How much RAM are you going to get in your new MacBook Air?

[GooseInTheCaboose]

On a Venn diagram, if one circle shows "utilizes 24GB memory" and another shows "working in a library or train," the overlap would be extremely small.

Chances are, memory hungry power users would get far better performance from M1P/16GB with proper cooling, rather than M2/24GB with throttled performance.

M2/24GB is a nice thought exercise, but it doesn't make sense for most people because the price is only $100 away from the base 14-inch MBP.

How many people are running Lightroom or Blender on the train or while flying economy class?

Lots of students and grad students, teachers, etc, creatives who dont fly business. But also, don’t forget foot and bike commuters: the real appeal is that you can take this in your bag from home to your destination on bike or foot.

Small bodied/thin people notice this stuff more than 6 foot 180lb folks as well.

 

[JPack]

Lots of students and grad students, teachers, etc, creatives who dont fly business. But also, don’t forget foot and bike commuters: the real appeal is that you can take this in your bag from home to your destination on bike or foot.

Small bodied/thin people notice this stuff more than 6 foot 180lb folks as well.

Sure, but not 24GB memory, which was the original comment you replied to.

8GB and 16GB make sense, but at 24GB, I bet the overlap is small. If you're using that amount of memory, you're not going to be a student or teacher. You'd be a professional where time matter because it's $.

 

[EugW]

M2/24GB is a nice thought exercise, but it doesn't make sense for most people because the price is only $100 away from the base 14-inch MBP.

Again, that statement is extremely misleading. To get a MacBook Pro with more than 16 GB will cost you a whopping $600 more.

If you only need 16 GB, then you can get a MacBook Air for $1599 with 512 GB SSD.
The MacBook Pro is still $400 more, or 25% more.

However, if you can get a MB Pro on sale, then that changes things of course... until the MBAs go on sale too.

 

[JPack]

Again, that statement is extremely misleading. To get a MacBook Pro with more than 16 GB will cost you a whopping $600 more.

If you only need 16 GB, then you can get a MacBook Air for $1599 with 512 GB SSD.
The MacBook Pro is still $400 more, or 25% more.

However, if you can get a MB Pro on sale, then that changes things of course... until the MBAs go on sale too.

I look at the system from a holistic point of view, comparing M2/24 with M1P/16.

I see the 24GB M2 as a mismatch because those rare times you need that full 24GB to edit ultra-sized panoramas and composites will be extremely limited. 14-inch MBP/16GB will provide better overall performance except in those corner cases where RAM is king, processor doesn't matter, and SSD swap even at 7 GB/sec isn't enough.

If you're a photographer, I think most would trade that 24GB for a much better processor, mini LED, better contrast, black levels, and color accuracy.

 

[jav6454]

In the end, a photographer that needs sustain performance wouldn't pick an MBA as their main machine. Especially considering the thermal constraints of it.

 

[Useless Touchbar]

Well I have MBP 13" with 16GB RAM and at the end of work day it keeps running out of memory when I have 30+ tabs open in Safari, plus Slack, Spotify, VSCode etc. Would extra ram help or is this simply a problem with how the SoC handles memory

 

[jav6454]

Well I have MBP 13" with 16GB RAM and at the end of work day it keeps running out of memory when I have 30+ tabs open in Safari, plus Slack, Spotify, VSCode etc. Would extra ram help or is this simply a problem with how the SoC handles memory

30+ tabs? You need more RAM if you intend to keep those many tabs up and running.

 

[EugW]

If you're a photographer, I think most would trade that 24GB for a much better processor, mini LED, better contrast, black levels, and color accuracy.

Sure. Proper tools for the job. But see the post from @Useless Touchbar below.

BTW, the same argument was made against the 16 GB 12" MacBook. 5 years later a lot of buyers in the same price category would not buy an 8 GB machine. Truth be told, I agree 24 GB is overkill for most MacBook Air buyers. But not all, esp. if it's going to be their main machine, used at home with an external monitor.

