8GB should be sufficient for light to medium usage.
Note that MacOS will use RAM and that will take away from the total RAM installed. RAM used by MacOS, aka Wired Memory, usually takes 1.5 - 3GB with my workflow.
Final Cut can take up to 3GB while exporting video. That's my highest RAM usage with my workflow.
I guess if you don't export videos all the time, e.g. daily/hourly, in the background, 8GB should be sufficient.
Having said that, if you have limited budget and can only either upgrade RAM or storage, I recommend upgrading the RAM.
Apple charges US $200 to upgrade either RAM or storage to the next tier.
There are two ways you can expand storage capacity.
First is to use external SSD, and you can buy them later when you run out of storage. You can take the time to save up before you buy an external SSD. It's worth the money because you can use this SSD in the future.
The second way is to use cloud storage.
I actually recommend going the cloud storage route. I personally use Microsoft 365 Personal ($69/year) and that's the family plan which is $99/year. You'll get 1TB Microsoft OneDrive online storage.
The good thing about Microsoft OneDrive is it can sync all your files to the cloud, thereby making all the files on your computer actually bookmarks. If your computer crashes, your files will be safe online. This is a foolproof backup plan. You don't have to buy Apple iCloud plan this way.
Downside is if you want to open let's say an Affinity Photo file that's huge, it will take a few more seconds to open compared to opening a file stored on internal SSD. BUT the download speed is incredibly fast and it's the the irritating type of lag.
The main reason why one may want huge storage is if you need to access lots of files or huge files frequently. E.g. Video editing.
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I'm not sure why the swap in my screenshot above is that high. When I tried to recreate my workflow again it was 0GB swap. Strange.
@Raf
8GB should be sufficient for light to medium usage.
Note that MacOS will use RAM and that will take away from the total RAM installed. RAM used by MacOS, aka Wired Memory, usually takes 1.5 - 3GB with my workflow.
Final Cut can take up to 3GB while exporting video. That's my highest RAM usage with my workflow.
I guess if you don't export videos all the time, e.g. daily/hourly, in the background, 8GB should be sufficient.
Having said that, if you have limited budget and can only either upgrade RAM or storage, I recommend upgrading the RAM.
Apple charges US $200 to upgrade either RAM or storage to the next tier.
There are two ways you can expand storage capacity.
First is to use external SSD, and you can buy them later when you run out of storage. You can take the time to save up before you buy an external SSD. It's worth the money because you can use this SSD in the future.
The second way is to use cloud storage.
I actually recommend going the cloud storage route. I personally use Microsoft 365 Personal ($69/year) and that's the family plan which is $99/year. You'll get 1TB Microsoft OneDrive online storage.
The good thing about Microsoft OneDrive is it can sync all your files to the cloud, thereby making all the files on your computer actually bookmarks. If your computer crashes, your files will be safe online. This is a foolproof backup plan. You don't have to buy Apple iCloud plan this way.
Downside is if you want to open let's say an Affinity Photo file that's huge, it will take a few more seconds to open compared to opening a file stored on internal SSD. BUT the download speed is incredibly fast and it's the the irritating type of lag.
The main reason why one may want huge storage is if you need to access lots of files or huge files frequently. E.g. Video editing.
-
I'm not sure why the swap in my screenshot above is that high. When I tried to recreate my workflow again it was 0GB swap. Strange.