While most people will not notice the differences between having 4GB and 8GB RAM, the differences between 2GB and 4GB of RAM is quite noticeable.
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New MBA - 2gb vs 4gb of RAM
- Thread starter cbdoc
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yes, for those uses, 2GB will suffice
I wouldn't get a 2GB only because I use mine with parallels, FCP, CS5, LR3 and a bunch of other more intensive programs
so considering my uses for the machine I should notice any difference in performance?
no, not for those uses, it'd definitely be nice to have 4GB but you shouldn't notice much of a difference for those non-intensive tasks
ahh thank you. makes me feel a lot better about my purchase.
I guess I'll be harassing my mail and fedex guy for the next few days 0_o
Most folks are still caught up in the PC thought process where they spend way too much time looking at specs. I just bought 2 PC's for the office last week and they have incredible specs (i3, 8GB, 1TB - $500) but I can't think of anyone that will need 8GB on a machine at that level, just simply a spec war.
More is definitely better, but 4 is enough for most folks, and OSX is very efficient with RAM.
More is definitely better, but 4 is enough for most folks, and OSX is very efficient with RAM.
1) Yes that will suffice. If you open up "Activity Monitor" you'll see a list with all of your information. Click on System Memory at the bottom and it will show ram usage. The Page In and Page out is the writing that's done to the hard drive/ssd when you run out of RAM; the system uses that to offload some of the space when it runs out.
Because you have a SSD, when you have to read/write, it won't be that slow, but you'll be able to tell when you do hit the wall. For your usage though, I doubt you will.
2) It might be ok now, but if you start doing other things down the road you might come into some trouble. By down the road I mean in a year or two when programs become more complete and you start doing more things at one time.
3) Why did you get the MBA? And I'm assuming you just got it, as in, within a week or so?
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I easily use up 8 when running all of my applications and Virtual Machines. I have 4 in here now but I readily run out. Using Parallels on top of my daily applications maxes the ram and slows my machine to a crawl, depending on what I'm doing.
And I'm a 19 year old student. So I mean, I can understand if people don't "think" that others need more than 4 gigs, but there are quite a few people that do.
The problem isn't that people get caught up too much in specs, the problem is that people don't know, or forget, that it's completely relative to THEIR uses and they have to look ahead in the future. THE main reason why I did not get the new MBA. 4 gigs of RAM, for me, is going to be too small in 1/2 years; that's putting aside the point that I need more now.
I use more than 2gb routinely just doing simple photo editing in PS Elements. Think about this - before you load a single program the OS and other stuff has taken around 1.5gb. Anyone who buys a Air with 2gb of ram is short changing themselves. It's not a lot more money, you can't upgrade later, and you never know when you may suddenly be doing something requiring that ram.
I haven't read all the replies but here's my take: get as much RAM as you can get. Sure, having 1 window open at a time, you will never need more than 2GB.
But once you start multitasking, with a few big spreadsheets open (some of the ones I work with have TENS OF THOUSANDS of records on them and are quite large in file size), a couple of Safari windows, Skype, Mail, Photoshop, etc. things can really slow down a lot.
I have 16GB of RAM on my iMac (upgraded myself of course, not paying the silly Apple premium) and according to iStat a great deal of the time I have about 1GB or less free. Granted, on that machine I use 6GB to run a Windows 7 Virtual Machine as well, but still.
On my MBA so far, it looks like I usually hover between having 1 or 2GB of RAM free, but then again I haven't been crazy multitasking on it YET.
Now you gotta think about the future too. I bought my MBA to last me a couple of years, so as the next OS update comes out, or more intense apps, the extra gigs could come in handy.
That extra $100 or $200 spread out over the course of a 24 month lifespan (assuming you are only keeping it for 2 years) is just $4-$8/month. Not a big deal, dine in instead of eating out just ONCE per month and you have a snappier, more future proof system at no extra cost.
I agree with the 64GB SSD. That is really TIGHT. It should still be enough for casual users, but I don't see how someone with a large iTunes and iPhoto lib ray would make it. My iPhoto library ALONE is 37GB, which would be over half the HD space.
128GB is the bare minimum needed, IMO. Then again, if the Air is your secondary machine then you probably don't need your WHOLE iTunes library on it ALL the time (iTunes Match will come in handy there), and you probably don't need all your photos either, so it could work. 64GB of space is plenty for the OS, most basic apps, and some room left over for the media you just can't live without.
But once you start multitasking, with a few big spreadsheets open (some of the ones I work with have TENS OF THOUSANDS of records on them and are quite large in file size), a couple of Safari windows, Skype, Mail, Photoshop, etc. things can really slow down a lot.
