Okay guys, lets chill. It seems like I opened a can of worms in here.
I appreciate everybody's input thou.
I appreciate everybody's input thou.
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Will 4GB be enough for next 3 years of OS X updates?
- Thread starter mattdocs12345
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Thank you for spending your life typing this rant. It will affect me greatly and forever change me. I think I will be able to progress and evolve in life simply by the very presence of your intelligence. My computer has gained a few gigahertz in clock speed and my keyboard keys turned into gold.
Surely, o great one, you will forever be esteemed. All hail!
..
Okay back on topic, you don't need 8GB in order to turn your computer on. 4GB will suit you fine, so calm down. And its a waste upgrading RAM when you could just get more SSD space. It'll affect you more than RAM does. But feel free to waste your money.
I was pretty much told to get an 8gb ram only if I'm worried about the resale or if I'm planning down the line. I'm come to terms with the fact since I cannot (yet) change the ram nor the hard drive on these machines, 4gb ram and 256 of HDD space (coupled with a 1tb external) is good enough for my needs. Web browsing, light typing.
Coupled with an iphone 6 plus I should be fine. I had (but sold) my contracted ipad mini retina. Since it's insured I can always get another, but I don't really see the purpose since I have a 11 Macbook Air.
Coupled with an iphone 6 plus I should be fine. I had (but sold) my contracted ipad mini retina. Since it's insured I can always get another, but I don't really see the purpose since I have a 11 Macbook Air.
Your mba can do significantly more than just typing and webbrowsing.
4gb is enough for professional photo editing and even video editing.
Search youtube for people using mbas with 4gb and adobe premiere.
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I recommend using the search function and looking up the other 1001 ram threads.
I did and I read through some of them. Still none of them answered the above question if 4GB will be enough for 3 years of OSX updates. This thread explained it thou.
Personally I woudnt touch a machine with less than 8GB. Always buy more than you need now so that you will have what you need in 3 years.
It's not just about the OS but also other technologies and applications.
You say your just a casual user but what about when Netflix goes 4k and your home videos from you iPhone 7s are 4k. This is all within 3 years and you will regret saving $100.
It's not just about the OS but also other technologies and applications.
You say your just a casual user but what about when Netflix goes 4k and your home videos from you iPhone 7s are 4k. This is all within 3 years and you will regret saving $100.
Youtube already offers 4k.
What does 4k have to do with ram? Are you actually implying that you need ram to stream movies? Seriously?
You realize your iPhone 6 Plus has 1/8 of that.
Like Meister mentioned, that has little to do with RAM. 4K videos play just fine on 4 GB today and that isn't likely to change anytime soon.
Might be the case that Macs with more RAM sell for more money on eBay. I know that's not the case on Craigslist.
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Thanks for giving me the last word. I'll use it to offer some friendly advice: when you show your friends our exchange so they can laugh at it, remember to censor all the stuff you said about anything technical, e.g., "memory registers." Or you might find them laughing at something you didn't intend.
Get the 8. Yes, 4GB is "enough" but you really won't miss that $100 in 2-3 years. You'll definitely kick yourself later if 10.11, 10.12, or whatever really sings with 8GB instead of 4.
The SSD in a Macbook Air really helps, but extra RAM helps that SSD (less wear).
A Macbook Air bought today with 4GB of memory is in all likelihood going to feel snappier far longer than a Macbook Air from 2011 with 2GB.
With that said, saving $100 over the course of three years, and possibly suffering degraded day-to-day experiences because of it, to me seems like a perfect penny-wise, pound-foolish scenario. If you're asking the question of whether or not you need the extra RAM, it's probably worth being safer rather than sorry.
The major caveat here being that as everyone knows, "minimum" and "recommended" specs can diverge significantly. People were recommending at least twice the minimum amount of RAM for at least Panther, Tiger, and Leopard (an eMac brand-new with 128MB was pretty damn slow). You were probably having a much better experience following that rule of thumb throughout each OS.
With that said, saving $100 over the course of three years, and possibly suffering degraded day-to-day experiences because of it, to me seems like a perfect penny-wise, pound-foolish scenario. If you're asking the question of whether or not you need the extra RAM, it's probably worth being safer rather than sorry.
The major caveat here being that as everyone knows, "minimum" and "recommended" specs can diverge significantly. People were recommending at least twice the minimum amount of RAM for at least Panther, Tiger, and Leopard (an eMac brand-new with 128MB was pretty damn slow). You were probably having a much better experience following that rule of thumb throughout each OS.
I appreciate that historically, RAM prices were decreasing so quickly and software requirements for memory were increasing so quickly that the go-to upgrade for any computer was to get it some more RAM. (Notice that Windows 95 required 4MB of RAM and ~5 years later, Windows XP required 64MB, i.e., 16 times as much--literally doubling every year.) So your recommendation makes a lot of sense in that context.
But I would argue that much like CPU speed, the price and usefulness of more memory has more or less plateaued. My last laptop had 2GB of RAM and it worked great for 4 years and would probably still be working fine if I still had it. That would have been inconceivable in the 90s but it's unremarkable these days. And 4GB is twice as much as that.
