And RAM is only as fast as the motherboard lets it. Here’s Apple silicon anecdote perspective and if price isn’t a problem then Apple silicone reaps more benefits. Apples 8Gb of RAM vs windows 32 GB of RAM is a comparison similar to: 3 groups of workers with different tasks all sharing and standing around an 8 foot by 8 foot table with an output shelf right behind them… so they have and need a smaller room and less energy. Compared to 3 groups of people with different tasks all sharing a 32 by 32 feet larger table, these when these groups are finished working, they have to walk 20 feet back to their shelves to finish an output. They need more energy and time to do certain things. That’s why I’d rather pay more for Apple.
@@hanes2 like, how does an 8gb,16gb,24gb, etc compare to similar ram sized windows pcs, so we can have some sort of base comparison... heck, even Linux... I don't think there's any out there... not sure though
@@MatheusTavares-od6nwLinux will likely beat you on Mac on RAM management. When working (12-20 Tabs in FF, few vim instances, occasional Go compiles + Spotify + Docker) my systems ram consumption is about 8GB with three 4K monitors connected
What about a 16Gb-512 Mb M1 macbook air? I do have one that I've been running for 3 years with a 22" full HD native (through a non-branded hub) and a vertical 17" Aliexpress monitor connected with a Display link interface. A jowel, works super fast and smooth. I'm so happy to have been informed that it's possible to use Displaylink monitors when they were saying (still now with M3 non pro macbook pro) that only one external monitor is possible loool
Could you make a new video about those portable monitors which you've got hooked up with your Mac. I guess those are new ones from your old video a year ago?
Great test! Thank you. Any reason why you didnt try the displaylink with 2 monitors on the Mac pro M3. I'm really curious if it will work, and if there was lag?
Been using my basemodel M1 Macbook air 8/256 With 5 Screens in VR (Immersed on Quest 3) for over a year and it is NUTS how well it handles everything. Yes it slows a little. But I am still astonished how it handles it so well overall. I will have Edge open with about 10 tabs, YT or Twitch streaming, Discord, WoW or FFXIV, and streaming to Discord. All streaming to my VR headset. And it works! I will do this for hours. The Air will be HOT AF!!!, but no issues otherwise. When using it for work (RDP, Config, and SSH sessions. And a YT video) It is smooth as butter zero noticeable hitching at all. Curious how it would have done in these tests, but I JUST traded in the 3 year old baby last week for an 13" Pro M2 24/1TB that was on sale for $870!!!
8:30 - Can you try if the lag disappears if you connect the Macbooks together via a Thunderbolt cable? I know iPads use a wired connection for the screen link if you connect them via USB-C.
I only have a 4k and a FHD(4k res) with DisplayLink on M1 Pro but the WindowServer eat the whooping 9.9GB of RAM with 12.8GB of swap. It's indeed slow but monitor is just for dozens of monitoring/stats apps so I can barely bare with it.
You missed the opportunity to use hyperfine to do your benchmark measurements. A sample size of 1 is... not a lot. You're essentially measuring noise, which explains why plugging in more displays sometimes caused speedups
I've got an m1 max 32gb ram Mac running with 3 32inch 4l 144hz monitors and all 3 run very smoothly! One of them has 70w charging and it helps me never use the charger!
Humm there somethings that were left out in the video. If you are not using a native resolution (integer converted resolution), the ram, cpu and gpu usage is going to be a lot bigger. You can optimize this by not using monitores out of the ppi range of 100 - 115 and 200 - 230. Try to use 21/22 inch FHD/4k res monitors, 27 inch QHD/5k res or 32 with 6k res for optimal hardware utilisation and viewing experience.
Can we connect 2 external displays to macbook pro m3 - 16 gigs and 512 gb storage option using one hdmi port and other one with a basic type c hdmi and type c power pass though adapter
Biggest reason I got MBP was 2 external monitors, please do this test with the M3 MBA if you get one, supposed to have dual external monitor support with laptop closed.
