Stress Test: 8GB of Unified Memory vs. 64GB of RAM

What’s the difference between Unified Memory and RAM? How does an older Intel Mac with 64GB of RAM compare to a M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of Unified Memory?

Check out our MacBook Air Torture Test here:    • Is 8GB of RAM Enough? MacBook Air Tor...  

Our favorite setup: 
• Apple Magic Keyboard: https://amzn.to/486dCA0
• Apple Magic Mouse: https://amzn.to/3Um4CDy
• Laptop - MacBook Pro M4: https://amzn.to/3Z9LsTr
• Desktop - Mac Mini M4: https://amzn.to/3ADoZEN
• Monitor - Apple Studio Display: https://amzn.to/49lAxrj
• 2TB SSD Hard drive: https://amzn.to/49trq86

I was curious to know how the Unified Memory in new Apple Silicon computers compares to older Macs with traditional RAM, so I decided to torture my 2013 Mac Pro and my M1 MacBook Air. Take a look to see which computer performs better when we open 800 photos, multiple 4K60 videos, a ton of text documents, 20+ tabs in two different browsers, 4K project in Adobe Premiere Pro, a raw photo in Adobe Photoshop, a project in Davinci Resolve, and more.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us continue to create guides like this for our audience.