I have 16GB of RAM on my iMac (upgraded myself of course, not paying the silly Apple premium) and according to iStat a great deal of the time I have about 1GB or less free. Granted, on that machine I use 6GB to run a Windows 7 Virtual Machine as well, but still.
On my MBA so far, it looks like I usually hover between having 1 or 2GB of RAM free, but then again I haven't been crazy multitasking on it YET.
Now you gotta think about the future too. I bought my MBA to last me a couple of years, so as the next OS update comes out, or more intense apps, the extra gigs could come in handy.
That extra $100 or $200 spread out over the course of a 24 month lifespan (assuming you are only keeping it for 2 years) is just $4-$8/month. Not a big deal, dine in instead of eating out just ONCE per month and you have a snappier, more future proof system at no extra cost.
I agree with the 64GB SSD. That is really TIGHT. It should still be enough for casual users, but I don't see how someone with a large iTunes and iPhoto lib ray would make it. My iPhoto library ALONE is 37GB, which would be over half the HD space.
128GB is the bare minimum needed, IMO. Then again, if the Air is your secondary machine then you probably don't need your WHOLE iTunes library on it ALL the time (iTunes Match will come in handy there), and you probably don't need all your photos either, so it could work. 64GB of space is plenty for the OS, most basic apps, and some room left over for the media you just can't live without.
I'm not a power user (I don't tax my system anywhere near its max for any length of time), but even I'm using 3 GB of ram currently, on the less resource hungry Snow Leopard. I've worked with 2 GB of ram for a short while...2 years ago...and I wasn't pleased with the frequent (and noticeable) page-outs. 4 GBs is a pretty noticeable difference to me, but 8 GBs? Probably only if you're using really resource hungry apps (VMs, etc.)
That being said, if I were able to get one for the right price, I don't think the baseline Airs are necessarily bad, as long as it wasn't (and it wouldn't be) my primary computer. To me, it really depends on how much you pay for it, and what you're actually planning on getting out of it. For a seamless experience though, I don't recommend anything less than 4 GBs of ram on people's primary computers, but that's just going by my own experiences.
That being said, if I were able to get one for the right price, I don't think the baseline Airs are necessarily bad, as long as it wasn't (and it wouldn't be) my primary computer. To me, it really depends on how much you pay for it, and what you're actually planning on getting out of it. For a seamless experience though, I don't recommend anything less than 4 GBs of ram on people's primary computers, but that's just going by my own experiences.
For basic, general office-style apps, 2GB is perfectly sufficient.
For some users, 2GB is not enough. Why make a big deal about people who need more than 2GB? If you KNOW you need more, you likely do. If you DON'T KNOW you need more, you likely do not.
I know I need more. I frequently use Parallels with an XP image and a specific app that is optimized for, and fully uses, 2GB of RAM. Wont even launch with less than 1GB. I frequently have Safari w/ multiple tabs, Keynote and Word all open at the same time when I'm researching and writing a lecture. And these are image- and video-rich lectures, sometimes each 300MB or more. And not infrequently will I launch Pixelmator or Quicktime to do a quick edit. They do fine on my iMac and Mac mini with 8GB of RAM, occasionally beach balls (or hourglasses) on my 4GB MacBook Air, I could only imagine what would happen on 2GB. I'd never get anything done if I had to save-quit-launch-edit-save-quit-launch-insert-save-quit-load.... etc.
Besides, OS X makes good use of unassigned RAM to cache items for quick retrieval. Free RAM is wasted RAM.
But I consider myself a heavy user.
For some users, 2GB is not enough. Why make a big deal about people who need more than 2GB? If you KNOW you need more, you likely do. If you DON'T KNOW you need more, you likely do not.
I know I need more. I frequently use Parallels with an XP image and a specific app that is optimized for, and fully uses, 2GB of RAM. Wont even launch with less than 1GB. I frequently have Safari w/ multiple tabs, Keynote and Word all open at the same time when I'm researching and writing a lecture. And these are image- and video-rich lectures, sometimes each 300MB or more. And not infrequently will I launch Pixelmator or Quicktime to do a quick edit. They do fine on my iMac and Mac mini with 8GB of RAM, occasionally beach balls (or hourglasses) on my 4GB MacBook Air, I could only imagine what would happen on 2GB. I'd never get anything done if I had to save-quit-launch-edit-save-quit-launch-insert-save-quit-load.... etc.