Hey Alex, Could you consider creating a video playing “Resident Evil 4 Remake” from the App Store? I’m particularly interested in seeing how it performs on one of your 4K monitors that supports over 60fps. It would be great to find out the maximum FPS you can achieve at 4K resolution, especially since this game is optimized for Macs. I know this is not the purpose of the channel but oh boy you have everything to do the video 😂
As an FYI, any Mac that has the settings checked for being an AirPlay receiver can be used as an external monitor for another Mac. What is even more surprising is that AirPlay works over a cable, not just WiFi. If you plug a Thunderbolt cable into the receiver Mac, most of your latency will go away.
Ok but is it related to the number of monitors or the bandwidth required to drive them? I want to see a benchmark with a single UHD@120Hz monitor plugged in.
Actually there’s still a long lasting problem about windowserver ram usage leaked when you connect the mbp or mba to external monitors for a long enough time (like a week).
Yes, please do a "how memory works on macOS", as I have to explain to many people who complain about having a few tabs open and a couple of apps is pushing 8GB of RAM. That way, I can refer to your video, as I suspect no one believes that Apple pre-fetches cache for faster loading! Then, it releases that cache if the RAM is needed for other processes. And for those whining about 8GB of RAM filling up. Just restart your tabs or close apps and tabs you are not using to free RAM. That means quitting apps, not just closing the window(s) and also any closed browser tabs (windows). Make sure you have Developer Mode on and then "empty caches". Using Safari can use more RAM than Chrome (still a memory leak issue for some sites like YT - maybe a Google developer issue), but Safari uses less wattage per hour than Chrome. However, you can go into the "Performance" in Chrome settings to reduce that load (Energy Saver). You can also use "Memory Saver", which means websites in tabs in the background will refresh when you return to them. Okay for reading but if you are doing anything you can lose your work. Keep those sites as single Windows to avoid that. This also helps with RAM usage, and that is why 8GB has worked fine for me for what I do (mainly office stuff and research/reading). Good video, by the way, and I was impressed with the results. Once Snapdragon X Elite arrives, it will be great to see how Qualcomm with Windows handle these same tests!
Displaylink is a cpu hog, especially if you are tying to play a video from youtube on the external monitor. I once noticed that my MBA was thermal throttling, and I was only playing a video.
Hello @alex. Thanks so much for your content I'm your subscriber since the day 1. I need you help. I want to have a server for an AI app. So I don't need a monitor. I have a tie budget. Do you recommend a Mac studio with which specification or a windows machine with what specifications? Mainly is to run a quantized llama model, a local chroma db and wishper. Actually I have a MacBook pro M1 and it is not enough
“Why is my 16GB machine’s using 15GB of RAM, and I’m not even running anything…well, it’s MacOS 🤷🏻♂️” - wow, that’s what I’m used to hear about Windows LOL!
You see the confusion with Windows users as well when it comes to RAM. People don’t realise the OS will make the best use of the RAM rather than trying to use as little as possible. That’s what you want it to do
Mac OS external display support is garbage. You can't even change the UI scale for non-"retina" displays!! There is some much needed updates to external monitor management for this OS.
I’m getting into day trading and Mac external display support SUCKS! 👎🏼 I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shuffled trying to get things to work with my M2 Ultra.
MacBook Pro m3 max = 4 displays MacBook Pro m3 pro + display link = 3 displays MacBook Pro m3 + display link = 3 displays MacBook Air xx + display link = 4 displays .... I discovers today the MacBook Pro m3 pro issue with only 3 displays...
Overall I like the Macbooks. But I just can't stand the shiny keys. I have a 13 yo Dell XPS and the keys still look like new. I just don't understand why Apple uses such cheap ABS key caps when the rest of the built is such high quality.
