Sweet 16 (Premium)

This week, Apple took the long-awaited step of acknowledging reality and making 16 GB of RAM the minimum for all new Macs. The PC market will follow begrudgingly, and perhaps slowly, given the companies involved in their inability to pull themselves out of the bargain-basement and the mentality that’s been undercutting them for years. But it will happen. It’s inevitable.

Perhaps the past will provide us with a rough guide to the timeline.

I’ve been writing about Windows for 30 years, but more specifically, I’ve been writing books about Windows for 30 years. And one bit that’s appeared in most of my mainstream–i.e. non-educational market–books is a discussion of the then-current official Microsoft hardware requirements and my recommendations for having the best possible experience. RAM has always been key to these requirements and my recommendations because RAM has always been key to the experience one has with Windows.

In Windows Vista Secrets, for example, I noted that this OS required at least 512 MB of RAM–yes, this was a simpler time–but I recommended at least 2 GB, a four-fold increase. This was, I observed at the time, a “very reasonable” $50 upgrade. But 4 GB was even better: “Pack the host PC with as much RAM as is physically possible,” I wrote. “For typical PCs today, that means loading up with 4 GB of RAM.”

For Windows 7 Secrets, the 64-bit x64 variant of the aging x86 architecture was becoming mainstream. And with it came the ability to add even more RAM to a PC. “In our view, x64 is the way to go,” I wrote. “So if you have a choice, open yourself up to the massive RAM improvements that accompany the x64 versions of Windows 7.” The higher-end 64-bit versions of Windows 7 supported up to 192 GB of RAM–on paper, at least. But “systems with massive amounts of memory just aren’t as constrained and can operate to their full potential,” I wrote. And 4 GB was my new minimum recommendation.

Windows 8 Secrets presented all kinds of challenges, thanks to the weird Metro user interfaces and the Arm variant, Windows RT. By this point, I was writing about “6 or even 8 GB of RAM” (on x64-based PCs). “x64 is x86 on steroids,” I noted. “It is 100 percent compatible with x86 software, including Windows and its applications, but provides support for an astonishing amount of RAM: Up to 256 TB (yes, terabytes).” Again, on paper. But I also added that while Netbooks with a 1 GHz Atom-class processor and 2 GB of RAM were technically “capable” of running Windows 8, given Microsoft’s minimums, “this version of Windows is not suited to netbooks at all.”

Windows 8 was when I walked away from traditional book publishers. By this time, Microsoft was moving to its “rapid release” model, and it was impossible to keep paper-based books up-to-date at the speed at which the company improved the product. So I started self-publishing. For my first Windows Field Guide, the Windows 8.1 Field Guide, I noted that Microsoft’s minimum RAM requirement was 2 GB but didn’t offer any specific advice, noting instead that, “you should ensure that your PC is sufficiently powerful and has a lot of RAM for the best performance.” The Windows 10 Field Guide is equally vague, disappointingly. But this may be tied to the fact that you could upgrade to Windows 10 from any supported Windows version at the time.

My advice in the Windows 11 Field Guide got much more specific again, but it also shifted over time. In the initial version of the book, I noted that Microsoft specified 4 GB of RAM or more as the minimum and that, “We recommend 16 GB of RAM.” This was unchanged for the 23H2 version of the book, but with the introduction of the Copilot+ PC specification this past year, I was delighted to see Microsoft finally deliver reasonable hardware minimums. And so the 24H2 version of the book has evolved with the times. “We recommend at least 16 GB of RAM, but 32 GB is even better,” it now reads. “We recommend 32 GB of RAM for a Copilot+ PC.”

This week, Apple updated much of its Mac product family to the M4 series processors. But it is perhaps even more important that the company has moved past its long out-of-date 8 GB of RAM minimums across the board. Now, all new Macs come with at least 16 of RAM, a far more reasonable minimum. Astonishingly, Apple also updated the RAM minimums of the Macs it hasn’t yet upgraded to M4: The M2 and M3-based MacBook Air models now come with a minimum of 16 GB of RAM.

Perfect.

I know there are people who believe that 8 GB is somehow “just fine” on an Apple silicon-based Mac of whatever vintage. And I did use an M1-based MacBook Pro with just 8 GB of RAM for a few years until I finally upgraded to an M3-based MacBook Air (with 24 GB of RAM, no less) earlier this year. And it was fine. For light use. As a secondary computer. But if you’re going to use a PC or Mac every single day, to get real work done, running multiple apps and a web browser with many open tabs, 8 GB is not just fine. And it hasn’t been for at least two or three years.

And you knew that was true simply by looking at Apple’s website and seeing how much it charged for purchase-time RAM upgrades: It shipped Macs with a lowly 8 GB of RAM for years so it could hit a lower starting price point that would get customers in stores. But the smartest of those customers walked out with a Mac with 16 GB or more, paying $200 more for each 8 GB in upgrade because they understood that this machine needs to work well for years down the road. And 8 GB was never going to cut it over those years.

Today, Apple has officially raised the bar on RAM. And while it still charges an expensive $200 per 8 GB of RAM on purchase-time upgrades, the minimums are, for now, perfectly acceptable for most people. This is like those random periods where planets align, something that doesn’t happen all that often. And it’s only a matter of time before we must once again advise people to suck it up, pay Apple’s exorbitant RAM tax, and get the right amount of RAM for now and the future. But that’s for another day. Today, it all makes sense.

On the PC side of the fence, you can still buy stripper machines with 8 GB of RAM without trying very hard. But the advice in the Windows 11 Field Guide stands. I recommend at least 16 GB of RAM. But 32 GB is even better. And if you’re getting a Copilot+ PC-class PC, yes, 32 GB is the new minimum. It doesn’t make sense to skimp on RAM, and that’s doubly true because the RAM in modern portable PCs cannot be upgraded post-purchase time. You aren’t buying only for today, you’re buying for the future.

So reward your future self with a bit of common sense. And acknowledge that this is progress. 32 is the new 16. And 16 is a reasonable minimum. As it has been for years.