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4gb ram??

Mine is 2011 entry level 11"

I use Parallels/W7 on it too
Never felt a need for more ram, it just blazes along waiting on me 100% of time.

I bought a refurb and got tired of waiting for a 8gig unit to show up so got the 4gig

Now glad I saved the $100

My daily driver is an old '09 MBP w/8gig and it is still runs as good or better as the day I got it.
(confession, I did put in SSD)
It stays home for the heavy lifting and the MBA goes with me everywhere.
 
Mac.User said:
I work in IT and 4GB is enough for me. with my 11in i5 Air I use:
Word
Excel
Chrome 5-10 tabs
Safari with Netflix
Skype
World of Warcraft

I have no problems at all.

----------



No the hardware will support up to 16GB, but Apple will only OFFER what it wants. Saying Apple only SUPPORTS up to 4GB implies that you can add more than 4GB.

Supporting and offering are different terms.
Click to expand...

Please explain how saying it ONLY supports up to 4GB implies you can add more than 4GB??? Do you know the meaning of the word "only"? and "up to"? It means you cannot add more than 4GB. It does not at all imply you can add more than 4. It, in fact, means quite literally that you cannot.


The only thing that's implied here is by you saying Apple will only offer it with 4GB but the hardware supports more is that the end user can go in and add more since you're saying the hardware will support it... But you're using the terms hardware and chipset interchangeably and they are not. The hardware will not support it, there are no DIMM slots to add more memory, and you're not going to be able to go in there and solder your own higher capacity chips, so no, the hardware most certainly does not support it.

The only thing that supports it is the chipset, which is a completely meaningless metric as far as the 2010 MBA is concerned.
 
According to Apple, my MacBook Pro supports 4GB of RAM. I've got 8GiB for about 2 years without a single problem :) ( As 9400M chipset SUPPORTS 8 GiBs! MBX Haswell technically supports upto 32GB AFAIK)
 
meme1255 said:
According to Apple, my MacBook Pro supports 4GB of RAM. I've got 8GiB for about 2 years without a single problem :) ( As 9400M chipset SUPPORTS 8 GiBs! MBX Haswell technically supports upto 32GB AFAIK)
Click to expand...
The Ram in the haswell is soldered in.
 
meme1255 said:
According to Apple, my MacBook Pro supports 4GB of RAM. I've got 8GiB for about 2 years without a single problem :) ( As 9400M chipset SUPPORTS 8 GiBs! MBX Haswell technically supports upto 32GB AFAIK)
Click to expand...

Your MBP has removable modules. The Air does not. It seems there are a lot of folks in this thread who have no clue what it means to have RAM soldered onto the board. And one of them claims to be an IT guy.
 
Meister said:
The Ram in the haswell is soldered in.
Click to expand...

2IS said:
Your MBP has removable modules. The Air does not. It seems there are a lot of folks in this thread who have no clue what it means to have RAM soldered onto the board. And one of them claims to be an IT guy.
Click to expand...

I DO know that, but Apple COULD, IF they WANTED, OFFER 16GB or 32GB RAM OPTION! It's technically possible.
But they don't, because they want to sell more expansive Retinas... :) It's same like with my MacBook, I'm just lucky because I can swap modules...

I've forgotten to quote post I was reacting to....
No the hardware will support up to 16GB, but Apple will only OFFER what it wants. Saying Apple only SUPPORTS up to 4GB implies that you can add more than 4GB.
Click to expand...

But since RAM is soldered, I can only enjoy my last MacBook with changeable RAM...
 
meme1255 said:
I DO know that, but Apple COULD, IF they WANTED, OFFER 16GB or 32GB RAM OPTION! It's technically possible.
But they don't, because they want to sell more expansive Retinas... :) It's same like with my MacBook, I'm just lucky because I can swap modules...
Click to expand...
They solder it in to safe space.vpeople want flat stuff.
 
meme1255 said:
I DO know that, but Apple COULD, IF they WANTED, OFFER 16GB or 32GB RAM OPTION! It's technically possible.
But they don't, because they want to sell more expansive Retinas... :) It's same like with my MacBook, I'm just lucky because I can swap modules...

I've forgotten to quote post I was reacting to....

But since RAM is soldered, I can only enjoy my last MacBook with changeable RAM...
Click to expand...

Apple COULD if they wanted to, give them away, but they don't. Your argument would be like me arguing MBA's are free.

