For people who are going for graphics performance...

[Calot]

I feel the same way as well. I'm on the 1,1 MacBook with 1 GB too (used to have 2 GB before one of the RAM slots died). While it takes some patience when running a lot of things at once, it's certainly still usable. It's hard to imagine 8 GB being a necessity. Maybe as new software is released, 4 GB will start to feel limited. Such was the case for the while I owned a 2008 1,1 MacBook Air. I felt like 2 GB was barely enough for Lion, but it may have just been that particular Mac.

I don't play PC games that much and would probably stick to older, less demanding games. Does anyone have gaming benchmarks of the 2012 MacBook Air with 4 GB vs. 8 GB?

HOLY JESUS!

PEOPLE! How can you argue so much about spending 100 bucks on doubling the RAM on something you will use FOR YEARS. MY GOD 100 bucks is what I spend every month on COFFEE!

It is RIDICULOUSLY cheap for what you're getting; double the ram, 40% increase on vRAM.

DO IT, ALREADY.

 

[DVD9]

HOLY JESUS!

PEOPLE! How can you argue so much about spending 100 bucks on doubling the RAM on something you will use FOR YEARS. MY GOD 100 bucks is what I spend every month on COFFEE!

It is RIDICULOUSLY cheap for what you're getting; double the ram, 40% increase on vRAM.

DO IT, ALREADY.

Well easy to see why you're an Apple fan. I'm a guy who drinks at least six cups of black coffee a day, sometimes ten and I spend a hundred bucks on coffee every six months.

I suppose you have a Retina iPad in all 20 rooms of your "house" and bought two Retina Maxbooks the day they were released.

 

[shamash]

HOLY JESUS!

PEOPLE! How can you argue so much about spending 100 bucks on doubling the RAM on something you will use FOR YEARS. MY GOD 100 bucks is what I spend every month on COFFEE!

It is RIDICULOUSLY cheap for what you're getting; double the ram, 40% increase on vRAM.

DO IT, ALREADY.

The thing is, it's more of a discount than just $100 when factoring in the current best buy deal for students. You can get an $899 open box or $999 new 4gig, in comparison to the Apple EDU store being 1239 for the 8gig ram with a free $100 giftcard, that I would just have to hope I could sell. This also means having to try to scrounge up that extra bit of money. Right now I'm budgeting on the $899 one being perfect, the $999 one being alright, and the $1239 one being a bit harder to come up with the money for. Not everyone spends $100 a month on coffee, I grind my own beans and make my own.

 

[Calot]

Well easy to see why you're an Apple fan. I'm a guy who drinks at least six cups of black coffee a day, sometimes ten and I spend a hundred bucks on coffee every six months.

I suppose you have a Retina iPad in all 20 rooms of your "house" and bought two Retina Maxbooks the day they were released.

LOL. Close, but not quite. I do save money, and do not spend any on drugs, alcohol or hookers.

 

[DVD9]

LOL. Close, but not quite. I do save money, and do not spend any on drugs, alcohol or hookers.

After I drink my coffee I might think about drugs alcohol and hookers, but I don't have any money to buy them.

It could be a lot worse though. At least I'm sitting in my house, even If the TV is a 36" square from 2004. A lot of Americans are in tents or just on a sidewalk.

Enjoy your 8GB of RAM.

 

[Ksh]

116 MBs and twice the RAM, is like a 40% increase in power, just saying.

I'm sorry but as computer science cannot let pass that wrong statement
Increasing RAM just let more processes run at same time but never improves the computational processing speed...so power will be exactly the same

 

[MR.BUTTON]

so,if i get 16gb RAM in rMBP, i will have 1gb of vRAM. that's the same with the discrete graphics! crazy!

