To those wondering if they need 8GB on the new Air

[Jaro65]

SSDs have a limited lifetime.

As do we....

 

[trondah]

With the insane speeds of the pci-e SSD's pageouts will not effect system performance as much as a platter HDD but with that said Memory is MUCH faster then 800Mb/s.

Yes, and also page-ins/page-outs are random and not sequential, so it won't be that fast. Keep in mind the HD5000 reserves 1GB of memory as well, so you only have 3GB. Paying $100 for the 8GB allows you to disable swap if you like.

 

[iterva]

I disagree for two reasons: battery life and weight. Some people want that sort of computer in a package under 3 lbs with 12 hours of battery life. We'll see what Haswell can do for the rMBP, but I doubt we'll see 12 hours. Maybe I'll be wrong.

I agree. For me the screen wasn't a big deal, and it is guaranteed to draw less power than the Retina. Now, maybe between the Haswell chip and Mavericks, that will be a moot point (meaning the battery life will be 12+ hours on both machines), but regardless the form factor of the MBA fit my life (in college) a lot more. Plus, I wanted to play a few games on it, seeing as I wont be able to afford another computer for a very long time, so the maxed specs felt like the better way to go.

+1
For me it was simply the weight/formfactor and battery life that made me go with the MBA instead of rMBP.

 

[mattopotamus]

I just got a base model 13" air and was thinking about going with 8gb but as it was special order from Apple and I had a bunch of gift cards from best buy I decided against it. I do a lot of parallels work on my computer (nothing taxing just an office management software always open on an external display). Tested it out today, gave 1gb of ram and 2 cores to parallels which worked just fine, then opened IE and chrome in parallels, plus safari, chrome, garageband, iPhoto, photoshop CS4, word, and excel to get to the point where the ram was paging out constantly. I noticed basically no slow down by doing this, mission control was still smooth, the verge in safari was as smooth as it ever is, basically everything worked just as if I did not have that much open. Not sure if it is the faster SSD helping or what but even though I would feel better having 8gb just in case it seems as though 4gb will work just fine for the average user even if they are using a virtual machine

Thank you for posting this. I feel like I am always on an island alone when I tell people that 4gb is more than sufficient.

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Weird, as mine just uses 3.2gb just running Chrome.

The Mac will use as much RAM as it can if it is available. For example, b.c you have 8gb of RAM chrome might use 2gb, but someone with only 4gb their mac will only use 700 mb

 

[curtoise]

Thank you for posting this. I feel like I am always on an island alone when I tell people that 4gb is more than sufficient.

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The Mac will use as much RAM as it can if it is available. For example, b.c you have 8gb of RAM chrome might use 2gb, but someone with only 4gb their mac will only use 700 mb

I have both, an ultimate with 8gb and a base 4gb model 2013 11"

The ultimate is going back, base model with 4gb does everything I need in the same amount of time with no lag, VMs, Photoshop, you name it.

 

[musika]

The Mac will use as much RAM as it can if it is available. For example, b.c you have 8gb of RAM chrome might use 2gb, but someone with only 4gb their mac will only use 700 mb

Thank you so much for mentioning this. That's really something to remember.

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Is there anything to be said about Apple Store repairability?

I'm assuming that if you have a base model that is acting up and you bring it to the Apple Store, the genius bar could potentially swap it out like they do with an iPad or an iPhone, where as if you have a CTO model from the Apple Store, repairability might be a longer process (which is a pain when you need your computer for work). The same goes for an ultimate, I guess, but not an i5 model with just the 8GB upgrade. And I think there's a huge advantage there.

I'm just speculating.

 

[mattopotamus]

Thank you so much for mentioning this. That's really something to remember.

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Is there anything to be said about Apple Store repairability?

I'm assuming that if you have a base model that is acting up and you bring it to the Apple Store, the genius bar could potentially swap it out like they do with an iPad or an iPhone, where as if you have a CTO model from the Apple Store, repairability might be a longer process (which is a pain when you need your computer for work). The same goes for an ultimate, I guess, but not an i5 model with just the 8GB upgrade. And I think there's a huge advantage there.

I'm just speculating.

Last year I had a config with 8gb and it had a bad battery. Instead of fixing the battery they suggest I return and reorder online. It was really a huge hassle so I went with the base config and never looked back.