My Windows laptop is running 9 external monitors without breaking a sweat or having a measurable impact on performance. The 8 primary monitors are all 2560x1600 30 inch and my secondary monitor is a 3840x1100 14 inch All these are natively connected over HDMI/DisplayPort. Using displaylink adapters I'm able to connect 4 extra portable monitors at the same time but I haven't got the space to use this without turning my chair.
You do amazing work! Thank you for this. Ps I can’t believe it’s called Windows Server. Microsoft guy here makes feel something everyone I heard that. 😂😂😂😂😂Apple needs a server os just to manage their monitors lol 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 just my lame joke
well M3 can do it but my M1 is currently buried under a buttload of swap 😂😂;great video btw, now i know the limits of these macs when it comes to displays(basicallly none)@@AZisk
Wait...what? You are playing video on multiple screens while running a single core benchmark (of sorts) and claiming that having multiple screens hurts performance? Playing video on a single screen would also hurt performance. I'm not sure if you are joking or actually claiming that this is a valid result? Every process doing anything at all is going to use up memory bandwidth, increase thermal load and of course take cycles. I started to watch, hoping to see if just having a second (and third) monitor plugged in and showing a static image would affect benchmark performance.
JOIN: youtube.com/@azisk/join
Remember 8 gig of ram on Mac is like 32gig ram on pc. At least on price. Sry couldn’t help it 😊
😂
I’m a Mac fan, and I agree. Great comment.
Really has RAM gone up that much? Last I checked, I could get 64GB for the same price as Apple charges for 8GB :)
@@Watchandlearn91 You’re correct, for the $200 Apple charges to go from 8GB to 16GB, you can buy 64GB at street prices, maybe even 96GB.
And RAM is only as fast as the motherboard lets it. Here’s Apple silicon anecdote perspective and if price isn’t a problem then Apple silicone reaps more benefits. Apples 8Gb of RAM vs windows 32 GB of RAM is a comparison similar to: 3 groups of workers with different tasks all sharing and standing around an 8 foot by 8 foot table with an output shelf right behind them… so they have and need a smaller room and less energy. Compared to 3 groups of people with different tasks all sharing a 32 by 32 feet larger table, these when these groups are finished working, they have to walk 20 feet back to their shelves to finish an output. They need more energy and time to do certain things. That’s why I’d rather pay more for Apple.
Nice!!! Yes please compare memory usage internals between Mac & Win ;)
that’s one! who else?
Pleeaaaseee!!! 🤗
I second this!
Please do!
@@AZisk that's a thousand 😅😅.
.
Engagement crew gogogo. I really appreciate the testing done here.
Great tests, appreciate you taking your time to do this 😊❤
Group test of the top docking stations for 3 or 4 external monitors would be awesome
The most surprising part of this is how little performance hit there is from all that extra video memory bandwidth being used.
Near to 200k… Hope you will get by end of this month brother…
Mac vs Windows ram management tests would be awesome to see!!!!
Can’t compare used ram. Not how things work anymore.
@@hanes2 not about used ram, but ram management... there's lots of tests in this regard that can be made!
@@hanes2 like, how does an 8gb,16gb,24gb, etc compare to similar ram sized windows pcs, so we can have some sort of base comparison... heck, even Linux... I don't think there's any out there... not sure though
@@MatheusTavares-od6nwLinux will likely beat you on Mac on RAM management. When working (12-20 Tabs in FF, few vim instances, occasional Go compiles + Spotify + Docker) my systems ram consumption is about 8GB with three 4K monitors connected
and swap file use, since the ssd can't be changed.
Love this, waiting for same test on MacBook Air M3. Website states it only supports 2 external monitors with lid off?!
Although in most cases such a number of monitors is not necessary, but it turned out great, good job.
What about a 16Gb-512 Mb M1 macbook air? I do have one that I've been running for 3 years with a 22" full HD native (through a non-branded hub) and a vertical 17" Aliexpress monitor connected with a Display link interface. A jowel, works super fast and smooth. I'm so happy to have been informed that it's possible to use Displaylink monitors when they were saying (still now with M3 non pro macbook pro) that only one external monitor is possible loool
Hello, I love your vids.
