Is 24GB RAM overkill for MBA?

[ResPublica]

I think better to futureproof than not.
I bought 16gb M1 and it was max at the time. If I was shopping now I would have definitely went for 24 or even more.

After all they are steadily developing AI, who knows what they bring with new updates! Imagine having fully-standalone internet-independent AI terminal, it will definitely use all the available ram.

But on the other hand there is also a budget, if 24gb doesn’t feel bad on wallet - go for it, but if you don’t want to overspend maybe lean for 16

I bought a MBA M1 with 8GB RAM and for my state of mind, I should have bought 16GB RAM. On the other hand, I have objectively never felt any serious slowdowns.

Futureproofing is not really something which works for most people. Spending $250 on an overprized Apple upgrade is in itself a bad idea if you don't need it. And you may need it in a couple of years, but who knows? Nobody can say how Macs will develop in the future. Perhaps your processor will be left behind before any need for more than 16GB RAM arizes. Spending now to futureproof a product which will have lost most of its value in the future anyway, is often a bad idea. In many cases, it is better to spend that money when you invest in a new machine. The reason is that Apple taxes upgrades too heavily.

Now it is good for the environment when we try to hold on to our machines for as long as possible, but it may not make quite as much (financial) sense as many people believe.

 

[tstafford]

I rebooted this AM (like eight hours ago) and now here's a shot of my memory usage.

 

[uacd]

I bought a MBA M1 with 8GB RAM and for my state of mind, I should have bought 16GB RAM. On the other hand, I have objectively never felt any serious slowdowns.

Futureproofing is not really something which works for most people. Spending $250 on an overprized Apple upgrade is in itself a bad idea if you don't need it. And you might need it in a couple of years, but who knows? Nobody can say how Macs will develop in the future. Perhaps your processor will be left behind before any need for more than 16GB RAM arizes. Spending now to futureproof a product which will have lost most of its value in the future anyway, is often a bad idea. In many cases, it is better to spend that money when you invest in a new machine. The reason is that Apple taxes upgrades too heavily.

Now it is good for the environment when we try to hold on to our machines for as long as possible, but it may not make quite as much (financial) sense as many people believe.

I agree but honestly am not eager to buy new Macbook every 3 years🤣🤣

My iMac 2012 still works and serves me well. I have TRIPLE BOOTED it with three different macOS versions. It still runs Logic perfectly, albeit older version. I occasionally play games on it on Windows XP VM.

And I really hope I can push at least 10 years from this M1, it was quite an investment… 512/16. I really hope even when it will no longer be useful battery won’t pillow so I will be able to use it plugged.

But ARM looks promising to be honest. M1 is still supported by every app and even Apple Intelligence works without any issues. In fact, more ram would only be a plus.

Also I guess we are no more in same economy to offer frequent computer replacements😃 Pay 2000$ once in 5-10 years or 1700 every 3 years? I would go for the first option!

 

[iHorseHead]

I think better to futureproof than not.
I bought 16gb M1 and it was max at the time. If I was shopping now I would have definitely went for 24 or even more.

After all they are steadily developing AI, who knows what they bring with new updates! Imagine having fully-standalone internet-independent AI terminal, it will definitely use all the available ram.

But on the other hand there is also a budget, if 24gb doesn’t feel bad on wallet - go for it, but if you don’t want to overspend maybe lean for 16

Why not buy something better?

I mean it has 192GB of RAM. It's future proofing. I bet Microsoft Teams would still lag on it.

 

[drrich2]

And I really hope I can push at least 10 years from this M1, it was quite an investment… 512/16. I really hope even when it will no longer be useful battery won’t pillow so I will be able to use it plugged.

The problem is by then you'll likely won't be getting security updates, at least within installing MacOS updates Apple doesn't support. Plus by that time, the base RAM allotment for now will likely be...strained. That said, it's true some people have used a given Mac a decade+.

Also I guess we are no more in same economy to offer frequent computer replacements😃 Pay 2000$ once in 5-10 years or 1700 every 3 years? I would go for the first option!

