Whether or not you’re a veteran Mac consumer or a macOS Sequoia beginner, you’ve most likely heard that Macs by no means must be restarted. It’s a perception that goes again to the time when PC and Macs have been represented by completely different actors and let me let you know: It’s a fantasy.
Now, a few of you studying it will roll your eyes and say, “Well, of course.” However there are many MacBook customers who merely shut their lid on the finish of the day and reopen it the following morning. The one time they may take into account a restart is when a macOS replace forces them to.
I do know as a result of I used to be one. I’ve been a Mac consumer since 2000 (Energy Mac G4 Gigabit Ethernet) and have by no means made a behavior of restarting. It was by no means a problem till I obtained my first Apple silicon Mac. Though it had 16GB of RAM, twice that of the laptop computer it changed, I had fixed points, with reminiscence stress inflicting common slowdowns and crashes, and battery life struggling.
I believed possibly it was an M1 subject, being a first-generation chip and all, however the issue endured after I upgraded to an M2 Professional machine a yr later (additionally with 16GB of RAM). So final yr I sprung for a MacBook way more succesful than I wanted: an M3 Max MacBook Professional with 36GB of RAM.
Whereas I take advantage of my MacBook so much, I’m not what you’d name a heavy consumer. I take advantage of Photoshop, Microsoft 365 apps, and Safari with roughly 20 tabs open always. However even on this monster of a machine, which runs very quick more often than not, it struggles to maintain up after a few weeks and not using a restart. It’s most noticeable with the battery, which may fluctuate between hours it doesn’t matter what I’m doing.
Foundry
As you may see within the screenshot above, final week my battery screen-on time averaged between 7-9 hours. This week, that was as much as practically 12 hours. The one distinction? A restart on Sunday evening.
In fact, everyone knows the advantages of restart. IT folks have been suggesting it as a panacea for years and with good cause. It clears out any non permanent junk that your machine has collected, offers apps an opportunity to reset, and kills any caught background processes. However with Apple silicon Macs and particularly MacBooks, the very best cause to restart is RAM.
Whereas Macs again within the day might go months and not using a restart and run simply the identical, as we speak’s fashionable machines are way more complicated. For instance, the unified reminiscence serves each the CPU and the GPU so it’s continually in use. At the same time as I write this, practically 30GB of my system’s 36GB of reminiscence is in use. That’s not a flaw, it’s the way in which macOS works with Apple’s system structure. It’s why the whole lot feels so speedy and easy, however it’s additionally the rationale why issues get slowed down after some time.
And it’s why a restart my Mac as soon as every week or so will go a great distance. Don’t fear, I received’t inform your PC associates.
