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MBA - Is 4GB RAM enough?

briloronmacrumo said:
Bypassing the OS upgrades misses the Apple security upgrades.
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My MBA has gotten OS updates since 10.7 Lion. It runs better with 10.11 El Cap than it has since new. Yes, Apple may release an OS incompatible with mine, but the OP is getting the newest available MBA, which will certainly have five or more years in it.

An idée fixe is a condition where one's mind is fixated on something and is completely resistant to conflicting information. Insisting on maximum RAM at any cost is a good example.
 
cincygolfgrrl said:
My MBA has gotten OS updates since 10.7 Lion. It runs better with 10.11 El Cap than it has since new. Yes, Apple may release an OS incompatible with mine, but the OP is getting the newest available MBA, which will certainly have five or more years in it.

An idée fixe is a condition where one's mind is fixated on something and is completely resistant to conflicting information. Insisting on maximum RAM at any cost is a good example.
Click to expand...

OSX has always been very ram hungry, I had a mac mini with 4gb and it'd choke constantly, upgraded to 8gb and it'd run smoothly. Load a few safari tabs and check activity monitor, each tab can easily be 100-500mb EACH, so if you do shopping, school research etc and need to constantly have many tabs open, the OS will get laggy.

uh7WCiD.png


One more thing, many apps are requiring more ram, for example now that Apple killed iPhotos and Aperture, many are looking into switching to Lightroom, which recommends 8GB ram. Even Apple's own Photos app is very ram hungry:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7273925?start=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7034535?start=0&tstart=0
 
trifid said:
OSX has always been very ram hungry, I had a mac mini with 4gb and it'd choke constantly, upgraded to 8gb and it'd run smoothly.
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Your Mini had a spinner, right?

You guys are missing my point. More RAM is always desirable, it's just not always affordable.

Did you even bother to read the OPs initial post? S/He's a student on a limited budget. Why do you think maxing out the RAM is more important than food and shelter? Can you even answer that?
 
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cincygolfgrrl said:
Your Mini had a spinner, right?

You guys are missing my point. More RAM is always desirable, it's just not always affordable.

Did you even bother to read the OPs initial post? S/He's a student on a limited budget. Why do you think maxing out the RAM is more important than food and shelter? Can you even answer that?
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I agree, I was just pointing out the ram should not be dismissed so easily. Best thing is to wait for Apple to upgrade macbooks since it'll happen soon and I'd almost guarantee they'd be 8gb by default since 4gb is already very outdated and ram is extremely cheap nowadays. I just checked the other day and 8GB SODIMM cost $25 on amazon. I can't see Apple shipping 4gb default on the new macbooks.
 
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Tergan said:
Hi guys,

my plan is to buy MBA 2015 13" (or possible 2016 upgrade if it will ship in June) and I´m wondering. In Czech Republic, Apple products are quite expensive and the price of basic MBA 13" model is somewhere around 1150 USD in sale (official price is around 1300 USD)!

I´m no heavy duty user, no video editing or rendering or things like that. Just internet, Youtube, MS Office in school and some light gaming (Heartstone or 5+ years old games). I´m quite on budget as a student and don´t want to buy used MBA (and can´t buy refurbished one in CZE). So is it worth to pay extra 250 USD (in sale) for 8GB RAM version?

Macbook sould last me at least for 4 years and should not be slow (bit affraid of new versions of OS X).

P.S. I don´t mind the screen resolution as my current 15,6" Lenovo runs on 1366x768 and I have no problems with that.

I´m new to this forum, but reading it for past three months. And sorry for any mistakes in my English :)

Thanks !

Maybe there is a thread with the same topic, but I was not able to find it and I simply can´t read almost 500 pages.
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I don't know about pricing in the Czech Republic, but at $1150 you're not far off the US MSRP price with tax included.
US prices are always quoted without sales tax. European countries typically included them.

