M2 MB Air (512GB+ SSD, 16GB+ Ram): 80+ Firefox tabs open and/or large Excel files open…

[davekro]

I am hoping folks here can help me understand:
1) How having excessive Firefox browser tabs open affects mainly use of available Ram. Also, if working on large Excel files, with above tabs open might, further impact a M2 MBA with 16GB of Ram or 24GB of Ram by getting into swapping to the SSD. Would some swapping with 16 or 24GB of Ram really not noticeably affect browser tabs opening or Excel performance? I have no clue.

2) Will the above type of use, how much would the CPU be taxed and warm up? I thought I'd just go ahead and add the heat sink pad mod to have the CPU run cooler and have an easier long term life, but if my type of use would not warm the CPU to temps even approaching 'hot', don't bother and don't transfer the CPU's heat to the case. Again, no clue here.
Thanks for any thoughts, opinions or insights. )

3) Would 24GB of Ram, in my case just be seriously ridiculous? (see Splurging below)

I have exhaustively watched the many YouTube videos bench testing M2 MBA for speed and CPU heat buildup. I do not do any video editing, gaming or GPU intensive things at all. I will use the M2 MBA I ordered (8-core GPU, 1TB SSD, 24GB Ram) for my business involving large Excel spreadsheets* and for personal use surfing the web.

I want to splurge on the SSD & Ram for this MBA purchase: a) I can afford to. b) I want to be able to be, yes lazy, and not have any concern that even 100 Firefox open tabs will be limited by the MBA's amount of Ram -and - have a warm fuzzy about being future proofed as much as possible. Being 68, I hope to have this machine last ten years (from Mfg. date). c) Previously being a frugal, 'buy my Macs used' guy, this M2 MBA will be replacing both my desktop Late 2012 Mac Mini i7, 512G SSD+1TB HDD, 16GB Ram running two Del U2415 displays and my Mid 2013 13" MBA (128GB SSD, 4GB Ram). I need to buy a docking station (Dell D6000 or similar) to use two monitors.

*(I have had extreme problems with a particular Excel spreadsheet for my coffee business' inventory. The problem is most likely due to a bug in that sheet that causes "font error" messages, So I trimmed it's file size down from 3gb to under 0.7GB. Other issues also, so calling this a "large" Excel file is likely not the issue here.)

 

[jav6454]

24GB of memory would be my absolute minimum spec to have given your tendency to keep so many tabs open. The M2 is powerful enough to not be bugged down. However, do note that if you do hit Swap at the 256GB storage capacity, you will see performance drop.

 

[davekro]

Yes, it is abundantly clear that the base 256gb SSD has approx. 50% read/write speeds vs. any MBA M1 SSD or M2 512gb or better SSD.

Is there a ballpark tab level that might use all or most of the 24gb of the M2’s Ram? Secondly, ”If” browser tab caching did at some point get to swapping to the MBA M2’s 1TB SSD, would page loading speed of cached or new tabs even be noticeable? I it is, it would just be a reminder for me to go delete a bunch of tabs I had been too lazy to do. ;o)

I was clear on my ordering the 1TB SSD. Thanks for confirming my 24gb Ram ordered was not whacked for my use and future proofing desire.

 

[1BadManVan]

24GB of memory would be my absolute minimum spec to have given your tendency to keep so many tabs open. The M2 is powerful enough to not be bugged down. However, do note that if you do hit Swap at the 256GB storage capacity, you will see performance drop.

He ordered a 1tb ssd so that won’t be a worry for him. But I agree, I would get the most ram you can with that many tabs open

 

[jav6454]

Yes, it is abundantly clear that the base 256gb SSD has approx. 50% read/write speeds vs. any MBA M1 SSD or M2 512gb or better SSD.

Is there a ballpark tab level that might use all or most of the 24gb of the M2’s Ram? Secondly, ”If” browser tab caching did at some point get to swapping to the MBA M2’s 1TB SSD, would page loading speed of cached or new tabs even be noticeable? I it is, it would just be a reminder for me to go delete a bunch of tabs I had been too lazy to do. ;o)

I was clear on my ordering the 1TB SSD. Thanks for confirming my 24gb Ram ordered was not whacked for my use and future proofing desire.

24GB of memory is never a whack thing to do. Naysayers saying it's wasted memory are wrong as OS X never wastes memory.

 

[mr_jomo]

Yes, it is abundantly clear that the base 256gb SSD has approx. 50% read/write speeds vs. any MBA M1 SSD or M2 512gb or better SSD.

Is there a ballpark tab level that might use all or most of the 24gb of the M2’s Ram? Secondly, ”If” browser tab caching did at some point get to swapping to the MBA M2’s 1TB SSD, would page loading speed of cached or new tabs even be noticeable? I it is, it would just be a reminder for me to go delete a bunch of tabs I had been too lazy to do. ;o)

I was clear on my ordering the 1TB SSD. Thanks for confirming my 24gb Ram ordered was not whacked for my use and future proofing desire.

ArtisRight has the most revealing series of videos on the performance impact from multitasking, 256 vs 512 GB SSD, 8 vs 16 vs 24 GB RAM and even cross variable checks say 512 GB SSD vs 16 GB RAN. While not Excel-focused, any of his tests on a CPU & RAM bound workflow should be comparable.

 

[hans1972]

You have to get away from the thought that swapping is bad. In your case it's a good thing.

Not all of your browser tabs will be in memory at all times. They will swap in and out and you'll probably not notice it since the amount needed to read from disk is so little that even with a slower SSD you won't notice it.

I'm not even sure you would see much difference between 8 and 24 Gb RAM for your use case depending on the spreadsheet you're using.

 

[davekro]

ArtisRight has the most revealing series of videos on the performance impact from multitasking, 256 vs 512 GB SSD, 8 vs 16 vs 24 GB RAM and even cross variable checks say 512 GB SSD vs 16 GB RAN. While not Excel-focused, any of his tests on a CPU & RAM bound workflow should be comparable.

Mr. J,
Thanks for the tip. I found Artisright on YouTube. I'll check out his videos when I get a chance.
Cheers sir!

 

[1BadManVan]

Mr. J,
Thanks for the tip. I found Artisright on YouTube. I'll check out his videos when I get a chance.
Cheers sir!

Quick summary of his videos. Ram is much more important than ssd speed for 90% of your tasks. He did a great job showcasing it all

 

[davekro]

Oh, good. Another confirmation that I am glad I maxed out the Ram at 24GB on my order.
I just noticed, I guess I need to update my signature to include my on order M2 MBA.