Apple's new MacBook Pro models are powered by cutting-edge M3 Apple silicon, but the base configuration 14-inch model starting at $1,599...

8GB RAM in M3 MacBook Pro Proves the Bottleneck in Real-World Tests::Apple’s new MacBook Pro models are powered by cutting-edge M3 Apple silicon, but the base configuration 14-inch model starting at $1,599…

      • Iwasondigg@lemmy.oneEnglish
        361·
        8 months ago

        Don’t they also solder it to the motherboard so you can’t upgrade your RAM as well?

        • BorgDrone@lemmy.oneEnglish
          512·
          8 months ago

          It’s not so much soldered to the motherboard as much as part of the same package as the CPU. As in: there are no separate memory chips.

          • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
            241·
            8 months ago

            But they did indeed solder it in before that, on their old Intel laptops. I think they started doing that in 2013 or 2014 but I forget exactly.

            • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
              61·
              8 months ago

              That has more to do with faster traces; the ram is “closer” to the CPU so the signal is cleaner.

              Not defending the move, I’d take upgradability in a laptop.

              • TwanHE@lemmy.worldEnglish
                31·
                8 months ago

                Only makes a difference at oc levels of manual tuning. Which apple isn’t doing at their factory I reckon.

                • 4am@lemm.eeEnglish
                  2·
                  8 months ago

                  I mean, when you’re the one manufacturing the board, I’m pretty sure you could eek out some more baseline performance without having to tweak each one for OC in the production line, my dude.

                  • TwanHE@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    1·
                    8 months ago

                    At 100gb/s for the base model there probably actively downclocking the ram to make the higher end models more attractive.

          • Billiam@lemmy.worldEnglish
            41·
            8 months ago

            So wait- if you want to increase your RAM, you have to install a whole new CPU?

        • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
          137·
          8 months ago

          Lol, the ram is part of the m3 chip That’s a reason why it is so efficient. The storage in m3 is for RAM and videoRAM.

          Wikipedia: The M3’s Unified Memory Architecture features up to 24 GB RAM, the M3 Pro up to 36 GB, and the M3 Max up to 128 GB. Like the M2 generation, the M3 SoCs use 6,400 MT/s LPDDR5 SDRAM. As with prior M series SoCs, this serves as both RAM and video RAM.

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            92·
            8 months ago

            That’s literally how Intel integrated GPUs work too

            The RAM being shared with the GPU, that is.

            • Petter1@lemm.eeEnglish
              2·
              8 months ago

              Yea but the RAM is not on the located within the chip design, is it?

            • DarienGS@lemmy.worldEnglish
              48·
              8 months ago

              With Apple’s chips the RAM is all on the CPU die so both CPU and GPU get the performance benefit. With Intel’s, none of it is.

              • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                41·
                8 months ago

                "What Apple calls “unified memory” is RAM (random-access memory) used as “main memory” (not a CPU or GPU cache and not mass storage either).

                The term “unified” refers to the fact that the memory is shared by the CPU cores and the GPU cores. That’s not novel: “integrated graphics” options in Intel x86 chips (like Iris Xe) do the same, as do just about all modern smartphones."

                • DarienGS@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  21·
                  8 months ago

                  I’m not talking about the merits or otherwise of “unified memory”, I’m pointing out that because Apple’s RAM is physically integrated into the CPU, it can provide more memory bandwidth than regular DDR5 DIMMs.

        • Sendbeer@lemm.eeEnglish
          5·
          8 months ago

          Well yeah, if you were paying $50 a GB wouldn’t you too? Got to lock that shit down!

      • xkforce@lemmy.worldEnglish
        118·
        8 months ago

        How the fuck did Apple manage to be the largest company on the planet doing shit like this? Are Apple users really that fucking dumb?

          • dual_sport_dork@lemmy.worldEnglish
            262·
            8 months ago

            And they’re much better at marketing than they are at making computers or phones. Apple is probably the most successful marketing company in the world.

          • tabular@lemmy.worldEnglish
            94·
            8 months ago

            Not sure “friendly” is quite the right word… you can argue it’s well designed or cultivated users but Apple is anything but a "friend"ly.

          • dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
            89·
            8 months ago

            Their UI and UX is shit. You basically can’t use it for many basic tasks without installing a bunch of third party (proprietary and expensive) software.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      23·
      8 months ago

      Apple loves under ramming (to give a word a new meaning) and forcing everyone to pay for upgrades. The problem is there are always people that buy the base.

      • stealth_cookies@lemmy.caEnglish
        2·
        8 months ago

        I think the point is to squeeze out a couple extra hundred dollars from customers.

        Apple has long done price anchoring with their products just like in this case.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      51·
      8 months ago

      At this point I’m pretty sure the ram costs more than the rest of the laptop.

    • DarienGS@lemmy.worldEnglish
      38·
      8 months ago

      Apple’s RAM isn’t as cheap as you might think, because it’s all built directly onto the CPU die. That’s part of what makes its computers so fast.