Do you mind sharing a link/name for the laptop screen extender you're using ?
Wonderful video! I’d love to see the differences between macOS and Windows when it comes to RAM management.
Could you make a new video about those portable monitors which you've got hooked up with your Mac. I guess those are new ones from your old video a year ago?
Great test! Thank you. Any reason why you didnt try the displaylink with 2 monitors on the Mac pro M3. I'm really curious if it will work, and if there was lag?
I was waiting for that too long(since you post that photo)❤
This was a very fun video and quite informative. Thank you for sharing.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I would love to see you review the monitor LG 40WP95C with a macbook pro
nice vid, nice setup. whats the little app called u are using to see rpm and temp?
you should try an old mac book pro, retina display late 2013
Thanks for the tests ! Looks like the conclusion is rather DisplayLink => slower macbook
that’s only part of the picture
Been using my basemodel M1 Macbook air 8/256 With 5 Screens in VR (Immersed on Quest 3) for over a year and it is NUTS how well it handles everything.
Yes it slows a little. But I am still astonished how it handles it so well overall.
I will have Edge open with about 10 tabs, YT or Twitch streaming, Discord, WoW or FFXIV, and streaming to Discord. All streaming to my VR headset.
And it works! I will do this for hours. The Air will be HOT AF!!!, but no issues otherwise.
When using it for work (RDP, Config, and SSH sessions. And a YT video) It is smooth as butter zero noticeable hitching at all.
Curious how it would have done in these tests, but I JUST traded in the 3 year old baby last week for an 13" Pro M2 24/1TB that was on sale for $870!!!
Where did you get it at that price?
I used to have multiple monitors but now I just run one really good one. 42 inch 4k 120hz 10bit native OLED (LG c3)
8:30 - Can you try if the lag disappears if you connect the Macbooks together via a Thunderbolt cable? I know iPads use a wired connection for the screen link if you connect them via USB-C.
I only have a 4k and a FHD(4k res) with DisplayLink on M1 Pro but the WindowServer eat the whooping 9.9GB of RAM with 12.8GB of swap. It's indeed slow but monitor is just for dozens of monitoring/stats apps so I can barely bare with it.
You missed the opportunity to use hyperfine to do your benchmark measurements. A sample size of 1 is... not a lot. You're essentially measuring noise, which explains why plugging in more displays sometimes caused speedups
I've got an m1 max 32gb ram Mac running with 3 32inch 4l 144hz monitors and all 3 run very smoothly! One of them has 70w charging and it helps me never use the charger!
Humm there somethings that were left out in the video. If you are not using a native resolution (integer converted resolution), the ram, cpu and gpu usage is going to be a lot bigger. You can optimize this by not using monitores out of the ppi range of 100 - 115 and 200 - 230. Try to use 21/22 inch FHD/4k res monitors, 27 inch QHD/5k res or 32 with 6k res for optimal hardware utilisation and viewing experience.
Can we connect 2 external displays to macbook pro m3 - 16 gigs and 512 gb storage option using one hdmi port and other one with a basic type c hdmi and type c power pass though adapter
Biggest reason I got MBP was 2 external monitors, please do this test with the M3 MBA if you get one, supposed to have dual external monitor support with laptop closed.
0:07 oh my lord, I jumped
me too!
I just get a neck ache when I do portrait mode. You should show how to fix that.
Hey Alex, Could you consider creating a video playing “Resident Evil 4 Remake” from the App Store? I’m particularly interested in seeing how it performs on one of your 4K monitors that supports over 60fps. It would be great to find out the maximum FPS you can achieve at 4K resolution, especially since this game is optimized for Macs. I know this is not the purpose of the channel but oh boy you have everything to do the video 😂
As an FYI, any Mac that has the settings checked for being an AirPlay receiver can be used as an external monitor for another Mac. What is even more surprising is that AirPlay works over a cable, not just WiFi. If you plug a Thunderbolt cable into the receiver Mac, most of your latency will go away.
