If any devs have Lion GM installed on a base 11" MBA (1.4 GHz, 2GB RAM), how is the performance? I see in other threads that 2GB RAM may not be enough. Thanks 
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Lion performance on base 11" MBA?
- Thread starter ritmomundo
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It depends mainly on what you use your Air for.
I installed the Preview 2 in my Air 11" and I had a chance to compare everyday performance to my sister's 13" base model (Mac OS X 10.6.6 at that time) and I could not notice major performance issues on a per app basis, just the normal difference in processing power...so I'd say 11" user won't have many issues.
As far as RAM is concerned, if Apple decides to upgrade the whole Air series to 4 GB, that would pinpoint possible issues with 2 GB.
Anyway, in order to future proof your purchase and depending on how long you plan to keep it, I'd go for 4 GB.
Cheers
I installed the Preview 2 in my Air 11" and I had a chance to compare everyday performance to my sister's 13" base model (Mac OS X 10.6.6 at that time) and I could not notice major performance issues on a per app basis, just the normal difference in processing power...so I'd say 11" user won't have many issues.
As far as RAM is concerned, if Apple decides to upgrade the whole Air series to 4 GB, that would pinpoint possible issues with 2 GB.
Anyway, in order to future proof your purchase and depending on how long you plan to keep it, I'd go for 4 GB.
Cheers
thanks for the reply. Actually, I already have the MBA, I was just wondering if installing Lion on it would degrade performance. right now, it runs very smoothly, as I just use it for basic computing (email, web, movies, music, light photoshop, video chat, light gaming). not sure if 2gb RAM will be enough for Lion... if Lion would run slower than SL, I'd rather not waste the money to upgrade... For my needs, SL runs perfectly. So upgrading anyway would just be to check out the new features for fun.
Well you have to remember, practically all laptops/desktops made by Apple in the past 4 years are going to be able to upgrade to Lion. They know this. How many people do you think are out there with laptops and desktops with only 2 gigs of RAM? A lot. The baseline MBs being sold now are still only 2 gigs.
I haven't used Lion yet but I'm sure they thought of this when they designed it. I don't think you'll see any noticeable performance hits if there are any. Of course, I think it will be slightly heavier due to the requirements, but that's also implemented to ensure that all of their features work the right way; you can't have something new come out and 25percent of the users complain their computer isn't fast enough. Hence the requirement.
I'm a new mac user so perhaps i dont have enough knowledge but having been a ubuntu user for a while now perhaps apple are doing something similar to the linux OS.
I know many moons ago they branched from the same trunk of code and they are now very different but there are some similarities.
From what i saw from the keynote speech they did on Lion it seems to have a vast array of os caching options, like the master control feature, and the new swipe web page scrolling in safari. Also the doc version control. All of this, for speed will be stored in RAM for quick access.
It is very unlikely that the OS itself will take up more than 1GB or so, but all these nice feature that integrate with the touchpad will more than likely use RAM to hold the data for quick access. And as with any OS like this, it will keep programs, data and settings in RAM filling it all up and pruning off the eldest processes if more RAM Is needed.
As i say, i'm no mac expert but i'm sure 2GB will be enough to run lion, but perhaps some of the features, whilst they will work might be limited in the amount of data that can be cached to RAM.
On another point, i can't see why apple would alienate their 2gb users of which there must be a lot. They just probably recommend 4gb for the full lion experience.
I know many moons ago they branched from the same trunk of code and they are now very different but there are some similarities.
From what i saw from the keynote speech they did on Lion it seems to have a vast array of os caching options, like the master control feature, and the new swipe web page scrolling in safari. Also the doc version control. All of this, for speed will be stored in RAM for quick access.
It is very unlikely that the OS itself will take up more than 1GB or so, but all these nice feature that integrate with the touchpad will more than likely use RAM to hold the data for quick access. And as with any OS like this, it will keep programs, data and settings in RAM filling it all up and pruning off the eldest processes if more RAM Is needed.
As i say, i'm no mac expert but i'm sure 2GB will be enough to run lion, but perhaps some of the features, whilst they will work might be limited in the amount of data that can be cached to RAM.
On another point, i can't see why apple would alienate their 2gb users of which there must be a lot. They just probably recommend 4gb for the full lion experience.
They mentioned that you HAVE to have 2 gigs of RAM to run Lion, at least that's what I thought I read/heard. Going any lower would hinder performance and going higher would, as you stated, alienate the millions of people who have baseline MBs and MBAs. The experience will not be hindered with a 2GB RAM machine.
running Lion GM on 1.4GHz 2GB Ram 11in and havent noticed any difference from 10.6 to Lion. appears to run exactly the same.
running OS and Chrome i am using 789MB ram
running OS, Chrome, iTunes, and iPhoto i am using 1.17MB ram
happy with performance.
running OS and Chrome i am using 789MB ram
running OS, Chrome, iTunes, and iPhoto i am using 1.17MB ram
happy with performance.
durning install lion makes a install partition? on a base 64 gig ssd...how much space is left after a clean install?
disk utility says that my 128GB total capacity is 121.33 GB. Lion hides the available space left in Finder now which used to show on the bottom when you hit your drive and so if i hit Get Info it says capacity 120.47 GB.
since i used a disk image not the App Store to update and didnt have to download it i am not sure if i received a partition.
i should have looked at it closer before i upgraded.