Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook

Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by jorvi on Thursday March 12, 2026 @01:10PM (#47354046)

People usually forget 8GB isn't 8GB. Memory compression means you can store ~2x (lz4) to 3x (zstd) as much data in memory as ordinarily. And in the worst case, reading swap from disk (writes don't matter as they can be predicted) is so much faster with NVMe SSDs.

The worst corner they cut is no keyboard backlighting. That saves them what, $1 BoM per MacBook Neo? Especially because now they have to put up an entire new keyboard production line instead of just piggybacking off of the Air keyboard production line.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by noisy_boy on Thursday March 12, 2026 @10:19PM (#47359957)

It's not cost saving, it's deliberate differentiation.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by disillusioned on Friday March 13, 2026 @12:43AM (#47360764)

Isn't it definitionally both?

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by noisy_boy on Friday March 13, 2026 @07:13AM (#47362877)

Of course. At the same time, the cost saved is so little that you can reasonably discount it as being a meaningful contributing factor in this case.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by whatever1 on Friday March 13, 2026 @03:11AM (#47361506)

This is PR speak.

No 8GB, compressed or whatever was not enough for MacOS when M1 was released. Even for simple outlook, web browser, excel type of workflows.

After 3-4 hours of work, the window manager process itself is consuming gigabytes of memory. Not even considering any browser or electron apps.

My M1 Mac mini was choking up so much that I had to trade it in. That was back in 2021. Today apps are even more bloated.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by jorvi on Friday March 13, 2026 @12:05PM (#47366282)

Yeah, you never owned a Mac and are just making stuff up. I have no urge to debate zealots. Bye.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by whatever1 on Friday March 13, 2026 @02:12PM (#47367686)

I am not the one claiming that apple does magic with memory. FYI right now I just opened monitor (M1 16GB) and sorted by memory:

1. WindowServer : 4.33GB 2. Safari pages (~10 open): ~ 5GB (monitor reports per tab) 3. Outlook: 1.45 GB 4. VS Code: 1.43 GB 5. Excel: 1.25 GB

Swap Used: 6.46GB.

Memory pressure is already orange and machine is slow.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by astrange on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @03:23AM (#47409613)

Run `IOAccelMemory` in the terminal to see what's causing that (dirty and wired columns). It's probably an app with a lot of windows.

Or for general memory `footprint` is good.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by whatever1 on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @12:52PM (#47415221)

Thank you so much for this! At least now I can see the worst offenders. How did you even find this tool? The internet has almost no records of it. Amazing.

Still does not explain why this balloons over time. Aka if I restart my Mac right now and reopen the same exactly apps with the same exactly windows the WindowServer will take 80% less memory.

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Re:Big Data on the Cheapest MacBook by astrange on Tuesday March 17, 2026 @11:01PM (#47421151)

Well, now you get to file a bug with Feedback Assistant…

If you send me the number it will get looked at.

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