Long-overdue: New Apple Macs could finally come with more RAM for all that cash

One of the biggest criticisms about Apple Mac computers in recent years has been the paltry 8GB of RAM in base models. That’s well short of Windows-based rivals, which often feature 16GB of RAM.

Now, Bloomberg has reported that four new M4-equipped Mac computers are in the works. But the big news is that all four models have either 16GB or 32GB of RAM.

That would be a long-overdue move by Apple, as the company has stuck with 8GB of RAM in base models for a while now. Apple defended the decision last year by noting that it uses unified RAM (i.e. RAM hard-wired to the processor), claiming that this was comparable to 16GB of RAM on other platforms. But this tech only boosts memory speed rather than capacity. Furthermore, there are loads of tasks (e.g., multimedia editing, gaming, web browsing with plenty of tabs) that benefit from more RAM. It’s also worth noting that Apple charges a notable $200 premium if you want to upgrade from 8GB to 16GB of memory.

We’re guessing that Apple is mainly switching to 16GB of RAM for upcoming Apple Intelligence AI features. Some on-device AI models need to reside in memory for maximum responsiveness. So it stands to reason that a few Apple Intelligence models will take this approach, requiring more RAM in the process.