Should have gotten the 16GB version

[Tommy c]

Yea, I see why it's a good idea to get the 16GB version. I thought the 8 would have been enough. I'm running 5GB just on a few webpages like facebook and other things like photo's Ect... I don't even have windows loaded on it yet. My original plan is to use this for car tuning on the windows side and regular stuff. I have a 27" iMac I do photo editing on. But I see just doing web pages and what not is taxing the system. Screen seems fine as well to me.

Other than that, I like it a lot. But, I will say, get the 16GB version. I should have done that and did not. I can return it and exchange, just a pita. I'll take a look at the 13" MBP as well if I return this. I really don't want too, but, no way around this deficient RAM situation. My fault off course lol.

Maybe I'm running things I should not be as well. I need the extra cash for the upgrade, so, we'll see.

 

[ZipZap]

Thats how Apple gets ya. 8GB is simply inadequate but the cost to go up is ridiculous. And claims that Mac OS is efficient with memory are not true. I got 16GB and a 512GB Drive.

 

[Wags]

macOS will try and use available RAM. If you had 16 you might be using 12 in your situation.

 

[adamjackson]

Thats how Apple gets ya. 8GB is simply inadequate but the cost to go up is ridiculous. And claims that Mac OS is efficient with memory are not true. I got 16GB and a 512GB Drive.

"Starting at" is there for marketing to do their thing and meet an entry level but very rarely has the base model of anything from Apple been adequate for 3+ years of normal software innovation.

16GB seems like so much but you have no idea what you'll be into in 5 years time and the RAM isn't upgradable. At least with storage, you can get some cloud services to work for you to offload things.

 

[Tommy c]

macOS will try and use available RAM. If you had 16 you might be using 12 in your situation.

I see that, but is it doing that because it "needs" it? My iMac has 32GB and I plan on upgrading it to 64.

 

[newellj]

Thats how Apple gets ya. 8GB is simply inadequate but the cost to go up is ridiculous. And claims that Mac OS is efficient with memory are not true. I got 16GB and a 512GB Drive.

Inadequate for what? Very few users actually need 16gb RAM in one of these machines.

I'm actually using a 16/512 version right now and I've owned a 16/512 early 2015 rMBP at the same time I had the same machine with 8gb RAM. In most use, you will never see a difference, and if you are you probably should in this case be using something other than the Y-class, almost-passively cooled rMBA.

 

[lambertjohn]

Thats how Apple gets ya. 8GB is simply inadequate but the cost to go up is ridiculous. And claims that Mac OS is efficient with memory are not true. I got 16GB and a 512GB Drive.

Don't agree. Apple doesn't get ya with 8GB. Not even close. Not everyone is a power user like you. 8GB is absolutely fine for my needs, which is writing. Got 8GB on my 2018 Air right now and it's running Photoshop, Office 365, and browsing the web with zero issues. Fast and efficient. Was also running 8GB on my 2010 MacBook Pro 15 for seven years with no issues. For you, 8GB isn't enough; I get that. But for most of us everyday Joes, and there's millions of us, 8GB is just fine.

 

[filmbuff]

Isn't this why Apple changed Activity Monitor to show "memory pressure" because the "memory used" is confusing? My 8gb MBA from 2012 has never showed a memory pressure above ~50% even with 20+ browser tabs open, running a couple other programs at the same time, which is pretty much the most they will see in normal use.

 

[maerz001]

I see that, but is it doing that because it "needs" it? My iMac has 32GB and I plan on upgrading it to 64.

Well its holding once used programs in it as long as there is free ram even if u don’t use them now. But as long as memory pressure isn’t orange all fine.


If u plan on using windows as vm 8gb will be short. If on bootcamp no problem

 

[Tommy c]

Don't agree. Apple doesn't get ya with 8GB. Not even close. Not everyone is a power user like you. 8GB is absolutely fine for my needs, which is writing. Got 8GB on my 2018 Air right now and it's running Photoshop, Office 365, and browsing the web with zero issues. Fast and efficient. Was also running 8GB on my 2010 MacBook Pro 15 for seven years with no issues. For you, 8GB isn't enough; I get that. But for most of us everyday Joes, and there's millions of us, 8GB is just fine.

