RAM Requirements of Final Cut Pro?

The RAM requirements for Final Cut Pro will depend on the version of the software and the complexity of your project.

As of its latest version (Final Cut Pro 10.6.1), Apple recommends the following RAM requirements:

• 8GB of RAM for 4K editing on a 15-inch MacBook Pro
• 16GB of RAM for 4K editing on an iMac or Mac Pro

However, if you're working with more complex projects, Apple recommends increasing your RAM to 32GB or more.

It's worth noting that Final Cut Pro can be a memory-intensive application. so having more RAM than the recommended minimums may improve performance and overall editing experience. Additionally, other factors such as the processor, graphics card, and storage speed can also impact Final Cut Pro's performance.

I would definitely get at least 16GB with a new M1 or M2 Mac if it is meant to be used for video.

As you correctly pointed out, your old mac had a separate VRAM, whereas Apple Silicon Macs have unified memory, so the whole thing is at once RAM and VRAM, so to speak.

Mind you, 8GB will work, but it may become limiting soon.

Regarding the swap space, I don't pretend to know about that in any depth. My guess is that Apple is pretty conservative in keeping stuff, either in RAM or swap space. It is not just tossed out when you quit or close something. If something is in swap space and it is not in use, it may as well just stay there, much as if something is in RAM and not used, it may be compressed and kept in memory, if space allows. All in the interest of quickly reusing stuff if needed.

For example:

Even though not even all memory is in use, there is still some swap space.

I look at it this way: only if something in that swap is needed, it will be copied to RAM; otherwise it is not being used, and if, say, I launch a new application that had not been running before, it will use some of that available RAM. Suppose whatever swap is used were to be copied to RAM; then it would be using resources, and perhaps then deleted.

Again, these are just my musings, not technical information.

Just to add to Luis' excellent information, based on all you've shown of in the past of what you're doing, 16G is probably good.

The M2 mini is widely considered the best power to price ratio of any current Mac, probable the best ever because of the performance of the M-series fabric.

There has been a lot of talk about the speed to of the bottom end SSD in the minis. The 512 is apparently significantly slower than the larger models. Worth thinking about.

Ian R. Brown wrote:

Thanks Luis.

I'm reassured to see that you have 1.2GB used when presumably you are not doing anything intensive enough to warrant swapping. (I have just opened my iMac several hours later after doing nothing and the swap used is down to 194.3 MB even though you would expect it to be zero.)

I too used to think that it should be zero most of the time... but more than how much swap space is used, what really matters is how much actual swapping is taking place. I am convinced that in my case that is zero, or nearly zero. There is ram that is in use, and stuff that was swapped off a while ago, and has not been discarded. (but could be, when the system so determines). Trying to figure out when or why is beyond my knowledge, so I will not worry about, unless I run into a situation where performance degrades noticeably, or something else untoward happens.

FYI, it's known that certain Activity Monitor stats may not be accurate for some systems and macOS combinations, mostly Apple silicon systems.

Another thing to consider is that most people have a web browser and e-mail client running while using FCP, if not some other resource-heavy applications. So, estimating things like RAM usage/need on a Mac while only running FCP may not be wise...

VRAM is crucial to FCP. You could probably be fine with 8G because of the speed to the architecture, but the way I look at it your iMac is really using 12G.

Just a quick note: the current version is 10.6.5.