MacBook Air M2 Daily Usage Question

[CosmicRichy]

I’m heading back to MacOS for the first time since 2012.

I was about to pull the trigger on the 14” M1 MacBook Pro but I’ve been hit with some unexpected financial obligations that’s forced me to reconfigure my budget. This has also made me reconsider what specs I actually need for what my daily usage on a laptop would be. I have a terrible reputation of aiming to get the best of the best in terms of specs for a device but I don’t always end up needing the extra features. Posting here to hear some advice on some use cases.

I have an active subscription to GeForce Now for gaming (cloud gaming) and plan on connecting my 1080p HDTV as an external screen for some games.

I’ll be using Discord almost 24/7 while on the device.

I need to use Google Chrome ONLY because I need access to browser extensions.

And I’m not obsessed about SSD write speed as I’ll most likely be using cloud storage so I have access to my files across devices.

Planning on doing some study at some point which might require some freelance remote work.

I don’t plan on using the device for content creation although I might consider installing Streamlabs for podcast recording/light streaming at some point.

I’m tossing up between one of the “base” M2 Air’s.

8 Core CPU + 8 Core GPU with 8GB Ram with 256GB storage

OR

8 Core CPU + 10 Core GPU with 8GB Ram with 512GB storage.

Thoughts?

 

[Shirasaki]

Go with 8 core cpu GPU and 256GB storage. If your main storage is always in the cloud and you are comfortable with that, 512GB is a bit of waste unless there’s some insanely good deal (which I doubt) right now.

Mac can’t game. GPU core otherwise wont be utilised much if at all. Your study might need some GPU power but I don’t know enough to suggest. I don’t do cloud gaming so no idea how Ram works on there but bump it to 16GB if you can. That 16GB is shared and you don’t want your system constantly running heavy on memory pressure.

 

[mr_jomo]

I'd get neither of the options you're considering:

• 10 core GPU is likely going to be thermally limited in the M2 Air - minimal gains at best and short burst only.
• The 256 GB will most likely be a single SSD chip where any multitasking (even just Chrome open with multiple tabs) will hamper performance immediately and severely.

With above in mind, and your budget - I'd get the 8 Core CPU + 8 Core GPU with 8GB Ram with 512 GB storage.

Or maybe the extra $100 up from
your second option for a:

8 Core CPU + 8 Core GPU with 16 GB Ram with 512 GB storage.

I know you didn't consider this, but the perfect choice, IMHO, for your needs is a refurbished (if available in your location) M1 Air, 16/256: super performance, battery that lasts for days on a charge, perfect thermal solution for shorter burst workloads and stays cool during 'normal' usage and multitasks like a champ.

 

[GooseInTheCaboose]

but I’ve been hit with some unexpected financial obligations that’s forced me to reconfigure my budget

do you live in Florida or Texas? lol

OK in all seriousness, I think the base model will be OK for you. If you get one upgrade, I say make it RAM to 16GB at least. 8 is inappropriate for 2022. Honestly, so is a 256GB SSD, so if you can swing it get 512. If not, keep the 16 GB RAM and if at a later time you need to, get a good portable external SSD and put your biggest space waster on it. You might very well be able to skip the external SSD entirely if you're good about using cloud storage for everything. For the chip, get the base chip, it will be fine unless gaming is important enough to you to reconfigure your budget the other way for it...

Get the above config and this "budget" laptop will serve you well for years. The key to it working is 16GB RAM IMO, but I'm really no expert. I'd just feel best with that.

 

[jav6454]

I’m heading back to MacOS for the first time since 2012.

[...]

Thoughts?

Gaming? I would not advise on a MBA given their passive cooling. Yes, even with GeForce Now. you might see performance dips.

I would suggest the 13"MBP. As per upgrades, you are budget constrained. However, do try to get 16GB in memory as minimum. Storage, sure, it'll be nice to have 512GB and the extra speed from parallelism, but it's an added cost and unified memory will alleviate for games.

 

[dizmonk]

I’m heading back to MacOS for the first time since 2012.

I was about to pull the trigger on the 14” M1 MacBook Pro but I’ve been hit with some unexpected financial obligations that’s forced me to reconfigure my budget. This has also made me reconsider what specs I actually need for what my daily usage on a laptop would be. I have a terrible reputation of aiming to get the best of the best in terms of specs for a device but I don’t always end up needing the extra features. Posting here to hear some advice on some use cases.

I have an active subscription to GeForce Now for gaming (cloud gaming) and plan on connecting my 1080p HDTV as an external screen for some games.

I’ll be using Discord almost 24/7 while on the device.

I need to use Google Chrome ONLY because I need access to browser extensions.

And I’m not obsessed about SSD write speed as I’ll most likely be using cloud storage so I have access to my files across devices.

Planning on doing some study at some point which might require some freelance remote work.

I don’t plan on using the device for content creation although I might consider installing Streamlabs for podcast recording/light streaming at some point.

I’m tossing up between one of the “base” M2 Air’s.

8 Core CPU + 8 Core GPU with 8GB Ram with 256GB storage

OR

8 Core CPU + 10 Core GPU with 8GB Ram with 512GB storage.

Thoughts?

I completely agree with the earlier poster... I have a 16gb m1 Refurbed and it's great. They are still in the Apple Refurb store with numerous configurations available. That's what I'd recommend based on your described needs.

 

[happyslayer]

So I see a lot of people saying you will need a higher spec model for GeForce online Gaming, but on their webpage, the requirements for MacOS are any Mac newer than 2009 and for the 3080 membership, newer than 2015. Even with the "slower" drive, it is still way faster than anything from 2009 or 2015. And many laptops, especially Macs, didn't have more than 8GB of RAM back then either. If budget is an issue, maybe just order the base model from Apple directly. You will have 14 days to try it out. If it doesn't meet your needs, return it for a higher-spec'd model if you can afford it. Otherwise, for around the same price as the base model M2 Air, you can get a true "gaming" laptop with a 3060 card in it. I was looking at one for a customer in Costco just yesterday. Think it was a Lenovo Legion model for like $999.00. (Though don't quote me on that, Costcos vary in supply and products from city to city.)

 

[DHagan4755]

Mac can’t game.

Correction: Mac *could* game if developers actually wrote for Apple silicon.

 

[DHagan4755]

Thoughts?

Get the 8-core GPU model with 16GB of memory + 256 GB SSD storage. Discord uses more RAM since it's an Electron app. If you toss Chrome in the mix you may start experiencing virtual memory swap & slowdowns. We don't yet know whether the 256 GB model is a single 256 NAND or two 128GB NANDs like the original M1 Air.

 

[mr_jomo]

So I see a lot of people saying you will need a higher spec model for GeForce online Gaming, but on their webpage, the requirements for MacOS are any Mac newer than 2009 and for the 3080 membership, newer than 2015. Even with the "slower" drive, it is still way faster than anything from 2009 or 2015. And many laptops, especially Macs, didn't have more than 8GB of RAM back then either. If budget is an issue, maybe just order the base model from Apple directly. You will have 14 days to try it out. If it doesn't meet your needs, return it for a higher-spec'd model if you can afford it. Otherwise, for around the same price as the base model M2 Air, you can get a true "gaming" laptop with a 3060 card in it. I was looking at one for a customer in Costco just yesterday. Think it was a Lenovo Legion model for like $999.00. (Though don't quote me on that, Costcos vary in supply and products from city to city.)

Pretty good point - essentially cloud gaming is video streaming plus a bit of gamepad inputs going up-stream 😁. Any computer than can run video decoding at 1080p/30 fps will do fine - even the raspberry pi 4 handles GeForce Now like a champ 🤣.