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Apple Rumored to Bump Its Base Model RAM From 8GB to 12GB for M3 Macs

In 2016, Apple "upgraded" the onboard memory in its base model MacBooks to 8GB. Previously it offered 4GB as the baseline, with 8GB a luxurious upgrade. When it made the change, 8GB was the only option, so you couldn't upgrade even if you had the cash. However, in 2018 it began to offer 16GB as an upgrade, which is the same model it uses today; 8GB is the base, and upgrading to 16GB is $200 more. Now it appears Apple is finally ready to move beyond this lowly amount of memory for its upcoming M3 Macs, bumping the base model allocation up to 12GB.

News of Apple's plans comes from a bit of deductive math that's been done on the latest rumors from Bloomberg's usually reliable Mark Gurman. In a new report, he states that the upcoming M3 Max chip will support 48GB of memory, and since Apple's base model offering is 4x lower than what's offered at the top of the stack, it can be deduced that the standard M3 chip will include 12GB of embedded memory. For a similar example, the current M2 Max in the MacBook Pro has a baseline of 32GB of memory, with the standard M3 supporting 8GB, so the math does check out. The "hidden" detail was spotted by a content creator named Vadim on Twitter and highlighted by Wccftech.

When Apple first introduced the M1 SoC in 2020, it offered 8GB of memory as the baseline memory allocation, along with fast SSDs to handle any file swapping that might be required. For most home users, the configuration was fine, as the SSD was speedy enough that an average user would never notice a file being swapped back and forth from the SSD instead of using system memory. Plus, it is extremely optimized since Apple makes both the OS and the hardware it runs on. This allows 8GB to be acceptable for many people using macOS, which is probably not true with Windows 11. However, in 2023, 8GB is beginning to seem anemic, especially since Apple offers it on the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which is a bit ridiculous.

If Apple intends to upgrade its base model memory capacity to 12GB, it will be welcome news for Mac aficionados. Having to pay an extra $200 for more memory made its formerly inexpensive (for a Mac) MacBook Airs, iMacs, and Mac Minis a bit on the pricey side, nudging the cost towards $1,500 or so. Apple has people by the throat anyway because the memory has been non-upgradeable for many years. This forces people to buy it from Apple pre-configured in the system, with no option to ever upgrade it down the line. This incentivizes people just to suck it up and upgrade the memory at purchase because they have to do it that way.

The new M3-based Macs are expected to launch in October when the company holds its annual hardware-focused event. It skipped it last year for some reason, choosing instead to launch upgraded MacBook Pros in January via press release. The rumor mill says the event is back on this year, so if you're in the market for a new MacBook, you might want to hold off a few more months.