Microsoft recently set the standard for modern laptops when it launched its Microsoft Copilot+ PCs. Aside from the 40 TOPS minimum of AI compute performance, the company said that these machines also need a minimum default 16GB RAM. Thus, manufacturers that want to get on the AI bandwagon are now putting 16GB as the minimum RAM for their laptops.
This drive is pushing up the average RAM capacity in laptops in the market. According to market research firm TrendForce, laptops will have an average of 11.8GB RAM in 2024, compared to 10.5GB last year. Although the growth may seem small at just 1.3GB, this is a 12% increase in memory capacity. Furthermore, the firm estimates that AI PCs, with its 16GB minimum requirement, will grow to 20.4% this year, further pushing the average laptop RAM capacity to 12.6GB next year.
However, this growth is held back to some degree by Apple’s stubbornness. Most of its entry-level offerings, including the M3 MacBook Pro and Mac Mini still start with 8GB RAM, and upgrading models to 16GB will set you back by $200 — more than double the price of individual RAM sticks you can find on Amazon. Unfortunately, since RAM is baked in on Apple-silicon chips, you have no way of upgrading your laptop down the line or even buying from a third-party source to double your MacBook’s RAM at the onset.
Apple claims that the M3 MacBook Pro’s 8GB RAM is equal to 16GB on PCs. While it’s true that macOS is much more optimized for its hardware than Windows will ever be, benchmarks have shown that 8GB of RAM seriously limits the MacBook Pro’s performance. Furthermore, we must remember that Apple uses unified memory, meaning the CPU, GPU, and NPU all share from the same pool of RAM, unlike Windows laptops with discrete GPUs that have separate RAM and VRAM.
We’ve been saying since 2022 that you shouldn’t buy a PC with just 8GB of RAM, unless you plan to upgrade it immediately. Even May’s Steam Survey results show that the majority of gamers have 16GB of RAM, but many are already inching toward 32GB. So, if you still have 8GB RAM on your desktop computer, consider upgrading to 16 or 32GB by checking out our best gaming RAM list for 2024.
Aside from greater RAM capacity, demand for higher-efficiency computing is also rising. In line with this, the firm expected LPCAMM2 modules to have greater demand in the coming years. Samsung already released a 128GB DDR5 laptop module last year, and Crucial also made 64GB LPCAMM2 in May 2024. These memory modules are still expensive, though, with the latter price at $330 per piece. However, as adoption rates for these RAM kits increase, we expect their prices to also fall.
These higher RAM trends show that 8GB is no longer enough for modern-day computing, and manufacturers should start using 16GB as the baseline minimum for laptops. Even flagship smartphones like the Samsung S24 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 Pro start with 12GB RAM, so if you don’t want to get frustrated with your laptop for your day-to-day tasks, check how much RAM it’s offering before buying it.
