Entire Mac Lineup Now Starts With at Least 16GB RAM, Ending 8GB Era

Apple this week announced new iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro models, and they are all available with a minimum of 16GB of RAM. Apple also announced that the MacBook Air lineup now starts with 16GB of RAM too, at no additional cost, and this means that the entire Mac lineup now starts with at least 16GB of RAM.

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Until now, the iMac, Mac mini, 14-inch MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air all started with 8GB of RAM, leading to criticism from some Apple customers in recent years.

Last year, an Apple marketing employee attempted to argue that 8GB of RAM in a Mac was probably analogous to 16GB of RAM in Windows PCs, given how efficient the unified memory is in M-series chips. Whether you believed that or not, you can rest assured that any new Mac sold by Apple today actually comes with a minimum of 16GB of RAM.

The latest Mac Studio and Mac Pro already started with 32GB and 64GB of RAM, respectively.

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Top Rated Comments

Apple Knowledge Navigator Avatar
13 months ago
Thank, Apple Intelligence. We couldn’t have done it without you.

(Literally)
Score: 85 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Heelpir8 Avatar
13 months ago

Yall will find something new to complain about lol
256GB SSD in some base models is a pretty easy target.
Score: 69 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TSE Avatar
13 months ago
I will miss the 8GB era.

-AAPL shareholders
Score: 67 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JPack Avatar
13 months ago
The 8GB defenders will still live on, somewhere under the bridge.

"Yellow memory pressure is just normal." ?

"MacOS uses all the memory available, so seeing red on the graph is ok." ?
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
duffyanneal Avatar
13 months ago
I'm sure Tim lies awake at night wondering what could have been if they could have held out another year with 8 GB.
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Craptastic Avatar
13 months ago
Yall will find something new to complain about lol
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)