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4GB memory enough

I gonna buy a MacBook air a few weeks later, so is MacBook air suitable to install windows vista vis boot camp?

But the MacBook air just only have 4GB memory, I scare it will slow down my MacBook performance after I install it.

So, is 4GB memory enough?

Posted on Feb 7, 2015 11:40 PM

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14 replies

Feb 9, 2015 4:17 AM in response to KevinLeeCT002

There are two ways to run Windows on a Mac - using BootCamp or using virtualization with a program like VMWare Fusion. BootCamp is installed as a second operating system on your Mac - this lets you run either Windows or the Mac OS and provides the best possible speed. In this case 4GB of RAM is sufficient. Virtualization lets you run both Windows and the Mac OS at the same time. It is slower than BootCamp, particularly video performance so this is a good option for programs like Office but not games. Since virtualization requires that the Mac and Windows share memory, 8GB of RAM is better. With my 2011 MBA I use VMWare Fusion with Windows 7 and when I shift between Windows and the Mac OS there is a discernible pause and beachball as the computer shifts from one to the other. With my slightly newer iMac with much more RAM switches it is instantaneous.


Windows 7 boots and runs faster than Windows 8.1 - since Microsoft will allow owners of either to upgrade to Windows 10 free I recommend Win7.

Feb 27, 2015 4:07 AM in response to KevinLeeCT002

Since BootCamp is little more than a friendly way to install Windows and a boot loader, running Windows on a Mac computer is just like running Windows on any computer. Windows 8.1 will run as well on a 4GB MacBook Air as it would on a Dell or Asus notebook with 4GB of RAM and an SSD. In other words, stop worrying about RAM.


Worry about hard drive space instead. When you use BootCamp you must divide the hard drive into a Mac partition and a Windows partition. Once that decision is made and done you must understand that sometimes that decision cannot be changed without losing your Mac and Windows data and starting over. Theoretically you can change the partition size non-destructively if you discover you gave too little to either the Mac or Windows partition but sometimes it isn't possible. If your SSD is too small you are likely to discover that with two operating systems, applications, and data you outgrow the drive and the MacBook Air is not upgradable.

Feb 28, 2015 5:10 AM in response to KevinLeeCT002

Windows 7 can be installed on as small as a 20GB partition though that leaves little room for anything else. Mine is 45GB and I have Office, FireFox, and a couple programming environments installed on it. I don’t keep documents in the Windows partition, I save them to the server. Since I don’t know what applications you’ll be using in each environment nor what documents you’ll save, I can’t say. All I can say is for me 140GB on the Mac side would be too small and 100GB on the Windows side would be too much. That’s because the bulk of my work in on the Mac and when I use Windows it is almost entirely at work when I’m connected to the server.

Feb 28, 2015 5:56 AM in response to KevinLeeCT002

My experience (my own and as a tech worker) is this: Casual users go online, browse, email, use FaceBook and use hardly any drive space other than the operating system and a small number of programs they download. Their hard drive is more empty than full. Some are hoarders; they download programs and keep them even if they never use them, they download fonts, pictures, music, video and keep every file they ever create. Their hard drives fill up rapidly. Some keep large collections of music, and/or video and photos. They use up a large amount of drive space; some run out quickly while others move files on and off the computer to stay within the confines of their drive. What kind of user are you, where will you keep the bulk of your stuff, and on which platform? Plan carefully because if you guess wrong you could spend a weekend rebuilding everything.

4GB memory enough

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