The surprising part for me though is just how well Apple's marketing is working. In the poll after 85votes, 41% of the voters would go for 24 GB, vs. 46% for 16 GB vs. 13% 8 GB.

I was expecting something like 20% 24 GB, 50% 16 GB, and 30% 8 GB, and that was accounting for the MacRumors geek bias. Or so I thought. Clearly I was wrong. However, I think upgrade pricing has a lot to do with it. It's hard to spend 33% more on a whim, but it's easy to spend 12% more on a whim. For example, education pricing for 24 GB RAM is only US$180 more than 16 GB.

The other option is the 13" M2 MacBook Pro, but I personally dislike that machine in 2022, and I assume @Useless Touchbar dislikes it too.

Well I have MBP 13" with 16GB RAM and at the end of work day it keeps running out of memory when I have 30+ tabs open in Safari, plus Slack, Spotify, VSCode etc. Would extra ram help or is this simply a problem with how the SoC handles memory

You sound like someone who could benefit from 24 GB, but who doesn't necessarily need top end CPU speed.

 

[shakopeemn]

More likely Apple knows that plenty of people will pay extra for it even though they don't need it. 8 GB is fine for the vast majority of people who will consider a MBA.

That's what they said about PCs a few years ago. 2 GB is fine for the vast majority of people who need a computer. ✌️

 

[Kayakphotos]

Everything is relative. I was using my wife's 2013 rMBP 13 base model with 4GB of RAM for work (I'm a therapist) and it actually was pretty decent.

I upgraded to the m1 Air to do photo editing on the go. I prefer 16GB for my 42 MP images, especially when doing focus stacking and pano's. If I didn't edit photos on my machine I'd be happy with 8 GB of RAM. I generally run 5-7 browser tabs, 1 being youtube.

 

[GooseInTheCaboose]

Sure, but not 24GB memory, which was the original comment you replied to.

8GB and 16GB make sense, but at 24GB, I bet the overlap is small. If you're using that amount of memory, you're not going to be a student or teacher. You'd be a professional where time matter because it's $.

I dunno, I think you can grow out of 16 with excessive tabs in safari, some photo editing, ms office and long documents, big pdfs that were badly composed and keeping lots of crap open. A lot of it depends on your files and those are often not in your control…you might have to work with a 1-2gb pdf “book” someone out together by photographing an original text to scan, etc. Students and teachers have to do a lot of multitasking when creating documents.. OCR software like ABBYY Finereader and photo stacking in photoshop, etc is not unusual. Most folks who need a computer for school also need it for hobbies like photography…

 

[Isamilis]

Base model should serve you, and it still have spare power to do other things. You can check the comparison with intel PC in the WWDC video.

I'm really not a power user. Web, email, music, photos. Might like to dabble in video/audio editing at some point but I don't see it ever being more than a small hobby. Definitely not a Mac gamer.

 

[Isamilis]

4 GB is a big pain to use with a modern OS. With 4 GB, I was sometimes getting serious lag just using MS Office, even way back with High Sierra. Moving to 8 GB solved this.

Some may argue that Office is a bloated mess, but that just reinforces the argument, that enough memory is needed to support that bloat.

Apple’s choice of 8 GB is appropriate as a minimum.


I wouldn’t say vast majority, but yes 8 GB is fine for a lot of users, probably more than some here would suggest. However, I’d say 16 GB is the sweet spot for heavier mainstream users.

I tend to agree that 8gb is for vast majority of MBA users base. It’s not the minimum, but most users (which have light-medium work type) should be fine with 8gb (ie, students, home/non-work usage).

 

[darngooddesign]

If you aren't 100% sure that 8GB is enough, get 16GB.

