Is 24GB RAM overkill for MBA?

[bchreng]

What are your thoughts on having 24GB of RAM or more on the MBA? Other than future-proofing, is it a bit overkill?

I don’t intend to use it for anything other than working with documents, web browsing and editing basic family video and photos. Oh and gaming. Lots and lots of gaming. Mostly classics and stuff from 10+ years ago. No modern AAA stuff.

 

[smirking]

You probably would have been totally fine on only 16 GB and having 24 GB might be more than you really need, but I wouldn't call it overkill. I really like the idea of the 24 GB option. It's a nice compromise.

There are people out there buying 64 GB machines to do things that ran just fine on my 16 GB M1 Pro. That's overkill.

 

[Howard2k]

The more RAM you have, the more RAM your system will use. I went with 24GB because I had 16GB on my M1 Air, and because I was familiar with how that 16GB might be limiting for my usage, and because I wanted to try some local LLM, and Apple Intelligence.

For what you describe, 16GB will almost certiainly be fine.

I prioritized 512GB over 256GB as my first priority, and 24GB over 16B as my second priority, and ended up going with both.

 

[Heinzja]

Comes down all on money.... you can’t have enough Ram or storage! Needing is another thing...
Over the years each generation of Macbook/air/pro was described as the “ultimate” in speed and performance... from 2Gb Ram ssd 60GB starting... you want/desire always more, but needing for using is completely different...
The budget or the max you are willing is a personal decision which no one can take for you...
Is with iPhones the same story... still got one from 2007 and it works fine, original battery etc... making and receiving calls is still the same - is all depend what you want to use it for...

 

[CalMin]

You definitely don't need it. But... if the upgrade cost doesn't bother you then just get it, otherwise you will always wonder "did I get enough RAM?". Just know, that with your stated use case, it will probably never make a perceptible difference in the day-to-day performance of your machine.

You're basically just paying for some added peace of mind.

 

[iHorseHead]

I don't want to start a fight, but I'm still fine with MacBook Air M1 8GB. The only issue I run into is the storage. I have 4GB available and nothing to delete…
I might delete some of my projects but yeah… I don't think 16GB is an overkill.. I guess more RAM is always better. I'm waiting for Apple to drop the support for MBA M1 in order to see if they'll also drop the support for 16GB etc models.

 

[TechRunner]

I wouldn't say it's overkill. My uses (minus the gaming) are similar to yours, and I considered 24GB before settling on 16GB. If it will give you peace of mind, go for it!

 

[Isamilis]

What are your thoughts on having 24GB of RAM or more on the MBA? Other than future-proofing, is it a bit overkill?

I don’t intend to use it for anything other than working with documents, web browsing and editing basic family video and photos. Oh and gaming. Lots and lots of gaming. Mostly classics and stuff from 10+ years ago. No modern AAA stuff.

Definitely overkill. For those uses, even 8gb still sufficient and fast, without any lagging (without Apple Intelligence). Fyi, not so many games in Mac anyway.

 

[theluggage]

What are your thoughts on having 24GB of RAM or more on the MBA? Other than future-proofing, is it a bit overkill?

16GB is under par for a $1000 laptop (and Apples price for 8GB of extra “future proofing” is extortionate) - but it should be more than enough for your uses.

The more RAM you have, the more RAM your system will use.

Having more “spare” RAM to use for caching etc. will obviously still help performance a bit, but probably not enough to justify Apples upgrade prices.

…which is why you need to look at “memory pressure” and not “memory used” in Activity Monitor to see if lack of RAM is a significant problem.

 

[VaZ]

*Rule of Thumb*
Always get the best specs you can afford now because it will simply last longer as the years go by.

 

[CooperSpace]

Comes down all on money.... you can’t have enough Ram or storage! Needing is another thing...
Over the years each generation of Macbook/air/pro was described as the “ultimate” in speed and performance... from 2Gb Ram ssd 60GB starting... you want/desire always more, but needing for using is completely different...
The budget or the max you are willing is a personal decision which no one can take for you...
Is with iPhones the same story... still got one from 2007 and it works fine, original battery etc... making and receiving calls is still the same - is all depend what you want to use it for...

You can have enough ram, it's not wise to invest into 32GB ram for example if you were fine with the old 8GB ram MacBooks even, then 16GB is plenty.

