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Image: Foundry
If you received a new Mac this Christmas, you must be pretty special to someone. But if you feel like your new Mac doesn’t quite live up to your expectations, don’t worry. We’ve got some useful advice to help you upgrade with confidence.
Regardless of what model you received, it’s undoubtedly a fast machine. The introduction of Apple silicon has been a game-changer, and even an M1 Mac from 2020 is still more than fast enough for most tasks. However, in light of recent developments, you might want to consider trading it in for something more powerful.
Now, we’re not suggesting you give up on Macs altogether and switch to a PC. What we’re recommending is upgrading to a more powerful Mac, ideally one with additional unified memory. We’re guessing that the Mac you received has 8GB of memory, as this is the case with most new Macs. The Mac models that come with 16GB of memory are the M2 Pro Mac mini, the M3 Pro, and M3 Max MacBook Pros, as well as the Mac Studio which starts at 32GB. Everything else, including the entry-level M3 MacBook Pro, typically comes with 8GB of RAM.
(If you received your Mac as a gift between November 3 and December 25, and you’d like to return or exchange it, you can do so until Monday, January 8 at an Apple Store. Amazon and Best Buy also offer extended return periods for the holidays.)
Even if you only plan to use your new Mac for casual web browsing and streaming videos, 8GB of memory is likely to fall short. Besides, it might not meet your needs in the long run, especially three years down the line.
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To get the best out of your MacBook Pro, you need to maximize its memory capacity.
Foundry
Muscle memory
Whether you’ve recently acquired an iMac, MacBook, or Mac Pro, choosing the right amount of memory is crucial. Apple silicon uses a Unified Memory Architecture, integrating the RAM with the CPU and GPU in a system on a chip. This allows for faster access to the system memory, which can greatly enhance performance. However, it also means you cannot upgrade the memory after purchasing the Mac.
Remember, you can upgrade nearly every component externally except for the RAM. What your Mac has now is what it will have for years to come. If you’ve received a Mac with 8GB of RAM, it’s unlikely to be sufficient. 8GB might suffice for a Chromebook or a budget PC running Windows 11 Home, but even the most affordable Mac runs the same iteration of Sonoma as the most expensive.
I can speak from experience, having upgraded from a 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM to a 14-inch M1 Pro MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM, followed by a 14-inch M3 Max MacBook Pro with 36GB of RAM. In each case, the primary reason for the upgrade was memory. You can see the comparison in memory usage and pressure for each of my machines in the image below.