Air 8GB or 16GB?

[esster]

Hello,

5 months ago i got hired by a company and I was given a MacBook air m1 8gb. First time ever using a MacBook and I am in love with it.

My private Windows laptop has been broken for some time and I need to buy a new one and I am going to buy a MacBook but I dont know if 8GB ram will be enough for me so I need your help with this.

What i will use the laptop for:
Mainly:
- programming (mostly web dev)
- all kind of stuff that has to do with web dev. You know managing DBs, web servers etc.
- watching movies and videos

Sometimes (rarely):
- using a VM alongside web dev
- playing games such as CSgo, fortnite, AGE of empires, Diablo etc. (Mac can probbaly not run all of these games but thats okay)

I am counting on being able to use the laptop for 5+ years.

I have not had any performence issues what so ever with my 8gb job Mac yet, even tho it once or twice has gotten a little hot (but a Pro model is WAY to expensive for me so i will have to live with the heat).

While writing this, I have 7.11GB used memory and 2.36GB on swap and this is pretty much how it looks all the time (sometimes a little bit more/less swap).

I will use the laptop pretty much on every waken hour besides on working hours. Would an 8gb air last for 5+ years for me or not? What do you think? Or will the ram and SSD get to worn out?

The Price difference between the 8GB and 16GB is in my country 310 bucks. I would really love to save those 310 bucks if possible.

What are your thoughts? thank you in advance

 

[cthompson94]

8gb would more than likely be enough, but remember swap memory will probably happen still and there are different emotions as towards how people feel about that. It wouldn't hurt to get the 16gb especially to future proof for 5+ years, memory swap will still be used as I have seen plenty of forums posting of it happening regardless of if the 16gb is almost fully used.

You already posted that you are using 7.11gb used and 2.36 towards swap and so you are basically maxing the current 8gb out and I think you should get the 16gb, it is awful that the ram in macs have such a price difference, but you can't go back (besides returning within the window)

 

[hobowankenobi]

While 8 could work, there is a good chance it could be a bit limiting, and you might feel the need to do less multi-tasking, or be compelled to close down idle processes and apps.

Historically...over time apps have continued to get more RAM hungry, as we all bought machines with more RAM. I would go 16GB assuming the trend will continue. If, for example in 2 years, 16GB is the base amount...I would expect both Apple (the OS) and devs to leverage that with more aggressive RAM use, obsoleting 8GB machines fast(er).

If the above is true, and you get say 2-3 years longer life out fo the machine, the $310 would be a smart spend. If RAM use does plateau...then it would be somewhat wasted, but you would still likely get some use out of it with less swap use, and at least occasionally better performance.

 

[Basic75]

I am really torn between 8GB vs. 16GB RAM

I am ready to push the button on my M1 Pro but am leaning towards 16GB as I have always chosen to upgrade RAM in the past and have never regretted the decision. My use case where I think I might need is for video and photo editing in Adobe. I am now reading so many reviews that the M1 is a new...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Basic75]

Personally I would very strongly recommend getting 16GB. You don't want your computer with a powerful processor to be limited due to lack of RAM in a couple of years. And running a VM, even rarely, with only 8GB seems like a bad idea.

 

[TechRunner]

Given your use and the fact you want a minimum of 5 years out of the device, I would agree with the others that 16GB is the way to go.

 

[EdwardC]

16!

 

[flaubert]

My only contribution would be to say be careful about assuming that you can spin up a VM to do what you need to do; in the past we lived in an Intel-only world, so it was reasonable to assume that you could spin up a Windows VM to run that special program or whatever. Now you're going to be living in an Apple Silicon M1 world, and so far as I know, no one is offering a VM solution for Intel processor Windows because it not only has to connect the VM to the outside world, but it also has to emulate the Intel instruction set. And if you can't run a VM effectively then part of the justification for 16GB goes away. That being said, I'm still occasionally using an 11 year old Apple laptop, and the only reason that is remotely possible is because I doubled the minimum RAM at purchase.

 

[JackRabbitJobs]

16. All that stuff in node_modules folder benefits from cache.

 

[AthenaNoctua]

The OP said they wanted to play games. Now, whilst I don't know if there are Mac versions of the games they want to play (they're not my kind of thing, give me a good mystery or fantasy adventure or puzzle game any day. I also dabble in god sims (like Populous, Settlers and Black & White - yep, I'm that ancient!)), what nobody's mentioned is that the MBA doesn't have a discrete GPU, which most games will call for. I could hardly play anything on my 2016 MBP because of the hybrid GPU (I had the 16GB Touch Bar model, and the on-board graphics chip could munch as much as 4GB).

@esster the Air is NOT a games machine; it's primarily designed as an ultra-portable for light office tasks (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, email, light web-browsing, video conferencing, etc.) it simply doesn't have the oomph to cope with graphics-and-processor-heavy games. If you want to play games, you'd be better off buying a MacBook Pro, with the fastest CPU and the most RAM you can afford (16GB is probably the bare minimum). All MBPs have discrete GPUs. This is what you need for gaming.

That said, there is a caveat here: I'd had several games on my Steam Wishlist saved for the day I had a computer beefy enough to play them on. Most weren't all that old. The developer of I'd had wish listed (I'd even backed the Kickstarter) told me that their game wouldn't run on ARM Macs and, in fact, wouldn't run on versions of macOS later than Catalina! I asked could I run it under Windows or Linux via Parallels (Boot Camp won't run on ARM Macs) and was told no. They'd pushed the release date back and back and back and then don't seem to be updating it past the version of macOS which was around at the time of release!

Sorry for the rant, but you need to be aware, the difference between ARM and Intel is as great as the difference between Intel and PPC. The architecture is completely different. Just because a game says it's Mac-compatible, because M1 is still fairly new, it may very well not be M1 Mac compatible. If you're browsing Steam, for example, and find something you want, best to email the developer and ask if it'll run on an M1 Mac.

But, TL;DR - if you're wanting to play games, don't buy an Air.

 

[profcutter]

16 as a minimum for you, I’d say. I know folks say 8 is fine, but for moderate workflows, I wouldn’t do it. I wish it weren’t the case.

 

[Bodhitree]

I’d recommend 16 gb for any dev work. Web tabs and vm’s do knock on in ram, with Zoom and Teams open as well you’ll need the extra. Especially if you want it to last five years or more.