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Upgrade from 8GB MBA M1 to 16GB MBA M3?

N

nepats81

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 28, 2014
139
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I currently have an mba m1 with 8 gb ram that I purchased in 2020. Bh video is offering $350 on a trade in for a 16gb m3 mba. With Black Friday discounts I’m wondering if I should go for it?

I could wait for the m4 but trade in will just go down. Let me know what you guys think?
 
helloapple1 said:
To be honest with you, I don’t think it will be much faster, depending on your workflow. It’s more to future proof the device. Are you finding issues with your current Mac?
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I tend to keep a lot of tabs open for my workflow. When I do this it starts to slow down and is a bit annoying. Certainly still very usuable. I just have a need for speed
 
I'd ask the question: is your current Mac working too slowly for you? Do you notice lagging or anything else that distracts you from your work? If not, stay the course and keep using it. There will be more sales. The M3 Air will get even cheaper when an eventual M4 Air comes out.
 
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If you plan on using the Apple Intelligence features then I'd go for the 16GB. If you have no plans and if 8GB is working fine for you then I'd hang on to what you have.
 
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ctjack said:
I would wait for m4 and get +100% boost over my m1. Cause m3 is marginally faster at +50/60%.
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I agree that you might as well wait if there's no immediate need for a new device, but I don't think that these numbers mean very much. 50/60% faster... based on some artificial benchmark. Is the average user like, "Wow! Safari launched 60% faster!"? Most people don't even push an M1 to its limits, so there's no way they will even notice the benefits of say an M4 over an M3.
 
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joeblow7777 said:
I agree that you might as well wait if there's no immediate need for a new device, but I don't think that these numbers mean very much. 50/60% faster... based on some artificial benchmark. Is the average user like, "Wow! Safari launched 60% faster!"? Most people don't even push an M1 to its limits, so there's no way they will even notice the benefits of say an M4 over an M3.
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If one is first time buyer and needs asap then yeah grab m3.

If time waits, m4 will open up next supercycle of 4-5 year upgrades.

And yes, next to each other safari is indeed clicks through and opens 60% faster on m3 vs m1.

Edit. One is not supposed to replace m3 for m4 and expect magic noticeable gains. But if you are buying first time, then m4 is a better value.
 
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Even with M4, the CPU is only 1.8x faster than M1. The GPU is 2.2x faster.

Just like with phones, you generally want to wait 3-4 generations before upgrading.
 
joeblow7777 said:
I agree that you might as well wait if there's no immediate need for a new device, but I don't think that these numbers mean very much. 50/60% faster... based on some artificial benchmark. Is the average user like, "Wow! Safari launched 60% faster!"? Most people don't even push an M1 to its limits, so there's no way they will even notice the benefits of say an M4 over an M3.
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ctjack said:
If one is first time buyer and needs asap then yeah grab m3.

If time waits, m4 will open up next supercycle of 4-5 year upgrades.

And yes, next to each other safari is indeed clicks through and opens 60% faster on m3 vs m1.

Edit. One is not supposed to replace m3 for m4 and expect magic noticeable gains. But if you are buying first time, then m4 is a better value.
Click to expand...

JPack said:
Even with M4, the CPU is only 1.8x faster than M1. The GPU is 2.2x faster.

Just like with phones, you generally want to wait 3-4 generations before upgrading.
Click to expand...


Gotcha so in other words what I’m hearing is I won’t notice that much of a difference between m1 and m3, but because the incremental difference compounds, I will at least notice m1 to m4 jump?
 
ctjack said:
If one is first time buyer and needs asap then yeah grab m3.

If time waits, m4 will open up next supercycle of 4-5 year upgrades.

And yes, next to each other safari is indeed clicks through and opens 60% faster on m3 vs m1.

Edit. One is not supposed to replace m3 for m4 and expect magic noticeable gains. But if you are buying first time, then m4 is a better value.
Click to expand...
I mean, yes, but that's not really my point. Ultimately, the day-to-day difference between any of the M-series Macs is probably not going to be that significant to most people. Any of them can last 4-5 years, which is not to say that the M4 isn't obviously the best one to get if you can wait.
 
joeblow7777 said:
I mean, yes, but that's not really my point. Ultimately, the day-to-day difference between any of the M-series Macs is probably not going to be that significant to most people. Any of them can last 4-5 years, which is not to say that the M4 isn't obviously the best one to get if you can wait.
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I personally have M1 Air and not swayed to replace it at all until it stops holding charge or something. It is plenty fast.

Although by the time M4 Air introduced, it would have hit 4 years and 5 month - so one could think it is time to replace, but i have specific scenarios running on it which new one will not be able to recreate.

Mostly M4 will sway people for other reasons beyond power, which i will agree that will be hard to notice - M1 Air opens this page in 0.5s and if M4 does that in 0.25s, then who cares. For example M4 Air might be the first base model that could run 2 external displays with the internal not in a clamshell so 2+1.

It might also add another extra port - pain point of Air if using more or less professionally. It might add Nano screen to fight glares for upcharge.

Having said that, I incline to not care about all of those cause i have perfectly fine working machine. Worst case i have MBP 14 M1 Pro that can drive 2 external displays for hard use. I probably will have to deal with glare (if Nano is introduced) until both laptops will come to 8-10 years.
 
The M1 MacBook Air is still plenty fast.

Personally I'm holding off until the M4. I'm expecting nice improvements in battery life (see new M4 MacBook Pros), that together with the additional performance could make it a great upgrade.
 
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