Is 8GB RAM enough for a MacBook Air?

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Is 8GB RAM enough for a MacBook Air?

Entry-level Macs used to be real slow because they used slow processors and came with too little RAM memory.

I'm asking this question here because I have a wonderful, very dear and amazing friend who simply does not believe me that 8GB RAM will be enough memory for their needs and was actually also considering paying more for a MacBook Pro than the Air because at $1000, this Mac must be too slow for everything that they need to do.

The Mac my friend gets will be an essential part their life: they go to college full-time and also work as an instructor online, so they need to record Zoom presentations, then use teaching software that requires Intel i5 processing speed or better to do various tasks like securely upload course recordings and download course materials.

Their current Mac, an early 2015 MacBook 1.1GHz Dual-Core M, also with 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD, has slowed down over time, so they're afraid that an entry-level MacBook Air M1 won't suit their needs because it will too slow, get too hot and suffer from low-battery life like their current Mac; basically, it won't be able to handle all of their day-to-day tasks without more RAM memory.

I've told my friend that with an external drive for their excess media plus iCloud, the entry-level MacBook Air has all the speed they need for work, play and school, including importing iPhone pictures, playing music and the SIMS 4 (with Expansion Packs), watching YouTube and Vimeo and finally using Apple programs like iChat, Safari, Mail, Pages, etc.

I don't even see the RAM cache being an issue since nothing will be very memory intensive, so why pay Apple $200 extra for another 8GB of RAM? Then again, I may be way off here since I don't own one (yet).

Am I being a little too minimalist, or worse, too frugal? I don't know for sure, so that's why I'm asking.

Posted on Aug 14, 2021 6:52 PM

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Answer 1

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Encryptor5000

Level 5

7,502 points

Aug 14, 2021 8:02 PM in response to CkWeb

Hi CkWeb,

While the current version of macOS runs fine with 8 GB of RAM (not including swap usage), it's a good idea to future-proof a new Mac at the time of purchase. RAM is even more impossible to upgrade (it's now soldered directly into the M1 chip), so selecting 16 GB is a good idea - especially considering that the Mac will hopefully last for about 10 years (8 years running the newest macOS + 2 years of security updates).

Regarding chip performance, M1 performs slightly better than Intel's i7 processors, while consuming just a fraction of the power (the machine stays cold!). It is far more powerful than the entry-level dual core processor in the 2015 MacBook. Unlike that processor, M1 has 8 cores, and they are asymmetric:

4 cores are High Performance (Firestorm) cores: They run as fast as possible, while being decently energy efficient. They are used to boot macOS and run intensive user applications.

4 cores are High Efficiency (Icestorm) cores: They use as little energy as possible to conserve battery life, while still running decently fast. They are used to run macOS and light-weight tasks.

Regarding the MacBook Pro, since the Air and Pro use the exact same chip, the only real advantages the Pro has over the Air is a Touch Bar, a bigger battery, and a fan. The fan allows the M1 chip to reach peak performance (since the fan can actively cool it), but the performance that the MacBook Air provides without a fan is already impressive.

If your friend does decide to purchase a MacBook Pro, don't purchase a machine that has an Intel processor, if possible. M1 easily destroys the Intel processors found in the high-tier 13-inch MacBook Pros. If they need the extra Thunderbolt ports, that's understandable, but consider waiting a few months. Rumours are speculating that Apple could release a high-tier MacBook Pro with an even more powerful Apple silicon chip.

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Answer 2

CkWeb Author

Level 1

27 points

Aug 14, 2021 9:38 PM in response to Encryptor5000

Bravo Encryptor5000!

Haha, this totally would have been my reply to myself! I did figure skipping an extra 8GB would be too much (so why ask my question, right?) Well, I wanted keep the starting point at Apple's base model to see how bad it'd fare. Plus the ten years you pointed out was what my friend calculated for the MBA, coinciding perfectly!

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Answer 3

Aug 15, 2021 4:20 AM in response to CkWeb

FWIW, I own the "step up" model of the M1 MacBook Air (8CPU/8GPU, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) and have found that it blows away any previous generation MacBook Air especially any i5 models. My use entails advanced photo processing and embedded processor development and some associated software development. I do the usual web browsing and occasional YouTube videos. Also, have done some audio processing ripping LPs to digital.

