All of Apple’s upcoming new Macs this year are likely to have at least 16GB of RAM pre-installed as standard, breaking a years-long tradition of Apple offering just 8GB of RAM in most of its base Macs and forcing customers to pay out an extra $200+ for additional memory.
The adequacy of 8GB of RAM in Macs has been a contentious issue for over a decade. The debate traces back to 2012 when Apple introduced the first Retina MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM as standard. Remarkably, Apple still continues to offer 8GB as the base memory configuration for several models, including the M3 14-inch MacBook Pro, M3 iMac, and M3 MacBook Airs.
However, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple is testing four new Mac models equipped with an M4 chip, and all of them have either 16GB or 32GB of unified memory. Gurman previously reported that Apple is planning to refresh the MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac with M4 chips this year. One possibility is that Apple has deemed that 16GB of RAM should be the new workable minimum for future AI features introduced under the Apple Intelligence banner, but that is merely speculation at this point.
Read more at MacRumors.com