8GB RAM in M3 MacBook Pro Proves the Bottleneck in Real-World Tests::Apple’s new MacBook Pro models are powered by cutting-edge M3 Apple silicon, but the base configuration 14-inch model starting at $1,599…

  • Iwasondigg
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    1 year ago

    Don’t they also solder it to the motherboard so you can’t upgrade your RAM as well?

    • BorgDrone
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      1 year ago

      It’s not so much soldered to the motherboard as much as part of the same package as the CPU. As in: there are no separate memory chips.

      • GenderNeutralBro@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 year ago

        But they did indeed solder it in before that, on their old Intel laptops. I think they started doing that in 2013 or 2014 but I forget exactly.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That has more to do with faster traces; the ram is “closer” to the CPU so the signal is cleaner.

          Not defending the move, I’d take upgradability in a laptop.

          • TwanHE@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Only makes a difference at oc levels of manual tuning. Which apple isn’t doing at their factory I reckon.

            • 4am@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I mean, when you’re the one manufacturing the board, I’m pretty sure you could eek out some more baseline performance without having to tweak each one for OC in the production line, my dude.

              • TwanHE@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                At 100gb/s for the base model there probably actively downclocking the ram to make the higher end models more attractive.

        • Lupec@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          That’s soldered as well! It’s theoretically possible but way too involved for most to bother with hiring a professional to get it done or what have you.

        • BorgDrone
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          1 year ago

          No, you just buy one with the amount of RAM you need.

    • Petter1@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Lol, the ram is part of the m3 chip That’s a reason why it is so efficient. The storage in m3 is for RAM and videoRAM.

      Wikipedia: The M3’s Unified Memory Architecture features up to 24 GB RAM, the M3 Pro up to 36 GB, and the M3 Max up to 128 GB. Like the M2 generation, the M3 SoCs use 6,400 MT/s LPDDR5 SDRAM. As with prior M series SoCs, this serves as both RAM and video RAM.

      • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        That’s literally how Intel integrated GPUs work too

        The RAM being shared with the GPU, that is.

        • DarienGS@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          With Apple’s chips the RAM is all on the CPU die so both CPU and GPU get the performance benefit. With Intel’s, none of it is.

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            "What Apple calls “unified memory” is RAM (random-access memory) used as “main memory” (not a CPU or GPU cache and not mass storage either).

            The term “unified” refers to the fact that the memory is shared by the CPU cores and the GPU cores. That’s not novel: “integrated graphics” options in Intel x86 chips (like Iris Xe) do the same, as do just about all modern smartphones."

            • DarienGS@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I’m not talking about the merits or otherwise of “unified memory”, I’m pointing out that because Apple’s RAM is physically integrated into the CPU, it can provide more memory bandwidth than regular DDR5 DIMMs.

        • Petter1@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Yea but the RAM is not on the located within the chip design, is it?

    • Sendbeer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Well yeah, if you were paying $50 a GB wouldn’t you too? Got to lock that shit down!