How well does your MBA operate with 4GB of RAM?

[Boyd01]

Originally Posted by Mak47

I hook it up to an external 1920x1080 display, with the internal open.

Me too, 90% of the time my MBA is on my desktop connected to an old 23" 1920x1200 Apple Cinema Display. I keep the lid open and the internal display brightness cranked all the way down most of the time. When I run the external display with the lid closed (clamshell mode), the fan kicks into high gear too often.

[James Craner]

The MBA runs very well with 4GB of RAM, especially with your expected usage. If you are the kind of person that upgrades your laptop every 2-3 years then 4GB should be ok. If you want to keep it longer than that you may want to increase the memory to ensure it's longevity with potential future OS and App requirements.

[rufhausen]

To follow up on my earlier post, I'm not at 22 days of uptime (no reboot) and my Page Outs is at 515 MB. If I understand that correctly, that's how much data has had to be stored on the SSD because there wasn't enough RAM.
I think that's pretty good for how I've used it: running a LAMP server in the background, running lots to scripts, Photoshop, etc.

[Weerez935]

I have a 2011 air and my wife has a 2010 macbook.

I upgraded her ram to 16 gigs and her hdd to a 128 owc ssd.

My mac air is still faster even though it only has 2 gigs of ram. I constantly have mail, calender, contacts, safari, and iTunes open with no issues or page outs. However when doing audio work I would close your other programs. But logic / protools don't get very ram intensive until you start doubling tracks / adding lots of effects.
The other thing to consider is that 4gb of ram will run almost anything, it just might not be instant. People on here act like it takes 8gb for pages.

You should be fine.

[DisplacedMic]

Originally Posted by Abazigal

What future proof solution? The extra ram is going to earn you less than what you paid for if you do sell it off. The only upside is that you benefit from more ram during this time, assuming you really do have a legitimate need.

i think his logic is that if you can add an extra $50, for example, to your asking price over what you would have been able to ask if you only had 4 then you really only paid $50 for the upgrade...

by definition "future-proofing" isn't ever going to be about getting a return on your investment beyond postponing a future purchase.

[lorcar]

Originally Posted by Miat

For me most of the excess RAM use is from browsers, and a simple quit - reopen of the browser usually fixes that. Running the 'purge' terminal command can also help a lot.

well, i use lots of tabs open at the same time, and this is the reason I am thinking to leave PC/Win and switch to mac
If you say web browsing makes Mac sluggish as well, I might be better stay with PC after all

Also, I am still torn between MBA and rMBP, reading a lot, adn the more I read the more I am confused. Basically, it seems the world is not yet ready for a retina screen and you may see ugly images, and that additional 4G is used by the screen itself rather than improving the overal machine. Not even to mention the Samsung/LG screen lottery

[maatae]

Originally Posted by rufhausen

To follow up on my earlier post, I'm not at 22 days of uptime (no reboot) and my Page Outs is at 515 MB. If I understand that correctly, that's how much data has had to be stored on the SSD because there wasn't enough RAM.
I think that's pretty good for how I've used it: running a LAMP server in the background, running lots to scripts, Photoshop, etc.

I always seem to get large spikes in pageouts (about 500 MB) whenever I transfer files from my external HD (USB 3.0). Are transfers from external drives known to cause that or is there some other process going on that's causing page outs?

[iMacFarlane]

Originally Posted by Cheffy Dave

54 C2D 11" MBA's purchased for me/friends working perfectly,All working perfectly with 4 MB of RAM

Here's a picture of the only computer I ever bought with 4 MB of RAM. When I couldn't install Windows 95 on it, it was time for a new computer!

[kahkityoong]

Originally Posted by PraisiX-windows

I think most people who have written here don't really have a clue.
Not that I do either, but my 2011 mba with 4 gb of ram is fine, I doubt I would feel any difference what so ever, if I had 8 gb ram - yet it would still be nice to have (peace of mind), but it is hardly a necessity.
- If you run several operating systems virtually you might want more, so I've heard at least, but I don't know.