This really shows how impressive MacOS is with RAM management
Indeed!
Ok but is it related to the number of monitors or the bandwidth required to drive them? I want to see a benchmark with a single UHD@120Hz monitor plugged in.
@AZisk i hope you get to review immersed visor
Video suggestion, Xcode performance + iOS simulator, using M3 Air 8gb RAM vs M3 Air 16gb RAM
what are the LG Monitors you are using?
please do a review of the air m3 for the developer
I definitely want you to make a video on how memory works on MAC!
Actually there’s still a long lasting problem about windowserver ram usage leaked when you connect the mbp or mba to external monitors for a long enough time (like a week).
This is a madness!
Yes, please do a "how memory works on macOS", as I have to explain to many people who complain about having a few tabs open and a couple of apps is pushing 8GB of RAM. That way, I can refer to your video, as I suspect no one believes that Apple pre-fetches cache for faster loading! Then, it releases that cache if the RAM is needed for other processes.
And for those whining about 8GB of RAM filling up. Just restart your tabs or close apps and tabs you are not using to free RAM. That means quitting apps, not just closing the window(s) and also any closed browser tabs (windows). Make sure you have Developer Mode on and then "empty caches". Using Safari can use more RAM than Chrome (still a memory leak issue for some sites like YT - maybe a Google developer issue), but Safari uses less wattage per hour than Chrome. However, you can go into the "Performance" in Chrome settings to reduce that load (Energy Saver). You can also use "Memory Saver", which means websites in tabs in the background will refresh when you return to them. Okay for reading but if you are doing anything you can lose your work. Keep those sites as single Windows to avoid that. This also helps with RAM usage, and that is why 8GB has worked fine for me for what I do (mainly office stuff and research/reading).
Good video, by the way, and I was impressed with the results. Once Snapdragon X Elite arrives, it will be great to see how Qualcomm with Windows handle these same tests!
Windows also prefetches now.
Sidecar and AirPlay requires encoding the display stream as video for the receiving device
Did Apple quietly pull Universal Control (keyboard & mouse sharing) from all M1, M1Pro& M1Max since Feb 2023? They’re only 2 years old!
Displaylink is a cpu hog, especially if you are tying to play a video from youtube on the external monitor. I once noticed that my MBA was thermal throttling, and I was only playing a video.
Can it use one docking station with two monitors? I heard the pro’s are pretty much trash in these terms.
My MacBook pro does not work well with 2550 by 1080 resolution for my lg ultrawide monitor. It was a disappointment
Of course there is a performance hit with displaylink it uses virtual GPUs (vGPU)
On pc with 3 1200p 1 1440p I use 4GB gpu memory just on desktop, madVR 4k video adss another 1.2GB per video open.
Hello @alex. Thanks so much for your content I'm your subscriber since the day 1.
I need you help. I want to have a server for an AI app. So I don't need a monitor. I have a tie budget. Do you recommend a Mac studio with which specification or a windows machine with what specifications? Mainly is to run a quantized llama model, a local chroma db and wishper. Actually I have a MacBook pro M1 and it is not enough
Not even Best Buy has that amount of monitors.
I would of love to have seen a clam shell test, also showing how many displays work in clamshell etc. Great video otherwise :)
Are we getting a m3 air live unboxing? 👀
maybe 🤔
Video how memory works in MacOS and Windows will be great, need some useful link to throw to my friends instead of fighting in holy wars ))))))
You can increase ui scaling to still see with high resolution
yes, that’s in the video - did it for the M2 Max only to see the effect
For coding, I've never needed more than one 1080p monitor (using linux+WMs BTW)
monitor 👍
MORE MONITORS
Adding 8k and up in pixels is adding a ton of pixels to drive.
No no no more monitors Hertz performance.....