Apple does not offer it, the hardware does not support it, period end of story, and until Apple goes back in time and decides to remanufacture a 2010 MBA with more than 4GB of ram, that's the way it will stay. TO argue against it by virtue of what Apple could have, but didn't do if beyond pointless. It'd down right dumb.
 
Meister said:
he was talking about the 2010 mba. Apple doesnt want 16gb in the 2013 mba and thats why they are not offering it.
Click to expand...

Okay, still: Apple offers only 1/2 of maximum of supported memory - 320M chipset supports 8 GB of RAM for sure, because it's improved 9400M in my MacBook Pro (Apple claims that maximal memory supported is 4 GB, despite of that nVidia (correctly) claims 8 GBs... )
 
meme1255 said:
I'm sorry but I have to disagree: Current MBA's i5 CPU supports up to 16 GB of RAM... I'm sorry for claiming "OR 32 GB option is possible".
Click to expand...

Your disagreeing doesn't change the facts

You have a serious reading comprehension issue in addition to a lack of understanding what terms like "hardware" mean

1) I specifically said 2010 (on more than one occasion)
2) 16GB It is not supported on current models either. Hardware includes the motherboard, as well as everything else that isn't software. If you can't get the ram in there and recognized, it's not supported.

So you're not only talking about a different product, but you're wrong about the product you're talking about as well. Please post up a video of you upgrading the hardware on a current model with 16GB of ram. I'd love to see it. Until then, you're only proving your continued ignorance on the subject.

I fail to understand how you can argue for something even you know you cannot accomplish. That's not even ignorance, that's bordering dangerously close to stupidity.

----------
meme1255 said:
Okay, still: Apple offers only 1/2 of maximum of supported memory - 320M chipset supports 8 GB of RAM for sure, because it's improved 9400M in my MacBook Pro (Apple claims that maximal memory supported is 4 GB, despite of that nVidia (correctly) claims 8 GBs... )
Click to expand...

Save this argument for when the debate is specifically about chipsets. This one isn't and never was, which makes you wrong... Still.
 
meme1255 said:
Okay, still: Apple offers only 1/2 of maximum of supported memory - 320M chipset supports 8 GB of RAM for sure, because it's improved 9400M in my MacBook Pro (Apple claims that maximal memory supported is 4 GB, despite of that nVidia (correctly) claims 8 GBs... )
Click to expand...
Apple restricts users to limit grief.
If you use 16gb on a mba you will get almost no battery life.
I am aware that ram doesnt drain power.
But you need to run so many or such heavy apps to realy use 16gb that they will use up battery in no time.

Its similar to the no-flash limitation they put on the iPad. A lot of people were complaining about that.
Now we know that it helped build a public image about the ipad and noone misses flash.

Same seems to go for ram. Devs need to learn to program ram saving apps.
Users need to learn to close apps to save ram (and therefore battery)

I agree that it should be up to us to decide, but i also have observed that apple seems to have a point.
If you need to run extreme apps you are way better off with a desktop.
 
2IS said:
Your disagreeing doesn't change the facts

You have a serious reading comprehension issue in addition to a lack of understanding what terms like "hardware" mean

1) I specifically said 2010 (on more than one occasion)
2) 16GB It is not supported on current models either. Hardware includes the motherboard, as well as everything else that isn't software. If you can't get the ram in there and recognized, it's not supported.

So you're not only talking about a different product, but you're wrong about the product you're talking about as well. Please post up a video of you upgrading the hardware on a current model with 16GB of ram. I'd love to see it. Until then, you're only proving your continued ignorance on the subject.

I fail to understand how you can argue for something even you know you cannot accomplish. That's not even ignorance, that's bordering dangerously close to stupidity.
Click to expand...

I apologized myself for posting wrong MBA model. Afterwards, I posted 2010 models chipset - 320M, which is based on 9400M chipset, which SUPPORTS 8GB of RAM. I USE it, so I KNOW it is CAPABLE of doing such a thing.

I'm NOT saying that I COULD do it. I'm saying that hardware supports it, BUT Apple never allows to use maximum of hardware capabilities of any Macbook. I don't know reason, I'm just stating that based on my MacBook Pro experience - Apple says that maximum is 4GBs of RAM, although 8GBs works without a issue.

And more RAM consumes more energy, that's certain - It's few Watts, but that still counts. But I think that people who would choose 16 GB RAM option would know WHY they do it.
 