Most people not using work-provided Macs probably aren't swapping $1,700 Macs out every 3 years, unless it's making them money and they're straining it. The usual argument tends to be something more along the lines of this:

1.) Base RAM (16 gig now) and 256 (preferably 512) gig SSD, and replace at the 3 or 4 year point if it's no longer working smoothly for your workflow. If we ignore sales tax and sales (or assume they largely cancel each other out) and AppleCare+, a 14" M4 (not Pro or Max) MacBook Pro is roughly $1,600 with 16 gig RAM/512 gig SSD. Question is, how many people 'settling' for a base M4 with Thunderbolt 4 (not 5) would go for that, instead of saving money with a MacBook Air (or Mac Mini) or paying more for M4 Pro with TB5? The same system with M4Pro and TB5 with 24 gig RAM/512 gig SSD is around $2,000.

Or:

2.) Pay through the nose for up gunned spec.s - at least 24 gig RAM, maybe 32 or 48 depending on what M4 series you're selecting from, and at least 512 gig SSD if not 1 or 2 terabyte, and figure to upgrade at the 7 or 8 year point, maybe longer if it's still going strong.

If I were shopping for a 14" MacBook Pro, I'd pay that $400 if practical.

But the upgrade cost hurts more when the base system price is low - like with Mac Minis or MacBook Airs.

Here's a thought experiment that might help. As much mutual funds, past performance is no guarantee of future results, and it's the best predictor we have.

Let's say back in 2020 you bought a MacBook Air, M1 series, and took one of 2 paths:

1.) Base 8 gig RAM, 256 gig SSD, kept 4 years and in 2024 replaced with an M4 MBA with 16 gig RAM and 256 or 512 gig SSD.

Or:

2.) You bought an M1 Pro MBA with 16 gig RAM (most you could get), and 1 terabyte SSD. And you're still using it, 4-1/2 years later, and plan to use it 3 more years.

The comparison is skewed a little because with the M4 series and upcoming Apple Intelligence, Apple finally caved in and bumped base RAM from 8 to 16 gig. Even so, in this particular comparison, I think option 2.) is probably the best overall user experience in value and power over time for the average home user.

That said, I do some future proofing. I don't like pressure to upgrade in 3-4 years. I ditched my 2017 27" iMac for an M4Pro Mac Mini because the Fusion drive went out, running off an external SSD was mostly okay but I got frequent kernel panics, and some Mac software is only related for Apple Silicon, not Intel-based Macs. That was a 7-year run; performance was still decent (disclaimer: it had 32 gig RAM).

Personally, I don't plan to run my primary personal computer over 8 years or so; security update concerns, lack of official support for the latest MacOS, software bloat bogging down performance, and in my past experience old computers (Windows and Mac) can eventually get 'glitchy' - weird slowdowns, etc...

 

[uacd]

Why not buy something better?
View attachment 2516368
I mean it has 192GB of RAM. It's future proofing. I bet Microsoft Teams would still lag on it.

This goofy “AI inside” label🤣🤣🤣
It almost like a meme when “Intel inside” was photoshopped to whatever exists on Earth.

While technically it is good on paper, I have quite an experience with Windows laptops and… they are good only on paper. Build quality is trash, fans constantly spin at highest speed possible and are very irritating (especially compared to my completely silent Macbook Air), yet these fans fail to cool laptop efficiently so it is still warm to touch, as well as Windows… while 10 was bearable 11 is honestly dumpster fire, unusable without tweaking (for example installing Open Shell and explorer tweaker)

 

[smirking]

This goofy “AI inside” label🤣🤣🤣

I'm not sure if that's a feature or a threat. Getting "Beware of Dog" vibes from that.

 

[iHorseHead]

This goofy “AI inside” label🤣🤣🤣
It almost like a meme when “Intel inside” was photoshopped to whatever exists on Earth.

While technically it is good on paper, I have quite an experience with Windows laptops and… they are good only on paper. Build quality is trash, fans constantly spin at highest speed possible and are very irritating (especially compared to my completely silent Macbook Air), yet these fans fail to cool laptop efficiently so it is still warm to touch, as well as Windows… while 10 was bearable 11 is honestly dumpster fire, unusable without tweaking (for example installing Open Shell and explorer tweaker)

I have better experience with Windows PCs than with a Mac. I'm not kidding. My work laptop is HP Elitebook (Usually HP laptops suck, but not this one). It's quiet, build quality is also fine and Windows 11 works a lot better than macOS. Especially the window management and it's snappy and fast. I use Windows 11 Enterprise.

