How well does Classic run on an 8GB Mac?

Question

I'm thinking about purchasing a used M1 MacBook Pro with only 8GB of RAM for use with Quicken Classic (latest version).  Assume that I'm running the most recent version of macOS.  How well does Quicken run on a computer like this?  (Assume no other large apps running concurrently.)  If it's going to be slow and feel unresponsive, I'd rather know that now rather than finding out afterward.

Thanks very much!

Dave

Jon · Accepted Answer

It's been along time since I had a Mac with only 4GB of memory, but I have recently run Quicken for a bit in a virtual machine with only 4GB and it didn't complain about it. Quicken's system requirements for Mac Classic don't specify a minimum amount of memory.

Performance was so-so but so was the performance of every other app running in the VM so Quicken didn't seem unusually slow under the circumstances.

Edit: How did I misread that as 4GB? Oh well.

jacobs · Accepted Answer

8GB on a Mac will run Quicken quite well.

In terms of buying an M1 Mac, it should serve you well for the next few years. Just be aware that Apple does obsolete older Macs every year or two. This year's forthcoming macOS 27 will be the first which doesn't run in Intel Macs. The next oldest generation of Macs are the M1 Macs introduced starting in 2020. There's been no hint of which future OS will be the last for M1 Macs; just know it's inevitable in a few years.  You'll be able to continue with that OS for another year or two, but there will come the day when you can't update your macOS and Quicken will require a newer OS to run. But I'd guess that day is likely at least 3-4 years away, and maybe more.