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Is 4GB of RAM enough?
- Thread starter Miller93
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I bought my wife a MBA last year and wondered about the 4 vs. 8 GB RAM question. She was in a fellowship at work and needed it for writing and research. I ended up getting the 8GB RAM and 256 SSD because I figured that in a year or 2, 8GB RAM will be the standard, and you only get one shot at deciding how much RAM to get. Same reason I maxed out my MBP with 16GB RAM, and so glad I did on both counts.
I bought my wife a MBA last year and wondered about the 4 vs. 8 GB RAM question. She was in a fellowship at work and needed it for writing and research. I ended up getting the 8GB RAM and 256 SSD because I figured that in a year or 2, 8GB RAM will be the standard, and you only get one shot at deciding how much RAM to get. Same reason I maxed out my MBP with 16GB RAM, and so glad I did on both counts.
The really important thing for college is battery time.
Glad to hear you're waiting for Haswell, you'll love the battery!
And since you're looking at the MBA, you'd better read this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7180/apple-macbook-air-11-2013-review/6
Glad to hear you're waiting for Haswell, you'll love the battery!
And since you're looking at the MBA, you'd better read this:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7180/apple-macbook-air-11-2013-review/6
Based on research I've done it appears that only speculation and rumor circle around the Haswell rMBP with regards to a release date. Ive read mid September and early October as released windows. With that in mind, when do you guys think it will be released? Im probably going to purchased the rMBP (mid-September) and return it one day before Apple's 14-day policy ends, in hopes that the 2nd gen rMBP are released.
I have a 2011 MBA with 4GB.
1. 4GB is useable, but mine swaps a lot, so I would definitely choose 8GB if I were replacing it (which I plan to do when a Retina version becomes available, hopefully about a years from now).
2. If you want a MBA, buy a MBA. If you need a Retina display, buy a MBP.
3. If you want to put any amount of video on it, then 256GB would be a minimum.
It's actually $1,299.99 cheaper than some windows 8 laptops with lower specs so for a portable "premium" laptop it's better priced then the alternatives.
To the OP: a fully upgraded model is in rMBP(13) territory. If you can wait it would be more beneficial to you unless you really need/dig the portability then the fully upgraded model is not a bad choice.
At least Apple no longer offer only 2GB versions of the MBA and Mac Mini. I would not be surprised if the 4GB offerings were gone by the end of 2014.
I disagree with most people here. My gf has a Macbook Air with 4gb and she never encounters any ram related slowdowns. So for casual users it's more than enough at this time and age.
But I've used her Macbook Air plenty of times too and even I (being kind of a geek) find it more than enough for just casual computing.
Also remember that OSX Mavericks will use ram even more efficiently, so yeah I would say that, for casual uses, 4gb is enough.
The question is:
"Is 4GB of RAM enough?"
The answer:
It may well be enough -- unless you discover that for what you do, you need more.
I've been using a MacBook Pro (April 2010 model) for 3+ years now with the factory-installed 4gb of RAM. It runs fine, but then, I've never "pushed it hard".
Same with my 2012 Mac Mini. It came with 4gb installed, and after several months of use, seems very fast. I don't notice any delays from "page outs" or "page ins" of memory...
So again...
4gb may be "all you need", or you may need more.
The only way to know, is to buy the "base version", use it awhile, and see how it goes...
"Is 4GB of RAM enough?"
The answer:
It may well be enough -- unless you discover that for what you do, you need more.
I've been using a MacBook Pro (April 2010 model) for 3+ years now with the factory-installed 4gb of RAM. It runs fine, but then, I've never "pushed it hard".
Same with my 2012 Mac Mini. It came with 4gb installed, and after several months of use, seems very fast. I don't notice any delays from "page outs" or "page ins" of memory...
So again...
4gb may be "all you need", or you may need more.
The only way to know, is to buy the "base version", use it awhile, and see how it goes...
pls tell me you are going to use external screen with it. otherwise streaming 1080p on MBA is as dumb as buying lamborgini for a city driving.
what r u going to study? if nothing intensive for ram/cpu/gpu then you dont need it. if you do then mbp is likely better choice
Get the MBA fully maxed out with i7, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage! You won't have any regrets. You can easily make the money back, but you'll never need to upgrade this computer for its life.
4GB is perfectly fine for web browsing and writing assignments, even watching HD movies.
I have 4gb in my 2011 MBP and it was perfectly fine for my IT course where I was running Win 7 and Win Server 2008 VM's at the same time.
No sense upgrading the RAM if you aren't going to notice in. On a machine without an SSD perhaps more RAM is a good idea but with modern SSD's you will be fine.
Use the money instead for a bigger SSD. You will notice a full drive much more than you will notice the very rare times you may exceed 4GB.
I have 4gb in my 2011 MBP and it was perfectly fine for my IT course where I was running Win 7 and Win Server 2008 VM's at the same time.
No sense upgrading the RAM if you aren't going to notice in. On a machine without an SSD perhaps more RAM is a good idea but with modern SSD's you will be fine.
Use the money instead for a bigger SSD. You will notice a full drive much more than you will notice the very rare times you may exceed 4GB.
4GB? Buy More
My perspective is a bit warped, I'll admit. I recall quoting a customer a few million dollars for a terabyte worth of storage, and sold a 256k RAM computer with 20 MB of storage for 55k.....
Today, for what you do, it will work. But if you can afford it, get the biggest disk drive and max memory you can afford. There is no reason your purchase today cannot be functional and highly serviceable in five years, unless you minimize the specs.
I'm moving from a 2007 Windows PC, which at the time was pretty high end with 2GB RAM and a 105GB disk to a cMBP. It should do well until about 2021 to 2025.....
My perspective is a bit warped, I'll admit. I recall quoting a customer a few million dollars for a terabyte worth of storage, and sold a 256k RAM computer with 20 MB of storage for 55k.....
Today, for what you do, it will work. But if you can afford it, get the biggest disk drive and max memory you can afford. There is no reason your purchase today cannot be functional and highly serviceable in five years, unless you minimize the specs.
I'm moving from a 2007 Windows PC, which at the time was pretty high end with 2GB RAM and a 105GB disk to a cMBP. It should do well until about 2021 to 2025.....
Not if you plan to connect it to the Internet. Apple probably will stop releasing security updates before 2020 for the last MacOS release that will be able to run on the cMBP. If you want to keep it connected to the Internet past 2020, your odds will be better with a 2013 rMBP than a 2012 cMBP.