 

[ddhhddhh2]

I don't care about the nonsense that "a little bit" is always enough. It's all BS!
As long as your budget allows, you should always get the maximum, always. That's the ironclad rule about memory choices, and it's always true. The nonsense that a little bit is enough is as ridiculous as a highway that never needs to be expanded.
It's self-abuse to deliberately choose a small amount of memory for ridiculous reasons when you could have chosen a larger amount.
What's even more ridiculous is that Apple often deliberately doesn't give you a bigger choice, which is why some people are advocating the joke that even a little bit is enough.
Maybe people want to use it for 7-10 years, why not? Advocate "a little" also enough to use the people, you pay?
My colleague's 2012 MBA is still in use until he saw this WWDC MBA and decided to replace it. No one knows when Apple will ship it, but even if he gets it at the end of the year, his MBA will have been in service for 10 years. If he had listened to the jokes about 4G being enough 10 years ago? Ridiculous!
The real situation of those who advocate that "a little" is enough - they use this reason to cover up the fact that "Apple does not give more". Even a long time ago, "you can not add your own" fact. So they have to use the "a little bit is enough" to comfort themselves.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

I don't care about the nonsense that "a little bit" is always enough. It's all BS!
As long as your budget allows, you should always get the maximum, always. That's the ironclad rule about memory choices, and it's always true. The nonsense that a little bit is enough is as ridiculous as a highway that never needs to be expanded.
It's self-abuse to deliberately choose a small amount of memory for ridiculous reasons when you could have chosen a larger amount.
What's even more ridiculous is that Apple often deliberately doesn't give you a bigger choice, which is why some people are advocating the joke that even a little bit is enough.
Maybe people want to use it for 7-10 years, why not? Advocate "a little" also enough to use the people, you pay?
My colleague's 2012 MBA is still in use until he saw this WWDC MBA and decided to replace it. No one knows when Apple will ship it, but even if he gets it at the end of the year, his MBA will have been in service for 10 years. If he had listened to the jokes about 4G being enough 10 years ago? Ridiculous!
The real situation of those who advocate that "a little" is enough - they use this reason to cover up the fact that "Apple does not give more". Even a long time ago, "you can not add your own" fact. So they have to use the "a little bit is enough" to comfort themselves.

I’ve been using a 2012 MBP with 4gb of ram for 10 years. Worked fine. Everyone’s needs are different. Maxing out specs is a colossal waste if money in 90+% of use cases.

 

[DavidChoux]

When I purchased the M1 MBA, I was sure that 8GB would be more than enough. The SSD is so extremely fast in the MBA that there is no way that I could ever notice when it swaps to the disk.

However, my MBA often becomes slow as a 1995 computer whenever I have tons of Safari tabs. For some reason a few adblockers seems to make it even worse, maybe too many rules or something? Or because a few adblockers inject scripts to the site (e.g. YouTube ad blocking)?

For example, when I wake up the MBA, or even just plug in a USB accessory, it can take 2-3 minutes of beach balling because I can even move the mouse.

I don't have any weird apps installed. Almost no apps that open on launch. Very vanilla, just tons of Safari tabs.

So for M2 MBA, I will definitely get 16GB. Or just change the web browser. Still, 8GB is barely enough for Outlook + Teams + MS Office (for users that have to use the MS platform for work).

Well that's a bit worrying for me 😟. I was planning on getting an M1 or M2 to replace my 2016 13" base spec Pro. But when you mention beach balling with a bunch of tabs open..... My Pro hardly ever beach balls. Right now I have 30 Chrome tabs open, eight of which are YouTube, and it's completely smooth. I haven't ever had a beach ball because of Chrome.

Someone please tell me the above user's M1 experience is abnormal.

 

[johannnn]

Well that's a bit worrying for me 😟. I was planning on getting an M1 or M2 to replace my 2016 13" base spec Pro. But when you mention beach balling with a bunch of tabs open..... My Pro hardly ever beach balls. Right now I have 30 Chrome tabs open, eight of which are YouTube, and it's completely smooth. I haven't ever had a beach ball because of Chrome.

Someone please tell me the above user's M1 experience is abnormal.

