Can’t fix my 2011 mac. Might be forced to buy new or used.

Why do the 2020/21 Macs only have 8gb ram and 256gb drives? What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.
My 2011 has 16gb and 1tb.

Can all Of these new models be upgraded easily?

No they can't be upgraded easily. There is an entire group of people who don't even know, let alone care to know, what these numbers mean. There is also a subset of people who just use a computer for documents, web browsing and email. Their photo collections aren't that big.

For those who need lots of storage, well there's a gentle upsell available just for you. If you know what RAM and storage is, then you already know what you have to buy.

It's like saying a car's MSRP is $__,___ but all the features you want require a trim or two up, or a special package. I think many would argue that every BMW 3 series should have lumbar standard, but it doesn't Same principle, different industry. Some people may shrug it off, others may see it as a necessity and get a gentle upsell.

YoitsTmac said:

No they can't be upgraded easily. There is an entire group of people who don't even know, let alone care to know, what these numbers mean. There is also a subset of people who just use a computer for documents, web browsing and email. Their photo collections aren't that big.

For those who need lots of storage, well there's a gentle upsell available just for you. If you know what RAM and storage is, then you already know what you have to buy.

It's like saying a car's MSRP is $__,___ but all the features you want require a trim or two up, or a special package. I think many would argue that every BMW 3 series should have lumbar standard, but it doesn't Same principle, different industry. Some people may shrug it off, others may see it as a necessity and get a gentle upsell.

Click to expand...

Eh?

I’ve upgraded my current 2011 to 16gb and trying to add in an ssd now.

I just wanted to know can these newer models be easily upgraded.
Can I add in a 1tb drive and 16gb or 32gb of ram easily?

mrk123 said:

Eh?

I’ve upgraded my current 2011 to 16gb and trying to add in an ssd now.

I just wanted to know can these newer models be easily upgraded.
Can I add in a 1tb drive and 16gb or 32gb of ram easily?

RAM and SSD are soldered in and cannot be upgraded.

You may have a hard time accepting this but most people never upgrade their computers. Apple has noticed this and for reasons of security, performance, manufacturing ease, durability, and profit have decided that RAM and storage are no longer upgradeable. This has been the case for several years, even back into the Intel Mac era but will probably be a surprise to someone coming from a 2011. Sorry.

mrk123 said:

Can’t fix my 2011 mac. Might be forced to buy new or used.

Why do the 2020/21 Macs only have 8gb ram and 256gb drives? What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.
My 2011 has 16gb and 1tb.

Can all Of these new models be upgraded easily?

I thought the thread title was interesting referring to 2020 Macs as new? Actually it's because of memory bandwidth in AS based Macs such as the M1, the soldered on RAM can cache swap with the soldered on SSD at almost the same speed. So your 8GB RAM if it caches from the SSD is almost same access speed, so you can do most everything only with 8GB. A 256 GB SSD is enough to get by if you don't store much, as 200 GB will hold a lot including the MacOS.

M1 = 68 GB/s
M1 Pro = 200 GB/s
M1 Max = 400 GB/s
M2 = 100 GB/s

Realityck said:

I thought the thread title was interesting referring to 2020 Macs as new? Actually it's because of memory bandwidth in AS based Macs such as the M1, the soldered on RAM can cache swap with the soldered on SSD at almost the same speed. So your 8GB RAM if it caches from the SSD is almost same access speed, so you can do most everything only with 8GB. A 256 GB is enough to get by if you don't store much, as 200 GB will hold a lot including the MacOS.

M1 = 68 GB/s
M1 Pro = 200 GB/s
M1 Max = 400 GB/s
M2 = 100 GB/s

Click to expand...

What is the last part referring to?

68gb or ram?

How do all the people who edit movies on Mac work with 8gb?

mrk123 said:

What is the last part referring to?

68gb or ram?

How do all the people who edit movies on Mac work with 8gb?

see

• 68.25GB/s memory bandwidth. (M1)

Unified Memory​

The ‌M1‌ and the ‌M2‌ come in configurations with 8GB or 16GB of unified memory, but the ‌M2‌ adds an additional, top-tier 24GB configuration. The ‌M2‌'s memory controller can also deliver 100GB/s of unified memory bandwidth, a substantial improvement over the ‌M1‌'s 68.25GB/s memory bandwidth.

