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Will the 11" MBA have an 8 GB RAM capacity ??

I

igmolinav

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 15, 2005
1,126
4
Hi,

Will the 11" MBA have for the next upgrade an 8 GB RAM capacity ??
Now it is only possible to have 4 GB in any of the MBAs. I wonder if
for the upgrade between March and July, there will be a possibility
to order a MBA with 8 GB of RAM.

Thank you, kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!
 
Possible, but at the moment, I do not feel it is likely. As of the moment, not that many people actually have a use for more than 4gb of ram outside of a "better to be on the safe side" reasoning.
 
Hi,

Possible, but at the moment, I do not feel it is likely.
Click to expand...

Yeah, not in the next couple of months, but in July. Is that a likely bump ?

Kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!
 
Eventually, yes. In the near future, no. And if it did, it would be as a very expensive option.

Apple has never been generous in RAM. Even when the Mac Pros could support 32 and 64GB, they didn't have the factory option, and came with only 2 and 4.
Keep in mind the entry level iMac still comes with 4GB.
 
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Yeah since the airs are now marketed as the everyday laptop, I'm not sure if apple thinks they need more ram. But I would think it would at least be an option ($100-200) to upgrade it to 8gb in the next two refreshes.

What's more likely is that apple will find a way to have it not soldered to the logic board, therefore making it user upgradable, even if it technically voids the warranty to do so (like it is with the ssd).
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Yeah since the airs are now marketed as the everyday laptop, I'm not sure if apple thinks they need more ram. But I would think it would at least be a ($100-200) option to upgrade it to 8gb in the next two refreshes.
What's more likely is that apple will find a way to have it not soldered to the logic board, therefore making it user upgradable, even if it technically voids the warranty to do so (like it is with the ssd).
 
If they decide to leave the ram soldered on, it seems unlikely to have more than 1 configuration, as this would wreck havoc on their inventory from people trying to order from the apple store. You can't just crack open the mba like that and solder on additional ram yourself.

You can have this option with the imac and mbp as any tom, dick and harry can readily buy additional ram and slot them in himself.

Thus, I feel they will still have 4gb ram standard for 11' and 13' versions and possibly 8gb ram for the 15' version (I am predicting a standardised macbook offering, no more MBA or MBP). :)
 
Down the line, for sure. If they intend on keeping the MBA for another few years - I don't see why they won't up the RAM.
 
Abazigal said:
Possible, but at the moment, I do not feel it is likely. As of the moment, not that many people actually have a use for more than 4gb of ram outside of a "better to be on the safe side" reasoning.
Click to expand...

If you run just 1 virtual machine at 1 gb memory setting you start hitting memory limits right away.

In other words the "not many people" argument is fairly weak in my opinion.
 
I think people here over-estimate how much RAM they need. I run Lion on a 2 GB MBA and its perfectly fine with lots of tabs for browsing+word processing+running other small programs at the same time.

I have an old Lenovo ThinkPad that I have a very lightweight Linux distribution on it. It has 512 MB of RAM, and yet it is still perfectly usable for basic, everyday use.

The time when 8 GB of RAM is a 100% necessity for everyday computing is a LONG way off yet. Only professionals and enthusiasts really need 8 GB of RAM at the moment, it isnt something that the everyday Safari/Word/iTunes user needs.
 
johnhurley said:
If you run just 1 virtual machine at 1 gb memory setting you start hitting memory limits right away.

In other words the "not many people" argument is fairly weak in my opinion.
Click to expand...

The proportion of people who are buying that MBA just for normal everyday usage such as surfing internet, word processing, watching youtube/movies, listening to music and the occasional ilife production is going to be much greater. Apple isn't go to solder on 4 extra gb of ram onto every laptop just to cater to this smaller minority who might genuinely need that extra ram, rationale being that they could always just buy a MBP and upgrade the ram themselves. :p
 
Abazigal said:
The proportion of people who are buying that MBA just for normal everyday usage such as surfing internet, word processing, watching youtube/movies, listening to music and the occasional ilife production is going to be much greater. Apple isn't go to solder on 4 extra gb of ram onto every laptop just to cater to this smaller minority who might genuinely need that extra ram, rationale being that they could always just buy a MBP and upgrade the ram themselves. :p
Click to expand...

But they might solder on more ram to make more money. 8 gb ram is probably the only thing that will make me upgrade to the next version. It doesn't matter if only a small percentage need 8 gb of ram as long as more than a small percentage is willing to pay for it.
 
I hope all the Airs have this option sooner rather than later. I travel a lot and I have been using Airs as my primary machine for years. When they were limited to 2gb I suffered quite a bit but overall thier good points outweighed the things I couldn't do because of ram limitation. Once 4gb was available there were only a few things that were problematic (running VMs and some large spreadsheets and db queries).

