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That's your opinion, it's not what I see them use. You want to rationalize that the base offer of 2gb on some airs is enough, it's not, not with the integrated memory taking up around 384gb, not with kernel task and the rest of lion on start up taking 750gb, and not with anything other than bare minimum.

So tell me, what do you think average users use?

The base RAM on Airs is 4GB. Also, you seem to have gotten your megas mixed up with your gigas.
 
That's your opinion, it's not what I see them use. You want to rationalize that the base offer of 2gb on some airs is enough, it's not, not with the integrated memory taking up around 384gb, not with kernel task and the rest of lion on start up taking 750gb, and not with anything other than bare minimum.

The average user, most of the time doesn't even know about tabbed browsing. Most will only have 4 windows open: Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and youtube. The average user hardly uses Excel these days anymore. Your average user is not a comp sci/graphics design major at a U.
 
The average user, most of the time doesn't even know about tabbed browsing. Most will only have 4 windows open: Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and youtube. The average user hardly uses Excel these days anymore. Your average user is not a comp sci/graphics design major at a U.

wow..really? that will be very old average user :D
 
So tell me, what do you think average users use?

The base RAM on Airs is 4GB. Also, you seem to have gotten your megas mixed up with your gigas.

yeah so what? I said of some airs, ie. last years ones. I already said what the average usage scenario is, read above. Anyone who bought the apple bullet and bought an air with 2gbs of soldered memory are going to find themselves seriously constricted in terms of usage.

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wow..really? that will be very old average user :D

and a very clever average user is by 2012 they haven't figured out tabs and are constantly clicking on the same window...
 
I just want to touch on one more thing from your previous post:

That's your opinion, it's not what I see them use.

No, it is not my 'opinion'. It's what I see average users use. iTunes, Safari, MS Word and email.

You may see some different average users (seemingly a different type of user altogether) but that does not somehow make what I see just an opinion.

yeah so what? I said of some airs, ie. last years ones. I already said what the average usage scenario is, read above. Anyone who bought the apple bullet and bought an air with 2gbs of soldered memory are going to find themselves seriously constricted in terms of usage.

Your opinion that 2GB is not enough is just that. An opinion. I don't see how my opinion that 2GB is enough for the average user is somehow less true than your opinion.

I now see what you think the average users uses, and I also see that you're off your rocker.

-3-4 documents open in Word- okay, I can see some people having that many open.

-5-6 PDFs open in Preview- what? One or two I can see but no

-20 tabs open in Safari AND Chrome- um, I don't know any average user who uses two web browsers simultaneously. And 20 tabs?? Exaggeration much?

Sorry mate but you seem to have your definition of an average user completely messed up.
 
I can tell you this. I have the base config RMBP with 8GB. And the CPU lubricant already needs to be changed and the display hinge resonators are causing memory leaks. Irregardless, you can make up your own mind.

Yeah, but as long as your flux capacitors are functioning properly you can always go back in time to upgrade your RAM before you needed it in the first place.
 
Yes, it is. So why is my opinion worthless while yours is for some reason the truth?

Average user..hmm.. that doesn't have any definitive answer.

Average user in which sector? IT sectors? They definitely use a lot of tabs and know what tabs are :)

Home sector? My old relatives only open 1 tabs..email :D

School sector?

This is tricky question haha! Basically if OP uses Virtual machine, and never close application he's opened. You better need 16GB.

In fact I survive using only 2GB ram from 08 until now, with VM, photoshop, words, a lot lot lot lot of chrome tabs. But you know, I have to choose between photoshop and VM and lag is very noticeable.
 
So why is your opinion correct while mine, and everyone else's (unless they're agreeing with you) incorrect?

Welcome to the INTERNET!

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That's your opinion, it's not what I see them use. You want to rationalize that the base offer of 2gb on some airs is enough, it's not, not with the integrated memory taking up around 384gb, not with kernel task and the rest of lion on start up taking 750gb, and not with anything other than bare minimum.

And yet, it is, and you are wrong. Funny how that works!

She also writes a blog and makes fitness videos in iMovie....she is THE average user! And has never had a problem with 2GB....you are the average nerd user that thinks me is needed no matter what.
 
It is a joke. Like that guy and his 8GB won't sync a mouse, needs CPU lubricant and hinge leaking memory jokes.



What do you think 'average users' use their computers for? Exactly what you listed. 6-7 tabs is actually more than what I see many people using.


Lol it's really hard to sense sarcasm on the internet...there's no tone involved.
 
I would ask you that why do not you go 16 GB. If you can effort them for $200.

Apple love people who buy with emotional more than pure logic one.

And all logic reason come for support your emotional. It is always true.
 
Just wanted to pop by this specific thread as to why most people probably do NOT need 16gb YET.

I have a 2011 MBP base 13", 2.4 i5 processor, 500gb HDD and I've just upgraded it to 16gb DDR3-1600MHz RAM. I do a lot of photography editing and large batch conversions (300+ RAW files) so decided 16gb would be a safer bet.

Anyhow just to test how unnecessary it is for the average user I loaded every app my MBP has installed and checked the usage. I don't yet know how to get a screen shot as I'm new to OS X but with every program open including mail, iPhoto, Lightroom, Safari + a handful of random tabs, app store, iTunes and so on I managed to use up 4.9gb of my available RAM. 11.1gb free :)

So, decide for yourself, do you NEED 16gb of RAM?
 
If I see one more 8gb vs 16gb thread I don't know what I am going to do!
 
