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Is MB Air powerful enough for...

E

ebschaf

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 22, 2011
1
0
I currently have a 2008/09 MB Pro with 4GB of RAM running, among other things, Parallels in order to use Powerpoint and Excel. I use them regularly and depend on them but my machine is getting old. My wife has an Air and I love the form factor and weight while traveling, working on the couch, etc.

The challenge or question I have is whether 4GB is enough to really get the kind of performance I'd like. It's not enough on what I'm running now (assuming it's not the only problem, though) as I'm seeing some bogging down and the system stats have shown us that memory might not be high enough. In a perfect world, I'd love a MacBook Air with 6 or even 8GB of RAM but don't know what, if any, plans exist to increase this.

I'm curious as to whether anyone has had solid experience with this and can offer their perspective. I realize I can go 13inch Pro but am hoping that this could work out quite well. Thanks!
 
GGJstudios

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Launch Activity Monitor and look at the System Memory tab at the bottom. If your "page outs" are not significant, you're not maxing out the RAM you currently have. Be aware that the "page outs" are cumulative since your last restart, so to get an accurate picture, restart and track your usage under your normal workload.
 
A

accessoriesguy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 8, 2011
891
0
if you constantly have your pro on low power settings, the macbook air would be a good jump both processor and GPU wise, unless of course you constantly use your pro in high settings, in which case it would be a step down GPU wise.

The air can still handle games (at lower settings), and most other things you may need. So thats one thing.

Aside from better CPU, and GPU (depending on usage settings) you also get a built in SSD, so your hard drive would be increased as well!

If your used to using 4GB of RAM you wont see a difference, but check your activity monitor, as long as you have no or little swipes you should be fine. Remember the faster SSD would make swapping less painful, but still not something you would want.
 
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