Why is everybody so obsessed with RAM?

[Macalway]

I'm going for 'ram insurance' package. $200 for peace of mind.

Never leave home without it.

I don't want to get stuck in the sticks low on ram.

 

[dominiongamma]

I have a M1 MBA that I bought back in August. I only got the 8GB model and it didn't take long to realize that it can't handle the 20 tabs that I keep open in Safari. There are times it will literally stutter as I scroll down a page and several times, it has slowed to a snails pace in doing anything. A reboot fixes sometimes for a month or two until it started to lag again. I've never had that problem on my 2019 16"MBP or my 2021 16" MBP, both have 16GB.

I have the 8 gb and I never had any of the issues you mention, might be your MacBook

 

[jdb8167]

Swapping isn't as big a deal as it used to be. For example I just ran Blackmagic speed test on my MBP and it gets over 5GB/sec both reading and writing. At those speeds swapping will only slightly slow things down in most cases.

It's not like the old days when you were swapping to a mechanical hard drive and it would take a full several seconds for that swapped out application you haven't touched in a couple hours to come back to life. I got 16GB of RAM because I wasn't paying for it (work supplied machine) but if I were and I saved money going to 8GB I likely wouldn't notice the difference.

It still depends. If you have a single application that needs a large amount of RAM you will likely notice the slowdown from swap. Your CPU will have to wait while the swap happens and whatever you are processing will be delayed.

If you have several moderately RAM intensive applications that you switch back and forth between then you might not notice anything because the swap happens faster than human perception speeds. Most people will be in the latter camp so like you say, it probably isn't a big deal for most. But it requires that you know why you need the RAM.

 

[jav6454]

Unfortunately that's something you don't know until you've actually made the purchase. This is the problem with memory which cannot be upgraded: It forces people to guess at their requirements. Guess too high and you wasted money, guess too low and you're stuck with an inappropriately spec'd system.

People like spouting things like unused memory being wasted. What they don't realize is that OSX rarely lets memory go to waste as it will cache as much as possible make several system and app functions faster.

However, given the non-upgradeable form of all MacBooks lines, I always advice to get the highest memory amount that budget allows. The his advice however, doesn't hold true for the MBA, as anyone upgrading anything in it will be better served by a MBP.

 

[NotApplicable]

How much RAM you need is like how many calories you need to eat per day

Some people eat way too many compared to what they need

Some people eat just about the exact amount they need

Most people are somewhere in between (well, in the US, most people are probably in the former 🤒 but that’s another topic)

In any case, the actual number one specific person needs is uniquely defined by their own usage patterns

No one on this forum or Reddit or tech YouTube knows how much RAM you need, just like they don’t know how many calories you burn each day

But it wouldn’t be that hard to figure it out yourself if you just make the effort to record some measurements and observations over time

Side note: an anonymous person on an Internet forum making claims like “anyone doing X would be better served by Y” has no authority to make such blanket claims, as they likely understand very little of the nature of any but their own needs and desires out of a product.

 

[Coreymac84]

my usual app workflow. If I open a few more browser tabs this peaks at 21GB. Never settle for less ram unless you absolutely cannot afford it and absolutely need a new computer and cannot wait until you can afford the upgrade charge.

 

[discofuel]

I thought I could get away with 8GB on a M1 MBA...

I bought it for web browsing, netflix, and some light work, to compliment my 16" MBP with 32GB.

Even with a handful of Chrome tabs and a couple of other small apps open and my memory pressure in the yellow.

At this stage, Mac OS X starts becoming sluggish and unresponsive.

Excited to receive my new M2 MBA with 16GB!

 

[Coreymac84]

I thought I could get away with 8GB on a M1 MBA...

I bought it for web browsing, netflix, and some light work, to compliment my 16" MBP with 32GB.

Even with a handful of Chrome tabs and a couple of other small apps open and my memory pressure in the yellow.

At this stage, Mac OS X starts becoming sluggish and unresponsive.

Excited to receive my new M2 MBA with 16GB!

View attachment 2028254

8GB just really isn’t sufficient any longer in 2022, contrary to what many 8GB owners state. You MUST get the 16GB or 24GB.

 

[jav6454]

8GB just really isn’t sufficient any longer in 2022, contrary to what many 8GB owners state. You MUST get the 16GB or 24GB.

8GB is sufficient for 2022 for base usage, but not 2023 and beyond. At any rate, I have always been a strong proponent to always get the highest memory capacity budget allows.

 

[geta]

These days 16GB memory and 512GB SSD should be the minimum.

 

[Falhófnir]

8GB is sufficient for 2022 for base usage, but not 2023 and beyond. At any rate, I have always been a strong proponent to always get the highest memory capacity budget allows.

Depends heavily on what you're doing though, relatively light browsing, email, office will be fine on an 8GB machine now and probably for several years to come. I would say we've just clipped into 16GB being recommendable for light-moderate usage (more multitasking, several browser tabs open continuously, light photo editing) or for light usage but you want to keep the machine 5 years plus. I wonder if the M3 models will move to 12/24GB RAM tiers? I don't think Apple will jump straight to 16GB being standard outside of the 14/16".

