Do I need to get a newer Mac with more RAM?

Ever since I got this new MacBook Pro 2021 M1 Max with 32GB, I keep getting this alert about too much RAM being used. Almost daily. I can ignore it for days etc, but I don't understand why this is happening.

Yes, I keep a million apps open; Photoshop, inDesign, Illustrator, PowerPoint, Acrobat, Word, Chrome, Outlook, Teams, sometimes Premiere or other. That's why this Mac was like $5k; I am a working Creative I don't have time to babysit my computer.

Yes, I restart my Mac once in a blue moon. I don't have time to be restarting all the time.

My old Mac, from 4 years ago, performed flawlessly and never had this RAM usage. I figured a new Mac would do better but it doesn't.

Additionally, all kinds of graphics redraw issues with Illustrator, funny things when saving to Finder.

Do I need to get a newer Mac with more RAM? Faster, bigger, better?

I use Clean My Mac to erase extra hard drive usage and improvements. Why do I use it? Because Apple doesn't have anything to do this.

What are my options?

[Edited by Moderator]

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Feb 27, 2024 7:12 AM

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Posted on Feb 27, 2024 12:57 PM

Photoshop can be run in Native mode, but you may be using some Plug-ins that must run using Rosetta. You can get more information here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-for-apple-silicon.html

Even though you are using some heavy duty apps, your Mac should be fine with the 32GB. The system manages memory very well as long as apps such as CleanMyMac are not interfering with its normal operation. Posting the free EtreCheck report that has been suggested already would help to see if there are any other conflicts. Do this after uninstalling CleanMyMac to make sure all of its fragment files are removed.

As a side note, I have found Google Chrome to be a resource hog, but that could just be my experience. I don't expect much from my web browsers other than displaying web pages by consuming the least amount of resources, when I could be using those for other apps. I'm not blaming Chrome for the issues, since I truly feel CleanMyMac is your problem. In addition if you could use PhotoShop using the native silicon would help.

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Do I need to get a newer Mac with more RAM?

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