Shortly after introducing the new MacBooks with M3 chips, Apple continued to defend the basic configurations with 8 GB of soldered, non-expandable RAM. This RAM is sufficient for many tasks, including using productivity applications. However, even Apple acknowledges that 8 GB might not be enough in the future (via XDA-Developers).
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The company introduced the beta version of the XCode 16 development environment, which includes a new feature called Predictive Code Completion. This feature uses AI to analyze code snippets and provide suitable suggestions in real time. However, according to Apple, this feature requires a Mac with at least 16 GB of RAM.
“Xcode 16 includes predictive code completion powered by a machine learning model specifically trained for Swift and Apple SDKs. This requires a Mac with Apple Silicon and 16 GB of unified memory under macOS 15,”
The patch notes for the beta state that the additional memory is necessary to run the model on the device.
16 GB – A Necessity
AI applications are becoming increasingly important, making it crucial to choose more RAM rather than less. This is especially true for MacBooks, where the hardware cannot be upgraded after purchase because the RAM modules are soldered directly onto the mainboard.
The new feature in the upcoming XCode 16 is likely to be important, as it can be easily used directly in the IDE. This allows developers to save time that would otherwise be spent communicating with external chatbots like ChatGPT or Github Copilot.
Perhaps it’s time for Apple to raise the minimum configuration of its MacBooks. It’s similar to the Copilot+ PCs from Microsoft and Qualcomm, which require at least 16 GB of RAM, presumably due to the memory demands of upcoming AI features.
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