 

[jav6454]

Depends heavily on what you're doing though, relatively light browsing, email, office will be fine on an 8GB machine now and probably for several years to come. I would say we've just clipped into 16GB being recommendable for light-moderate usage (more multitasking, several browser tabs open continuously, light photo editing) or for light usage but you want to keep the machine 5 years plus. I wonder if the M3 models will move to 12/24GB RAM tiers? I don't think Apple will jump straight to 16GB being standard outside of the 14/16".

I would argue the next step is 12GB as base, not 16GB.

 

[TightLines]

I would argue the next step is 12GB as base, not 16GB.

I thought RAM had to be added in increments of double what is installed already… or technically doubled? i.e. 8GB x2 = 16….

 

[Macalway]

Everyone needs to go look at Activity Monitor memory. It's all right there.

 

[jdb8167]

I thought RAM had to be added in increments of double what is installed already… or technically doubled? i.e. 8GB x2 = 16….

LPDDR4 optionally comes as 6 GB modules. LPDDR5 probably does too. So dual chips would be 12 GB.

 

[Falhófnir]

LPDDR4 optionally comes as 6 GB modules. LPDDR5 probably does too. So dual chips would be 12 GB.

Do we know what they do for 24GB yet? One 16GB chip and one 8GB chip? or is it two 12GB chips?

 

[jdb8167]

Do we know what they do for 24GB yet? One 16GB chip and one 8GB chip? or is it two 12GB chips?

2x12 GB. It’s the only way to get 100 GB/s.

 

[DHagan4755]

8GB is sufficient for 2022 for base usage, but not 2023 and beyond. At any rate, I have always been a strong proponent to always get the highest memory capacity budget allows.

True for some folks. 16GB is probably an ok upgrade money wise since some people hold onto these Airs for 5+ years until they croak, but 24GB is ridic. Might as well put that $$$ toward the MBP at that point.

 

[jdb8167]

True for some folks. 16GB is probably an ok upgrade money wise since some people hold onto these Airs for 5+ years until they croak, but 24GB is ridic. Might as well put that $$$ toward the MBP at that point.

Except I don’t want a 3.5 lb notebook. Why can’t 14” MBP fans understand this? Big heavy notebooks are not under consideration. I don’t go around and tell people who want a 14” MBP that they should really want a 13” MBA. Buy what you want but stop making assumptions about other peoples needs.

 

[Useless Touchbar]

Just go for 24GB. You won't regret it

 

[daavee80]

Except I don’t want a 3.5 lb notebook. Why can’t 14” MBP fans understand this? Big heavy notebooks are not under consideration. I don’t go around and tell people who want a 14” MBP that they should really want a 13” MBA. Buy what you want but stop making assumptions about other peoples needs.

^^^^This right here. I might start a thread called “Why is everybody so obsessed with telling prospective MacBook Air buyers that they should get a MacBook Pro 14 instead?”

It’s in every single MacBook Air M2 thread and is “ridic”.

 

[DHagan4755]

Except I don’t want a 3.5 lb notebook. Why can’t 14” MBP fans understand this? Big heavy notebooks are not under consideration. I don’t go around and tell people who want a 14” MBP that they should really want a 13” MBA. Buy what you want but stop making assumptions about other peoples needs.

This new Air's going to be hugely popular simply because it's lighter & more svelte. It's more accessible than a 14" MacBook Pro. This is so appealing. Where Apple gets ya is the price of upgrades. It doesn't make sense blowing your wad of cash on a 24GB of RAM upgrade unless you know you need 24GB of RAM, like for example, if you're going to be using VMs.

 

[NotApplicable]

This new Air's going to be hugely popular simply because it's lighter & more svelte. It's more accessible than a 14" MacBook Pro. This is so appealing. Where Apple gets ya is the price of upgrades. It doesn't make sense blowing your wad of cash on a 24GB of RAM upgrade unless you know you need 24GB of RAM, like for example, if you're going to be using VMs.

Lots of valid use cases for 24GB of ram including my own.

On top of the more desirable form factor, there is no 24GB MBP, so the nearest config that has _at least_ 24GB of RAM is $880 away including the AppleCare cost difference, and that would require making the form factor trade off (more weight, more bulk, more moving parts, more power usage) for features that I don’t value at all (xdr, sdxc, dedicated hdmi, tb4).

Why should I pay more for a machine that fits my use case less? For me it’s a no-brainer. Others may well be better served by making a different decision (and power to them)!

 

[DHagan4755]

It’s in every single MacBook Air M2 thread and is “ridic”.

Yeah it's all because of Apple's pricing.

 

[DHagan4755]

The nearest config that has _at least_ 24GB of RAM is $880 away including the AppleCare cost difference, and that would require making the form factor trade off (more weight, more bulk, more moving parts, more power usage) for features that I don’t value at all (xdr, sdxc, dedicated hdmi, tb4).

This is the same issue for those who want a larger screened MacBook Air but don't want to pay for a 16" MacBook Pro & don't need the horsepower of the 16" MacBook Pro.