, as I have been eyeing the perfect moment to get back into macOS again. Back in 2021, I was close to coming back, but the iMac only being 24" was a deal-breaker for me, as all of my monitors were bigger. I am glad that Win 11 is a nightmare, as it pushed me to find other avenues, and so I just happened to come upon the new Mac Mini while searching for the MBA M2.
Thank you everyone!
I decided to order the 16GB/256GB version because it is better to be safe than sorry. Mac have very limited gaming capabilities, so I do not see myself upgrading every four to five years like I would on PC. Since I will be ordering Apple Magic Keyboard (Touch ID) and the Magic Trackpad 2, I might as well not cheap out on a computer that I will have for many years to come.
This has been a long time coming for me, as I have been eyeing the perfect moment to get back into macOS again. Back in 2021, I was close to coming back, but the iMac only being 24" was a deal-breaker for me, as all of my monitors were bigger. I am glad that Win 11 is a nightmare, as it pushed me to find other avenues, and so I just happened to come upon the new Mac Mini while searching for the MBA M2.
Thank you everyone!
can i ask a genuine question.
why do people have 15-75 browser tabs open???
i ask this as someone whos had a mac since 1993, and has never had 15 tabs open. i mean once you get past about 10 you cant even see them, and you can only read one at a time.
often on my work pc i have about half a dozen, because we have different systems that are browser based and to save logging in every time. and i can understand sometimes i google something and then open half a dozen links at the same time, but 75??? On my mac, its rarely going to be more than half a dozen and normally its one.
my tuppence on this, im looking at a m2 mini, and financially it makes sense (to me) to buy the 8gb one. Worten has it for €630. the 16gb is €959 from apple. thats a 50% increase. I can understand people saying they need 8gb now for parallels, or for photoshop, but for people who think they should buy more ram now for 'futureproofing' the maths doesnt stack up. that €329 i save now, is half the cost of the replacement when it comes. I get it when talking about imacs or macbooks where the cost of the machine is much more so the extra memory cost is a much smaller percentage of the cost.
why do people have 15-75 browser tabs open???
i ask this as someone whos had a mac since 1993, and has never had 15 tabs open. i mean once you get past about 10 you cant even see them, and you can only read one at a time.
often on my work pc i have about half a dozen, because we have different systems that are browser based and to save logging in every time. and i can understand sometimes i google something and then open half a dozen links at the same time, but 75??? On my mac, its rarely going to be more than half a dozen and normally its one.
my tuppence on this, im looking at a m2 mini, and financially it makes sense (to me) to buy the 8gb one. Worten has it for €630. the 16gb is €959 from apple. thats a 50% increase. I can understand people saying they need 8gb now for parallels, or for photoshop, but for people who think they should buy more ram now for 'futureproofing' the maths doesnt stack up. that €329 i save now, is half the cost of the replacement when it comes. I get it when talking about imacs or macbooks where the cost of the machine is much more so the extra memory cost is a much smaller percentage of the cost.
I am actually surprised that this is uncommon. I plan on having around 200 tabs open with the Mac Mini, as Win 11 is so intrusive that I don't have over 200 tabs open.
I'll give you an example of one of my browsers. I am a huge football fan, and a huge fan of the NFL draft and its mock drafts. I have a vivid imagination, so I love to dream up different scenarios for all 32 teams. This means the following minimal below:
35 tabs = 32 team roster pages + 3 mock draft simulators
I am someone who value productivity, so I do not like closing tabs on sites that I visit daily.
Now if you want to see my full browser usage, I can give you a full rundown below. I run multiple pages for certain site.
Browser 1: Class #1 (20 tabs)
Browser 2: Class #2 (20 tabs)
Browser 3: Class #3 (20 tabs)
Browser 4: Research articles and .gov websites (20 tabs) - 5 to 8 articles per assignment
Browser 4: Work (20 tabs)
Browser 5: Social media (Twitter, Reddit, MacRumors, Gamefaq, FB, YouTube, etc.) (20 tabs)
Browser 6: Mock Draft (seasonal) (35 tabs)
Browser 7: To do list (20 tabs) non-school and work related tasks
Some people use browser tabs as an alternative to bookmarks.
I have a well structured bookmark bar/favorites bar that if I were to use tabs instead, I would probably have 35 tabs open. But I find bookmarks (especially the way that I have them structured) to be more effective for my workflows and use cases and more efficient in using system resources.
👍 Exactly. The upcharge to go from 8GB to 16GB RAM is IMO obscene.
I have a M1 with 8gb ram/256gb hard drive. I don't do any video editing or photo processing or music production. Mainly MS Office (including MS Outlook), Firefox, Edraw softwware and Quicken at the time. Have an external 1tb drive (TB3). This configuration after a couple of months began freezing up or slowing down significantly with out of application memory errors. Adobe Acrobat (with 8 or so pdfs open) began reporting that it was using 38gb or so of RAM. Similar story with MS Outlook (even though this was not my primary email app.) I would typically have 15-25 browser tabs open.