I'm sure that at some point OS X will require 4GB of RAM. Probably sometime in the next few years. But the way things have been going, I expect 4GB to be the requirement for even longer than 2GB has been the requirement, which is 4 years and counting. That's why I bought my new laptop last year with 4GB of RAM, because I simply don't see the point of paying for more.
Look at it this way:
If you plan on keeping your computer 4 years, the extra $100, which seems significant now, is really just $25/year to ensure that you don't have to worry about RAM. Compared to the total cost of the laptop, it's worth it.
If you plan on keeping your computer 4 years, the extra $100, which seems significant now, is really just $25/year to ensure that you don't have to worry about RAM. Compared to the total cost of the laptop, it's worth it.
I don't think this is a great financial strategy. If you're in the habit of buying stuff you don't need because you can convince yourself that it doesn't cost very much, you're ultimately going to waste a lot of money.
When we're talking about Apple computers, we've left "needs" behind and are firmly into luxury items.
The differnce here is 300 ~ $400.
It's about 40% more total.
$400 for an upgrade from 4 to 8gb is not worth it for 99.99% of people.
I have a rmbp with 8 and my girlfriend has an mba with 4gigs. Hers is faster...
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Macbooks are common appliances, not "luxury items", unless you live in africa or under a bridge.
From reading this thread, I think the general answer is that if you worry about whether 4 GB is enough, then pay and get 8 GB. If you go with 4 GB not really believing it your self you will suffer pangs of doubt every time there's the least bit of stutter or lag after an OS upgrade. An I think £60 ($100) is a small price to pay to stop that niggling and worry.
For the record I am one of the people. I understand why people say 4 GB is fine for the next few years and think they're right, but I know I'll get the doubts in a few years time so for me spending the extra on the RAM (and SSD) is a no-brainer to keep my OCD in check!
For the record I am one of the people. I understand why people say 4 GB is fine for the next few years and think they're right, but I know I'll get the doubts in a few years time so for me spending the extra on the RAM (and SSD) is a no-brainer to keep my OCD in check!
Macs have been about as cost effective as owning PCs for me.
What's better, buying a $1000 MacBook and selling it for $500 four years later, or buying a $500 PC laptop and having to give it to Goodwill at the end of four years?
In terms of cost of ownership, I think Macs are only more expensive if they're lost or stolen or break. Happily none of those things have happened to my 5 Mac laptops so far.
Where are you located? I checked the French and German Apple Stores and it's showing a 100 price for both the Mac mini and Macbook Airs.
After reading this thread, the question that's entered my mind is, besides additional profit, why does Apple even offer the Air with 8GB of RAM? Since this model was designed for light-to-medium intensive use, what's the point? Will any Air owner ever make use of this additional RAM?
I'm not that knowledgeable about computers or their inner workings. When I bought my Air two years ago, I sprung for the added RAM. Researching threads back then, I thought I was future proofing. Now, it seems like it was a rather unnecessary option. I'm not pissed about the $100, it's the fact that I special ordered the computer and waited two weeks. I could've bought a 4GB model, immediately.
I'm not that knowledgeable about computers or their inner workings. When I bought my Air two years ago, I sprung for the added RAM. Researching threads back then, I thought I was future proofing. Now, it seems like it was a rather unnecessary option. I'm not pissed about the $100, it's the fact that I special ordered the computer and waited two weeks. I could've bought a 4GB model, immediately.
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Most people wouldn't benefit from 8GB but at the same time, I'm sure there are a non-trivial number of people who would.
For example, if you do a lot of work with Windows in a virtual machine, it wouldn't be hard to get into a state where you'd want 8GB. I don't have personal experience with other such use cases but I'm sure there are some out there.
The Air used to be underpowered, but since 2011-2012 they have had processing power in line with the cheaper MacBook Pros and now people take it for granted that they can do almost all the same stuff with an Air.
Indeed, running VMs is a circumstance where I would want to get 8GB RAM.
I still do run VMs with 4GB (2gb per os) but I'm also a poor student.
And it doesn't do bad. I close most apps, but I can leave one or two programs open.
I run Memory Cleaner because I get paranoid about it, but I can usually get it to 500 MB free so it's not in a dire situation.
Performance is good. It doesn't stutter (unless I have too many OS X programs open).
Software I run in Windows is Visio 2013, Office 2013, Visual Studio, MASM, and that's about it. I removed my bootcamp partition to save SSD space (I'm so glad I got the 256GB SSD) and i just use a dynamic virtual drive.
I still do run VMs with 4GB (2gb per os) but I'm also a poor student.
And it doesn't do bad. I close most apps, but I can leave one or two programs open.
I run Memory Cleaner because I get paranoid about it, but I can usually get it to 500 MB free so it's not in a dire situation.
Performance is good. It doesn't stutter (unless I have too many OS X programs open).
Software I run in Windows is Visio 2013, Office 2013, Visual Studio, MASM, and that's about it. I removed my bootcamp partition to save SSD space (I'm so glad I got the 256GB SSD) and i just use a dynamic virtual drive.
Why would you buy a macbook at the
store?They are extremely overpriced.
A base mba is 850 at a regular electronic store.
The same model with 8gb ram is 1150 ...