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M5 MacBook Air: how much RAM?

carswell

carswell

macrumors regular
Original poster
Am planning to buy an M5 MacBook Air and am wondering how much RAM to get.

Background: I use my Mac for work (MS Office), email and browsing. I don't play games, do 3-D modelling or currently use programs like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro. In short, not a power user. I'm also retiring in a couple of years (at 75). Given my age and impending income drop, I suspect this may be the last computer I purchase, so I'd like a machine I'll be happy with for another 6-8 years.

My techiest friend, owner of a firm that does AI-driven video searching/editing, says the more RAM the better in this age of LLMs, especially if you're looking to future-proof. He recommends 32 GB or, at the very least, 24 GB. He's also of the opinion that with Thunderbolt 4 on board, it's more advisable to upgrade the RAM than the SSD, that the sweet spot is M5 + 32 GB RAM + 512 GB SSD.

So, four options. Which to choose?

16 GB + 512 GB (base model)
24 GB + 512 GB
24 GB + 1 TB (stock model)
32 GB + 512 GB

Thanks for any advice!
 
Base model with 16GB RAM.

You don’t have any need beyond that and your friend’s recommendation of running a local LLM is based on “work” use of AI rather than personal use. This would be for things like converting a Zoom call into meeting notes, generating images from text, and using AI video editing filters.

You’d be throwing $500 at a problem that isn’t likely to come up for you. Keep in mind notebooks can fail due to accident or defect and no guarantee to run however long you plan. So that $500 can be saved for a future MacBook upgrade or replacement if you really need one.
 
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JPack said:
Base model with 16GB RAM.

... Keep in mind notebooks can fail due to accident or defect and no guarantee to run however long you plan. So that $500 can be saved for a future MacBook upgrade or replacement if you really need one.
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That's something I rarely read. It's true, you can only lose as much as you paid for the MacBook. And accidents, loss, defects... these things happen. Huge SSDs or RAM won't help with that.
 
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I went with a 24GB/1TB config of a 13"

This was after owning a 16GB/1TB 13" M5 and being a little surprised to be hitting some higher memory pressures than I was expecting.

Maybe it wasn't necessary, but for $1230 (used like new from Amazon, that ended up being still sealed & BRAND NEW when I got it) ... I'm very happy with my purchase.

I just don't want RAM to even be a thought or concern.
 
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I would suggest getting the ram option based on what you can afford. I went with 24gb/512gb M5 again since that worked out well for my daily routine with the M4 Air. 24gb/M5 works very well for my LLM usages
 
Why paying for something you might not need only because you "can afford" it? So you can "afford" 200 bucks here, then you can "afford" 200 bucks there and in the end its a few thousands you spend for something you never needed but you think you could "afford" it. I think it's better to spend money on something you need and invest the rest. No one has ever complained about a portfolio that is too large. And in a few years when a next new and shiny model is out and we have the M10.. only few care if the M4 or M5 had 16 or 24GB RAM.
 
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Torty said:
Why paying for something you might not need only because you "can afford" it? So you can "afford" 200 bucks here, then you can "afford" 200 bucks there and in the end its a few thousands you spend for something you never needed but you think you could "afford" it. I think it's better to spend money on something you need and invest the rest. No one has ever complained about a portfolio that is too large. And in a few years when a next new and shiny model is out and we have the M10.. only few care if the M4 or M5 had 16 or 24GB RAM.
Click to expand...

People are unlikely to be investing every last cent they have. Whether I choose to buy extra ram or not, that money is coming from my normal savings account; it’s not going to be used for any other purpose.
 
Abazigal said:
People are unlikely to be investing every last cent they have. Whether I choose to buy extra ram or not, that money is coming from my normal savings account; it’s not going to be used for any other purpose.
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And people are unlikely to be spending every cent they have on RAM. 💁‍♂️
 
Thanks to all who replied. Your input was interesting and helpful.

In the end, I decided to go with a 24GB system, largely out of concerns for future proofing -- figuring the extra RAM might give the system another couple of years of shelf-life. And while agreeing with JPack’s word to the wise about frailty, I expect my MacBook is going to spend 95% of its time (underestimating) in its desktop dock.

My original plan had been to buy a 512GB hard drive. However, the 24GB+512GB model wouldn’t be delivered until the third week of May and I’m today embarking on a big month-long project that I wanted the new computer for, so I plonked for the stock 24GB+1TB variant.

So far so good. Everything’s snappier and a big lexicon file that brought Word to a virtual standstill (3-5 seconds for a character to appear after being typed) on my 16GB M1 Mini doesn’t faze the MacBook in the slightest.

Edit: missing phrase.
 
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Torty said:
Why paying for something you might not need only because you "can afford" it? So you can "afford" 200 bucks here, then you can "afford" 200 bucks there and in the end its a few thousands you spend for something you never needed but you think you could "afford" it. I think it's better to spend money on something you need and invest the rest. No one has ever complained about a portfolio that is too large. And in a few years when a next new and shiny model is out and we have the M10.. only few care if the M4 or M5 had 16 or 24GB RAM.
Click to expand...
Exactly this. In 5 years or so, the extra RAM (baring a few obvious cutoffs) isn't going to make much of a difference to anything; the M5 will still be an older processor. Most people are far better off putting the $ into their bank account, and upgrading a little bit more frequently.
 
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Just found out that the SSD in the M5 MBA is as fast as the DDR3-800 memory chips! These RAM chips were sold in new computers until 2010. So the swapping to SSD is as fast as DDR3-800 RAM!

That might let people think twice before upgrading the standard 16 GB of RAM in the M5 MBA...
 
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AlexJoda said:
Just found out that the SSD in the M5 MBA is as fast as the DDR3-800 memory chips! These RAM chips were sold in new computers until 2010. So the swapping to SSD is as fast as DDR3-800 RAM!

That might let people think twice before upgrading the standard 16 GB of RAM in the M5 MBA...
Click to expand...
Yeah but DDR3-800 has peak bandwidth of only 6.4Gb/s while Unified Memory on the M5 MBA is 153Gb/s. Swap is much faster than it was in the past, but still no match for more memory. If one’s workflow really needs more than 16GB, they should do themselves a favor and get the memory they need.
 
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I was okay with the base M5 Air because it's not my main machine, it's my nightstand and road trip computer. I don't do my real work on it. My desktop is the important one and I always buy as much memory as possible.
 
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conmee said:
Yeah but DDR3-800 has peak bandwidth of only 6.4Gb/s while Unified Memory on the M5 MBA is 153Gb/s. Swap is much faster than it was in the past, but still no match for more memory. If one’s workflow really needs more than 16GB, they should do themselves a favor and get the memory they need.
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I know but I still find it impressive that swapping is as fast DDR3 RAM was before. I always had the impression that swapping is terribly slow compared to "real" RAM...
 
You aren't going to be able to run an LLM on the air for any amount of time before it overheats. LLMs are one thing that will reliably heat up my Macbook Pro even, and that's with active cooling. So, don't plan on making heavy use of an LLM, get the lesser-ram model, or go all in on a high spec macbook pro. Half***ing it isn't going to do you any favors short term nor long term though.
 
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