Most that work with videos use at least 16GB, but you can certainly edit videos that more simple track wise, and not as long duration with 8GB on a M1 Mac as a example.

You can't upgrade RAM on AS Macs so you need to buy for what you expect to use the Mac for mainly.

mrk123 said:

Why do the 2020/21 Macs only have 8gb ram and 256gb drives?

You're looking at the entry level models. These are considered minimum specs for a functioning Mac these days.

mrk123 said:

What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.
My 2011 has 16gb and 1tb.

Tons. With 8GB of RAM on my M1 MacBook Air, I can work quite well with Adobe Creative Cloud apps running plus email, browser, video conferencing. I guarantee it does all this much faster than your 2011 Mac, whatever it is. The 256 GB SSD is a bigger choke point, but for many people who offload storage onto cloud services like iCloud, it's less of an issue than you'd think.

mrk123 said:

Can all Of these new models be upgraded easily?

No. Not at all. You can always plug in an external drive, but nothing inside is upgradeable anymore.

mrk123 said:

How do all the people who edit movies on Mac work with 8gb?

It's definitely possible. I've done it. Obviously 16 GB is better, but Macs are very very good at managing RAM, and the current SSDs are so fast that even when you have to rely on disk swap, it's not nearly as big a hit as it used to be.

mrk123 said:

How do all the people who edit movies on Mac work with 8gb?

People who edit movies aren't buying the 8GB version. You seem to be saying that entry-level Macs should be capable of doing high-level professional work. But that is not the case. They are not designed for that and they should not be designed for that.

Can you even change the battery on them?
I can’t bare to go back to Windows after 8 years.

mrk123 said:

Can you even change the battery on them?
I can’t bare to go back to Windows after 8 years.

The batteries in Mac Laptops are service provider replaceable, they are lithium based. The AS based laptops have much greater battery life than the older intel based models.

What is ‘AS’ ? Apple Silicon? M1 and M2?
I do use Adobe apps as I can be editing video one day and doing interior design shoots another. And usually have 10/15 tabs open at once on Firefox etc.
I’d rather just get my 2011 fixed but having trouble work this new SSD drive. Wasted 5 hours with it today and got nowhere and feel like throwing the thing!

what’s the problem you are having with the old one?

AS = Apple Silicon. Your 2011 Mac has an Intel processor, Apple has since moved away to their own designed processors.
RAM and storage controllers are directly embedded on the chip, you can't upgrade it with aftermarket parts.

mrk123 said:

What is ‘AS’ ? Apple Silicon? M1 and M2?
I do use Adobe apps as I can be editing video one day and doing interior design shoots another. And usually have 10/15 tabs open at once on Firefox etc.
I’d rather just get my 2011 fixed but having trouble work this new SSD drive. Wasted 5 hours with it today and got nowhere and feel like throwing the thing!

Yes AS = Apple Silicon such as M1, M1 Pro/Max/Ultra, M2.
The memory bandwidth is so much faster then what you got. It's like night and day difference speed wise. I think a 2011 was using a 479Mb/s SATA SSD thats a lot slower. Usually you be lucky to see half that speed running a speed test. My M1 24" iMac is close to 3000 Mb/s read/write via BlackMountain Disk speed test(remember tests are 1/2 speed typically). So thats 12 times faster on the slowest AS Mac SoC (M1). This is why you can launch 20 application at once on a AS Mac, and not see it totally bring an intel Mac from 2011/2012 to its knees trying to do the same things from the dock.

ILoveCalvinCool said:

People who edit movies aren't buying the 8GB version. You seem to be saying that entry-level Macs should be capable of doing high-level professional work. But that is not the case. They are not designed for that and they should not be designed for that.

No, but someone who took video of their dog doing something goofy and wants to trim the video before uploading to TikTok can do just fine on an 8GB Mac.

mrk123 said:

What is ‘AS’ ? Apple Silicon? M1 and M2?
I do use Adobe apps as I can be editing video one day and doing interior design shoots another. And usually have 10/15 tabs open at once on Firefox etc.
I’d rather just get my 2011 fixed but having trouble work this new SSD drive. Wasted 5 hours with it today and got nowhere and feel like throwing the thing!