There are also many Linux distros so idk. I'm also thinking moving back to Windows and thinking about Surface. I find macOS horrible. Even Android 9 is better than the current version of iOS. Apple can't even make an alarm clock. How difficult it is to show me how many hours I have left to sleep when I set an alarm? How difficult it would be for Apple to implement a feature to archive messages etc…?

You should give Windows laptops another shot, but look carefully what you buy first. I also think that Windows 11 is a lot better than 10. To each their own I guess. I am disappointed with Apple though. Not all Windows PCs are horrible and not all Android phones are horrible and Windows is just fine. It has a better window management for sure and I haven't had any issues.

 

[raythompsontn]

I have quite an experience with Windows laptops and… they are good only on paper. Build quality is trash, fans constantly spin at highest speed possible and are very irritating (especially compared to my completely silent Macbook Air)

My Surface laptop had no fans, was completely silent, build quality was excellent and performed quite well. As good as my M2 Mac. The Dell laptops are excellent quality. I don’t know where you got your Windows machines but it is certainly not representative of the top end machines. A $500.00 HP from HSN is not a valid comparison to a $1,500 Mac.

 

[uacd]

My Surface laptop had no fans, was completely silent, build quality was excellent and performed quite well. As good as my M2 Mac. The Dell laptops are excellent quality. I don’t know where you got your Windows machines but it is certainly not representative of the top end machines. A $500.00 HP from HSN is not a valid comparison to a $1,500 Mac.

Didn’t buy surface for one single reason: PWM. The screens flicker, at least in the model I was interested in. And I barely can use my iPhone to get thru the day without PWM eye strain.

And Dells are overpriced tbh. I only had Asus and Dell in my past Windows life. Dell had poor screen quality, very dim display. I expected much more for 1k I paid for it back in the days, it was laughable that I bought it for work and in fact did all the work on my old iPad because display was much better (and my iPad cost me 800$, not 1k!!).

Moreover, M2 will beat any same priced machine for pro tasks. Gaming won’t work surely, but as for the tasks like photo, video editing, music macs are still unbeatable. Also I love the passive cooling system in all Air models😃 Isn’t it nice to be able to put your Macbook on some dusty sufrace and not be afraid it will suck all the dust inside? And it once happened to me with one of the older Macbooks and it then required cleaning!

Windows laptops at this point are the waste of money IMO, unless you are up to some different tasks like specific engineering programs unavailable on Mac or gaming surely. I want Windows laptop makers to realize they cannot sell overpriced trash and then just come clean out of the water, voting with my wallet this time and enjoying M1 Air😀 Which hopefully does ALL the tasks I need it to do at lightning-fast speeds and with quality, gorgeous retina display without PWM (hopefully Apple didn’t switch to OLED on Macs yet)

 

[uacd]

I have better experience with Windows PCs than with a Mac. I'm not kidding. My work laptop is HP Elitebook (Usually HP laptops suck, but not this one). It's quiet, build quality is also fine and Windows 11 works a lot better than macOS. Especially the window management and it's snappy and fast. I use Windows 11 Enterprise.

There are also many Linux distros so idk. I'm also thinking moving back to Windows and thinking about Surface. I find macOS horrible. Even Android 9 is better than the current version of iOS. Apple can't even make an alarm clock. How difficult it is to show me how many hours I have left to sleep when I set an alarm? How difficult it would be for Apple to implement a feature to archive messages etc…?

You should give Windows laptops another shot, but look carefully what you buy first. I also think that Windows 11 is a lot better than 10. To each their own I guess. I am disappointed with Apple though. Not all Windows PCs are horrible and not all Android phones are horrible and Windows is just fine. It has a better window management for sure and I haven't had any issues.

