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New M3 Air - 16/512 A stock option w/o CTO - Finally!
- Thread starter Macbookey
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Still not showing up for in-store pick up as of this morning (of 3/8). Curious if stores do have it in stock today
Where are you located? My Apple stores are showing 16gb/512gb 13” and 15” available today. its weird though, the stock models aren’t available; you have to customize the 8gb/512gb model with 16gb of RAM
Thanks for the tip! This worked for me! Very weird!
I am located near the Lake Grove, NY (Smith Haven) store.
After clicking on MacRumors this morning, I notice you can purchase MBA M3 16/512 in store so I pulled the trigger and purchased a midnight MBA M3 16/512 with store pick up this lunchtime. This saves on a CTO delivery of 2 weeks.
Just finished setting it up and well...... it is certainly faster than my MBP 2008 🤣 and my Mac Mini 2019 16/256. I am hoping the MBA will last me 10 years like my old MBP did.
Just finished setting it up and well...... it is certainly faster than my MBP 2008 🤣 and my Mac Mini 2019 16/256. I am hoping the MBA will last me 10 years like my old MBP did.
This is the exact model I got.
I think 16GB is the sweetspot. 8GB is criminal but I think 24GB is probably a waste of money and overkill. 18GB option would be nice I think. I'm going to look for some benchmarks comparing 16 to 24. I think 16GB is plenty for me right now but I do want to keep this for 4+ years. I tried pushing it way harder than I'll ever use it and it never went above 12GB. My use is not necessarily demanding. mostly web browsing (8-10 tabs in safari), streaming youtube/spotify at the same time, and a bunch of apps (~10) open. If the benchmarks show that 24GB offers a decent improvement then I might be tempted to return my 16GB model. If it's anything like the M2 Air then I won't bother and will be perfectly happy with 16GB.
512GB is more than enough for me. I still have maybe 1 or 2 apps to install but I still have 450GB free space lol. I store everything in the cloud or on external drives.
I think 16GB is the sweetspot. 8GB is criminal but I think 24GB is probably a waste of money and overkill. 18GB option would be nice I think. I'm going to look for some benchmarks comparing 16 to 24. I think 16GB is plenty for me right now but I do want to keep this for 4+ years. I tried pushing it way harder than I'll ever use it and it never went above 12GB. My use is not necessarily demanding. mostly web browsing (8-10 tabs in safari), streaming youtube/spotify at the same time, and a bunch of apps (~10) open. If the benchmarks show that 24GB offers a decent improvement then I might be tempted to return my 16GB model. If it's anything like the M2 Air then I won't bother and will be perfectly happy with 16GB.
512GB is more than enough for me. I still have maybe 1 or 2 apps to install but I still have 450GB free space lol. I store everything in the cloud or on external drives.
Shows Apple pretty much acknowledges they know many want 16 and probably need. Easier to sell and still charge us the extra $200.
I will trade in my old 2018 MBA (16GB/256GB) too, and Apple gives the best for their old machines, but charge a bit more than others for the new M3. I'll go for the same specs as the old one I think. As a 2nd Mac I really don't need more. But I'll clear it out before I decided fully.
Wouldnt buy one of these machines without anything less then 16GB. Have a M2 Air w/ 24gb but 13 and 15s. Great machines with 24GB (yeah I will get mashed for saying it - why not buy am MBP?! - because I have a M3 Max 16). Airs are travel machines. No way your going on a plane with a 16 MBP.
A couple of our team have swapped from 14" MBPs to 15" Airs as they have Mac Studios at their desks so for everything else they just want a big screen and a machine that can do a bit of everything while on the move. They both went for 24GB RAM in the Air which pushes the price up, but they prefer the Air form factor over the Pro an just don't need the raw power of a Pro/Max chip.
I know people often say "for an extra £200 you could buy a MBP with more ports, better screen etc", but sometimes people don't want or need those things.
I know people often say "for an extra £200 you could buy a MBP with more ports, better screen etc", but sometimes people don't want or need those things.
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Does 24GB make any difference on the Air?
I've been trying to find benchmarks comparing them.
What do you do that needs the extra 8GB RAM? I've tried to push my Air as hard as I think I'll ever use it and it never goes beyond 12GB and that's including a good chunk of cache (4-5GB mostly) which is nice to have but if the machine was struggling it could be lower. Anyway, it's leaving ~4GB untouched all the time.
I'm just curious if I should've got 24GB. I think 16GB will be plenty but I want to keep this for 4-5 years.
Memory is only going to make a difference if you need that extra memory to do your daily workflow. Your Mac will use all the memory you can throw at it, but in theory, the more memory the better. So if you budget isn't an issue, go for 24GB, but I doubt you'll notice any difference day to day from what you've said.
With the speed of SSDs these days, using swap really isn't an issue for the vast majority of users. Given you already know how much RAM your workflow uses, I'd go with the 16GB model.
With the speed of SSDs these days, using swap really isn't an issue for the vast majority of users. Given you already know how much RAM your workflow uses, I'd go with the 16GB model.
This. I have a machine on my desk that never moves - I need something for on the go. IMO the 15" Air is the better machine for that than the 14 or 16 MBP. It just is, lighter, thinner, no fans etc. I honestly think the 15" MBA is the best machine Apple has ever made for portability with a large ish screen.
MaxTech, I understand that many vocal people on the forum don't care for him. But in answer to 16GB vs 24GB of memory, he gives the advice to NOT upgrade to 24GB. At around 5:45 in the video, he test the Macbook Air 15" M2 with 16GB of memory vs a 24GB version. After loading up the machine in a throttle test, there was no difference in speed between the two. The Macbook Air will throttle long before the need for 24GB. From the video, due to this, the ssd could keep up swapping equal to the speed of the extra RAM.
Not my conclusion, but the video maker's conclusion. I say this as I rarely like to reply due to negative reply's here. Please do not attack me for sharing this link. Thanks.
If you don't mind swapping, even 8GB RAM will do. But if you do care and your needs are more then basic daily usage, 16GB or 24GB RAM, depending on your work/needs is the way to go.
Can anyone be kind enough to do a test with their M2 or M3 MBA with 16GB RAM, which has 30-40 tabs in Safari and/or Brave with YouTube and other heavy pages, while iTunes, a messaging app (like Telegram or WhatsApp), Notes, couple PDFs, and the weather app open in the background. And checking the swap/memory usage afterwards?
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I can, kinda, do this for you.
I have M3 Air with 16GB (15"). I don't have Brave nor will I install it but I'll load up a bunch of Safari tabs. I don't have iTunes or Whatsapp but I can load up as many apps as I possibly can. Would Apple Music/iMessage be good replacement for iTunes/Whatsapp? I'll do Notes/PDF/Weather.
edit: i have this going right now:
safari - 22 tabs - youtube streaming 4K, tiktok, google maps 3d, x/twitter, reddit are the most demanding sites
spotify streaming at highest quality (muted)
mail app open
imessage open
calendar open
notes open
reminders open
photos open
apple maps open
weather open
bitwarden open
apple music open
6 pdfs open
16GB physical memory
12.6-12.9GB used
3.25-3.95GB cached
4.97-5.86GB app memory
2.6-3.9GB wired memory
3.2-3.44GB compressed memory
0 bytes Swapped
Memory pressure is still in the green.
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hope it helps. has helped me with some peace of mind too lol. this is waaay harder than i'll ever use it and i'm surprised to see it not go higher and have the memory pressure stay in green. 16GB is plenty!!
edit: in terms of thermals. my Air was FREEZING to the touch when resting my hands on it typing but i could feel the bottom get a little warm.