Does RAM size matter for VoiceOver users?

By Chamomile, 7 July, 2023

Forum
Apple Hardware and Compatible Accessories

I'm just curious, would RAM size matter as a VoiceOver user on a Mac?

I know it matters on the Windows side - using 16gb, for the most part, is a smoother experience with JAWS and NVDA. I know the Mac is better at optimising RAM, though.

So for someone who may deal with large spreadsheets in Numbers with multiple tabs in Safari, for example, would it matter? Or for someone who values longevity?

Just interested to know everyone's thoughts and experiences :)

Options

Comments

By Tyler on Saturday, July 22, 2023 - 20:23

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

I'm not exactly sure how much it matters to VoiceOver, but for large spreadsheets and multiple browser tabs, the more ram you have, the smoother your experience will likely be. Even if you don't use all that ram in your current use case, the larger amount will be better at accommodating any future increases to your workload.

By roman on Saturday, July 22, 2023 - 20:23

Hello. maybe it will lessen the loading time when you are browsing; however, The voice-over experience is more or less the same. at least when I was using the Mac in the Apple Store.

more experiences would be welcome.

By PaulMartz on Saturday, July 22, 2023 - 20:23

When it comes to memory, the fattest apps tend to be image processing (such as Adobe Photoshop), film and video editing (such as Final Cut), and digital audio workstations (DAWS, such as GarageBand or Logic Pro). The memory footprint for spreadsheets and web browsers is minuscule in comparison and is easily accommodated by even the smallest memory configurations.

I have had a 24GB Mac Pro desktop in the past. I'm currently using an 8GB Mac Mini. VoiceOver performance is about the same. The bottleneck appears to be VoiceOver itself, some inherent aspect of its design and implementation.