With how expensive RAM has gotten, Apple Silicon is somehow price competitive again lmfao

$400 for 32 gigs of Apple’s non-upgradeable ‘integrated memory’ was a JOKE back when you could get 32 gigs of DDR5 laptop ram for $160 & desktop ram for $120. But now that it’s like $350-500 for the same laptop kit…

Looking at a Macbook Pro M5 and you can get an honestly shocking level of performance for a laptop (even in gaming btw, 1440p 60fps on CP77 High) for the same price and sometimes even less than what you would pay for an equivalently powerful Windows laptop. As a bonus, you don’t even have to deal with the dumpster fire that is Windows 11!

Now that Win10 is depreciated, I’ve had to move all my sensitive files off my laptop - and I’m looking to upgrade sometime soon-ish. Apple is making an incredibly compelling case with their power efficiency (using ARM = same performance as if you were plugged in even when you are on battery), battery life, screen brightness (1600 nits is over 3x my current screen’s 517 nits), etc etc.

Even the sautered ‘integrated memory’ is something I’m starting to appreciate, because both the CPU and the GPU can access the memory at the same time, meaning not only do you have an effective 8~24gb of VRAM but you reduce a traditional PC’s redundancy of storing pre-rendered data both in RAM and VRAM, meaning you have more and use less, at least when gaming. More RAM goes to the CPU when you’re just browsing or doing productivity work, and more VRAM goes to the GPU when you’re rendering or gaming. I loathe that it’s not upgradeable, I loathe that Apple values solid-state storage at $400/TB (It’s been cheaper than that for over a decade btw), I loathe the tablet-ification of Apple’s OS, I loathe how shit Apple’s Office suite is in comparison to Microsoft’s, on and on and on.

But I can’t deny that the Macbook is smaller, lighter, more powerful, more power efficient, with a brighter screen and longer battery life, more portable, and most of all, sexier, than any Windows laptop on the market. For $2150 pre-tax (I paid $1600 for my 13900K Win-10 laptop when it was new), I am getting: an anti-glare screen, 16gb more RAM, 2 more CPU cores, the same amount of storage, and a hell of a lot more battery life.

I was thinking of setting aside some money for a few months to save and see if my positive feelings around the Macbook will abate with time, but the whole $0 down + 0% APR + 30 day return window that Apple is offering (upon approval for their Credit Card) is a pretty sweet deal. I might go in to the store to check it out in person and see if I get approved.