 

[musika]

Last year I had a config with 8gb and it had a bad battery. Instead of fixing the battery they suggest I return and reorder online. It was really a huge hassle so I went with the base config and never looked back.

Yeah I had a feeling it would be like that.

For us, as a secondary computer and, depending on what you're doing with it, maybe a primary machine, the base models are just fine and there are many benefits, like you said, to having the base model.

I'm thinking of it as a replacement for my iPad. It won't do everything my desktop can do, and that's fine. But it will do a hell of a lot more than my iPad could do.

 

[SR45]

Weird, as mine just uses 3.2gb just running Chrome.

Safari + Safari Web content for me together, using 450 MB, not even close to 3.2 GB. Are you sure you are just looking at Crome ? I have a total of 16 Gb of ram.

 

[DarwinOSX]

This tells us and you pretty much nothing. Because you notice no slow down? Entirely anecdotal information. Try running the same thing on an 8 GB Mac..in my case casual use shows an average of 5 to 6 gigabytes in use. The OS is using that for something..Apple really needs to make 8 GB more available without a special order.

I just got a base model 13" air and was thinking about going with 8gb but as it was special order from Apple and I had a bunch of gift cards from best buy I decided against it. I do a lot of parallels work on my computer (nothing taxing just an office management software always open on an external display). Tested it out today, gave 1gb of ram and 2 cores to parallels which worked just fine, then opened IE and chrome in parallels, plus safari, chrome, garageband, iPhoto, photoshop CS4, word, and excel to get to the point where the ram was paging out constantly. I noticed basically no slow down by doing this, mission control was still smooth, the verge in safari was as smooth as it ever is, basically everything worked just as if I did not have that much open. Not sure if it is the faster SSD helping or what but even though I would feel better having 8gb just in case it seems as though 4gb will work just fine for the average user even if they are using a virtual machine

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Yes, and also page-ins/page-outs are random and not sequential, so it won't be that fast. Keep in mind the HD5000 reserves 1GB of memory as well, so you only have 3GB. Paying $100 for the 8GB allows you to disable swap if you like.

SWAP is an integral part of any Unix based OS and it's asking for trouble disabling it.

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I disagree for two reasons: battery life and weight. Some people want that sort of computer in a package under 3 lbs with 12 hours of battery life. We'll see what Haswell can do for the rMBP, but I doubt we'll see 12 hours. Maybe I'll be wrong.

The 13" Macbook Air is 2.96 pounds and the 13" retina MacBook Pro is 3.57 pounds. I don't think that's a significant weight difference. Also rumor is the new 13" retina will be thinner and therefore a little lighter. As much as I like the Air it's very hard going back from a retina displays much superior sharpness, color, and contrast.

 

[tann]

Safari + Safari Web content for me together, using 450 MB, not even close to 3.2 GB. Are you sure you are just looking at Crome ? I have a total of 16 Gb of ram.

Chrome, especially with more than a handful of tabs open will use up huge amounts of ram.

It's just how it works.

 

[sk3tch]

All this over $100...lol.

I think the real issue is people are impatient and don't want to wait for CTO models, so they just try to rationalize their purchase of a base model. It's obviously a great machine - but if you're running it as one of your main workstations I have no idea why you wouldn't just spring for the extra $100. ESPECIALLY because you can never upgrade it.

All my opinion of course and you guys can make your own decision. I just think it's insane to buy a new computer that can never have more than 4GB of RAM in the lifetime of your ownership in the year 2013.

 

[majkom]

All this over $100...lol.

I think the real issue is people are impatient and don't want to wait for CTO models, so they just try to rationalize their purchase of a base model. It's obviously a great machine - but if you're running it as one of your main workstations I have no idea why you wouldn't just spring for the extra $100. ESPECIALLY because you can never upgrade it.

All my opinion of course and you guys can make your own decision. I just think it's insane to buy a new computer that can never have more than 4GB of RAM in the lifetime of your ownership in the year 2013.

well, you know, not all of us are paying US prices If I could get maxed air for US prices, I would not hesitate... but just today, I went for 4gig version as it was 300 usd cheaper than 8 gig one (with all the other specs same)