Well it might very well be Safari that is the culprit. Try loading up 30 YouTube videos in Safari and keep them in the background for a few days, and see if you notice anything. Chrome might just be better at releasing RAM and better at not using resources for background tabs.

Since everyone have Safari installed, it is easy to try I never reboot the machine except for system updates, so it might also be a problem that appears after some days.

 

[Alpha Centauri]

I highly doubt it. 10 years is a long time. I’m about to retire my 10 year old MBP and I’ve never seen anyone with something older than mine.

coming up to 13 yrs now

 

[DavidChoux]

Well it might very well be Safari that is the culprit. Try loading up 30 YouTube videos in Safari and keep them in the background for a few days, and see if you notice anything. Chrome might just be better at releasing RAM and better at not using resources for background tabs.

Since everyone have Safari installed, it is easy to try I never reboot the machine except for system updates, so it might also be a problem that appears after some days.

Ok what's happened to Safari recently? Just opened it for the first time in a while, opened a bunch of webpages, and then got a beach ball for a few seconds when turning on adguard. I can't remember the last time I got a beach ball on Chrome. Safari used to be much smoother than chrome, but it seems like it's the opposite now. I'll do open some more tabs, keep it in the background and open it in a few hours. Let's see what happens.

2016 nTB 13" MBP, Monterrey.

 

[johannnn]

and then got a beach ball for a few seconds when turning on adguard.

Yep, just enabling/disabling a Safari extension causes beachball if you have a lot of tabs open. Doesn't happen at all with Firefox/Chrome.

I don't mind moving to Firefox/Chrome/Edge/Brave/Opera, but I like using iCloud Password as my password manager. I've paid for 1Passwords for several years but stopped when it turned into Electron. I've tried some alternatives but wasn't very happy. And I like how iCloud Password sync to all my Apple machines without the need for a third party tool and background processes. And as far as I know, I can only reach iCloud Passwords from Safari?

Maybe I should just buy the 8GB M2 MBA, and get better at using "tab groups" to get rid of tabs that I want to temporarily save but that I don't need to be opened currently.

 

[Chateaunole-du-Pape]

coming up to 13 yrs now

Same. Mid-2009 MBP. I hardly even touch it anymore.

 

[marstan]

coming up to 13 yrs now

Well, I am still rocking a '08 MBP, so 14+ years. Works fine for web access, email, messaging and remote access (battery is shot though so just run it plugged in). And it has no tap-to-click issues and an easy on the eyes matte screen. The secret to its longevity was upgrading to SSD and 6GB ram. Still, it is time to upgrade.

 

[GooseInTheCaboose]

Well, I am still rocking a '08 MBP, so 14+ years. Works fine for web access, email, messaging and remote access (battery is shot though so just run it plugged in). And it has no tap-to-click issues and an easy on the eyes matte screen. The secret to its longevity was upgrading to SSD and 6GB ram. Still, it is time to upgrade.

I recommend upgrading ram. However, I think intending to keep a computer for a long long time is a poor reason to do so.

As someone who kept a 2014 MBP til now, I dont want to repeat the experience of keeping it so long. I’ll try to make up my mind and upgrade in 2-3ish years this time.

I kept mine so long mostly because I am really indecisive lol, but it sucks to work on despite being 1tb and 16gb ram

 

[marstan]

I recommend upgrading ram. However, I think intending to keep a computer for a long long time is a poor reason to do so.

As someone who kept a 2014 MBP til now, I dont want to repeat the experience of keeping it so long. I’ll try to make up my mind and upgrade in 2-3ish years this time.

I kept mine so long mostly because I am really indecisive lol, but it sucks to work on despite being 1tb and 16gb ram

I never intended to keep the '08 MBP so long. Since I got the Mac Pro tower a year later all my serious computing was done on it and I got a 11" MBA for travel so there became no real need to upgrade the MBP especially since I hate glossy screens.

I do take your point though about keeping machines for a long time going forward. Increasingly, they are becoming obsolete much sooner if not by hardware then by software especially in AppleWorld.