What limitations will I face if I buy an iMac and don't upgrade to 16GB unified memory?

I believe that Adobe recommends at least 16 GB of RAM for Photoshop, Lightroom, and Lightroom Classic.

RAM in all Apple Silicon Macs – including the desktops – is soldered in. If you get 8 GB of RAM and find that it is not enough, you will not be able to install inexpensive third-party RAM from Crucial or OWC, the way that you could with the 27' Intel-based iMacs. You will have to live with it, or buy a new machine.

"A strong Internet connection" has little to do with RAM. It will depend on

• The quality of service you get from your Internet Service Provider (ISP)
• For a Wi-Fi connection, the WI-Fi standard your router supports, the quality of the signal from your Wi-Fi router, your home's layout, and sources of radio interference

You’ll be reading and writing main storage more, and apps will be getting ejected and restarted more often, and app and I/O caches will be limited or unavailable.

Whether that matters depends on what you’re doing.

The SSD is certainly fast, but still not as fast as main memory.

If you’re using a Mac, how much memory are you using now?

If you’re new to Mac, look at the recommended configurations for the apps you are interested in running.

macOS and apps are only getting bigger over newer versions, as well.

If you want virtual machines, or want quicker multi-tasking, you’ll need the memory necessary for that, too.

If you have to ask, you should get the 16GB. If it turns out you need it, you will have to buy a new Mac.

Ignore the fear-mongering 😁…quite common around here.

To be clear, Apps will not mystery-crash or “eject” and macOS will not “get bigger” over newer versions, certainly not anything to be concerned about. Your needs can easily be handled with the base minimum 8GB both for the present and foreseeable future. Buy without fear!

If you need more ram the system will use swap memory which is a little slower but still functions fine with the new SSD profiles and Silicon design.

😉👍 +1