Last edited:
meme1255 said:
And more RAM consumes more energy, that's certain - It's few Watts, but that still counts. But I think that people who would choose 16 GB RAM option would know WHY they do it.
Click to expand...
I am not talking about the watt usage of the ram itself. Multitasking allows for more processes to run simultaniously. The processes will suck the battery empty.
 
meme1255 said:
I apologized myself for posting wrong MBA model. Afterwards, I posted 2010 models chipset - 320M, which is based on 9400M chipset, which SUPPORTS 8GB of RAM. I USE it, so I KNOW it is CAPABLE of doing such a thing.

I'm NOT saying that I COULD do it. I'm saying that hardware supports it, BUT Apple never allows to use maximum of hardware capabilities of any Macbook. I don't know reason, I'm just stating that based on my MacBook Pro experience - Apple says that maximum is 4GBs of RAM, although 8GBs works without a issue.

And more RAM consumes more energy, that's certain - It's few Watts, but that still counts. But I think that people who would choose 16 GB RAM option would know WHY they do it.
Click to expand...

Except the hardware doesn't support it. You're mentioning a specific component (chipset) that does. The debate was never about the chipset alone, and the chipset isn't the only piece of hardware in the MBA. At the end of the day, mincing words isn't going to change the fact that it isn't supported by the hardware. Whether or not it's because Apple intentionally designed it that way doesn't matter, bottom line, it's not supported by the hardware.

Chipset? Sure, but no one is debating that part because it matters not. 4GB is the max you can put in a 2010 MBA even if the chipset can support 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048GB of ram, due to other hardware constraints.

Likewise, 8GB is the max you can put in a current model MBA even if the CPU can support 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, or 2048GB of ram, due to other hardware constraints.

We are talking about machines as a whole and not individual components. If 8GB is going to be feasible, the machine as a WHOLE needs to support it. Having a component or two that can while others prevent it is useless.
 
2IS said:
Please explain how saying it ONLY supports up to 4GB implies you can add more than 4GB??? Do you know the meaning of the word "only"? and "up to"? It means you cannot add more than 4GB. It does not at all imply you can add more than 4. It, in fact, means quite literally that you cannot.


The only thing that's implied here is by you saying Apple will only offer it with 4GB but the hardware supports more is that the end user can go in and add more since you're saying the hardware will support it... But you're using the terms hardware and chipset interchangeably and they are not. The hardware will not support it, there are no DIMM slots to add more memory, and you're not going to be able to go in there and solder your own higher capacity chips, so no, the hardware most certainly does not support it.

The only thing that supports it is the chipset, which is a completely meaningless metric as far as the 2010 MBA is concerned.
Click to expand...

Apple only supports 4GB.

Saying ONLY implies that there are other configurations, or that a person could add RAM that would make it unsupported.
 
Mac.User said:
Apple only supports 4GB.

Saying ONLY implies that there are other configurations, or that a person could add RAM that would make it unsupported.
Click to expand...

I asked for and explanation, not the same incorrect meaning of the word only. Invest in a dictionary.
 
chabig said:
How so? I quoted you exactly. You said, "I can't believe that Apple still insists on sending these units out with a paltry 4GB of RAM!!". Many of the machines go out with 8GB RAM. It's entirely up to the customer how much RAM to purchase. For many (probably most), 4GB is enough. Increasing the standard RAM would raise the price of the machine. Customers that want 8GB buy 8GB. It's really simple.
Click to expand...

It's obvious! BUT...most of the readers, here, want to know why should we pay for 8GB RAM and not stay with 4GB RAM, which basic rules to follow and choose the proper one?...

----------
Mac.User said:
I work in IT and 4GB is enough for me. with my 11in i5 Air I use:
Word
Excel
Chrome 5-10 tabs
Safari with Netflix
Skype
World of Warcraft

I have no problems at all.
Click to expand...


For your workload, I suppose you will never pass usable 3GB RAM (even 2GB RAM is enough for you...). For future use, standard 4GB RAM will help your machine working fine for at least 2-3 years ahead. Someone else to confirm me?
 
ioannis2005gr said:
It's obvious! BUT...most of the readers, here, want to know why should we pay for 8GB RAM and not stay with 4GB RAM, which basic rules to follow and choose the proper one?
Click to expand...

My personal rule is to max out the RAM in any machine I purchase. It's that simple.
 
It's $100 to go from 4GB to 8GB. Everyone ought to at least go that far, in my opinion.
 
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