MBA: need your help in choosing specs.

[Zuxor]

God damn facebook - Taking up 2GB on a 2013 Apple Laptop. HAh.

No, seriously... Number 1: Facebook isn't 'real usage'.

Number 2: Why are you using safari?

Number 3: Browser doesn't take 2GB on a 2013 Macbook, especially just running facebook. I mean seriously, anything that a mobile phone can run smoothly shouldn't be brought up in a discussion about modern laptops.

Number 4: You clearly have background apps running that you're not accounting for. RAM isn't a human virus, it's not just going to keep growing and multiplying on its own. It seems to me you're not fully aware of what your RAM is going into.
Number 4.1: It is likely that you're including inactive RAM into your total usage.

Number 5: Why are you using Safari?


Seriously... you're not going to even come close to making thing for half a milisecond that a 4GB Haswell Macbook has trouble running facebook and other similar browser-related contents... and skype.

Well I'm telling my experience, I don't care if you believe it or not. After 1/2 hours of Facebook you too will have at least 1.5gb of memory used by Safari.

I use Safari because I like it. I like clicktoflash that converts all (without exception) youtube videos to HTML5. No Chrome extension can do this. I like that Safari reloads a page when I hit the back button. I just like it more than Chrome or Firefox. Yes, I don't like that it uses so much memory, but well that's a trade off.

I know how RAM works and indeed I had Inactive Memory (800Mb or so), but Inactive Memory sometimes can't be freed because it's reserved for running apps. You should read about that. Yesterday I got page-outs even with 800Mb of inactive memory. Go figure.. I already did.

You need to learn that Safari WILL eat 2Gb of RAM with enough browsing of some websites (even with only 1 or 2 tabs opened). I don't know why, but maybe some bad optimizations.

I have a 11" Air base model, so I'm not here to defend my purchase, I'm here trying to aware this guy of the problems that he may have with 4gb of ram even with ligh/average use. Of course, now we have super fast ssds and most times we can't really tell if the system is using a lot of swapped memory, paging out or not.

 

[DisplacedMic]

You need to learn that Safari WILL eat 2Gb of RAM with enough browsing of some websites (even with only 1 or 2 tabs opened). I don't know why, but maybe some bad optimizations.

definitely something wrong. i opened 5 youtube pages, espn.com, cnn.com, 3 facebook pages with very active walls and then i googled "most memory-intensive websites" and opened several of them

http://www.jimcarey.com
http://www.xixinobanho.org.br
http://www.intel.com/museumofme/en_US/r/index.htm

and safari is at 500mb.

i'm inclined to agree wth Axs on this one. Nobody is saying they don't believe you - but it seems like something is eating up more than its fair share of your RAM and you should look into it. Of course we believe you - that's probably part of why he asked why you are using Safari in the first place.

Just google it, Safari is a notorious memory-hog.
Safari is Apple's answer to internet explorer

after a cursory search, i didn't find any official evidence to support the claim that safari leaks like crazy - but if you can close all your tabs at once and not see a drop in RAM that's a warning sign right there.

the real problem here of course is that none of the browsers are that great anymore...

 

[Zuxor]

As I said, I can open 50 tabs including 20 of them being Facebook and still have Safari to only use 500Mb. The problem is when you start to really use them, when you have like 2 hours of browsing on Facebook or other heavy websites. At some point it starts to consume memory like hell 1.5Gb+.
Cmd+Q solves the problem instantly, so not a big deal.

I like Safari better and I'm fine with the heavy memory eating for now. I can live with that. I cannot "live" without clicktoflash (converts all youtube videos to html5) and the reload after back.

Just, if I was buying a Mac today, I would buy the 8Gb Ram. I'm not a heavy user and still sometimes my mac starts to page-out.

 

[AXs]

Give it a rest people. This guy just isn't going to give up.

Most importantly, @OP - please don't be discouraged by this zuxor guy.

Your browser will not use up 2GB of your RAM! And by god if somehow it does, it's probably time to quit facebook and go outside for a walk!

As I said, 8gb is definitely worth the money for future proofing your machine (future you might want to run windows on parallels)... but it is by no means an essential buy.

Apple isn't going to put a $1000+ product in stores in 2013 that can't do simple browsing with 2 tabs. Relax. You'll be fine.

 

[Shadow-Man4]

Give it a rest people. This guy just isn't going to give up.

Most importantly, @OP - please don't be discouraged by this zuxor guy.

Your browser will not use up 2GB of your RAM! And by god if somehow it does, it's probably time to quit facebook and go outside for a walk!