Isn't this why Apple changed Activity Monitor to show "memory pressure" because the "memory used" is confusing? My 8gb MBA from 2012 has never showed a memory pressure above ~50% even with 20+ browser tabs open, running a couple other programs at the same time, which is pretty much the most they will see in normal use.

I can tell you that I was getting the spinning beach ball a lot and the web pages were really slow and jumping all over the place while I scrolled. I did not look at the memory pressure tho.
[doublepost=1542351228][/doublepost]

Well its holding once used programs in it as long as there is free ram even if u don’t them them now. But as long as memory pressure isn’t orange all fine.


If u plan on using windows as vm 8gb will be short. If on bootcamp no problem

Yea, I use Parallels’s. I guess I will be needing this ram upgrade.

 

[Ma2k5]

I see that, but is it doing that because it "needs" it? My iMac has 32GB and I plan on upgrading it to 64.

Your MacBook will store as much as it can on RAM whether 8, 16 or 32.

How would you know if it’s a problem? You can look at the memory pressure graph, if it’s low you don’t need more.

It is only when people will utilise more than 8GB as in, their workflow will be using all that RAM. Merely having stuff stored on RAM doesn’t mean you need more.

 

[raqball]

Your MacBook will store as much as it can on RAM whether 8, 16 or 32.

How would you know if it’s a problem? You can look at the memory pressure graph, if it’s low you don’t need more.

It is only when people will utilise more than 8GB as in, their workflow will be using all that RAM. Merely having stuff stored on RAM doesn’t mean you need more.

That's a common problem.. People look at memory usage and freak out thinking they need more. If the graph is green all is good. Yellow, still good. Red? Need more RAM....

• Green: Memory resources are available.
• Yellow: Memory resources are still available but are being tasked by memory-management processes, such as compression.
• Red: Memory resources are depleted, and macOS is using your startup drive for memory. To make more RAM available, you can quit one or more apps or install more RAM. This is the most important indicator that your Mac may need more RAM.

 

[Tommy c]

I see, I see. I will revisit what I’m looking at.

 

[Howard2k]

Thats how Apple gets ya. 8GB is simply inadequate but the cost to go up is ridiculous. And claims that Mac OS is efficient with memory are not true. I got 16GB and a 512GB Drive.

That's absurd. I run 8GB and have no issues at all with edits in Lightroom, recording in GarageBand, edit spreadsheets, etc.

If you want to spend your money on 16GB for basic use, go nuts, but please don't advise other people that 8GB is simply inadequate because not true and it's purely a reflection of your lack of understanding or experience.

 

[MBAir2010]

thanks for the advice, im buying that new 16gb apple pencil 2 for an applefordable price of 1,292.99$ ta' use on my 32Gb ipod itouch later today so i can doodle notes in Suomi and draw moustatches on all those emojayz i receive!

 

[Lioness~]

I am glad I did buy 16GB RAM.
I'm happily continuing to multitask and enjoying my Apple stuff as I am used to on my iMac with 32GB RAM
Never understood the 'being cheap' and going basic config, when you anyway buy an expensive machine made to last.

 

[raqball]

I am glad I did buy 16GB RAM.
I'm happily continuing to multitask and enjoying my Apple stuff as I am used to on my iMac with 32GB RAM
Never understood the 'being cheap' and going basic config, when you anyway buy an expensive machine made to last.

Just because someone gets 8GB does not make them cheap and these machines are not built to last.. They are disposable for the most part..

If you need 16GB then cool but most don't... Wasting money on RAM you do not need is not being cheap, it's being smart. Take that cash and put it towards larger SSD or Apple Care..

 

[raqball]

I see, I see. I will revisit what I’m looking at.

Yeah memory pressure is key.. Use the machine as you normally would, heck even push it and see where you are.. If you are still green or yellow when pushed then you are fine.. If in the red then you might consider 16GB....

 

[ZipZap]

That's a common problem.. People look at memory usage and freak out thinking they need more. If the graph is green all is good. Yellow, still good. Red? Need more RAM....

• Green: Memory resources are available.
• Yellow: Memory resources are still available but are being tasked by memory-management processes, such as compression.
• Red: Memory resources are depleted, and macOS is using your startup drive for memory. To make more RAM available, you can quit one or more apps or install more RAM. This is the most important indicator that your Mac may need more RAM.

Is that an Apple graph?

8GB is inadequate in much they came way as 4GB was just a few years ago.

