I have a 2011 13" 128gb core i5 MacBook Air with only 4GB of ram. I feel like 4gb of RAM won't last me too long. Is it possible to upgrade the ram myself to 8gb? And also, my Air never has more than 2.7GB of ram available according to istat pro. I have every application closed with no indicator lights and I did a restart and it can get about 2.5gb of ram available. I have an application called FreeMemory from the app store and it can free up 100-200mb normally. I have 4 tabs in firefox right now, 3 tabs in safari, textwrangler, and textedit and I have almost 1 gb of ram.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
MacBook Air and ram?
- Thread starter geekygeek
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Are you good at taking things apart so well that you can unsolder the current RAM from the motherboard and then solder back in the replacement RAM?
Theoretically it might be possible with the right equipment but extremely unlikely to the average joe and much more likely to do permanent damage.
Lots of hard core geeks around here and your choice of names might be a temptation to some around here. Believe it or not it is possible to use some geeky tools like google search to find out if you can replace ram on a macbook air ... i'm just saying ...
I Think You're Right
That's a step too far in terms of non geek replacement. Sometimes, you have to let the old dog lie.
That's a step too far in terms of non geek replacement. Sometimes, you have to let the old dog lie.
No, the RAM in MBAs is not user-upgradable. Also, there's more to the story than free memory. Inactive memory is also available for apps to use. Take a look at the System Memory tab at the bottom of Activity Monitor to see if you have excessive "page outs", a sign that you may benefit from more RAM.
Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor