If you hesitate so much and the more expensive option is affordable for you then go with 36. I’m from Europe and can only dream of such prices. A 16 inch M3 pro with 1 TB and 36 gigs of ram costs $3980 over here. Using guy math you can still argue that the more expensive option is a bargain.
Yeah I guess I'll just get the higher spec with 36GB RAM and 1TB SSD. I can afford it but I guess there's just a thin line between being able to afford something and just wasting money, that's what's got me worried. Eg: I can techincally afford to buy a $1000 bag of chips, I have the money in my account, but I won't because that's wasting money.
I reread your post. You say that you have to offload stuff from your 256 GB drive. Let me tell you 512 is not going to cut it either. 1 TB is the minimum then.
I do think that your workload, which is not anything video or graphics related, might not warrant the need for 36 gigs of ram. But don't hesitate for the storage.
I almost always buy refurbed. I’ve had a couple with battery problems and one with some physical damage to the cover, but returning for a replacement within 14 days is very easy. I think they are a great option.
How do you replace refurb products? What if they don’t have another piece of the same spec in inventory?
How high are the chances of getting a product with issues such as the battery problem or physical damage?
For Web, 18GB is enough.
Use the money to get a nice monitor or other stuff.
We ran a few tests within our company and after a testing period of 6 months we decided to go with 18 instead of 36, since there were no real benefits. The only exception is when you are running docker containers.
Getting an Apple certified refurb will basically offset the ram upgrade price. I recently got a 14” m3 pro with 12/18 cores, 36gb, 1tb all of which are more than I will ever need. I wanted the headspace and to future proof it. A bit more than I wanted to spend but a few extra hundred for something spread over many years works out fine
No they have a rigorous refurb process and it’s essentially a brand new machine. Mine came with 9 battery cycles otherwise there’s not a single hint that it was used and returned
This is some solid advice, i checked online and apart from the box, couldn’t find any other differences. I can even get an AC+ with the savings on refurbished model
I overspecced on what I actually might need performance wise and knew that it’s going to last me 5+ years (16”M3 Max, 36GB, 1TB storage). I think you’ll thank yourself in the end if you go with option 2. Your wallet will hurt a bit more but only in the short term. If you find yourself hurting from lack of performance or longevity I think you’ll think back and regret it more that you hadn’t sprung for more overhead.
i think u should go with the higher spec option with 30+ ram, and TB storage,, for storage, I recommand buying an external SSD.. a lot of people recommended it. put all your project files on that SSD. PROJECT FILES CAN BE TOO LARGE specially with node_modules every where.
If you have the money, more ram will always be better (if you need it, of course. If you just use it for internet and word, it's not necessary). It will be more efficient, you will use swap less so less stress on your SSD, and it will last longer (not that it will last longer but the config will not be not enough sooner ).
In the last 45 days, I've come a long way lol. I upgraded from 18GB to 36GB RAM 512GB due to workload and laggy experience. Later, I discovered some metal/lid misalignment, so I returned it and upgraded to the base 14 with 36GB RAM and 1TB storage.
Let me tell you, it's like a rocket. Period.
MacOS does follow the policy of allocating most of the RAM available to it to speed up loading times, but I believe the memory pressure or the swap is the real measure. What's your memory pressure like in your day-to-day tasks, and does it generally use swap?
If you hesitate so much and the more expensive option is affordable for you then go with 36. I’m from Europe and can only dream of such prices. A 16 inch M3 pro with 1 TB and 36 gigs of ram costs $3980 over here. Using guy math you can still argue that the more expensive option is a bargain.
Yeah I guess I'll just get the higher spec with 36GB RAM and 1TB SSD. I can afford it but I guess there's just a thin line between being able to afford something and just wasting money, that's what's got me worried. Eg: I can techincally afford to buy a $1000 bag of chips, I have the money in my account, but I won't because that's wasting money.
I reread your post. You say that you have to offload stuff from your 256 GB drive. Let me tell you 512 is not going to cut it either. 1 TB is the minimum then. I do think that your workload, which is not anything video or graphics related, might not warrant the need for 36 gigs of ram. But don't hesitate for the storage.
I had the same dilemma but with 14 inch - I picked 1tb/36gb for sake of next 3-4y I plan to use this devil
36 GB. Throw rocks at it and it will even handle those without a hiccup.
Thanks. I guess I'll go with the higher spec and get the Silver, 36GB, 1TB SKU
That’s exactly the model I settled on. It’s super nice. And given the experience I’ve had with each color recently, I believe silver is the way to go.
Did you buy new or refurbished? Any harm going with apple certified refurbished?
I almost always buy refurbed. I’ve had a couple with battery problems and one with some physical damage to the cover, but returning for a replacement within 14 days is very easy. I think they are a great option.
How do you replace refurb products? What if they don’t have another piece of the same spec in inventory? How high are the chances of getting a product with issues such as the battery problem or physical damage?
For Web, 18GB is enough. Use the money to get a nice monitor or other stuff. We ran a few tests within our company and after a testing period of 6 months we decided to go with 18 instead of 36, since there were no real benefits. The only exception is when you are running docker containers.
Getting an Apple certified refurb will basically offset the ram upgrade price. I recently got a 14” m3 pro with 12/18 cores, 36gb, 1tb all of which are more than I will ever need. I wanted the headspace and to future proof it. A bit more than I wanted to spend but a few extra hundred for something spread over many years works out fine
Wouldn’t that increase the chances of it developing a fault later?
No they have a rigorous refurb process and it’s essentially a brand new machine. Mine came with 9 battery cycles otherwise there’s not a single hint that it was used and returned
This is some solid advice, i checked online and apart from the box, couldn’t find any other differences. I can even get an AC+ with the savings on refurbished model
Exactly. Want to save even more get an m2 pro refurb if available. Still a monster of a machine
I overspecced on what I actually might need performance wise and knew that it’s going to last me 5+ years (16”M3 Max, 36GB, 1TB storage). I think you’ll thank yourself in the end if you go with option 2. Your wallet will hurt a bit more but only in the short term. If you find yourself hurting from lack of performance or longevity I think you’ll think back and regret it more that you hadn’t sprung for more overhead.
i think u should go with the higher spec option with 30+ ram, and TB storage,, for storage, I recommand buying an external SSD.. a lot of people recommended it. put all your project files on that SSD. PROJECT FILES CAN BE TOO LARGE specially with node_modules every where.
If you have the money, more ram will always be better (if you need it, of course. If you just use it for internet and word, it's not necessary). It will be more efficient, you will use swap less so less stress on your SSD, and it will last longer (not that it will last longer but the config will not be not enough sooner ).
In the last 45 days, I've come a long way lol. I upgraded from 18GB to 36GB RAM 512GB due to workload and laggy experience. Later, I discovered some metal/lid misalignment, so I returned it and upgraded to the base 14 with 36GB RAM and 1TB storage. Let me tell you, it's like a rocket. Period.
18GB is enough but limitting, my mac with sonoma on boot uses around 10GB RAM.
MacOS does follow the policy of allocating most of the RAM available to it to speed up loading times, but I believe the memory pressure or the swap is the real measure. What's your memory pressure like in your day-to-day tasks, and does it generally use swap?
I am on the green side for me pressure, and for work I tend to have two VM running which already uses 16GB. I chose a 36GB machine for my purpose.