Why I Regret buying the M3 MacBook Pro - DON'T make this mistake!

So it's been a few days since I got my M3

MacBook Pro and I'm starting to have

regrets. I did all the research and I was

sure I got the right product, but now I'm

not so sure. So I've been using my brand

new M3 MacBook Pro for a few days now and

I really think I got the wrong model. I

got the base model, 8GB of RAM,

512GB of storage, and I think I really

do want to refund it and get something a

bit more beefier. Now my main problem was

when I went into the Apple Store on

Christmas Day. I was really excited to buy

a brand new MacBook, and I actually wanted

the 16GB RAM model first, but they said

they didn't have any. I would have to wait

until the end of the first week of January

if I wanted the 16GB model of the MacBook

M3 base model. They said the only 16GB

model they had of the M3 was the M3 Pro

MacBook Pro, which is like $2,600.

At the time, I didn't want to buy that,

So I just went for the 8GB model, which

was the cheapest and seemed like the

logical solution. And I kind of realize

now that 8GB of RAM is not really enough

for what I need to do. For most people,

maybe it's enough depending on what you

do. So for example, when I'm just doing my

normal stuff like, like this, you know,

typing, watching YouTube, checking emails,

searching the web, it's fine. I use maybe

6GB of RAM. So what I'm saying is by

just doing basic tasks like watching

YouTube, chatting on Discord, checking my

email, I'm already maxing out the 8GB of

RAM. So that's not very good that you're

maxing out the RAM, the 8GB of RAM, just

from doing extremely basic things like

browsing the internet, watching some

videos. That should be the bare minimum of

what a system is capable of doing. And

don't get me wrong, it is completely

capable of doing it. It feels buttery

smooth doing those things. It's just kind

of worrisome when I go into the Activity

Monitor And I see that I'm using all of my

RAM just from doing basic things, and it's

kind of concerning. And the reason why

it's slightly concerning is because,

well, I don't know if you know how RAM

works. I'm assuming you do, but the basic

gist of it is it's kind of like a

chalkboard. So imagine you're writing on a

board of chalk, like a blackboard, and

you're writing on it, and then you erase

it. But every time you erase the chalk,

some of it remains on the board, and

that's basically how swap memory works.

Yes, you can use the swap memory, and it's

using your SSD as kind of like a temporary

RAM, but that's not good for the SSD

because the more you use it, the more

chalk you're adding to the blackboard,

and every time you erase it, the more

dirty and messed up it looks over time.

So after years of doing this, you're going

to degrade your SSD card, and that's not

good if you want to use this for a long

time. So I'm thinking 8GB is

enough because everything I'm doing, like

for example now I'm shooting a video and

I'm editing it and I've got this plugged

in, the microphone, and I've got Discord,

I've got tabs open. I can like switch to

Safari, check my YouTube stuff, check the

internet, go back to checking my video

editing stuff, look at my video recording

stuff. And yeah, it is smooth. I'm not

feeling any stuttering or lag, but then I

go into my Activity Monitor and Oh my god,

I'm using like 3.4 gigabytes of swap

memory. So if we have a look at this,

this is the Activity Monitor, shows you

how much RAM you're using. And I'm using 7

gigabytes of RAM. You get 8 gigabytes,

but really you can only use like 7 because

1 is for cache files, I think. So really

most of the time you maxed out around 7

gigabytes of RAM. And then I'm using 3.7

gigabytes swap. So in total I'm using

nearly 11 gigabytes of RAM. And you look

at the monitor, you can sort by how much

RAM or memory each process is using. One

tab on Safari— I'm using Webull because

I'm checking my stocks— is using 1.4

gigabytes of RAM. Just one tab on Safari.

And then my YouTube Studio is taking up

1.2 gigabytes. iMovie, which is what I'm

using to edit the video, is taking a

gigabyte. Canva.com, I'm using that to

create a thumbnail, that's a gigabyte.