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yes he does need 16gb of ram, don't misinform the poor guy just because you don't understand a few basics about computers and their lifecycle. If you are new to os x, try to be a bit more responsible with your comments, because others that are old to os x might know a bit better. Your supposed high demand scenario is anything but. The browser doesn't have a lot of tabs open (try safari and chrome with 30 tabs in total, and with multimedia sites on, and leave them on for more than a couple of hours so they leak), the programs you have open should also be doing something or have some files open. And try to use at least 3-4 office documents in word or excel.

And what's preview doing? Open 4-5 pdfs in preview. Like a couple of books The way lion saves states anyway and just keeps old open docs if they are not explicitly shut, most average users will forget they have them open in their first place if they are minimized within the app icon.

There's absolutely no reason if he can afford 16gbs of ram to tie his device to 8gb FOREVER with NEVER a prospect for an upgrade. If he could decide in the future for an upgrade, I d tell them go with 8gbs, but they can't.

It's the same as with people wrongly advising others go with 16gbs ipad, and now ipad ones at 16gbs will sell for peanuts or become doorstops while 64gbs have retained their value perfectly well. He should future proof the device for a mere $200 which is a very small amount compared to his initial investment.

You can never have enough memory, more memory means the os will function much better and have to release ram less frequently or exchange it between apps. And with os x's much less than stellar memory swapping mechanism more memory is always a good thing. Your bottleneck should only be your cpu and gpu you don't have to force a bottleneck in memory as well.

He'll also be able in 4-5 years to sell his mac at much higher price compared to the initial investment. 16gbs model will hold their price much, much better, than 8gbs one, and be much better machines.

And at the end of the day, in principle, if you only get one chance to have the most memory your computer can have, you take that chance, you don't forever condemn your super expensive computer to half of its real capabilities.


@gentlefury kid, I don't care what your gfriend does with her mac or how you wanna rationalize that a 2gb mac is ample memory. You can believe whatever you want, you seem equally uninformed and impertinent to believe whatever you want anyway so whatever I might say doesn't make any difference. But when you try offending others you are crossing the line.
 
I guess that I'm just old school on this stuff. For example, I find that GoJo with pumice makes a nice screen cleaner.

That sounds interesting but I'll be sticking with my sandpaper to clean my screen. Steel wool also works a treat.

yes he does need 16gb of ram, don't misinform the poor guy just because you don't understand a few basics about computers and their lifecycle. If you are new to os x, try to be a bit more responsible with your comments, because others that are old to os x might know a bit better. Your supposed high demand scenario is anything but. The browser doesn't have a lot of tabs open (try safari and chrome with 30 tabs in total, and with multimedia sites on, and leave them on for more than a couple of hours so they leak), the programs you have open should also be doing something or have some files open. And try to use at least 3-4 office documents in word or excel.

Again with this? 30 tabs IS a lot of tabs. Hell, I only have 15 at this moment and that's a lot. The average user is going to do one thing at a time. He'll check his webmail, then the news, then his stocks, etc. And yes, that's based off my observations of several non-tech-savvy friends.

3-4 documents open in Word does not take up a gigabyte of space. I have 3 large DOC files open in Safari at this very moment and it is reporting 100MB RAM used.

And what's preview doing? Open 4-5 pdfs in preview. Like a couple of books The way lion saves states anyway and just keeps old open docs if they are not explicitly shut, most average users will forget they have them open in their first place if they are minimized within the app icon.

That's a really poor assumption to make. Most newbie Mac users (which you seem to be talking about here) are coming from Windows and they'll just press the X button every time they want to close a window. Which means that document is not going to open again even with Lion's 'reopen windows' feature.

There's absolutely no reason if he can afford 16gbs of ram to tie his device to 8gb FOREVER with NEVER a prospect for an upgrade. If he could decide in the future for an upgrade, I d tell them go with 8gbs, but they can't.

Why are you trying to make it sound like he's going to be using this one computer for the rest of his life?

It's the same as with people wrongly advising others go with 16gbs ipad, and now ipad ones at 16gbs will sell for peanuts or become doorstops while 64gbs have retained their value perfectly well. He should future proof the device for a mere $200 which is a very small amount compared to his initial investment.

I don't know where you pulled that out of, but my 64GB 3G iPad is worth about $250 based on completed eBay listings. A 16GB Wi-Fi iPad? $230. Oh yeah, that extra $329 I paid was an excellent investment :rolleyes:

He'll also be able in 4-5 years to sell his mac at much higher price compared to the initial investment. 16gbs model will hold their price much, much better, than 8gbs one, and be much better machines.

Now you're just making really poor assumptions. MacBook Airs with 4GB RAM do not fetch 'much much' more than a 2GB Air so don't say 'it's because other Pros are upgradeable'.

And at the end of the day, in principle, if you only get one chance to have the most memory your computer can have, you take that chance, you don't forever condemn your super expensive computer to half of its real capabilities.

Again with the insinuations that this will be the only computer he'll ever own until he dies?

@gentlefury kid, I don't care what your gfriend does with her mac or how you wanna rationalize that a 2gb mac is ample memory. You can believe whatever you want, you seem equally uninformed and impertinent to believe whatever you want anyway so whatever I might say doesn't make any difference. But when you try offending others you are crossing the line.

Why don't you respond to my question as to why you believe your opinion is correct while mine is incorrect?
 
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You are giving poor advice to other buyers/users. That's all there is to say. :)
 
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