Rubbish. I had a 4GB MacBook Air. Whenever it ran out of RAM (frequently when using Photoshop) it would slow down like a car stalling. Similar to my previous MBP with 4GB. The change going to 8GB RAM was large. If all you are doing is surfing, word processing and emailing, then 4GB probably is fine but you better be sure that there's no chance you will be doing anything more intensive on it.

[stockscalper]

I have no issues with mine. Right now I have Photoshop Elements, Lightroom, Mail, Safari, Scrivener and Pages open. Sometimes I'll even add Aperture to the mix when I'm processing photos. Everything runs very smoothly with no issues.

[David58117]

I didn't notice slowdowns on the 2012 11inch mba with 4 gigs ram.

The ssd makes it much less of an issue than in the past.

[Miat]

Originally Posted by lorcar

If you say web browsing makes Mac sluggish as well, I might be better stay with PC after all

To be clear, it is only extended or heavy browsing with two different browser programs open, when it starts seriously using up the RAM. Have not had any trouble with just one browser open.

It also doesn't make it 'sluggish', because when RAM runs out it starts swapping out RAM work to the SSD, which is still pretty quick.

The reason you don't want that happening is that it wears the SSD faster than necessary, not that it slows the thing down.

If you are worried about it, just get the 8GB version.

[JonLa]

You won't notice it for the day to day writing, web browsing, etc, but your music work will definitely benefit from 8GB of RAM. And as others have said, if you're future proofing and want the machine to stay with you for 4-5 years then the upgrade is a must. Also worth waiting to see if there's a summer update (there has been the last two years running) to the processor.

Interestingly, I mainly use my 2010 Air (with the C2D processor!) for web browsing, writing etc - I have many tabs and apps open all at once and it never crawls. Even iMovie only crawls when it's working with HD sources or generating the final output file. My RAM use is regularly near to 4GB but that doesn't seem to have any bearing on when it's crawling.

[617aircav]

My advice, get the most you can afford. I have 8gb on mine and notice lag with photos.

[shortcrust]

Originally Posted by David58117

I didn't notice slowdowns on the 2012 11inch mba with 4 gigs ram.

The ssd makes it much less of an issue than in the past.

^^^ This! I have a 2011 11" with 4GB and have no complaints. Usually the memory is enough, but even when it's not I can't say I've ever noticed without looking at Activity Monitor.

[Twe Foju]

for the stuffs i do with my MBA? hmm well let's see

mainly opening email for work, browsing, itunes stuffs, music, youtube, photoshop, illustrator and skype

4gb is more than enough

thing is, depends on what you use, if you buy a MBA, the stuffs you do wouldn't be too extreme i supposed, so 4gb for the supposed things you do in MBA is enough i think

oh and i am not a fan of too much multitask, that is why i dont need 8gb of ram

i would mostly just open 2, 3 software max at a time ( mostly being Chrome, Photoshop and Skype )

[BenTrovato]

Runs fantastic with 4 gigs, runs a bit better with 8. If you're actually in a position to be needing that extra 4 gigs of ram, I would probably be looking at a MBP.

[LightOnAHill]

My 2011 11" has 4gb ram and runs great, even when running parallels.

I use it for practicing law, so lots of office apps open at the same time, web browsers, often times a video app to watch police violate the constitution, and music, all without problems. I'm sure that 8gb would make it somewhat faster, but the real bottleneck is the video card.

[sebseb81]

I have a late-2010 MBA with 4 GB of RAM. For what you want to do, it will not be a problem at all.

[mcarling]

I have a 2011 MBA with 4GB and it does quite a bit of swapping to the SSD. If I were buying another MBA today, I would definitely get 8GB.

[jojoba]

I don't have any issues with mine (4GB mid 2011 13"). I usually have lots of apps open, but I work mainly with text (not so much video/photo, no gaming). I'll frequently have Scrivener, Bookends, Evernote, Safari, Postbox, TextExpander, OmniFocus, OmniOutliner and DevonThink Pro open at the same time.