Back in the days I was also unimpressed with macOS, especially being underwhelmed that there are not so many pirated programs for it (yeah, I confess. I pirated software🤣). But then I learned to do all the stuff that I need in… different ways. Turns out Macs have lots of under-the-hood features and many workarounds that often are much more convenient than Windows experience.

For example, AirDrop. Would not have thought that it would be so convenient to tranfer files at high speed wirelessly. Recently I’ve had to sort out a 15 gigabyte folder of photos and did it on my iPhone in Files app. Then sent it to Macbook via AirDrop. Honestly I thought it will not send at all, but it had sent it quite fast to my surprise! And it is older 11 Pro, I imagine how fast it would have done with newer iPhones with new wifi modules.

How did I do before? Well, flash drives from one computer to another or Google Drive. While I still use flash drives for file backups, I no longer need or use Google Drive for wireless transfers.

I would say more, there is even a hack on Github that allows one to use fully-functional MS Office on Mac without paying a cent. Technically piracy, but no cracks involved😃 On Windows such freeloading would have required me to use some sort of shady crack program. But as I said, moved away from piracy years ago and found great Office deal on Stacksocial and grabbed it for just 30$ or something, fully functional license tied to Microsoft account.

Tbh nowadays I can use both Windows and Mac without any issues and perform most tasks without much hassle. But Mac is what I currently have and it probably won’t change since I like this simplicity.

Mac has its own quirks for sure!
When I first switched I noticed how my Mac would slow down with Chrome installed and how much battery drain there would be. Ever since I use Firefox on every machine! Highly tunable and fast enough for me.

Also there are sometimes nasty bugs (like a “stuck” USB drive that doesn’t eject and you get the message “can’t eject the USB because it is used), learned I need to reload finder or just shut down Mac to fix the issue😃 But this issue is only on M1 model, my old iMac does ejecting right every time

 

[uacd]

2.) You bought an M1 Pro MBA with 16 gig RAM (most you could get), and 1 terabyte SSD. And you're still using it, 4-1/2 years later, and plan to use it 3 more years.

That’s basically what I did, I bought 16/512 Air M1 and it still serves me well. I take good care of it and battery after 3 years is still 91%. Nice little machine.

I ditched my 2017 27" iMac for an M4Pro Mac Mini because the Fusion drive went out, running off an external SSD was mostly okay but I got frequent kernel panics, and some Mac software is only related for Apple Silicon, not Intel-based Macs

Basically did same thing but iMac 2012>MBA M1. Despite iMac still serving me well and working for occasional games or old apps, I do most stuff on Macbook. But honestly, nothing beats iMac display quality, literally zero eye strain and bright screen.

Btw had the same problem, my internal HDD died just after 3 years and ever since then running off 3 different SSDs with 3 different macOS versions. One is Mountain Lion for retro and original stuff, such as Parallels+Windows XP, and another is 10.15 for fresh browser, new apps and better support.

I know security might be a thing but since I no longer pirate anything and don’t visit any sketchy websites, I think I’m 95% safe even with older machine😃

 

[raythompsontn]

Windows laptops at this point are the waste of money IMO

I can open almost any Windows laptop, increase the memory, increase the storage, replace a failing SSD. Try that on any current Mac (Pro excluded).

 

[raythompsontn]

For example, AirDrop. Would not have thought that it would be so convenient to tranfer files at high speed wirelessly.

The Apple integration is quite nice among all the devices. I like being able to take pictures on my iPhone and have the images show up on my Macbook, or iPad within a few hours.

Other than that, I find no special reasons that make either platform superior. Apple does some strange things with shortcuts and moving around files is odd. Pictures can only be copied and pasted when in list view, not thumbnail view. Windows it makes no difference. I have to use a third party app as I want to see the images I am copying on Apple.

The wide span of hardware support is superior on Windows over MacOS. Current Mac systems, with the exception of the highly expensive Mac Pro, don’t allow easy addition of cards. USB-C, Video, Network, etc. Upgrading storage, memory, even the CPU is easy on Windows machines. Impossible on Macs.

Apple owns the hardware, and software, making it easy for Apple to control everything. Windows has the disadvantage of having to support all manner of configurations, which is a strength and a weakness.