Also, the 8GB premium is about $100 in the US, I doubt it's more than double where you are.
Checking the Czech store, it states 3200Kc which is about US$133 and probably less for an "on-sale" model.

Having said that, I think 4GB will be sufficient for your needs for 4 years.
More RAM and more flash storage is always desirable, but rarely necessary unless you have specific needs.
Unless you're a computer engineering student, don't concern yourself with lengthy confusing write-ups about activity monitor and how to interpret memory usage. OS X memory management is quite efficient and utilizes most of the available RAM in a "smart" way.

Go for the 4/128 model as they typically come on sale more often than the BTO versions and add a cheap 1TB USB 3 drive for additional storage (and backup) later.

Also, depending on how close to the border of either Austria or Germany you are, you could always order a refurb to a friends location or possibly an Apple store and the difference in price pays for your train ticket. Apple warranties are valid globally. 2013 models and newer are best. I personally bought a 2013 4/128 refurb model just 2 months ago and I'm more than happy with it.

Good luck in your search.
 
Go for 8GB RAM, its a relatively low cost upgrade - storage can be supplemented by cloud, NAS or even USB based devices. However you can't upgrade the RAM in future.
 
I was thinking about refurb from GER/AUT, but don´t want their keyboard. I will wait for the WWDC and then we will see :)
 
Well I'm quite happy with the 4 gig on this one but it would have been nice if Apple had made the 8gig version of the air available off the shelf via resellers and/or upgradable from 4 to 8 gigs by a machine's owner or at a repairer, like we used to be able to, rather than being locked in to whatever happens to be fixed in there.
 
4 GB is ok für 4 years if you are careful with OSX upgrades, ie first check if RAM requirements have strongly increased before upgrading. With OSX it is not problematic to keep a 2-3 year old OS; Apple provides security updates for at least 2 years and even after that the system is not suddenly totally vulnerable.
Who knows what your demands will be in 3-4 years; perhaps you need a different computer then due to other requirements.
 
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Even that can happen. I will (hopefully) finish my Master degree in two years and after that, who knows, maybe I will need the best rMBP :) So I guess that basic MBA will be the winner, if there will be no major update on WWDC and after maybe two years, it stillcan be sold for good amount of money. Thanks to everyone for their opinions :)
 
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Tergan said:
I was thinking about refurb from GER/AUT, but don´t want their keyboard. I will wait for the WWDC and then we will see :)
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Order from saturn or mediamarkt.

There are regular offers for the base mba 13" for around 800€.
 
If you can, go for more. I'm almost always using over 2GB just for my web browser alone, and I've hit more than 8GB before...just for a browser, when I was opening a bunch of tabs on Consumer Reports, doing research.

Back 6 years ago I thought it was okay, and as a secondary system with a specific use it might be okay, but IMO 4GB isn't super great for a main system today. In fact my main notebook has 24GB, my secondary systems 8GB, which works okay.
 
Wolfpup said:
If you can, go for more. I'm almost always using over 2GB just for my web browser alone, and I've hit more than 8GB before...just for a browser, when I was opening a bunch of tabs on Consumer Reports, doing research.

Back 6 years ago I thought it was okay, and as a secondary system with a specific use it might be okay, but IMO 4GB isn't super great for a main system today. In fact my main notebook has 24GB, my secondary systems 8GB, which works okay.
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You forget the way RAM works - since idle RAM is a waste, the computer will use as much as it can to optimise resources. so if you have 8GB or more it is normal that you will see the browser taking up 2GB or more. But if you have a computer with 4GB for example, the same tasks will use up less RAM.
 
I had the 13" with 4GB and it really struggled with a few apps open. One at a time was not a problem. As noted, 8GB is a no-brainer.
 
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I would think so since you're not doing anything real heavy duty. I've got an old one with 4MB and have no problems with anything, including streaming or running multiple programs that take up a lot of juice.
 
Well, today´s update solved the problem, I will get 8GB for the price of 4GB :) Wonder if it fill be marked as a early2016 or they just leave it as early 2015.
 
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