How much RAM do I need to have in my Mac?

3/27/17

The answer to this question depends totally on what you use the Mac for. Almost all Macs currently come with between 4GB- 8 GB of RAM pre-installed, and honestly I wouldn’t recommend that anyone purchase a Mac with only 4GB of RAM.

Down the road, many Mac users tend to start using their computers for amazing things they’ve never done before; creating photo books or doing detailed photo retouching work, editing 4K video, or composing music with GarageBand or other music apps. You might not need it now, but 8GB of RAM is probably the “sweet spot” for memory on any new Mac purchase. If your mac can handle 16GB of RAM, that’s what I would have installed. Your operating system, browsers, applications, mail all gobble up RAM and often we have all things apps open at the same time and then wonder why when we are using Photoshop or Word thats it’s sluggish. Adding RAM can help these apps work faster and more productively.

Macs on Demand can quickly access your Mac and tell you what your computer can use. We can install more RAM for you quickly in most cases. Here is a small list of most Macs and their RAM capabilities.

  • MacBook: comes with 8GB of RAM preinstalled, 8GB maximum
  • MacBook Air: available with either 4GB and 8GB (recommended) preinstalled, 8GB maximum
  • MacBook Pro with Retina display: available with either 8GB or 16GB preinstalled, 16GB maximum
  • 21.5-inch iMac/Retina iMac: available with either 8GB or 16GB preinstalled, 16GB maximum
  • Mac mini: available with 4GB, 8GB or 16GB preinstalled, 16GB maximum