Apple is rumoured finally to be moving to 16 GB after claiming that 8 GB of Mac storage is equivalent to 16 GB of PC storage.

Apple's MacBook laptops are great for non-gaming purposes. Apple's claim that 8 GB of RAM on a Mac is equivalent to 16 GB of RAM on a PC, is utter nonsense.

Apple's latest rumours about the next-generation MacBooks confirm that 8 GB of memory is simply not enough.

Mark Gurman, a pathological Apple rumour-peddler (via Tom's Hardware), claims that Apple will finally upgrade its MacBook base models to 16 GB using the new Apple M4 processor.

You can have 16 GB of storage on the base MacBook Air, with either the M2 chip or the M3 chip. It will cost you $200 to upgrade from the 8 GB standard.

To put this in context, a 8 GB DDR4 stick is available for less than 20 dollars, and an 8 GB DDR5 stick costs around $25. So, yeah, 200 dollars is ridiculous.

Apple silicon is highly integreted. Apple Silicon APU is built with memory. This has many performance and efficiency advantages. Memory upgrades are also impossible. You're stuck with the memory you choose when you buy.

The M4 chips are already in use. Oddly, the M4 was actually introduced earlier this year as part of an updated iPad Pro.

In this implementation, the iPad Pro base model with M4 comes with 8 GB of low power DDR5 memory. Teardowns of this device revealed that the M4 package is actually a pair 6 GB chips, and some of the memory has been disabled.

Arguments for this include the fact that 4 GB chips do not have enough internal dies to completely populate the memory channels of the M4 chip and are therefore not optimal for bandwidth. The 6 GB memory chip solves that.

The iPad Pro's 12 GB hardware raises the question whether 12 GB would be more appropriate for MacBook models with base configurations. Apple could then keep charging for the 16 GB upgrade. Apple loves charging for upgrades.

If Apple decides to go with 16 GB for the base MacBooks, then the next unknown will be the price. If Apple launches a 16 GB MacBook Air base, but it costs $200 extra than the 8 GB MacBook Air model M3, Apple will not have upgraded the base MacBook Air so much as discarded it completely.

It will be interesting to see how Apple's marketing spin is manipulated to make it seem like 16 GB is the same as 8 GB.

Bob Borcher, Apple's vice president of worldwide product marketing, made this comment last year. It wasn't the case then, so MacBooks with increased memory will be a positive thing. We doubt that they won't come with a price premium. Apple is the way.