Does RAM really matter for Macbook Air?

Before purchasing my current MBA I checked out an 8GB machine and really drove it hard launching multiple applications and lots of tabs in the browser. I was pretty impressed that despite trying to make the machine throttle due to heat or excessive RAM usage I didn’t.

However, as a longtime user I know there’s a hidden gotcha. Apple upgrades the OS every year and it never results in a smaller RAM footprint. The same is true of 3rd party software. So I chose 16GB simply because I want to keep this computer for at least 5 years, preferably longer. I seriously doubt I could do so if I chose 8GB.

I have an MBA with 8 GB. On a couple of occasions in the year I've had it, I've gotten out-of-memory errors. However, much of that is due to 1) I use Chrome for work and sometimes forget to shut it down, and 2) I have a game, solitaire, of all things, that suddenly goes rogue and takes up lots of RAM. I can't really blame either of those completely on the MBA.

Overall it's a great machine. I think it may be lighter than my iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard. Battery life is great. I do think dwb is right and I may not get as many years out of it as I did my previous MBP. But, at the time, I needed a replacement and the price and immediate availability couldn't be beat.

SahanSL Said:

"Does RAM really matter for Macbook Air?: [...]People all over the internet recommend getting a mac with 16GB RAM but it isn’t quite possible with budget constraints and due to the fact that we don’t have an apple store here in my country. So will the MBA base model will be able to run the programs i need without a hassle? TYI"

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How Much RAM to Get:

RAM (Random Access Memory) is all about multitasking: running many processes at once. So, if you were to play games, and run Virtual Machines, and play iTunes purchases all atone, then 16 GB seems items enough. But, it is is for business, and you need to screenshare and share files, then uploading to 32BG is more ideal, and up from there.

FWIW, I would not buy a computer today with less than 16GB RAM. If available, I would opt for a computer with 32GB RAM minimum. You don't know what your computing requirements will be in a year or two. You will not be happy if newly released apps would not run because of insufficient RAM.

To make your computer future proof, I would Never buy a computer today that has less then 16gb of RAM. Thats the bare minimum for me.