this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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Elaborate
They released the MacBook pro with only 8gb of memory and tried to convince everyone that with memory compression, 8gb on a Mac was equivalent to 16gb on a Windows system.
While also reducing the amount of that 8GB that is available to the system with the "unified memory" bullshit because they're too cheap to give the GPU dedicated ram.
Unified memory architectures can offer significant performance benefits by reducing latency and increasing efficiency in data transfer between the CPU and GPU.
I do think their statement is a bit off-putting. That’s a terrible way to describe it. However, I can’t really imagine anyone who knows they need more RAM, not buying more RAM.
Eh. Memory bandwidth between CPU and GPU isn't generally an issue at all on PCIe4 systems with a dGPU. "Unified memory" is just Apple's way of marketing the lack of a separate pool of memory that the GPU has exclusive access to. It's not anything special in of itself. It's how every mobile device is set up, including Android based phones. Intel iGPUs do the same thing and there's no performance benefit to consuming system ram over giving a GPU its own pool. If anything, it's a performance limitation.
I'd much rather a dGPU have exclusive access to its own memory over pulling from a system that is already starved with 8GB.
Oh, but that's the fun part. All configurations of Apple hardware short of the Pro towers have fixed, soldered and non-upgradeable Ram and Storage.
So while Apple users get to enjoy being memory starved at 8GB... they can't increase the amount of ram for anything else short of replacing the entire system. Suppose you bought the base Mac Mini.
https://i.imgur.com/i7eEeNh.png
The price difference between that with 8GB Ram and 256GB SSD... And the only option with 16GB Ram, albeit with 256GB more storage and 2 additional CPU cores...
is $700.
Meanwhile on the non-Apple side of things...
https://i.imgur.com/lutKPtR.png
You can get 64GB Ram, 2TB PCIe4 NVME Storage and a dedicated GPU with 12GB Ram for $100 less than Apple's 'upgrade' price which... really isn't an upgrade price since you have to completely replace the system if you want more ram or storage. So rather than spending $700 to upgrade a system you have, you have the luxury of spending $1300 instead. To go from 8 to 16GB ram.
What Apple is doing here is unconscionable... and people eat their marketing bullshit right up.
My 15” MacBook Air M2 with 24gb of ram was under $2000, with the HDD upgrade. I mean, you find me a PC that can benchmark the same for under that. Make sure it’s the same size and the screen is comparable.
Ah, so you didn't come here to discuss... you came here to evangelize. Way to completely dance around my original point about unified memory.
Okay? And? You still paid 2 grand for a system with fixed specs and an SSD that can't be replaced when its writes are exhausted.
For the MacBook Air... 256GB to 512GB, 512GB to 1TB, 1TB to 2TB storage upgrades are all in $200 increments.
So you're paying Apple $800 extra to get 2TB of storage with your Macbook Air. Fixed. Permanent. Non replaceable.
Meanwhile I can put this: https://i.imgur.com/VOo7hdT.png in my laptop right now for about the same cost as your 256GB to 512GB upgrade... any time I wish... without having to replace the entire device and buy a new one in order to do so.
But yes, let's move goalposts and I'll waste my time "find[ing you] a PC that can benchmark the same for under that."
You know why it's a waste of time? Because you can't run MacOS on anything I'd find, and my programs and apps run on x86 processors. Gaming is a distant afterthought for Apple's systems. You guys like to pretend "oooh wheee, I'm efficient! No, wait, I'm faster!" changing whatever goal net you're aiming for depending on what points you want to score while ignoring everything else that is being brought up.
And when I do present you with a better configuration, the new goalpost will be battery life.
But I'll play your stupid game anyway.
Closest CPU to the M2 8 Core in your Macbook Air is the Ryzen 5 5600U. Performs about the same overall despite having two less cores. Neat.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/4922vs4284/Apple-M2-8-Core-3500-MHz-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-5600U
So I picked a laptop at random that has it: The HP ProBook 455 G8.
Right now I can buy it on Amazon for $649. New. https://i.imgur.com/kWVL8Qy.png
Two DDR4 ram sockets, takes PCIe NVMe SSDs for storage upgrades.
Let's throw that 2TB SSD into it that I found. Now the price is $868.
Gotta upgrade that ram. 2x16GB SODIMM DDR4 is about $67. https://i.imgur.com/Y1jogbd.png
$935 total. So it looks like I can get a system that performs the same as your $2000 MBA for less than the cost of the base MBA. But also has 8 times the storage and 4 times the ram compared with the base MBA. $1299 versus $935.
Oops, I forgot to check the specs of the screen. Silly me.
The Macbook Air M2 screen is 2560 x 1664 and...
...the HP's is 1920x1080.
Oh darn it, you got me. Your goalpost moving resulted in a win. I guess I'll just take the $1064 I saved over your config and stroke my cock with it. Meanwhile, the HP comes with a 65 Watt power brick by default instead of the MBA's underpowered 35 watter, has more than twice as many ports... and a major bonus to me: It doesn't run the abomination that is MacOS. (PS: I don't like or use Windows either, so you can go ahead and skip that expected drivel you have in your pocket about Micro$uck.)
I hope someone reads this, cause I’m not.
Way to out yourself as an iDevice troll. Shame y'all have the exact same bag of tricks cause we could see that coming from miles away... but that's just what happens when the extent of your understanding of technology relies on something being called 'magical' before you'll use it.
Shame that you don't really care to address Apple's longstanding habit of overcharging for outdated specs as it is especially egregious. Especially when you consider I had an HP Envy 13 laptop that had 3200x1800 resolution, 8GB Ram and 256GB SSD... That sold for under $1000... In 2015. ($849.99.)
They probably should t have said that lol. I understand what they’re trying to say, but that sounds way too much like SoftRAM (1995).
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/11/08/apple-insists-8gb-unified-memory-equals-16gb-regular-ram
Thank you