A comparison video from YouTuber MaxTech now clearly shows the difference in performance between the 8GB and 16GB RAM variant of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Apple also charges $200 for the RAM upgrade which might tempt many people to save money and get the 8GB RAM model.

It is important that one gets the M1-based Mac with the right amount of RAM since it is not user upgradeable. There’s a lot of confusion among potential MacBook Pro and Air buyers as to whether they should buy the 8GB RAM variant of the machine or bump the RAM to 16GB. With the new M1-based Macs, Apple has debuted a new unified memory architecture for RAM which works in a different manner compared to Intel-based Macs.