Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

8Gb or 16Gb

Martin29

Martin29

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 25, 2010
346
120
Quimper, France
I’m in the market for a new M2 Air.

I’ll be going for 512Gb SSD but wonder whether I should be going for 8 or 16Gb memory.

I use office packages, and do a fair amount of web design work. May have a couple of dozen safari tabs open at any one time. And Pixelmator Pro for image manipulation.

I don’t want to under resource the machine, but equally, if it’s not necessary, I can think of other things to spend the difference on.

Anyone here got any views?
 
16GB, just for the couple of dozen safari tabs. for development, 16GB can also be beneficial.
for the rest, 8GB are good, as long as you don't overdo it with many open apps all the time, or don't have hundreds of RAW image layers in your photo editor
 
  • Like
Reactions: tranceking26 and Misheemee
My memory pressure is regularly around 10, so 8 would no doubt be a hinderance to my workflow. 16 also helps future-proof the machine.
 
I’m one not one to care for benchmarks but trying a 8/512 and officially keeping a 16/512. Tested via black magic noticed the SDD speeds faster. Used 8/512 for like 3-5 days. Been using 16/512 since it arrived this week. Using it the same way. Haven’t seen memory swap yet while on the 8/512 I did. Imma start doing more heavy work on it as next week it should start to go with me to my warehouse office.

8/512
54dd58f8aca4b5e0ac49af2d007ac96d.jpg



16/512
c3da1ded1e355437128091400d763f1a.jpg
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: richard13
I think you'll do fine with 8Gb of RAM as long as a lot of the browser tabs you keep open uses a lot of resources.

I assume the image editing you're doing are for web and don't include massive sizes and layers.
 
If you’re going to go with 16/512 the 14 pro might be a wiser option. Depending on the current sale it’s a difference of 100 to 200 dollars and you get a substantially better screen, more ports etc
 
I wouldn’t buy anything 8gb from Apple again, have a 8/512 24” iMac that does the job, but is half the speed of the 14” MacBook Pro I tried, but is faster than the 8/256 air 2 I also tried.
Throw in no promotion no buy.
 
Thank you all for your responses. I think I already knew what I should be doing before asking the question. But wanted the reassurance I wasn’t wrong. So 16gb it is. And a 512 go storage is ample.

The goalposts have moved though.

A 16/512 M2 Air, here in Europe, will set me back €2,079. But a 14” MacBook Pro, 16/512 M1pro, currently on offer via Amazon is selling for €2112. So for €33, I can get a more powerful machine with a reportedly better display.

I don’t like the all plastic keyboard of the pro, and I prefer the form factor of the Air. Speakers don’t bother me because I use external ones, and I hesitate slightly because the M1pro is slightly older tech. But for €33 I think the decision is rendered easy. I’ll be picking up a pro this week.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ian87w
Martin29 said:
I don’t like the all plastic keyboard of the pro
Click to expand...
When you say all-plastic keyboard of the Pro model, are you referring to the black surround that’s around the key caps? If so, I’m fairly confident that’s actually anodized aluminum; it was stated to be that in either something I read or a podcast I listened to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Martin29
Martin29 said:
Thank you all for your responses. I think I already knew what I should be doing before asking the question. But wanted the reassurance I wasn’t wrong. So 16gb it is. And a 512 go storage is ample.

The goalposts have moved though.

A 16/512 M2 Air, here in Europe, will set me back €2,079. But a 14” MacBook Pro, 16/512 M1pro, currently on offer via Amazon is selling for €2112. So for €33, I can get a more powerful machine with a reportedly better display.

I don’t like the all plastic keyboard of the pro, and I prefer the form factor of the Air. Speakers don’t bother me because I use external ones, and I hesitate slightly because the M1pro is slightly older tech. But for €33 I think the decision is rendered easy. I’ll be picking up a pro this week.
Click to expand...
That's the idea, tempting people to spend more for the Pro. :D
With such little difference, it's even harder to decide. In the end, it's whether portability is important to you or not. The new Macbook Pros are intended to be mobile workstation class of laptops, while the Macbook Air is for typical portability.

If you're going to put it on a desk most of the time, get the Pro. If it's a laptop that goes with you everywhere you go, get the Air.
 
Martin29 said:
Thank you all for your responses. I think I already knew what I should be doing before asking the question. But wanted the reassurance I wasn’t wrong. So 16gb it is. And a 512 go storage is ample.

The goalposts have moved though.

A 16/512 M2 Air, here in Europe, will set me back €2,079. But a 14” MacBook Pro, 16/512 M1pro, currently on offer via Amazon is selling for €2112. So for €33, I can get a more powerful machine with a reportedly better display.

I don’t like the all plastic keyboard of the pro, and I prefer the form factor of the Air. Speakers don’t bother me because I use external ones, and I hesitate slightly because the M1pro is slightly older tech. But for €33 I think the decision is rendered easy. I’ll be picking up a pro this week.
Click to expand...
So you dont care about the speakers, prefer the portability but still went with the thicker and heavier pro? Definitely got swayed by some clickbait videos lol. Apple doesn't make low quality MacBooks, they just make different features and form factors to suit different needs.

The M2 air is faster then the pro for day to day usage because of the boosted clock speed. So things like web browsing, opening apps, using most apps, its actually faster. So unless you're doing something to stress the cpu for long periods or working with heavy multi threaded apps, you're wasting money on something that doesn't even seem to appeal to you lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Benhama
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back