Besides, OS X makes good use of unassigned RAM to cache items for quick retrieval. Free RAM is wasted RAM.
But I consider myself a heavy user.
Two problems.
If I know I need it, then I need it. If I don't know, I dont' need? It's easy to say and assume this, but this simply isn't the case. There is no reason anybody should be getting a new computer, at such a high price range at that, with 2 gigs of RAM. No reason at all.
NOW it might be suitable for small applications, but look back 2/3 years ago. You really didn't need it then; now Lion has a 2 gb RAM limit. What will happen next year? The year after? 2gb ram machines will be running slow and eventually unsupported as soon as Apple moves onto 2 gb RAM standard.
Free RAM is wasted RAM? I guess you aren't accustomed to paging. You know, when you run out of RAM? WHen this happens, performance is hindered across the board due to reading/writing to the HD/SSD. That's why you get more ram. So you don't have to do that.
I'm not saying I think you're simply wrong or you don't know what you're talking about, but when people who DON'T know read something like this, they end up being this guy
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=13337483#post13337483
Who bought a 2010 MBA for 700 with 2 gigs of RAM. Yea it's ok for him now with office applications and web browsing, but wait until he starts trying to multitask or use intensive applications down the road.
Your saying goes along the line of "what you don't know, won't hurt you" which, in this case, is ignorance at its best. It will hurt you.
You are obviously not "most folks" I am not either as I always have at least one VM running Autocad and modeling software. If your Vm's bring your machine to a crawl, I might recommend you look at Fusion. Parallels certainly seems faster in the VMs, but I have found that Fusion strikes a better balance between VM AND host performance, as Parallels has always seemed (to me at least) to crush the Mac side of things. (sorry for getting off topic). That said, I would always suggest at least 4GB of ram in the air and 8 in everything else as ram is still relatively cheap when you do it yourself, but to the average surfer, e-mailer, office apper, who occasionally drops into Windows to run Quicken, 4 will be fine. It is tempting to think that since the new Air's are blazing fast, that they are the solution for everything, but there is still a need for big hardware for "some folks". I am moving to my Air and ditching the MBP17 for my work use, but I wouldn't do that if not for the big iMac+Raid array I have at home for the real heavy lifting when I need it.
The issue here is that those higher specs will cost you, which is possibly one of the OP's concerns. If he had enough surplus money to buy the top-end model of every product without feeling the pinch, we wouldn't need this discussion now, would we?
That's the whole point, trying to make an informed decision so we don't end up paying more than what we should (in this case, for specs we don't really need).
It's the same argument for the ipad. It's easy to say "Go with the 64gb version", but the tradeoff is that it costs more than the basic 16gb version, and for most people, those few hundred extra do count for something.
With the 2gb you will end up paying even more, because in 2-3 years (max) you WILL need 4gb or more to multitask. It's better to pay an extra 100$ for a machine that will last 2 years longer than the 2gb model...
You do have a point. However, I feel that if you desire 4gb ram, then may as well go for the 13' screen version. I find the extra real estate is just too irresistible for the little extra premium, unless the smaller laptop size really means a lot to you.
So for me, it would be a toss-up between the 1st and 3rd MBA option, in which case the difference is a little more stark.
So for me, it would be a toss-up between the 1st and 3rd MBA option, in which case the difference is a little more stark.
No no no, I know that, I was making a point. I already ordered 8 gigs of ram, I have multiple monitoring apps for all of the internal specs and whatnot of the machine.
What I was simply making the point of how 4 gigs of ram is a limit for people who do a lot of things. I can easily run a VM, and do everything I normally do on 4 gigs; easily. However, I was just making the point that 4 should be the baseline for new computers, especially at the price Apple sells these things at.
It's ridiculous. I'm all for design, premium products, and experience, but it's a slap in an ignorant customer's face when they pay a GRAND for a computer with 64gbs of storage and 2 gigs of RAM, no matter HOW you intend to use it.
It makes no sense.
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This is only the case with the MBA, because you cannot upgrade the RAM later. I'm assuming you're referencing that but I'm not sure.
It's always cheaper (and better) to buy things like storage and ram later down the road, as the prices go down as capacity goes up. NO REASON to buy more of what you can upgrade now when you simply do not need it.
In the RAM MBA case, this doesn't apply, sadly.
Or you could just get the 11 inch with 4 gigs of RAM for 1100?
But I see both of what you and the above poster are stating; it depends on what you are using and, in this case, it makes sense to get more BECAUSE you cannot upgrade the RAM later, which is the stupidest thing I have ever seen or heard of in a "premium product".