Problem was solved by buying a 2tb .m2 ssd and putting it in a TB3 enclosure. I made this external drive my boot drive and moved my applications over to the 2tb drive. No more out of application memory errors (but reports are Adobe and a couple of other apps can cause this problem even with a 32gb Mac Studio). BUT the Mac Mini now is not as fast/responsive as it was when I used the internal drive as the boot drive. Apps don't open as quickly as before and browsing is a little slower.
I use a large 4k tv (about 42 inches) as primary screen so I can easily see 15 tabs on Firefox w/o having to scroll and still have room for working on a file with MS Word or some other app.
For me, the original configuration was not enough but, by spending some more money about $350, it is now workable but not a speed demon.
Problem was solved by buying a 2tb .m2 ssd and putting it in a TB3 enclosure. I made this external drive my boot drive and moved my applications over to the 2tb drive. No more out of application memory errors (but reports are Adobe and a couple of other apps can cause this problem even with a 32gb Mac Studio). BUT the Mac Mini now is not as fast/responsive as it was when I used the internal drive as the boot drive. Apps don't open as quickly as before and browsing is a little slower.
I use a large 4k tv (about 42 inches) as primary screen so I can easily see 15 tabs on Firefox w/o having to scroll and still have room for working on a file with MS Word or some other app.
For me, the original configuration was not enough but, by spending some more money about $350, it is now workable but not a speed demon.
You should definitely go with 16 GB RAM. Websites are so demanding these days, look at my 8 GB M1 mini with around 20 tabs open:
Attachments
i thank you for your detailed reply, and it just reinforces my view. i can just about get your reason of the fantasy draft, but even then its such a specific thing that wouldnt translate to any sport or pasttime i have, and the rest of it.... clearly its a common thing going by other posts but the idea of paying 50% more for my mac just so i can leave tabs open with no benefit over bookmarks just doesnt do it for me.
You should see my bookmarks list. I have multiple bookmark folders and each of them are a couple hundred long. But the conventional bookmark list feels outdated. The way it is set up. It is very tedious to scrolls up and down just to find the page I am looking for. With macOS, I can use other apps that streamline that process significantly. Being able to store pages into an inventory type system is so much more convenient.
Regret buying it? I am sure for general every day use it will work just as well as a MacBook Air works with that much RAM and you mostly work with one or two app at a time (think Mail, Safari, iWork, Photos, iMovie). You may just find yourself wanting to upgrade sooner with 8gb than if you get 16gb when your needs or software updates require it.
I can say with my M2 Pro Mac mini, my RAM usage is generally 12GB of the 16gb total with Mail, Safari, Messages, Twitter and Stocks open right now. From what I have seen with macOS in my 16gb model, it generally uses 75% of the RAM it has just about all the time (about 4gb of my RAM use is cache according to activity monitor).
I have never noticed any slowdown on this machine. Having said that, I would not buy a machine with 8gb RAM. I would get an M1 with 16gb over an M2 with 8GB.
I can say with my M2 Pro Mac mini, my RAM usage is generally 12GB of the 16gb total with Mail, Safari, Messages, Twitter and Stocks open right now. From what I have seen with macOS in my 16gb model, it generally uses 75% of the RAM it has just about all the time (about 4gb of my RAM use is cache according to activity monitor).
I have never noticed any slowdown on this machine. Having said that, I would not buy a machine with 8gb RAM. I would get an M1 with 16gb over an M2 with 8GB.
Not a programmer; so is this an Adobe development problem or a problem with the way Apple has designed its OS or some of both? Don't know. What I do know is that the real world solution that resolves the issue satisfactorily is more SSD space which is where Apple's very high upcharge for that storage space is a negative about the Mac OS environment.
Since the initial problem seemed to have been caused by running out of space on the internal drive (adding the external 2 tb unit has virtually eliminated the problem), I believe a 1tb or larger drive would resolve the issue. Now I have seen reports of users with Mac Studios and 1tb or larger ssds still run into this problem from time to time. The issue is probably how much free space do you have on the ssd to handle the swap files. I have about 1.4 tb of space on the external drive so that is more than plenty.
Nice decision - let us know how you're liking it once you used it for a few days!
Shipping takes 9 days for some reason.
Glad you went for the 16 GB in the end. I bought an 8 GB Mac mini M1 back in 2020 because I was impatient and wanted in on the Apple Silicon pie as soon as possible. Although the M1 chip was fantastic, I could tell that even with my light-ish usage it was being held back especially with photo editing and illustration.
I've corrected my mistake, perhaps even over-compensated for it, by getting myself an M2 Mac mini with 24 GB RAM. I'm sure if I bought the M1 with 16 GB in the first place, I'd still have it now. Buy 'cheap' (in inverted commas because nothing Apple could ever be considered 'cheap') buy twice.
I've corrected my mistake, perhaps even over-compensated for it, by getting myself an M2 Mac mini with 24 GB RAM. I'm sure if I bought the M1 with 16 GB in the first place, I'd still have it now. Buy 'cheap' (in inverted commas because nothing Apple could ever be considered 'cheap') buy twice.