8GB vs 16GB RAM for Casual Using?

[Sirious]

Hi,
I bought a M3 8GB RAM Air but I was thinking I could exchange it for 16GB... Was not sure if I'd actually need it especially after Apple charges £200 for the upgrade.

I use it for work, just working in web apps and Microsoft Office apps.

I have an m1 iMac from 2021 and use it for the same stuff, maybe a bit more and it performs perfectly fine!

Any advice?

 

[Shirasaki]

Apple AI needs 8GB as minimum. If you don’t care, 8GB is enough for casual use. If you do, then cough up £200 for 16GB so your casual usage is better.

 

[smirking]

8GB is totally fine for everyday computing and general productivity.

The Silicon Macs utilize memory in very dynamic fashion so even when you're low on memory, it just keeps working.

See this thread for more context:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mba-8gb-swapping-so-quickly.2431692/page-3?post=33285552#post-33285552

 

[StoneJack]

8GB is fine. I have had three M chips Macs with 8GB, works very well.

 

[bellflyer14]

If you are just using it for light work, 16gb is not going to be worth the $200. Everyone talks about future proofing, but we've been saying that for years. When is the future proofing going to earn its extra money spent. Unused ram is wasted ram. I went to the Apple Store, loaded up a bunch of browser tabs, opened some apps like pages, etc and had so much unused ram. I couldn't get the memory pressure to spike past the lowest green level. Load up your normal work load on your current 8gb and look at memory pressure in activity monitor. If it is green, even yellow, don't worry about it. IF you even hit red pressure, close something out that you don't need open and carry on. I bet you wouldn't even have a slow down