 

[jesChexin]

I think the problem is that this MacBook Air (like most Apple products) becomes very expensive once you spec it out above the base spec model. The mobile processor would become a bottleneck to a 16gb RAMmodel. At that point you might be better off going for a MacBook Pro with 16gb RAM, but you’ll be spending potentially more than you wanted. I’m not sure with these where the “sweet spot” is.

 

[MBAir2010]

Yesteryears, more gb was a better option, but I would rather invvest in ram than hd space because one can always move files, but not acess data in the future. But by all means humans, dont buy that 32gb apple pencil 5, no matter how exzuberant those tv commercials will ooze with modern appeal!

 

[EugW]

In my assessment, for my usage, 8 GB is adequate for most of my laptop usage. However, the key words here are "adequate" and "most". In some situations, when I am heavily multi-tasking, even on my 12" MacBook, 8 GB can be limiting. And even when I'm not heavily multitasking, 16 GB can be beneficial in some regards.

Some of those saying we don't need 16 GB are looking at it the wrong way. Sure, 16 GB is a lot. However, 8 GB can be limiting. What we should be asking is not if we need 16 GB, but if we want more than 8 GB. Personally, I think the sweet spot for me for the next few years would be 12 GB on my MacBook, but that option doesn't exist and the only upgrade option is 16 GB, so I got 16.

Here are some scenarios where/why I think 16 GB can help:

1) Heavy multitasking of course. If you're running lots of apps. This is especially true if you use an external screen, since in my experience, it's a lot easier to multitask if you have an external screen.

2) Multiple users. In my experience each extra user that doesn't log out eats up another 2 GB or so. My wife is notorious for this, although it's more a problem on my iMac than my Mac laptops.

3) VMs. With 8 GB, even just having a 2 GB VM will limit you to just 6 GB for the primary OS. With 16 GB, you can have two 2 GB VMs and still have 12 GB left over. Or you can splurge on your VMs and have 3 GB each even with 2 VMs and still have 10 GB left over for macOS.

4) If you keep your laptops a long time. It seems that overall memory usage often goes up around 50% every 4-5 years or so. So, if 8 GB is good for you now, you might want 12 GB after a few years even if you don't heavily multitask. And even if you don't need 12, you might need 10, which is more than 8.

5) macOS loves to eat memory even when it doesn't "need" to. It keeps apps in memory even after you quit them and are not using them. Is this a waste of memory? IMO no, because when you come back to relaunch the app, the access is much faster if it's already in memory. This is particularly helpful for some bloated and slow loading apps like MS Office. For some reason, after a reboot, the initial launches of MS Office 2016 applications even on 2017 Core i5 iMacs is really slow, and of course on my 2017 Core m3 MacBook it is also really slow. (Office 2011 actually launches faster on my decade old Core 2 Duo Macs than Office 2016 on my 2017 Macs.) However, even if I exit the MS Office apps, when I relaunch them later, the relaunch speed will be fast if cached in memory. Yes, you can blame Microsoft for how they've built these apps, but that doesn't solve anything. The bottom line is that having more memory helps with bloated apps. The programmers don't seem to care that much in this regard. If their apps use a lot of memory, then they just expect their customers to buy more RAM to compensate, because they can.

BTW, I was almost tempted to remove Office 2016 and reinstall Office 2011, but 2011 is no longer supported, and 2016 does have some extra features like integrated OneDrive support.

 

[newellj]

I think one of the key variables here is how long you keep your laptops. I tend to have a three year horizon on laptops, and although the rMBA I just bought (but may not keep) has 16gb, I would probably be fine with 8gb and I don't expect to keep it long enough even in the most optimistic case for 16gb to provide any "future proofing."

 

[EugW]

I think one of the key variables here is how long you keep your laptops. I tend to have a three year horizon on laptops, and although the rMBA I just bought (but may not keep) has 16gb, I would probably be fine with 8gb and I don't expect to keep it long enough even in the most optimistic case for 16gb to provide any "future proofing."

I typically keep my laptops over 5 years.

 

[newellj]

I typically keep my laptops over 5 years.

Yeah, I noticed that. And some people posting here have got laptops from 2010 or older, so I know I'm on the shorter end of the replacement cycle. I'm going to replace the 2015 rMBP, though I'm not sure with what.