Only buy what you truly need, because the upgrades you do now will barely make a return into resale value, the resale value of the base model apple products is always the highest.

Upgrading your base model MacBook Air every 3 years will improve your experience much more than buying overpriced MacBook Air upgrades that you probably never truly utilize.

 

[mansplains]

Definitely overkill. For those uses, even 8gb still sufficient and fast, without any lagging (without Apple Intelligence). Fyi, not so many games in Mac anyway.

OP probably has games in mind compatible with macOS, there are plenty of classics as mentioned, let alone emulation.

 

[jagooch]

What are your thoughts on having 24GB of RAM or more on the MBA? Other than future-proofing, is it a bit overkill?

I don’t intend to use it for anything other than working with documents, web browsing and editing basic family video and photos. Oh and gaming. Lots and lots of gaming. Mostly classics and stuff from 10+ years ago. No modern AAA stuff.

There is no such thing as overkill. my policy is to always get more than I think I need, because my needs change over time
in ways that I cannot predict.

 

[Howard2k]

Having more “spare” RAM to use for caching etc. will obviously still help performance a bit, but probably not enough to justify Apples upgrade prices.

…which is why you need to look at “memory pressure” and not “memory used” in Activity Monitor to see if lack of RAM is a significant problem.

Totally. And a good option is to reboot on a fairly regular basis to "refresh" all the committed memory. There's that inconvenience and immediate performance hit, but it ensures that the memory is being used effectively.

 

[drrich2]

What are your thoughts on having 24GB of RAM or more on the MBA? Other than future-proofing, is it a bit overkill?

I think future-proofing is the point. For a few years, it may make no perceptible difference in your usage. But if you are one of those people who keeps a Mac 7 to 10 years, over which time app. memory usage may increase, and you may find you like to leave your web browser open with multiple tabs open, then it may make a substantial difference.

On the other hand, if you tend to upgrade to a new Mac every few years, then it makes less sense.

 

[ChrisA]

You definitely don't need it. But... if the upgrade cost doesn't bother you then just get it, otherwise you will always wonder "did I get enough RAM?".

Yes, exactly if you get to little RAM, you would never know and always wonder. In other words it is so umimportent that you will not notice, even if you don't have enough.

Only get more RAM if your usage changes. Perhaps you will want to run a virtual machine with Linux or you want to run an 8 billion parameter LLM locally. Then 24 or 32 GB of RAM is probably what you need. For light use, 8GB works, although people now recommend 16GB

 

[AL2TEACH]

24GB of RAM or more on the MBA?

Just dandy but sad that Apple is into price gouging.

 

[iHorseHead]

16GB is under par for a $1000 laptop (and Apples price for 8GB of extra “future proofing” is extortionate) - but it should be more than enough for your uses.


Having more “spare” RAM to use for caching etc. will obviously still help performance a bit, but probably not enough to justify Apples upgrade prices.

…which is why you need to look at “memory pressure” and not “memory used” in Activity Monitor to see if lack of RAM is a significant problem.

What do people mean by future proofing? Apple drops the OS support based on the processor, not RAM.
You could have 16GB of RAM and PowerMac g5 and 'future proof' it, yet it still supported only Tiger and Leopard etc.

 

[Howard2k]

What do people mean by future proofing? Apple drops the OS support based on the processor, not RAM.
You could have 16GB of RAM and PowerMac g5 and 'future proof' it, yet it still supported only Tiger and Leopard etc.

It's because your requirements might change. You might find that today you're not doing any photography stuff but tomorrow you get a new phone/camera or meet someone who is into that and then that's you. Or maybe you were into that but you were using a work laptop and now you're going freelance. An increase in headroom for capabilities of the device.

 

[iHorseHead]

It's because your requirements might change. You might find that today you're not doing any photography stuff but tomorrow you get a new phone/camera or meet someone who is into that and then that's you. Or maybe you were into that but you were using a work laptop and now you're going freelance. An increase in headroom for capabilities of the device.

It really doesn't change. You can do photography and everything even on 8GB of RAM though. I've made several apps on 8GB of RAM and even a game on Unity.
By the time your requirements change Apple has already dropped the support.