All of the above operate 2-5 times faster than my late 2013 27" iMac with 32GB RAM and an SSD including those apps that are still Intel based.

Perhaps some apps may perform even better if if I had 16GB RAM but the performance with 8GB is still quite amazing. Even if when swap is being used, the M1 tightly coupled SSDs are so fast that it is nearly unnoticeable when swap is used.

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Answer 4

CkWeb Author

Level 1

27 points

Aug 16, 2021 6:40 PM in response to woodmeister50

Exactly my point, WoodMeister50!

You chose more internal storage, which is useful to keep from relying as much on external storage. The step-up also gives it more muscle for a modest price difference, both very practical choices. For most everyday use, the RAM would appear to take a back seat in usefulness to the other upgrades.

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Answer 5

tbirdvet

Level 6

13,581 points

Aug 17, 2021 4:42 AM in response to CkWeb

I had the same question earlier this year and after seeing some comparison tests on YouTube I decided 8GB ram was sufficient as it it works so much better than an Intel version. I did go with 512GB storage for convenience.

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Answer 6

CkWeb Author

Level 1

27 points

Aug 21, 2021 10:06 AM in response to tbirdvet

The M1 chip, right? Did you also step-up to the 8 GPU model for $50 more? It seems like a good investment for a little graphics boost. And since it's mostly for offline use, I feel the key upgrade will be a bigger SSD for personal media including my friend's gargantuan SIMS 4 plus its many expansion packs.!

If I went for one, I'd get the bigger drive too. My needs include emulation and virtualization, so I'd close everything to avoid any SSD RAM read-writes, playing my personal media, heavy-multimedia web browsing on Safari, Firefox and Chrome and it'll be fun to play with my iOS library, too.

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Answer 7

Aug 24, 2021 5:10 AM in response to CkWeb

CkWeb wrote:

....emulation and virtualization, ...

BIG NOTE: Currently, the virtualization platforms available for M1 Macs, Parallels17 and QEMU (and derivatives of it) can only support ARM64 based versions of Linux and Windows 10 ARM Developers Preview operating systems. No Intel version of of operating systems can be virtualized (obviously since there is no Intel hardware).

Reports of anyone trying to "emulate" Intel version of Windows have found them to be so slow and buggy as to be unusable.

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Answer 8

CkWeb Author

Level 1

27 points

Aug 24, 2021 8:29 PM in response to woodmeister50

Wow, you must have been reading my mind on that one, Woodmeister50!!

Parallels is touting the ARM version of Windows 10 on an M1 Mac as if it's nearly as compatible as the Intel version of Windows 10, but the chip architecture is completely different, so it's only logical that the performance and compatibility will suffer significantly. I was about to suggest to another friend doing biological engineering that they could use an M1 Mac, but that would be a real bad idea especially since the applications needed will need to run Windows 10 on whatever they get. That's out it seems.

They may be better served with an Intel-based Macbook or a Windows laptop like the Inspiron 7000 w/16GB RAM and 512 SSD for $1100, but it's almost like going backwards! Unfortunately, the school requirements outweigh all of the new Macs' benefits in this particular instance.

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Answer 9

CkWeb Author

Level 1

27 points

Aug 25, 2021 6:22 AM in response to ku4hx

Very good point, ku4hx. For me, it might be yes to your question, but while I do enjoy emulation and virtualization, I doubt I'd be firing any of that daily. An M1 could allow me to explore ARM-based emulation, but Apple's move to Silicon has created a challenge for anyone needing to run things from the Intel world, like my friend who's working on an engineering degree. Thankfully for my daily needs, nothing needs to be Intel-based so I can simply emulate Intel OSes on other systems.

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Answer 10

tbirdvet

Level 6

13,581 points

Aug 23, 2021 4:41 PM in response to CkWeb

yes and yes

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Answer 11

ku4hx

Level 7

23,436 points

Aug 25, 2021 1:01 AM in response to CkWeb

If 8GB allows you to get current and expected future work done efficiently, the answer is yes. If you anticipate a need for more RAM in the future the answer is no.

It's a judgement call.

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Is 8GB RAM enough for a MacBook Air?

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