I own both platforms, and use both platforms. Neither is superior. Irritations exist in both environments, strengths exist in both environments.

Pick one, embrace it, and be happy.

 

[Salty Pirate]

But why? Do you need more RAM in your daily use?

It feels faster

 

[Isamilis]

.

 

[Cheffy Dave]

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 went with 24 GB, to go with the 1TB SSD, my MBA just FLIES!

 

[brilliantthings]

I run a CPU intensive multi app streaming workflow on my 16gb M2 MBA. I cant push memory pressure higher than 61%. No matter how hard I try.

 

[Big_D]

I run a CPU intensive multi app streaming workflow on my 16gb M2 MBA. I cant push memory pressure higher than 61%. No matter how hard I try.

I run Teams, Outlook, Swyx, Parallels with Windows 11, Brave, Safari, 1Password, Opera, Teamviewer, Windows App (RDP), Excel and Word plus a bunch of other stuff, but those are the main ones I have open (multiple browsers, because I work on multiple M365 accounts and tenants, so I don't have to log out and log in with a different account every 5 minutes). Even without Parallels, that pushed the M1 8GB MBA beyond its limits. On the 16GB M4, it is running at about 81% memory usage, with Parallels, it is bumping on the limits, but I only need to fire that up to run our telephony management tool these days.

 

[brilliantthings]

I run Teams, Outlook, Swyx, Parallels with Windows 11, Brave, Safari, 1Password, Opera, Teamviewer, Windows App (RDP), Excel and Word plus a bunch of other stuff, but those are the main ones I have open (multiple browsers, because I work on multiple M365 accounts and tenants, so I don't have to log out and log in with a different account every 5 minutes). Even without Parallels, that pushed the M1 8GB MBA beyond its limits. On the 16GB M4, it is running at about 81% memory usage, with Parallels, it is bumping on the limits, but I only need to fire that up to run our telephony management tool these days.

So the 16gb M4 has enough RAM for your use?

 

[Big_D]

So the 16gb M4 has enough RAM for your use?

Yes

 

[mockford]

I run Teams, Outlook, Swyx, Parallels with Windows 11, Brave, Safari, 1Password, Opera, Teamviewer, Windows App (RDP), Excel and Word plus a bunch of other stuff, but those are the main ones I have open (multiple browsers, because I work on multiple M365 accounts and tenants, so I don't have to log out and log in with a different account every 5 minutes). Even without Parallels, that pushed the M1 8GB MBA beyond its limits. On the 16GB M4, it is running at about 81% memory usage, with Parallels, it is bumping on the limits, but I only need to fire that up to run our telephony management tool these days.

Do you have 512gb ssd or higher?

 

[Big_D]

Do you have 512gb ssd or higher?

I upgraded from 256GB to 512GB going from the M1 to the M4 at work. I had around 60GB free on the 256GB (including having the Windows VM on the drive). At home I went from 512GB on my M1 mini to 1TB on my MacBook Pro. The difference being that at work we aren't supposed to store any business relevant documents on the local drive (no backups), it all has to be on network drives or OneDrive, at home I keep most of my documents on the local drive, with cloud and local backups and I had been using an external SSD on the mini to keep my RAW files.

 

[mockford]

I upgraded from 256GB to 512GB going from the M1 to the M4 at work. I had around 60GB free on the 256GB (including having the Windows VM on the drive). At home I went from 512GB on my M1 mini to 1TB on my MacBook Pro. The difference being that at work we aren't supposed to store any business relevant documents on the local drive (no backups), it all has to be on network drives or OneDrive, at home I keep most of my documents on the local drive, with cloud and local backups and I had been using an external SSD on the mini to keep my RAW files.

Thank you for the detailed response.
So I’m guessing 512gb will be enough for my needs including running parallels.

 

[Big_D]

Thank you for the detailed response.
So I’m guessing 512gb will be enough for my needs including running parallels.

Yes, it should be plenty, going forward. The 256GB limit had dropped from 100GB free to 60GB free in the last 12 months, so doubling the SSD capacity should be more than enough, including if Apple starts downloading more AI models.

On my home MBP I have just over 512GB on the drive currently, the work Air has around 290GB free.