ive got a base air work and its runs fine but I do get a couple hundred swap used a day on the ram. I'm office, safari with a few tabs, what's app and the photos app with a very small library. so because it get a swap id be going for the 16 if I was you. I don't notice the swap and maybe it doesn't matter? but id get 16 gig to future proof.
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Macbook Air M2 - 8gb Memory enough?
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this is a hot debated topic. it's very difficult to give a one size fits all. As much as it's cheap of apple to only include 8GB of RAM in the base spec these days, it does run surprisingly well with the fast swap to flash storage.
I have an M2 Air as a work laptop and it's got the upgraded 16GB RAM and running a few VMs even that sometimes is not enough and have to shut one down and juggle the VMs. Also consider the graphics shares this RAM also.
Personally if you can stretch I would recommend the following minimum
10-Core GPU with better power supply
16GB RAM
512GB Storage
RRP £1,649
Apple have dropped the price of the 13" Air across the board after WWDC announcement of the 15". And the refurbs are now showing 15% off the new lower prices, so you can now get this spec for £1409 inc. VAT in the UK now (if you're happy with a refurb). That's £1,174 without VAT as a refurb (or £1,374 without VAT as new retail box), makes a great standard issue business laptop in 2023.
If you're buying for personal use and don't want a refurb you can get 6% the recent price reductions through an EPP. And if you don't have access to an EPP plan at work, amazon normally match that discount around 6-8% through the year. So thats £1,550 inc. VAT for the spec above.
I have an M2 Air as a work laptop and it's got the upgraded 16GB RAM and running a few VMs even that sometimes is not enough and have to shut one down and juggle the VMs. Also consider the graphics shares this RAM also.
Personally if you can stretch I would recommend the following minimum
10-Core GPU with better power supply
16GB RAM
512GB Storage
RRP £1,649
Apple have dropped the price of the 13" Air across the board after WWDC announcement of the 15". And the refurbs are now showing 15% off the new lower prices, so you can now get this spec for £1409 inc. VAT in the UK now (if you're happy with a refurb). That's £1,174 without VAT as a refurb (or £1,374 without VAT as new retail box), makes a great standard issue business laptop in 2023.
If you're buying for personal use and don't want a refurb you can get 6% the recent price reductions through an EPP. And if you don't have access to an EPP plan at work, amazon normally match that discount around 6-8% through the year. So thats £1,550 inc. VAT for the spec above.
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I’ve had my M2 MBA for six months. I got the 8GB / 512 SSD and have had zero issues with it being slower compared to my MBP M1 16 with 16GB of RAM.
Granted, I’m not pushing it much. The most I do is some video editing and work in Affinity Designer, Publisher and Photo. But, I’ve had zero issues of slowing down.
The downside, from my understanding, of the increased swapping that is needed is that there is wear on the SSD, but given I only plan to use my MBA for up to two years, I don’t see it as a problem for me.
I was always the “get the most RAM you can afford” guy for years. With the M1 and the fast SSDs, I’ve changed my tune on this.
I know this would be different for users doing very demanding work but they are likely buying the Pro machines or desktop machines. I just think for many users we over-buy and the computers Apple are making are the best ever for performance.
Granted, I’m not pushing it much. The most I do is some video editing and work in Affinity Designer, Publisher and Photo. But, I’ve had zero issues of slowing down.
The downside, from my understanding, of the increased swapping that is needed is that there is wear on the SSD, but given I only plan to use my MBA for up to two years, I don’t see it as a problem for me.
I was always the “get the most RAM you can afford” guy for years. With the M1 and the fast SSDs, I’ve changed my tune on this.
I know this would be different for users doing very demanding work but they are likely buying the Pro machines or desktop machines. I just think for many users we over-buy and the computers Apple are making are the best ever for performance.
I think future proofing is less vital on lower end models so 8GB is reasonable. If you get a great value then you and trade in and upgrade more frequently. Personally I am tempted most by the 13” M1 Air for $799 (on sale). The moment you start upping RAM and the SSD it starts to get expensive. Then you want the M2. Then you want the extended warranty. Next thing you know you are paying roughly double.
I’d rather have a base 8GB/256GB M1 air for 4 years and then a 16GB/512 M5 air for another 4 years than try to make it 8 years on a 16/512 M2.
I’d rather have a base 8GB/256GB M1 air for 4 years and then a 16GB/512 M5 air for another 4 years than try to make it 8 years on a 16/512 M2.
@magicMac I didn't think Amazon sold custom order MacBooks? All they have is the 256/512 options, they don't offer upgraded GPU or RAM, unless I'm missing something?
Why are people so obsessively feared of the Mac using its swap feature?
The impression I get is people think it will dramatically deteriorate the lifespan of their SSDs.
