Is 4GB Ram "Future-Prood" Enough For The Next 4-5 Years?

Each new version of the operating system is a little more RAM hungry than the last and over the years I’ve tended to upgrade my RAM after every other OS upgrade. When Apple was on a 2 year OS cycle this generally meant I’d buy a new computer and upgrade the RAM 3-4 years later. Since Apple has moved to a 1 year upgrade cycle and since the computers are no longer user upgradeable, I’m now purchasing computers with the RAM upgrades already included.

Since I believe that 4GB is the minimum acceptable today, I’d purchase nothing less than an 8GB computer today. Does this mean 4GB won’t be acceptable in 4-5 years? That is a very tough question. I have a 2011 MBA with 4GB and it is running everything I throw at it but it has to use virtual RAM to do so. (That is, sometimes the computer must move a program out of RAM onto the hard drive.) In the old days of mechanical hard drives, when your computer was forced to use virtual RAM you could feel it slow down and you’d see the beachball more often. With an SSD virtual RAM is much more efficient but it isn’t a replacement for RAM. I have been able to bring my 2011 to its knees by trying to do too much (this was an intentional test). The questions are these: in the next 4-5 years how will the OS change to better use virtual RAM and the SSD (if possible) and how much more RAM will be required just for the OS to function? I’m covering my bets with more RAM.

A MacBook Air is really a light use computer. Small and light but also small and light in features. It is locked in the configuration you get it in today. You cannot upgrade RAM or hard drive size. Apple's specifications for El Capitan are a minimum of 2 GB RAM but when Apple says minimum they really mean minimum. Minimum means the computer will boot but there is essentially no memory left for running any applications. 4 GB is a realistic minimum-okay for running El Capitan and light computer use but does not provide much capacity for expansion or heavy computer use such as gaming or video processing. Apple has not yet released full system requirements for the new operating system Sierra. The last three operating system versions have all had a minimum RAM requirement of two GB which has been a departure from previous trends where there was always an increase in minimum RAM between OS X versions and one could almost predict RAM requirements three system versions down the road. We do not know what Apple plans in the future but perhaps computer redesign with SSD drives mean system memory requirements are no longer continuously increasing. Still, I would say that 4GB ram is not much and if purchasing a new computer I would go for at least 8 GB. Unfortunately with new computers you can no longer do upgrades yourself so you will end up having to pay Apple's premium price for the additional RAM.

Agreed, video editing and gaming will probably be the most memory intensive of the tasks you've listed and while 4Gb may well be enough now, to future proof yourself for 4-5 years of use I'd certainly be looking for something with 8Gb

No. Get 8 GB. Operating systems and applications that use new operating system features do not use less RAM in future releases. We cannot predict how bloated macOS will be in 4 - 5 years, its basic hardware requirements, or even if a current MacBook Air model will remain supported by then.

Agreed. 8 GB min. or 16 GB. That's about as close to "future proof" as you can get with RAM. It makes for smoother operation and graphics.

Cheers!!

Despite what I said in my earlier reply, I agree with all those who say go for 8GB of RAM. If you can afford it, get one with 16 GB of RAM and the fastest processor too. Doing so will certainly carry you much further into the future with whatever demands you put on the device, especially when it comes to gaming, graphics/video requirements. It might even last you longer than 5 years.

I have a Mid 2011 MBA w/ only 2 GB of RAM and the 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5. It's currently running osx 10.11.5. So far, I've not had any issues doing the basic tasks you listed, but then, I don't play CDs or DVDs with it because I don't have an external contraption for playing them, and in any case, all my owned music is loaded on my 2016 Mac Mini. I also don't game at all (no interest). I've never plugged it into my Mini's monitor either, though I could if I wanted to, but have no reason to.

I read online recently that Apple is giving all, or maybe it was only some, of their laptops some nice upgrades. Not sure when they go on sale though. You might want to look into those upgrades before purchasing a lower end, used Air, especially if you want it to last 4-5 years. I gotta say, I've been quite happy with my Air doing all I need with it, but I believe gaming requires more processing power than I have.

The MB I bought for my daughter when she graduated high school in 2008, before going to college, had to be replaced this year as it wasn't able to do much of anything anymore, outside of emails and document related things, even though she had upgraded the RAM in it to 4 GBs 4 years ago. It was too old to upgrade beyond osx 10.6.8. Streaming videos not working so well anymore was her biggest complaint. She's not a gamer either though. I also had to replace my old 2008 Mini this year for similar reasons.

If the used Air doesn't suit your needs in a few years, you could always sell it and get another used one with a newer processor and more RAM.

If you expect to run even just the current Mac OS X version (El Capitan), you really should have at least 8 GB. This forum is full of posts complaining about poor performance on Macs with less than 8 GB.

I have a 2006 MBP with 2 GB RAM that still can perform all basic tasks such as emails, text edit and Internet access. It is limited to Snow Leopard so the OSX can not be upgraded so that is its limitation. Likewise with the MBA, there may come a point where you cannot run newer software but the MBA will still be functional. If and when that will happen, I cannot say. My crystal ball is very cloudy right now. 🙂

Ciao.