So while I'd say most routine use is just fine with 4gb, there are things I need more for so currently the Air can not by my only machine. I've kept another Mac set up as a server I could access remotely when I needed it. Maintaining multiple machines is a PITA what with software liscenses, versions, synchronization etc so I would love to be able to have only one machine and have is as portable as the Air.

Offering the Air with an 8gb option would be one of the only things I might find compelling enought to upgrade in the next couple years.

My prediction is no replaceable memory for the current models as there is just no room. There may be a 6 or 8gb BTO at a hefty price for current models but I really don't think it will be in 2012. But it would not surprise me to see an 8gb option or possibly even a single memory slot in the rumored 15" version when released.

So I hope they do, but don't expect they will other than in a larger 15" version for now.
 
Hi,

From reading your posts. I find very interesting the idea that the 11" MBA may have an 8 GB option. It would be very interesting to know "as of yesterday" if by Q1 or Q2 if it will have it!

I have a 13" MBP that I could upgrade the RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB. Cool! This option gives me the "power" to work on Photoshop, Final Cut Pro (perhaps (?)), and Autocad. But it is a PITN to have another computer, like the 11" MBA for "portability". Amazing would be to have power and portability in only one computer! An 11" MBA with enough power, with up to 8 GB of RAM !!!

My MBP has six months with me 2.3 GHZ and 4 GB RAM. A powerful 11" MBA would help me to keep it all in one computer! I just wonder if it'll be a reality soon! I would be hesitant to have to computers at the moment, knowing as well that a MBA is harder to resell than a MBP, isn't ??

Kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!
 
For the next MBA upgrade, they should give the 13" an option to increase RAM to 8gb. Now a days, MBAs are not just a "travel-friendly" laptop. Now a days it's used as a desktop replacement for the whole family, so it'd make sense a bit more of "oomph", even if it's optional at a premium price.
 
Hi,

Unfortunately, if they only offer it on the 13" MBA : ( !!!

13" MBA Ultimate (2010 model) (My sole working machine... runs great!)
iPhone 4
Click to expand...
What kind of work do you do with it ??

Kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!
 
Abazigal said:
Possible, but at the moment, I do not feel it is likely. As of the moment, not that many people actually have a use for more than 4gb of ram outside of a "better to be on the safe side" reasoning.
Click to expand...

Spot on, people have an obsession with RAM for some reason - and in a little machine like the MBA it's not required. I think Apple will stick to the soldered on 4GB option for a while, keeping the MBP with the upgradable option for those that need it for pro tasks.
 
Beanoir said:
Spot on, people have an obsession with RAM for some reason - and in a little machine like the MBA it's not required. I think Apple will stick to the soldered on 4GB option for a while, keeping the MBP with the upgradable option for those that need it for pro tasks.
Click to expand...

Just because you don't require it doesn't mean others don't. You don't speak for me or tens of thousands of other traveling computer professionals that want both power and mobility.

I get that lots of folks can be perfectly happy with 2gb or 4gb of RAM. You should get that lots of folks legitimately need more. I don't want a bigger heavier MBP to travel with. I want a MBA with more capacity so it fulfills my legitimate need to do some things that require more than 4gb of RAM.

In my case I use virtual machines, data analysis tools, and database clients that sometimes need more than 4gb of RAM to run efficiently. Right now there are some things I just can't do in 4gb, some things that run much slower limited to 4gb and many things that run just great in 4gb. When using my Mac Mini it hovers between 3 and 4 gb or ram used routinely and when using some of the software I mentioned it is often in the 6-8gb range.

I'd appreciate a BTO option for an AIR for 8gb although I recognize lots of folks would be well served with less.
 
Recall Snow Leopard first came out… people ask why no 64-bit kernel booting, no hardware decoding accelerate on their Macs. You only get answer that most people won't need it. Just like this case.

Anything Apple didn't put into their current products is NOT NECESSARY…but hey, just wait for a couple months… It will become part of products and a necessary option in your shopping list. :S
 
without 8gb of ram, i doubt i'll be getting the mba.

and, i don't understand why some apps are still incompatible with lion.

it is pretty frustrating, but hopefully things will get ironed out in 2012. the mba is pretty impressive otherwise.
 
Just curious… If Macbook Pro 13" could get 8GB Ram option, is there any particular reason why Macbook Air couldn't get 8GB ram? cost? quantity? or something else? Thanks.
 
Hi,

I like what jimboutilier, eeptman, palpatine have said : ) !!!

Kind regards,

igmolinav : ) !!!
 
johnhurley said:
If you run just 1 virtual machine at 1 gb memory setting you start hitting memory limits right away.

In other words the "not many people" argument is fairly weak in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I have a 1G virtual machine running Win7 going on my MBA nearly all the time, with a full load of other apps, and performance is excellent. I even run two in some cases. I don't think many people run multiple virtual machines at the same time, in the overall market for MBA owners. In fact, I think must MBA buyers probably don't even know what a virtual machine is.
 
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