This is stupid. I had the MBA from 2011 with one of the first generations of SSDs, which weren't that sophisticated with counter-wear and tear-tactics both in hardware and software, and I blasted that machine with petabytes of data over 5-6 years and the SSD remained absolutely fine.
Yes - I tend to wonder if this "issue" is one that in real life does't actually matter. It's like the slower 256GB SSD speeds. In actual usage, for almost every user, it makes little if any difference but it gets talked about and blown up.
I spent years buying Macs with more than I needed. Now, I actually have enough money now to buy what I want but I choose to get what I actually need. This isn't some moral judgment (people should buy whatever they want, etc), but rather a change in my thinking which I wish I'd had 30 years ago.
I think the issue is that with discounts from Amazon, other retailers, $1,199 or less for a new, big laptop looks like an incredible value.
Second this. It’s quite interesting, most of the advice here is to get 16 ram at minimum, where most of light to medium works can be done without any noticeable slowness using 8gb.
Chiming in late here.
I have a 16GB/1TB 14" M1Pro MBP (for work) and a 8GB/256GB M2 Air (casual use).
The two machines perform identically for 99% of general computing tasks. I am sure that benchmarks and torture tests can show differences. I am also sure that if I open Activity Monitor, I could show difference in swap, memory pressure etc. However, without activity monitor it's hard to tell them apart until I start opening silly amounts of windows and apps.
A lot of YouTubers (MaxTech, I love you, but you're intentionally trolling about this for hits/views) talk about differences in RAM. Many of those YouTubers are creatives and work extensively with 4K video, large photos, coding etc. Sure they will see the difference, but if you're doing office stuff, lots of Chrome tabs, some casual photoshop, then 8GB is plenty fast with Apple silicon.
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Ultimately it comes down to whether or not $200 will make a difference to you. If it helps you sleep at night, get the 16GB. Just know that most of the time, it's not going to make a difference to your perception of how the machine performs or lasts.
I have a 16GB/1TB 14" M1Pro MBP (for work) and a 8GB/256GB M2 Air (casual use).
The two machines perform identically for 99% of general computing tasks. I am sure that benchmarks and torture tests can show differences. I am also sure that if I open Activity Monitor, I could show difference in swap, memory pressure etc. However, without activity monitor it's hard to tell them apart until I start opening silly amounts of windows and apps.
A lot of YouTubers (MaxTech, I love you, but you're intentionally trolling about this for hits/views) talk about differences in RAM. Many of those YouTubers are creatives and work extensively with 4K video, large photos, coding etc. Sure they will see the difference, but if you're doing office stuff, lots of Chrome tabs, some casual photoshop, then 8GB is plenty fast with Apple silicon.
--
Ultimately it comes down to whether or not $200 will make a difference to you. If it helps you sleep at night, get the 16GB. Just know that most of the time, it's not going to make a difference to your perception of how the machine performs or lasts.
Speaking of the “slower” SSD speeds, someone on the forums posted a few days ago that modern applications are not designed to take advantage of SSD speeds and he linked to a video that showed proof, but I can’t find the post again. 😩
It is still important for exporting video..but even in videography, exporting video is only a small part of overall workflow
This isn't true though, macOS is significantly better at managing RAM than Windows is, it's not even a competition.
I would add that if you do frequent video calls, added RAM is helpful. Having multiple spaces with multiple instances of some apps and browsers/sites open eats RAM, plus doing any work whilst on those calls.
On a side note, doing a video call and having 2-3 office documents open on an 8GB windows machine is s l o w h e l l. But that’s just windows for ya….
On a side note, doing a video call and having 2-3 office documents open on an 8GB windows machine is s l o w h e l l. But that’s just windows for ya….
Using swap space is not the showstopper it once was when we were all using spinning hard drives. It's a LOT quicker and more seamless at this point with the fast SSDs in modern Macs.
That said, I totally agree about futureproofing. There have been so many times over the years I wish I could go back in time and retroactively spend a few hundred bucks on more storage or more RAM.
That's overstating things by a lot. My M1 Air has 8GB of RAM and I multitask like crazy on it -- web browsers, productivity and office software, even running things like Illustrator or InDesign. It works fine, and I don't restart every day. I also don't obsess over the stats in Activity Monitor. Fact is, Macs have good enough memory management to cope with 8GB quite well for a lot of stuff.
For your use 8GB would be fine. The problem isn't just with the extra $200 for more RAM, it is that is basically an Apple BTO which means regular retailers that tend to heavily discount like Bestbuy, Costco and Amazon don't carry them. So it really limits the choices and deals and usually makes the difference in price much more. For example Costco has the 13" MBA 8/256 for $949 which as $150 less than what it is directly through Apple regular retail stores.