I don't disagree that the M processors need less RAM, but the idea that they need half as much is bullshit. My poor little 8GB M1 struggles with more than 20 chrome tabs open, and it especially struggles when running apps that aren't built to be M1 compatible (through Rosetta).

Been there, done that ....

https://tidbits.com/2019/01/24/25-years-ago-in-tidbits-ram-doubler-debuts/

I had to use an m1 base air for school. The CPU was fast but ram was always at Ower 90 percent while doing almost nothing

On my unix-based system, after boot I'm sitting at 2gb usage, while Windows would be at >6GB, so it's not that far fetched. Until you try to run any applications..

Apple is banking on some big companies ordering computers based on "Pro" moniker and that's the reason why 13" Macbook Pro existed at all. Now that it is gone, 14" base M3 is taking its place. It's likely to be running basic Excel and PowerPoint so that's okay for the end user but still mighty shitty of Apple to price gouge on RAM.

Maybe it’s true, but a better headline would be “our systems come with 16gb as standard, which feels like 32gb on windows.”

So you get a good amount of ram, which feels better because It’s a Mac.

Ah yes, the megabyte myth. Certainly haven't anything like that before...

Ok.. but PCs can also use zram.

Memory compression does allow the os to store to cram more data in the RAM, but does 8gb RAM with memory compression really equivalent to 16gb of RAM?

God damn fucking marketers

Just a wild guess, I think they mean that the M3 chip can load and unload things so much faster that it doesn’t need as much ram to do regular tasks. Of course, if you are loading video renders into ram, it won’t really apply to it anymore.