Thanks for nice video! 🙏 I would like to see MacBooks performance differences when 5K versus 4K monitors used
“Why is my 16GB machine’s using 15GB of RAM, and I’m not even running anything…well, it’s MacOS 🤷🏻♂️” - wow, that’s what I’m used to hear about Windows LOL!
Now do the same with the nvidia 40 series laptop
I think it's the same with windows. I have a pc for gaming with a 3060ti and games run much better when I only have 1 monitor connected instead of 3.
You see the confusion with Windows users as well when it comes to RAM. People don’t realise the OS will make the best use of the RAM rather than trying to use as little as possible.
That’s what you want it to do
That thumbnail tho, why does it look like you are about to show use the Lamborghini in your garage.
😂
Why was all of this surprising? I don’t get the point. 😁❤️ But entertaining.
Pretty impressive. Try that on Intel based MacBook Pro. Would need fire extinguishers for sure. And ear plugs to muffle the fan noise. lol
GZDooM? I see you.
What is that like $20K worth of laptops?
Welp, no need to ask Can It Run Doom?™️
Also working on single display hurts human performance
Mac OS external display support is garbage. You can't even change the UI scale for non-"retina" displays!! There is some much needed updates to external monitor management for this OS.
I’m getting into day trading and Mac external display support SUCKS! 👎🏼 I can’t tell you how many times I’ve shuffled trying to get things to work with my M2 Ultra.
Link to the "side" displays ?
www.monduo.co
@@AZisk thanks !
Is it just me or does Alex Look like the Main Charakter of “resident alien”?
I have to prove I fit in
Doesn’t tell us how it’s all connected to the MacBook 🤔
said it a couple times. thunderbolt docks (linked in description) for native connectivity, and DisplayLink capable dock for beyond (amzn.to/4a4B55L)
I feel like the m1 and m2 are better than m3 at their peak
MacBook Pro m3 max = 4 displays
MacBook Pro m3 pro + display link = 3 displays
MacBook Pro m3 + display link = 3 displays
MacBook Air xx + display link = 4 displays ....
I discovers today the MacBook Pro m3 pro issue with only 3 displays...
Overall I like the Macbooks. But I just can't stand the shiny keys.
I have a 13 yo Dell XPS and the keys still look like new.
I just don't understand why Apple uses such cheap ABS key caps when the rest of the built is such high quality.
My Windows laptop is running 9 external monitors without breaking a sweat or having a measurable impact on performance.
The 8 primary monitors are all 2560x1600 30 inch and my secondary monitor is a 3840x1100 14 inch
All these are natively connected over HDMI/DisplayPort.
Using displaylink adapters I'm able to connect 4 extra portable monitors at the same time but I haven't got the space to use this without turning my chair.
You do amazing work! Thank you for this. Ps I can’t believe it’s called Windows Server. Microsoft guy here makes feel something everyone I heard that. 😂😂😂😂😂Apple needs a server os just to manage their monitors lol 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 just my lame joke
60hz is disgusting even for coding
good, now do this on a mac with 8 gigs of ram💀💀
that’s in the video, now watch the rest of the video!
He did and it did brilliantly proving that 8GB even doing some pro work may be fine for some.
well M3 can do it but my M1 is currently buried under a buttload of swap 😂😂;great video btw, now i know the limits of these macs when it comes to displays(basicallly none)@@AZisk
Yo, can I be the editor I been editing for 6years
what do you think of this edit?
@@AZiskmid
Wait...what? You are playing video on multiple screens while running a single core benchmark (of sorts) and claiming that having multiple screens hurts performance? Playing video on a single screen would also hurt performance. I'm not sure if you are joking or actually claiming that this is a valid result? Every process doing anything at all is going to use up memory bandwidth, increase thermal load and of course take cycles. I started to watch, hoping to see if just having a second (and third) monitor plugged in and showing a static image would affect benchmark performance.
yes, exactly right
Confirmed it, apple is doing worst products.
First to comment
nice!