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Are any 8GB M2 or M3 owners thinking about upgrading to the base 16GB model?
- Thread starter Jacoblee23
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Do you actually need the upgrade or is it just because it's available?
I mean, especially if you have an M3 already, that's literally just buying the same computer again for a RAM upgrade. At this point I would wait until the M4 is available, if an upgrade is really needed at all.
I mean, especially if you have an M3 already, that's literally just buying the same computer again for a RAM upgrade. At this point I would wait until the M4 is available, if an upgrade is really needed at all.
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going to just wait for the m4 before doing a trade in at this point
march cant come soon enough
march cant come soon enough
It really depends on what you use it for. If you do a lot of software development, graphic design, video editing, etc., then yes, you really should upgrade.
If you just browse the web, work on office documents, and watch some videos... no, I actually think it's not worth the effort to upgrade just yet.
If you just browse the web, work on office documents, and watch some videos... no, I actually think it's not worth the effort to upgrade just yet.
Everything I said still applies though. Does it not handle your current workload? And if you're not in a "I need a new computer, today!" situation, you can probably wait until the M4 model comes out next year.
I'm not but if Best Buy has a great trade up promo when the M4 Air is out I will consider it. But I highly doubt this will happen, so Im not getting my hopes up. The resale value on the M2 and M3 8GB Airs have tanked and is not good. Someone will only buy it if it's at a heavy savings....like we're talking 40-50% of what the a new 16GB base Air costs in stores.
So the new 16GB base Air is $1050USD/$1450CAD. I can't see anyone offering more than $500 for a used 8GB base model M3 Air.
So the new 16GB base Air is $1050USD/$1450CAD. I can't see anyone offering more than $500 for a used 8GB base model M3 Air.
That seems reasonable to me... Do people expect to get more than 50% of the original price of their used devices??
Where I am, there's still a lot of people here asking 90% of what they paid for their M2 and M3 8GB Airs. It's outrageous. Ya no one is giving you 90% of what you paid for a heavily used air and with stickers on it.
For those in the UK i just checked and CeX is offering £427 cash for the base 13” MBA M2 8/256 or £517 for trade in voucher. The 15” version is £464 cash / £562 voucher. The M3 versions are only about an extra £20 or so which is a joke really.
It's really just not worth it. I would expect most 8GB owners to just keep using theirs for the time being. The fact that I would only get half of what I paid for 2.5 months ago is laughable. Apple really screwed their customers. If they really want people to move to 16GB then they should be offering one-time discounts to us who recently bought their 8GB base models.
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Is your machine not getting done what you need to get done. Does your machine spend more than 8.3 seconds each week with the spinning beach ball? Are you unable to read email? Are you unable to create spreadsheets and documents? Does that PDF not display.
Unless you can answer yes to any of those questions you will be fine with 8GB.
If you WANT 16GB, then go for it. It's your money.
Reboot, then watch the memory pressure graph. If it’s yellow it’s stressing the system a little. If it’s red, it’s being heavily taxed.
You also need to consider your usage too. I rarely reboot, I have 16GB, and my memory pressure is yellow with some regularity, but I currently have probably 50 Safari tabs open and 15 Chrome tabs open, a couple of Excel spreadsheets, Spotify, Whatsapp, OneNote and Maps open. So with yellow pressure my options are to reboot and/or close some tabs and/or close some apps.
Also on the memory tab I am using 7.5GB of swap. That means that it’s written that information to SSD and will retrieve it as needed. Again, reboot would clear that up.
Given how much content I have open then I’m fine with yellow memory pressure and some swap. But if I was regularly seeing red memory pressure then that’s a sure sign that I need to close stuff and/or get a computer with more RAM.
The key is that Safari and Chrome will both use memory for browser windows, so I expect some yellow, but if I wanted to run a more streamlined system and cleaned up my tabs I would expect it to be staying green. Yellow is telling me that I’m working my RAM reasonably hard.
If I wanted to do some photo editing I would close my Safari or Chrome to free up a ton of memory and do my edits. Then just reopen Safari or Chrome afterwards.
Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor
Use Activity Monitor on your Mac to see if memory is being used efficiently and if you need more memory (RAM).
support.apple.com
They do, just return it if you’re in the window.
You paid for 8GB and got 8GB, Apple isn’t screwing you.
Yes that's the best move really, they are still very capable powerful computers. I was only showing the CeX broker prices for those that were interested.
I checked trade in, and Apple offered me $600 for my Air M2 8/512. Now granted the 512 is not base spec, but $500 in a private sale of a base M3 still seems very low.
I think my use case is such that I’m fine sticking with my current M2, but if performance starts to suffer with Apple Intelligence, I’ll reconsider.
I didn’t know this happened until you posted this. I bought an M3 8/10 16/512 20 days ago from Best Buy. Their return policy ends at 15 days. But, conveniently, they were offering a $250 discount, so I paid essentially the same price. Relieved I didn’t over pay that significantly for the same spec, but I would have been happy with the cheaper 8/8 16/256 model.
A lot of this FOMO is purely psychological.
If your workflow is fine now, it will be fine for at least the next few years.
If your workflow is fine now, it will be fine for at least the next few years.
Well look at this guy. He's asking $1,000 firm for an M2 base model. LOL Good luck getting that. Many people are going to have a reality check over the next few weeks as 16GB base models get into stores.
That’s how a free market works.
The seller wants to get $1,000 and either someone will pay it because it’s worth it to them, or they won‘t.
This was an insane asking price for a 2nd hand M2 MBA long before the bump in base RAM! Isn't that around what they cost brand new?
16gb was always the option when you bought and you chose against it. I assume for financial reasons, well you’re going to be paying even more now by losing on a trade to now buy a 16gb model. So does it make anymore sense now then it did when you bought to go to 16gb?