You could do those task on an 8/256GB machine but the fact that you are asking about it suggests that you are less willing to sacrifice some performance for a cheaper price so I suggest that you upgrade both RAM and storage to reasonable levels. 16, 24, or 32 GB RAM would all probably work for you depending on which Mac model you are getting. Storage will depend on how much you store internally. I have 1TB on my MacBook Air. The 2TB would be nice but gets very pricey. I have an external SSD for large but less commonly accessed files.

mrk123 said:

Why do the 2020/21 Macs only have 8gb ram and 256gb drives? What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.
My 2011 has 16gb and 1tb.

You can do a lot. I would run professional audio editing apps, and drive a 6K Studio Display XDR, all with 8GB of unified memory in a 2020 Mac mini.

A base model 8/256 Mac mini will run circles around your 2011 with 16GB of memory.

mrk123 said:

Can’t fix my 2011 mac. Might be forced to buy new or used.

Why do the 2020/21 Macs only have 8gb ram and 256gb drives? What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.
My 2011 has 16gb and 1tb.

Can all Of these new models be upgraded easily?

1. New Macs can’t physically be upgraded. Apple stopped this fully with the M1 Macs. Most people don’t upgrade anyway so buy what you need for the long term.

2. Many people are frustrated by what, we feel, is too low a baseline. I fully agree that 8gb of ram is too low for even everyday use and all my machines, and have many of them, have at least 16gb of ram and 512 SSD.

3. Figure what you need and buy that. If you can’t afford it, but something used that fits your needs. If you’re still on a 2011, you probably don’t need a brand new M2.

mrk123 said:

Can’t fix my 2011 mac. Might be forced to buy new or used.

Why do the 2020/21 Macs only have 8gb ram and 256gb drives? What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.
My 2011 has 16gb and 1tb.

Can all Of these new models be upgraded easily?

It’s as if you skipped the last two years, maybe 5. Ram, ssd, battery are no longer user replaceable. As for why a 2020 MacBook Air is only available in base configuration in late 2022, it’s because there is a new 2022 version where one can custom order with upgrades. Apple is dumping their inventory of base 2 year old machines, and not allowing for customization. Want more? Buy a 2022 model.

Still weird this is on the MacBook Air forum. After all, MacBook Airs have never had user-upgradeable ram. And at the same time, MacBook Air specs are notoriously low on ram, since inception.

OP's 2011 Mac is not a MacBook Air, they couldn't have 16GB Ram. At best it's a pro.

Therefore, OP should just get a M1 Pro/Max. Or if lack of upgradability is such a dealbreaker, then actually get a 2010 or 2013 Mac Pro. Those can go up to 128GB ram.

mectojic said:

Still weird this is on the MacBook Air forum. After all, MacBook Airs have never had user-upgradeable ram. And at the same time, MacBook Air specs are notoriously low on ram, since inception.

OP's 2011 Mac is not a MacBook Air, they couldn't have 16GB Ram. At best it's a pro.

Therefore, OP should just get a M1 Pro/Max. Or if lack of upgradability is such a dealbreaker, then actually get a 2010 or 2013 Mac Pro. Those can go up to 128GB ram.

What is the last year mac pro that I can upgrade?

mrk123 said:

What is the last year mac pro that I can upgrade?

I looked at your previous posts, you call it a Mac 2011 pro. 13 inch. 16gb, it should be called a 2011 13" MacBook Pro, be easier to help you.

Starting with the “Retina Display” MacBook Pro models released in 2012, Apple began soldering the memory directly onto the board to make them thinner and lighter. Once Apple discontinued the non-Retina models in 2016, no MacBook Pro models could be upgraded after purchase.

All recent AS Macs (laptops/desktops) use soldered on RAM and SSDs. All the last few years of intel based MacBook Airs are soldered which is this topic.

mrk123 said:

What on earth can you do with 8gb and 256gb.

The whole of my university studies and everything else I've done over the last 6 years on my 2016 base MBP 13".

80 page word documents with tens of graphs and tables, large Excel spreadsheets, Powerpoints, statistical analysis software, FCPX with 1080p footage without proxies, guitar amp software and DAW, photo editing in Lightroom and Darktable.

Google Drive and cheap external SSDs helps me with 256GB. For the 8GB RAM, I've never really had an issue. I'm sure 16GB would speed things up, but with 8GB I'm not left frustrated.