Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Which one? M3 24gb v. M4 16gb

3

3SQ Machine

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 8, 2019
378
229
Is more ram/slower M3 still better than less ram/faster M4 for heavy web browsing? There are two 13" MBAs on sale near me, one M3 13" MBA 24/512 and the other M4 16/512 for the same price (both new). Multiple open browser tabs is where I bump over the 16gb limit now.

I realize no "right" answer, but it's a tough call since I love extra memory but wonder if it's a wash given other M4 enhancements.
 
Between the two, I'd take the M4. If it's just web browsing then sure you'll bump against the limit with both machines, but it's just for background stuff that it will be sending to swap. I'd expect the M4 to be a touch faster.
 
If you also don't care about the other upgrades the M4 Air brought (TB4 ports, 2 external displays with lid open, updated web cam etc) I would opt for the M3. With multiple open browser tabs, you'll have a better experience now and you can also potentially upgrade sooner to the latest Apple Silicon Mac although I'm not sure how you long you plan to keep your devices or if you do sell/trade yours in.
 
Thanks guys, this is helpful. I poked around for some 24gb M4 versions and noticed MicroCenter has the M4 24/512 on sale for $1189 making it not much more than the M3. While the M3 is "good enough," saving a $100 isn't worth it. I'm going to see if I can scrimp together a few more pennies to try to get the best of both worlds.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ignatius345, eltoslightfoot, costica1234 and 4 others
Welp, turns out there's not an 24/512 M4 locally in the color I want so I'm taking the M3 out for a spin. Will report back on differences (if any).
 
  • Like
Reactions: StoneJack
geta said:
Can you describe what means heavy web browsing for you?
Click to expand...
With this computer, I'm not doing anything too intensive--it's just the volume. With a lot of tabs open, and then going to view something like a PDF document, I hit swap sometimes on 16gb. Web pages are taking up more and more memory these days. This is just about convenience, I could close/reopen programs for memory management if needed. Only takes a second.
 
  • Like
Reactions: geta
3SQ Machine said:
With this computer, I'm not doing anything too intensive--it's just the volume. With a lot of tabs open, and then going to view something like a PDF document, I hit swap sometimes on 16gb. Web pages are taking up more and more memory these days. This is just about convenience, I could close/reopen programs for memory management if needed. Only takes a second.
Click to expand...

When you say a lot of tabs open, how much is a lot, 10-20 or 40+ tabs?
 
geta said:
When you say a lot of tabs open, how much is a lot, 10-20 or 40+ tabs?
Click to expand...
40+

Also, Brave (like most Chromium-based browsers) is a big culprit, too. I use Safari for some tasks and certain web pages on there also hog memory. Best Buy's website can sometimes take up 2gb!
 
  • Like
  • Wow
Reactions: ignatius345 and geta
3SQ Machine said:
it's just the volume. With a lot of tabs open, and then going to view something like a PDF document, I hit swap sometimes on 16gb
Click to expand...
And you think using swap is slowing you down? The time to swap something to disk (SSD), retrieve something else, is microseconds. Swapping is not a continuous process that happens dozens of times a second. Using swap space is not really a performance issue.
 
Can confirm the extra 8gb of ram is "enough" for my workflow. 24gb is the new 16gb. No swap and no "yellow" memory pressure with my usual workflow, unlike 16gb.

Should give more info on my "workflow" to help others because it's not just a web browsing bottleneck.

For this machine, I work with large spreadsheets in Numbers/Excel along with 40+ pages PDF/Word documents. I also access multiple websites and leave tabs open to frequently switch sources.

None of this is CPU-intensive, but is apparently RAM intensive.

So, to answer my own initial question on "what's faster" -- it's yes/no. In retrospect, this should have been obvious.

16gb M4-->opens apps snappier and completes tasks "faster" but bogs down with too many open browser tabs and productivity apps
24gb M3-->faster tab switching and multitasking among open apps, less lag with scrolling large documents

Probably a wash for most people, but since I'm not doing anything "pro" on this machine I'm leaning more memory/less horsepower. Thanks all for the advice and for helping me learn more about my actual computing needs.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: geta
I have many tabs open in different browsers on 8GB MBA and I still manage. Same with my work computer. I had so many tabs open yet never had any issues for five years and yeah, when I viewed the task manager it was almost nearly always full (Memory usage was like 90+%) but now I got a new computer from work and it has 16GB of RAM and when I open the task manager the memory is also nearly full, yet I do the same activities.

Not going to argue here, but I don't even understand why people care about the swap file etc. I mean yeah, it's in yellow but why should I care? The laptop is nearly 5 years old and I'm planning to upgrade anyways.
Screenshot 2025-05-10 at 22.13.57.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: Macbookey
I have 24GB on my M4 and currently in the yellow. But really the more memory you have the more you'll use. And you'll be swapping the unused tabs so performance hit will be minimal. Good luck whichever you go for. I do agree it's something of a wash, but again I lean to the M4 for the processor improvements.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3SQ Machine
iHorseHead said:
I have many tabs open in different browsers on 8GB MBA and I still manage. Same with my work computer. I had so many tabs open yet never had any issues for five years and yeah, when I viewed the task manager it was almost nearly always full (Memory usage was like 90+%) but now I got a new computer from work and it has 16GB of RAM and when I open the task manager the memory is also nearly full, yet I do the same activities.

Not going to argue here, but I don't even understand why people care about the swap file etc. I mean yeah, it's in yellow but why should I care? The laptop is nearly 5 years old and I'm planning to upgrade anyways.View attachment 2509720
Click to expand...

It’s ok if you use swap once in a while, but if your workflow always ends up in the yellow, you should consider having more memory.
 
  • Like
Reactions: August West
geta said:
It’s ok if you use swap once in a while, but if your workflow always ends up in the yellow, you should consider having more memory.
Click to expand...
I see 0 reasons to care. It doesn't affect the performance. Bet 16GB would be almost always in the yellow too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back