I used my old one for office, web browsing, movies mostly and I expect to use the new air for at least 3 or 4 years. should i go with 16g? 
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8 or 16g memory?
- Thread starter shuiwutiancao
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Crank up activity monitor and see what your current memory usage is. Check the memory pressure and swap used. If you have more memory than needed, it will be used for caching disk for improved performance so it isn’t wasted.
Going to have to go against the grain here.
JUST GET THE 16GB.
Even if all you're doing is web browsing / office type productivity the difference is noticeable if you're a heavy user. I know it sounds absurd to say that 8GB of ram "isn't enough," for office/web browsing but... Let's be honest here people, the internet has become a pig as far as resource utilization goes and its only going to get worse from here on out. I can easily make my 2018 13" MBP with 4C/8T and 16GB of ram choke with "just" Safari (lots of tabs) and a few productivity apps open. If you're truly planning to use it for 3-4 years, the price difference over time is chump change and its one of those quality of life things that you'll never regret having done if you do, but certainly might if you don't.
Also get the quad core i5 (but feel free to skip the i7, as its likely only minimally faster) and if you can afford it, get 512GB of internal storage (if you have to choose between RAM and storage though, I say go with the 16GB of ram)
JUST GET THE 16GB.
Even if all you're doing is web browsing / office type productivity the difference is noticeable if you're a heavy user. I know it sounds absurd to say that 8GB of ram "isn't enough," for office/web browsing but... Let's be honest here people, the internet has become a pig as far as resource utilization goes and its only going to get worse from here on out. I can easily make my 2018 13" MBP with 4C/8T and 16GB of ram choke with "just" Safari (lots of tabs) and a few productivity apps open. If you're truly planning to use it for 3-4 years, the price difference over time is chump change and its one of those quality of life things that you'll never regret having done if you do, but certainly might if you don't.
Also get the quad core i5 (but feel free to skip the i7, as its likely only minimally faster) and if you can afford it, get 512GB of internal storage (if you have to choose between RAM and storage though, I say go with the 16GB of ram)
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I have to say, get the 16GB.
Here's why:
In my experience Macs have a much longer useable lifespan than regular PCs. They tend to hold up better. In my case I have a 1st Gen Retina Macbook Pro. Aside from developing one stuck pixel over the years, it still performs admirably and held up physically all these years - since 2012. The only regret I have is I bought the 8GB model - not because I have memory issues, but because eventually it will limit what I want to do.
For $200, I'd do it.
Here's why:
In my experience Macs have a much longer useable lifespan than regular PCs. They tend to hold up better. In my case I have a 1st Gen Retina Macbook Pro. Aside from developing one stuck pixel over the years, it still performs admirably and held up physically all these years - since 2012. The only regret I have is I bought the 8GB model - not because I have memory issues, but because eventually it will limit what I want to do.
For $200, I'd do it.
8Gb. I've had a base spec MBA 2018 since launch, and it's never missed a beat. Using 8Gb – except for well-known memory-intensive tasks – takes some effort; even with eight to ten apps open. (I have twelve apps open at the moment and it's using 3.37Gb + 2.25Gb cached files.)
I doubt it. I use a crappy Dell all in one with 8GB at my job and it handles Chrome just fine with 10 tabs