64GB DDR4 RAM vs 16GB of Unified Memory? Trying to decide about switching from Intel Mini to M1 Mini

hcsitas wrote:

Ask me next year same time, I’m busy now. Seriously, I was referring to genuine users, not those bent on breaking the M1 any which way they can and finding innovative ways to do it (of which there are many). We’ll hear from them soon enough, FWIW, stay tuned.

I am a genuine user using multiple memory hungry apps

simultaneously which is why I pose this dilemma/question

as I am in the market for a system upgrade. I am not just looking

to see what will "break" the new systems I just have serious

performance concerns before starting to pull out my credit card.

I know the CPU and GPU of the M1 is amazing and even Rosetta2

performance has been shown to be as good as the i7 2018 Mini

which has my interest peaked.

Bottomline, I don't want to spend for amazing CPU/GPU performance

and only get minor or moderate gain due to memory issues.

Until some real people actually work with multiple memory hungry

apps, the jury is still out on exactly "what is enough RAM?" for a smooth

workflow.

The new architecture does have closely coupled SSD, but even if they

don't use standard NVMe or PCIe interfaces (FWIW, the IDevices actually use chips

that integrate the storage element block and a PCIe controller on a single chip),

the are still limited by the MLC or SLC NAND technology of the moment

which is theoretically at best ~6 GB/sec (commercial "drives" with NVMe

currently max out at around 5 GB/sec). Now, is this fast enough to make

to make memory swapping seem "seamless" when large number of memory

hungry apps are in use especially considering that that memory is shared

with display data that one would believe can't be swapped?

Just to add, the fastest RAM technology at the moment maxes out at about

35-40 GB/sec (with 128 bit bus).

You don’t need to sell, you can trade it in with Apple at the time of purchasing the M1. As to more RAM, the differences are trivial given the high speed internal SSD. Go for it, and opt for a 512 SSD just to be safe. Enjoy...

You have indicated that the iStatistica Pro application can consume at least 24 GB of RAM. It may be thread-aware on your Core i7, and that would allow it to us as many as 12 available threads there. Provided that it can be properly transcoded by Rosetta2 on the M1 mini, it would certainly run faster, but would be throttled if it needed more than 16 GB RAM, but even if it swapped there, the secondary storage is fast, and that may be a nit.

Agree on trade-in value towards M1 mini, if you can get past the first paragraph.

hcsitas wrote:

...the differences are trivial given the high speed internal SSD. ...

Can you show some definitive test data to prove that multiple

RAM hungry apps running simultaneously on an M1 system

in only 8GB or 16GB RAM configurations have "trivial" lag

or slow down when memory swapping starts taking place?

If you do I would really be interested in it.

Ask me next year same time, I’m busy now. Seriously, I was referring to genuine users, not those bent on breaking the M1 any which way they can and finding innovative ways to do it (of which there are many). We’ll hear from them soon enough, FWIW, stay tuned.

Well, Intel Macs are devaluing daily, so the sooner you find a seller, the better.

While it’s true that Apple has no use for used RAM and are hard at work to devalue all RAM, they won’t devalue the trade in price of your mini by much from the $690 you already have, so you always have plan B for at least 6 months.

Mirsky wrote:

.....

I spent over $2000 on my Intel Mini, and the same model I bought is still being sold on Apple's website for $1699, so I think $690 is way too low. The 64GB of RAM in my Mini alone should be worth $250.

...

FWIW, if I had spent $2000 on the same Mini 2018 you did in April,

I would not even be considering buying the new one unless it

was performing so bad as to be unusable. Otherwise, if I was happy

with how it is working, I would just use it and see what "Rev 2" of the

new MacMini would be like down the road.

FWIW, some recent benchmark tests I have seen with the M1 Mini

tested under Rosetta2 for non-M1 apps puts their performance

around machine you have now. While that is a pretty amazing

feat, it would mean if any of your "go to apps" are not optimized

for M1, you really won't see any improvement so might as well

wait until they are optimized for M1.

You can get the M1 for $900 with 16 GB RAM. I’d say go for it as soon as possible since the M1’s graphics are superior, no doubt about it. Look at your “loss” as coughing up for an integrated eGPU, easy!

IMO, the M1 is not worth updating from the 2018 unless one has display issues and/or wants better graphics without going the eGPU path. Apple seems intent on making RAM a non-issue for purchasing decisions, which is a good thing (if you’re not OWC). Only time will tell how that’ll pan out, but Apple have both the engineering and marketing smarts to make it happen...

Just some food for thought, came across this article with someone

doing some tests on the new base MacBook Air doing some real stuff

(not just benchmarks).

https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/18/opinion-is-the-base-macbook-air-m1-8gb-powerful-enough-for-you/

It seems with just 8 GB of RAM he couldn't get it to sputter after loading

up with a bunch of apps, a pile of browser tabs, and then finally piling

on top a few 4K video streams.

Instead of regurgitating many of the parts of his test check out the article

and form your own opinion but it is the first I have seen where someone

was doing things with real apps. and almost has me pulling out the

CC for the 16GB (unfortunately currently 4-5 week lead-time for custom Mini,

Airs and MBP 3-4 week)).