Compare Macs

With Apple’s new baseline of 16 GBytes of RAM on their M4 or newer devices, 80% of users can comfortably run dozens of browser tabs and a single primary app such as Photoshop, Lightroom, or Figma without experiencing any performance issues. Most people won’t need to get upgraded RAM except…

If you’re a “power user” running Photoshop and Figma at the same time, plus have 30-40 tabs open, upgrading your RAM to 24 to 32 GBytes RAM will keep your system from having to use swap space on the SSDs.

If you’re running local LLMs and have Final Cut Pro or Premiere plus After Effects, Figma, and Lightroom all running at the same time, 48 to 64 GBytes of RAM should smoothly support your workflow.

The most extreme of users will need 128 Gbytes RAM, all the way up to 512 Gbytes RAM on the Mac Studio M3 Ultra for those who run the largest LLMs.

Unlike Apple’s new RAM baseline of 16 GBytes of RAM, Apple’s unfortunately still skimping on hard disk space with just 256 GBytes of SSD on their non-Pro models (Airs and Minis).

Most Mac mini owners can get an external, fast (and well ventilated) SSD and move their Home directory onto it for around $100. But if you’re on an Air and don’t upgrade to a 512 GByte SSD, you’ll most likely end up having to carry around an external portable SSD.

To “future-proof” your Mac, we recommend a minimum of 512 GBytes of SSD space. Furthermore, upgrading your SSD both unlocks a 2nd channel hard disk I/O channel, speeding up launching apps and opening and saving files. In most cases, upgrading your SSD will also provide you with a full (non-binned) SoC that is approximately 10-15% faster than the binned SoC.