All of Apple’s Macs now start with 16GB of RAM

This week’s caller Macs each had 1 happening successful common: a minimum of 16GB of RAM. That was existent of the caller Mac Mini, MacBook Pro, and iMac, which were each refreshed with M4 processors this week. The MacBook Air was refreshed to commencement astatine 16GB of RAM, too, adjacent though it didn’t get a bump up to the M4 chip. The alteration brings an extremity to the long-running epoch of 8GB of RAM arsenic the default connected consumer-grade Macs.

Apple had transitioned astir of its Macs to 8GB of RAM by 2016. But now, aft 8 years, that quantity feels progressively insufficient. Reviewers person criticized the entry-level RAM arsenic limited since at slightest 2022. Local AI features similar Apple Intelligence, which need changeless RAM to work, person lone accentuated the request to alteration things.

That said, Apple isn’t getting generous with RAM everywhere. If you privation more, it’ll inactive outgo you a beauteous penny. Apple charges $200 for other representation — for example, bumping the iMac from 16GB to 24GB is $200, portion it costs $400 to spell each the mode to 32GB.

The RAM upgrade apt has to bash with the motorboat of Apple Intelligence. As I wrote successful September, the wide attack to moving on-device AI models is to support them persistently loaded successful RAM. 8GB already felt similar a pittance (even if Apple itself thought it was conscionable arsenic bully arsenic 16GB), and that would’ve been felt overmuch harder if users had to springiness immoderate of that up to tally AI.