Should I upgrade from Late2013 Retina MBP to 2020MBA?

[nepats81]

I have a late 2013 MBP 13" and its getting a bit slow...so I'm curious on if I will see a major difference in performance by getting a 2020 MBA.

My current model is 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3.

My use is the occasional excel spreadsheet. Netflix, browsing the web with many tabs open. Lots of youtube.

I was thinking getting the i5 MBA with 8GB Ram. should I upgrade to 16GB? Or should I get the new MBP?

Last question - will the MBA have more comfort with its design? I do type a lot as I am in the process of writing a book.

Thanks

 

[jpn]

I have a late 2013 MBP 13" and its getting a bit slow...so I'm curious on if I will see a major difference in performance by getting a 2020 MBA.

My current model is 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3.

My use is the occasional excel spreadsheet. Netflix, browsing the web with many tabs open. Lots of youtube.

I was thinking getting the i5 MBA with 8GB Ram. should I upgrade to 16GB? Or should I get the new MBP?

Last question - will the MBA have more comfort with its design? I do type a lot as I am in the process of writing a book.

Thanks

minor performance increase.
get 16GB.
you will be very happy with the new 2020 MacBook Air, base level processor.

 

[TorontoSS]

I have your same MacBook (Late 2013), And replacing with the 2020 air too. I got i5/16/256. there’s no real reason I got the 16 gb and it may or may not make a diff but I figured I kept my last one for so long, in some years i might thank myself.
you may not need 16 though.

i have similar usage to you.

 

[deeddawg]

It's super easy to spend other people's money, so you'll get a lot of folks just blindly saying buy the 16GB upgrade. Won't hurt anything to do so if you have money to burn, but it likely is not be necessary.

I'd suggest looking at your current memory utilization doing your usual stuff. Check your Memory Pressure and see how you're doing in 8GB right now. Unless you change what you do in the future, needs won't change much going forward. See https://support.apple.com/guide/activity-monitor/view-memory-usage-actmntr1004/mac

I doubt you'd have any need for 16GB given your stated usage.

Also - many people don't comprehend how virtual memory works -- if your system does need more than the physical memory, it will begin by compressing less recently used stuff, and can swap stuff out of memory to the SSD until it needs it back. This made more of a difference back in the days of 5400rpm spinning hard disks - but is much less perceivable with todays super fast SSDs (relative to the HDDs).

Side note -- remember if you're looking at videos on Youtube in Chrome which have a 4K option, they'll be in a codec that is decoded in software on the Macbook Air - so it'll hammer the CPU and you may get the fan going. If you're sticking to Safari or non VP9 codec stuff you should be fine.

 

[oilers780]

I am going from a 2015 MBP to a 2020 MBA. I can justify it for myself. If you have the $ to splurge on the MBA, it's going to be a much more noticeable upgrade from a 2013 MBP to a 2020 Air. 16gb RAM could help future proof, which is why I am opting to go for that myself. A lot of YouTubers are recommending to spend the extra $ on the i5 rather than settling for an i3 if that helps at all too.

 

[throAU]

I went from a 2015 13" pro to a 2020 Air. I think you'll be happy.