Another tab of YouTube, OBS Studio is

taking up 700. So basically one activity

is taking up nearly, or sometimes over, 1

gigabyte of RAM, which is not very good

when you've only got 8 and the rest of

it's being used on swap. You know, I had a

game open once. I was playing a game

whilst doing all this, and I went up to

about 8 gigabytes of swap. So I was using

like 16 gigabytes total, 8 of which were

on the swap memory. And I'm just feeling

like It's a bit worrying and concerning

that just when I'm doing basic things and

not really working, I'm just like on the

internet and chatting, I'm already maxing

out the 8GB of RAM that this base model

has. And then when I'm actually doing some

real work where I need to be doing my

workflow as quickly as possible to get

these videos done, then I'm using nearly

11GB of RAM, which makes me think,

yeah, I made a big mistake using— buying

the 8GB model. I should have waited and

gotten the 16GB model. And I'm kind of

upset because this whole machine costs

$1,700. I was using an ROG Ally

before using this, and that thing only

cost $700— $1,000 cheaper.

And the ROG Ally had 16GB of RAM and a Z1

Extreme chip, and I was able to have

everything open— editing software,

filming software. I could even have a game

open in the background, a billion Chrome

tabs, Discord, Steam, you name it. I had

everything open, and I was whizzing

through everything, editing filming and

playing games, and I never felt any

slowdown, and I never felt like, oh, I

need more RAM, my swap RAM is being used.

And then I spend $1,000 extra for this

premium MacBook, which is admittedly very

nice. I've really been enjoying the using

experience of this. It's really nice to

touch and to look at, is great. But then I

just can't help but think, I spent $1,000

extra for this and I ditched my ROG Ally

And I don't have the perfect system that

can do everything I need it to do

flawlessly without any problems. I still

need more RAM, and to get more RAM, I'm

going to have to spend another couple

extra hundred dollars of my hard-earned

money. I mean, aside from the RAM

shortage, I do feel like everything else

is fine. It does everything I want it to

do. I wanted a big screen. It's got a big

screen compared to the ROG Ally. I wanted

a lightweight portable device. It's

extremely lightweight, 1.6 kg compared to

my Razer Blade 17-inch gaming laptop which

was nearly 5 kg which I sold in order to

pay for this. So here comes the dilemma,

do I get the 16GB RAM upgrade for this

model which would cost $1,900,

$200 more than this one, or do I get the

24GB RAM version which would be $2,200?

Now I think 16GB should be enough but it's

not quite enough. I feel like sometimes I

do use like 14 or 15 gigabytes of RAM,

so maybe 24 gigabytes of RAM would be

safer for the future. But then we're

spending like $2,200, and that means we're

only $150 away from the M3 Pro

chip with 18 gigabytes unified RAM. I

mean, if we're only a couple hundred

dollars away from getting the M3 Pro chip

with 18 gigabytes of RAM, that's kind of

tempting, you know, because the M3 Pro

MacBook Pro has 2 fans in it. This only

has 1 fan. The M3 Pro has 2 fans and 18GB

of RAM, which is not as good as 24GB, but

it's better than 16 and a lot better than

8. And it has the M3 Pro chip, which is

much better than the M3 chip. So now I'm

seriously considering getting the M3 Pro

MacBook Pro. So there's one other good

thing about it— I can get a VAT refund

because I'm in Thailand, which gives me a

VAT refund of Let me check.

Around $175. So the

$2,340 MacBook M3 Pro

MacBook Pro would actually cost— hold on,

let me get the calculator. It's getting

complicated. So I do $2,340 minus

$175 of the VAT refund. The M3

Pro MacBook Pro would only cost me $2,165.

Which is only— well, I say only, it's like

$460 more expensive than this model.

So if I send this one back and get a

refund, I'll lose a tiny bit of money

because for some reason every time I

refund products back to Apple, they refund

me back the full amount, but it's never as

much as I actually paid because of

exchange rate conversion rates and stuff

like that. So I send this back, get a full

refund well, not really full. And then I

pay only $440 extra and I

will get 18GB of RAM, so that's 10 extra

gigabytes of RAM. I will get 2 fans inside

of the chassis, or the chassis as

Americans like to say, and I get the M3

Pro chip, which is way faster and way

better than the M3 chip. And I also get

more cores. I think this one has an 8-core

CPU, the M3 Pro has an 11-core CPU with a

14-core GPU, and this only has 10-core

GPU. So I get more cores, I get more RAM,

10GB more RAM, I get 2 fans and

same storage and M3 Pro chip. So it's

quite a lot of extra bonuses for only

$400. I feel like I would be stupid not

to take that offer.