 

[filmbuff]

I'm sorry but as computer science cannot let pass that wrong statement
Increasing RAM just let more processes run at same time but never improves the computational processing speed...so power will be exactly the same

I'm sorry but knowing physics I can't let that statement pass "power" is a newton*meter/second measured in Watts. A higher spec'd MBA will take more power to run than a regular one, but not 40% more

 

[Ksh]

I'm sorry but knowing physics I can't let that statement pass "power" is a newton*meter/second measured in Watts. A higher spec'd MBA will take more power to run than a regular one, but not 40% more

Haha Oh my god. Nobody is talking about power from physics!

Just releated with computer science "power" means "processing capacity" or "computational processing speed" which does not increase at all from upgrading RAM... please be serious and mature

Regards!

 

[Calot]

I'm sorry but as computer science cannot let pass that wrong statement
Increasing RAM just let more processes run at same time but never improves the computational processing speed...so power will be exactly the same

More RAM = more vRAM = things are smoother (in the case of hd 4000) I can vouch for that, as my brother has a 4GB hd4000 air.

 

[twintin]

The main reason I went with 8GB is for upgradability. Down the road, who knows how resource hungry updates to the OS will get.

By that time I'm sure your device will not longer be supported by Apple and you have to spend money on a new device (which you of course will max out, just to be on the safe side).

 

[LYFK]

If I wanted a windows computer I would keep my 17" acer beast gaming machine, however, I can't really handle the windows anymore.

Also, I wouldn't want an 11" screen or a HDD in lieu of an SSD for that price.

I'm not a huge gamer. I play TF2, wow, diablo3, and a few other things occasionally. It's just the way everyone on this forum talks about it, not having 8gb of ram will make their computer unusable in 2 years.

I'm starting to just not believe it, seeing as I'm on a 2006 Macbook 1,1 with 1gb ram at the moment.

Glad to hear you're invested in having a MAC. I paid I think $700 for 4GB of RAM from Apple for my 2007MBP, what a costly mistake that was, but it sure seemed like a lot of memory at the time!

I think the SSD and USB3 are more important upgrades than memory. If bumping the memory is out of your budget, seriously go for the Best Buy sale.

 

[plucky duck]

Glad to hear you're invested in having a MAC. I paid I think $700 for 4GB of RAM from Apple for my 2007MBP, what a costly mistake that was, but it sure seemed like a lot of memory at the time!

I think the SSD and USB3 are more important upgrades than memory. If bumping the memory is out of your budget, seriously go for the Best Buy sale.

Ouch, seriously, $700 for 4GB of ram? Wow. Well, don't feel too bad, I remember paying $50/MB for 4MB of ram for my IBM PS/1 486 SX/33 computer

 

[shamash]

Glad to hear you're invested in having a MAC. I paid I think $700 for 4GB of RAM from Apple for my 2007MBP, what a costly mistake that was, but it sure seemed like a lot of memory at the time!

I think the SSD and USB3 are more important upgrades than memory. If bumping the memory is out of your budget, seriously go for the Best Buy sale.

One of my macs, I paid apple to give it 2gb instead of 1gb. It was like $170. hahahaha

 

[Mike in Kansas]

Haha Oh my god. Nobody is talking about power from physics!

Just releated with computer science "power" means "processing capacity" or "computational processing speed" which does not increase at all from upgrading RAM... please be serious and mature

Regards!

You may not be increasing processing speed when adding RAM, but you are surely reducing page outs, which increases effective speed. Even though you are paging out to an SSD, you are still increasing the overall time the machine takes to complete a given task. If you don't believe me, fire up Photoshop or Aperture, use a lot of brushes, and see how long it takes to render the image. Now take half your RAM out, repeat that exercise, and see how much longer it takes. You decrease your effective speed by taking out RAM.

 

[archurban]

title itself is funny. how can you expect graphic performance from MBA? it is equipped only intel shaddy integrate (shared) graphic (HD 4000 for new one or HD 3000 for old one). MBA is just perfect to work daily routine (surfing, photo editing, MS office, watching videos, and so on). it's originally even not meant to be gaming no matter what. I've never thought about graphic performance since I knew the fact & its limitation.