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New MBA. Better Processor or more RAM?

S

sl33pyhead

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 6, 2009
52
0
$150 for 1.3 to 1.7 processor bump
or
$100 for a 4gb to 8gb ram upgrade.

If I had to choose just one, which would be best?

I'm thinking processor would be best for everything from games like D3 to photoshop. Thoughts?
 
zachmo360 said:
Ram every day of the week
Click to expand...

Oooo interesting! I am wondering why?
Would not just 1.3ghz processor speed be more of a bottleneck than 4gb of ram? On my pc checking ram usage it's rare to pass 4 (I have 8gb).
 
sl33pyhead said:
$150 for 1.3 to 1.7 processor bump
or
$100 for a 4gb to 8gb ram upgrade.

If I had to choose just one, which would be best?

I'm thinking processor would be best for everything from games like D3 to photoshop. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I believe every other thread on this same topic, going back to the first MBA, and even this one on the first page of threads, '4Gb or 8Gb of RAM memory' all indicated more ram was best. But we might need a few more threads to be started before we come to any absolute conclusions.
 
Last edited:
Do you guys reckon the baseline model (i5+4GB) would be enough for casual surfing & music and light photoshop??

I'm pretty sure 4GB will almost be fine for me - but not sure if it would be too detrimental to resell value.
 
ET iPhone Home said:
Novice here. Why more Ram if average user does not exceed 4GB Ram? Is it because of future programs that may require more ram?
Click to expand...

If you are not exceeding 4GB ram, then you are most likely not running anything requiring a faster processor.

RAM provides the most bang for your buck in this case as you probably wont ever notice a difference if you go for the faster processor whereas 2x RAM will be more noticeable when running multiple tasks.
 
sl33pyhead said:
$150 for 1.3 to 1.7 processor bump
or
$100 for a 4gb to 8gb ram upgrade.

If I had to choose just one, which would be best?

I'm thinking processor would be best for everything from games like D3 to photoshop. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

RAM. Processor upgrade is basically worthless for games as the GPU is the bottleneck, plus is way overpriced for little performance gains.
 
More RAM means that you can do more things at the same time. Faster clock speed (generally) means that things get done slightly faster.

Do the RAM upgrade.

Benchmarks of 2013 i5 vs i7: http://www.macworld.com/article/204...13-holds-its-own-against-the-macbook-pro.html

Quicklite said:
Do you guys reckon the baseline model (i5+4GB) would be enough for casual surfing & music and light photoshop??

I'm pretty sure 4GB will almost be fine for me - but not sure if it would be too detrimental to resell value.
Click to expand...

Yes, 4GB will be enough. No, only having 4GB will not impact resale value very much, based on what I've seen on craigslist.
 
mattferg said:
RAM. Processor upgrade is basically worthless for games as the GPU is the bottleneck, plus is way overpriced for little performance gains.
Click to expand...

Yup, you need 8GB of ram. Ignore the fact most games are programmed for 32bit systems, so only use max of 3.2GB of ram, or that looking at STEAM, you'll see not a single game has a recommended 8GB of syetem ram (and most say a minimum of 1/2gb), you need 8GB!
 
I got the 1.3 i5 and 8 GB RAM upgrade myself, and I have to say I love it. You may have a slightly lower Geekbench score but all that does is provide yourself with satisfaction.

RAM is the way to go.
 
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