How much RAM should I get with a new M2 Mac mini? Is 16GB enough? Is 24GB an overkill?
Depends on how often you upgrade computers. If you intend to hold onto until in you can’t any long, get as much as you can afford as a form of future proofing. Software is only needing more and more RAM, so after 6-7 years the extra will come in handy. But unused RAM is wasted RAM, so if you’re not running a bunch of VMs or processing large learning models, 16 is probably enough for the next 4ish years.
Get 24GB, check the Apple refurbs where you can get it at the price it should be at, and still have a full warranty.
I switched from an Intel i9 with 16GB to a M2 Pro with 16GB of RAM this year. I now live in the orange zone, between 30% to 40% memory pressure doing the same things as before, which were in the green.
Once you get a couple of projects open in an IDE, a web browser with a dozen tabs, you’ve used over 10GB already.
I really like this M2 Pro, but I’m so disappointed that after 6 months, memory is becoming a problem, there’s nothing I can about it apart from buying another new Mac with more RAM.
16 GB is minimum, don’t forget that the Graphic System does not have its own memory, unified memory means the Graphic System uses the same RAM than OS and applications. If you connect a Hi DPI monitor, like 4K, that means you loose a lot of RAM. If you run a lot of apps at the same time, that may mean slowdowns, even with an M2 Mac.
@Sam_Rowlands suggestion to buy a refurbished computer is a very good advise.
24GB RAM is going to be pretty unlikely to be found in the refurbished section because it is always a custom order - people placing these orders know what they need and aren’t returning it or trading it in so soon.
Thanks for all the helpful replies. My favorite mail order house, B&H Photo, has some of the new Mac mini’s on sale. There is one with 24GB RAM with 512GB SSD that is $150 off. I am thinking of getting it. Like my previous mini, I plan to hang on to this for a long time.
I would highly recommend getting the 1TB over 512 GB.
First of all, just the extra capacity. You’ll blow through that 512 GB in no time.
Second of all, the durability of the drive. Even if you are able to manage your storage under 512 GB effectively, the flash cells only have a certain amount of endurance and rewriting the same 512 GB over-and-over for years will wear out the drive much faster than I think most people would anticipate. Of course, being a SoC, wearing out the drive effectively bricks the computer.
Thirdly, the 1tb+ drives can run ~3000 MB/s faster than the 512 gb drives because the larger drive is not bottlenecked by the limited amount of flash (there’s a lot more bandwidth available on the bus than you can take advantage of with the 512 gb drives).
Christian,
I’m not sure about that 1tb drive speed. I looked into this pretty thoroughly and, amazing but true, Apple was less than forthcoming on the issue. I had to scour the YouTube review until I found a concensus …
Note there were three models to choose from. If you got the basic model, because of some chip issue (I’ve forgotten what it’s called), the 216GB and 512GB drives ran at the same speed. If you got the next model up (between Basic and Pro), the 512GB drive was twice as fast as it would be in the basic model and the same speed it would be in the Pro. If you put a 1TB drive in the middle model, it would run at the same speed as the 512GB drive but the 1TB drive would run twice as fast in the Pro.
I have the “middle” model M2 mini. I decided to spend the money on 24GB of RAM rather than 16GB and a 1TB drive with the Pro. Most everthing I do is single Core work so I wouldn’t benefit from more Multi-Cores; but I can always use ram to bring data into arrays, minimizing disc I/O (even if it’s SSD).
You may be right as I was thinking of the Mac Studio where 512gb is the base model and I now realize we’re talking about the Mac Mini.
But here were the results of my own tests.
M1 Mac Studio 512GB:
M2 Mac Studio 2TB:
Again, this is on Mac Studio, and it’s from 512 to 2TB, and M1 to M2, so not an apples-to-apples (heh, pun) comparison. But this was part of my rationale for ditching the M1 Studio for the far more expensive M2.
Also this measures sequential read/write, which is not a realistic workload, especially for Xojo usage. So that point may be moot anyway. The other points (capacity and endurance) stand.
What I was thinking of doing is to get USB to SATA adapter cable to attach an external SSD for storage space to conserve the use to the built-in SSD. This setup is more than adequately fast for my needs anyway. With an M2 Mac mini I cannot change the RAM capacity without purchasing another model. But I can always increase storage space by connecting an external SSD.
That’s what I’ve done. Though it lead me down a rabbit hole to getting a RAID-1 setup and then a backup for that. Still, it was something that needed doing. I’ve never said, “I wish I had less RAM.”
With all the “consumer repair-ability” leanings going on, maybe we’ll get back to the days when we could easily swap out the RAM and Drive storage for something more competitive.
Adding an external drive is fine to add extra capacity, but remember that the virtual memory / swap file will always be giving the primary drive a thrashing, which will reduce the endurance. Just important to be aware that’s happening and to optimize your workflow accordingly.
Doesn’t having the extra RAM keep this from happening?
Most operating systems (including MacOS) will always maintain a swap file even when there’s enough physical memory available. You can disable it but I’ve had less-than-stellar system stability trying to do so.
You do minimize the amount of writing by having more physical memory than you need. But if you’re opening a couple dozen chrome tabs while compiling a Xojo app, playing music in the background, with multiple Word Docs open and MySQL and VM’s running, you should just keep in mind that you may be pushing some of your memory usage into the swap file and punishing your disk a little bit.
Probably nothing to really worry about, but just something to keep in mind.