Why not get a PC then with 128GB of RAM and 4TB SSD? Your requirements might change.
Why not get a PC that supports mobile data? Your requirements can change. Why go Mac at all? Your requirements might change. What if you start freelancing and your customer tells you to use Windows only apps, like most of them do.

 

[drrich2]

What do people mean by future proofing?

Real world example. Back around 2019 or so, maybe 2020, I had an old Mac die that I used for entertainment in my downtime when on call for a job. Wanted a replacement, but not too expensive. B&H Photo & Video had 2017 12" Intel MacBooks with 8 gig RAM and 512 gig SSD on sale around a grand. Bought one. Worked fine, and very compact for travel.

Past couple of years, it's gotten slow unless I don't keep multiple app.s open. If I want to do Apple Mail, or Safari with some tables open, okay, but remember to close what I'm not using or performance can really bog down.

If it had 16 gig RAM, that might not be such a problem.

My main system now is an M4Pro Mac Mini, so the MacBook is mainly an accessory for travel along with my iPad Pro, but if it were my main system, extra RAM might make the difference between squeezing an extra year or so out of it.

Software tends to get larger and more demanding over time, and you can't add RAM later to an Apple Silicon based Mac.

 

[Plutonius]

What are your thoughts on having 24GB of RAM or more on the MBA? Other than future-proofing, is it a bit overkill?

I don’t intend to use it for anything other than working with documents, web browsing and editing basic family video and photos. Oh and gaming. Lots and lots of gaming. Mostly classics and stuff from 10+ years ago. No modern AAA stuff.

I got 24GB in my MBA.

Who knows if it will be overkill but I usually own my Macs for many years and I wasn't concerned about paying for the upgrade.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

You can have enough ram, it's not wise to invest into 32GB ram for example if you were fine with the old 8GB ram MacBooks even, then 16GB is plenty.

Only buy what you truly need, because the upgrades you do now will barely make a return into resale value, the resale value of the base model apple products is always the highest.

Upgrading your base model MacBook Air every 3 years will improve your experience much more than buying overpriced MacBook Air upgrades that you probably never truly utilize.

Yours is one opinion. I disagree. Thinking past tense for the life cycle of a new box that only will be used in the future is wrong-headed thinking.
- RAM demands have always increased every year.
- Apple's new Unified Memory Architecture makes RAM even more important.
- Apps and likely the OS will be taking more advantage of AI which also will make RAM more important.

You are correct that buying Apple's lowest end laptop very 3 years is one approach. However I disagree with the idea that "base model MacBook Air every 3 years will improve your experience."

 

[iHorseHead]

Real world example. Back around 2019 or so, maybe 2020, I had an old Mac die that I used for entertainment in my downtime when on call for a job. Wanted a replacement, but not too expensive. B&H Photo & Video had 2017 12" Intel MacBooks with 8 gig RAM and 512 gig SSD on sale around a grand. Bought one. Worked fine, and very compact for travel.

Past couple of years, it's gotten slow unless I don't keep multiple app.s open. If I want to do Apple Mail, or Safari with some tables open, okay, but remember to close what I'm not using or performance can really bog down.

If it had 16 gig RAM, that might not be such a problem.

My main system now is an M4Pro Mac Mini, so the MacBook is mainly an accessory for travel along with my iPad Pro, but if it were my main system, extra RAM might make the difference between squeezing an extra year or so out of it.

Software tends to get larger and more demanding over time, and you can't add RAM later to an Apple Silicon based Mac.

Thank you for bringing an actual example. For the record, my MacBook Pro mid 2010 had 16GB of RAM and it was still slow and awful. Mainly due to CPU.

 

[Heinzja]

I am in my 70+ years of live and remember like yesterday:

1MB Ram and a Floppy drive... (1989-1991) (US$7,300 (equivalent to $18,500 in 2024)

That was according Apple’s Advertising the Ultimate....

So “Overkill” didn’t exist until (except for the Price?)


What didn’t change over the time is the usage for it ((still “Dear Madam and Sir...” - letters and now TicToc with dancing Cats or whatever...

What did change is the Price... the most expensive MacBook Pro is still peanuts to the old prices and we can be happy that we can dream on with more Ram on TB SSD’s -few years more and we are talking RAM TB!