Apple Silicon Macs with 16GB RAM Show Serious Issues in Games
For a long time, Apple claimed that thanks to Unified RAM, 8 or 16GB in a Mac works literally twice as efficiently as a similar amount in regular PCs. However, recent tests and reports show that for modern AAA-class games, even a 16GB RAM configuration in Apple's machines becomes a "bottleneck," seriously limiting performance.
Modern games (for example, Resident Evil Village, Death Stranding, or Cyberpunk 2077) require 8–12GB of video memory for high-resolution textures. If the GPU takes 10GB out of the available 16GB, only 6GB remains for the system and the game itself, which is catastrophically insufficient.
When memory runs out, the system starts writing data to the SSD. This not only slows down the game (causing stutters and FPS drops) but also accelerates the wear and tear of the storage drive.
Tests show that Macs with 16GB of memory experience significant drops in minimum FPS, even if the average figure looks decent. At the same time, versions with 24GB or 32GB run much more stably.