As I said, 8gb is definitely worth the money for future proofing your machine (future you might want to run windows on parallels)... but it is by no means an essential buy.

Apple isn't going to put a $1000+ product in stores in 2013 that can't do simple browsing with 2 tabs. Relax. You'll be fine.

Thanks for the discussion guys, much appreciated. If my budget allows, I'll get the 8GB, if not then oh well!

 

[Zuxor]

Thanks for the discussion guys, much appreciated. If my budget allows, I'll get the 8GB, if not then oh well!

Yup that's what you should do. You'll be fine with 4gb even if you page-out a little probably it wont be noticable. 8gb will be better of course.

 

[DisplacedMic]

not to mention that this will resolve on its own sooner rather than later anyway - youtube is already moving to html5 only and you can opt in from any of the major browsers...

 

[Mike in Kansas]

Give it a rest people. This guy just isn't going to give up.

Maybe because he is RIGHT...

 

[Zuxor]

not to mention that this will resolve on its own sooner rather than later anyway - youtube is already moving to html5 only and you can opt in from any of the major browsers...

That would be really good. It's on beta for so long I don't understand.

 

[DisplacedMic]

That would be really good. It's on beta for so long I don't understand.

oh it has? that sucks - i figured you probably knew about it...

i also tried looking to see if the other browsers had something similar to the click2flash and it looks like you're right there too - the one for chrome doens't work apparently.

have you seen ths one for FF though?

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That would be really good. It's on beta for so long I don't understand.

btw one other workaround i find is to force quit Safari Web Content
when you open the app again all of your tabs will refresh. this helps with what i'm convinced is memory leaking.

 

[Zuxor]

oh it has? that sucks - i figured you probably knew about it...

i also tried looking to see if the other browsers had something similar to the click2flash and it looks like you're right there too - the one for chrome doens't work apparently.

have you seen ths one for FF though?

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btw one other workaround i find is to force quit Safari Web Content
when you open the app again all of your tabs will refresh. this helps with what i'm convinced is memory leaking.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll try that with Safari if I want to keep all my tabs.

Thanks

 

[arbogast777]

Re: the debate of 4 vs. 8 RAM - isn't Mavericks going to make enough of a difference in how much RAM your Air is using that comparing a Mountain Lion 2013 Air to a Mavericks 2013 Air might be apples and oranges?

 

[DisplacedMic]

Re: the debate of 4 vs. 8 RAM - isn't Mavericks going to make enough of a difference in how much RAM your Air is using that comparing a Mountain Lion 2013 Air to a Mavericks 2013 Air might be apples and oranges?

here's hoping!

 

[ayres]

interesting points made above... i'm a serial tab user, and that's putting it mildly.

often i see posts where the member explains how x number of tabs were opened, and only x mb of ram were used.

i don't find that to be the issue. rather, the issue is when the tabs are left open for days at a time. 'safari web content' will get out of control. and in my experience, safari tames cpu/gpu usage better than firefox and chrome in such instances of prolonged tab use.

i've had ten tabs open for the past few days, and my ram been gobbled up.

 

[Boyd01]

I can only relate my personal experience. I had a 2011 13" i5/4gb/256gb MBA until about two weeks ago. I had the chance to help a friend out by selling it (as a "sweetheart deal"). I was completely happy with it and never felt that 4gb was a real constraint. I ran Logic Pro, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, VectorWorks, MS Office, FileMaker pro and other programs without issue. I even ran Final Cut and Logic at the same time, working on some simple projects and that was fine.

I guess it depends on what you expect though. My previous machine was a 2008 c2d 15" MBP and the 2011 MBA just ran circles around that, so it seemed like a big upgrade to me.

Now my new machine is a 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb MBA. After a lot of thought, I went with the 11. The battery life is still significantly better than my 2011 13" MBA, I don't care about SD cards and the keyboard seems basically the same. I don't mind the smaller screen either - it's a reasonable trade-off for the lighter weight and smaller size. Now the 13" model was still very portable, but when travelling, I like to keep everything as small and light as possible.

Really, most of the time I use the MBA at home with a 23" screen and external keyboard, so the size of the computer itself doesn't matter.

I opted for the 512gb SSD because I do a little audio and video work and had to regularly prune files from the SSD and archive them. I feel like I have a little breathing room now. The 256 will be big enough for most "regular" users. Personally, I think 128 is just too small.

The 4gb vs 8gb argument is tougher. Like I said, I never felt 4gb was a problem before, and it was the maximum that was offered in 2011 anyway. But with the new machine, I wanted to get the top spec.