Don't buy M1 Air with 8Gb of RAM

[iHorseHead]

My regular routine goes like this.

"Why is my laptop running so hot? Why are the fans on? Did I leave the debugger running again?"

"Oh. I left Excel open."

Beachball while I wait for Excel to come to foreground. Quit.

(5 minutes later) fans have stopped.

I don't have this problem with the Office clones. Just Office. Sometimes I use LibreOffice Spreadsheets because Excel just takes too long.

There's probably something I could do to improve performance, but I don't use Office enough to worry much about it. This is the way it's been for years and multiple Office versions for me.

I don't have problems with Excel on any computers.

 

[Lihp8270]

I don't have problems with Excel on any computers.

I have problems with excel on all platforms.

Even on windows with 32gb of ram. But that’s more because I’m forced into excel for stuff it’s really not supposed to be doing.

 

[smirking]

I have problems with excel on all platforms.

I always thought it was just the Mac version that was this bad. Thanks to the powers of Zoom and remote work, I now can see that other people with PCs have just as crap of a time with it as I do.

There must be a way to fix that performance problem, but it must not be very hard to enter into the conditions that cause it to grind to a halt.

 

[iHorseHead]

I have problems with excel on all platforms.

Even on windows with 32gb of ram. But that’s more because I’m forced into excel for stuff it’s really not supposed to be doing.

I dont believe you.
Can you tell me how I could reproduce it?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Telling people not to get the 8GB of RAM model is terrible advice.

 

[BeatCrazy]

"Fishrrman's rule 4" (regarding m-series Macs):
16gb is "the new 8".

(in other words, buying an m-series Mac with 8gb of RAM in 2021 is like buying a 2014 Mac Mini with 4gb of RAM -- it wasn't enough, and it wasn't upgradeable)

Not quite. Even in 2014, the base model with 4GB of RAM wasn't sufficient for even moderate workloads, and the slowdowns were obvious. Which is not the consensus on the M1 models with 8GB of RAM.

Full disclosure, I own two M1 Macs and the M1 iPad Pro, all with 8GB, and the "limitation" has never impacted anything I've personally done.

 

[chabig]

the M1 will soon be slow as molassses

What? No. The processor is not going to slow down with age.

 

[MBAir2010]

One can still perform many tasks with 4GB of RAM
even in 2021.

anyways the headline was misleading,
i don't think i visited 40 webpages in a single month!

there are some who have not committed to the M1
maybe they seem not to need that upgrade.
they subconsciously think the M1 is not good,
and avoid purchasing that for employees or even themselves.

(my roadblock on an M1 is a bubblegum OS like BigSur)

 

[smirking]

I dont believe you.
Can you tell me how I could reproduce it?

Who cares? It runs fine for you. That's all that matters. You may not believe @Lihp8270 or me, but I believe you. It runs fine for you. Cool. Good for you.

 

[Aggedor]

I TRIED to stop monitoring it, because I don't really notice a slowdown or anything.

But 1-2X a day, a Force Quit popup appears telling me the memory is full and I'm being suggested to close an app. The main culprit is Microsoft Teams, which is sometimes taking more than 5.2 GB just for itself.

Can the indicator hit a red zone ? I've never come past yellow, and still had this popup.

I use Teams several times a day, and don't have this issue. I'd suggest a complete uninstall and reinstall. Microsoft apps are far from the best, but that shouldn't be happening.

 

[chevyboy60013]

microsoft apps are pure crap. I do not use any, because of that and if it costs me a raise or promotion at my job so be it.

 

[Ev0d3vil]

Oh when your work is building multi-user websites, you run out of browsers very fast. While I'm working on a site I'll have one login be the admin, one be a regular user, and one as an anonymous user. It's a lot easier to remember what is what if they're all different browsers.

The of course, I've got windows open to whatever pages I'm reading that aren't related to the websites I'm working on. Sometimes that happens in yet another browser. I'm basically four users at the same time all the time.

Nice!

Did you test it on the base M1 Air?

 

[dandeco]

I do a lot of digital media work (especially audio and video) and like to multitask, so I ordered my M1 MacBook Air configured with 16 GB of RAM. Definitely worth the added expense, and despite being a custom configuration it arrived at my doorstep only ten days after placing the order! (Perhaps the Chinese factory was already manufacturing some M1 Airs in the configuration I ordered for anyone that may want them?)

 

[smirking]

Nice!

Did you test it on the base M1 Air?

I had a 8GB M1 MBP 512GB for a couple of weeks. My 2018 was getting its battery replaced so I decided to buy a refurb unit. I was doubtful I was going to end up keeping it so I got the 8GB unit because I was curious how well an 8GB M1 would handle my rather heavy memory needs. I wouldn't have taken this risk if I were dead set on keeping the machine.

I was pleasantly surprised. It made the eventual decision to return it much harder than I expected. When I get one of the next crop of M1's, I'm just going to get a 16GB instead of the 32GB I have now.

 

[dogslobber]

on 11.2 - R, Python, webSAS, citrix workspace, bunch of word/excel/pdf files in Adobe/Native PDF viewer/MS Office, Safari with 40 tabs. Simultaneously could do Lightroom for hobby and Davinci Resolve for work. This is all running 2 displays: Air and external 2K. MS Teams always on and screen sharing in Zoom(sharing external, while doing my things hidden on Air screen to make presentation fluid)
on 11.5 - bunch of word/excel/pdf, safari 20-30 tabs, MS Teams, Zoom.
Last checked and had 87TBW on SSD.

Your use case sounds like you'd benefit from 16GB but I don't know if most users of 8GB MBAs would run such advanced technology products such a Office, Teams, Python, and Lightroom.

 

[dogslobber]

Never had any issues with MS Office.
What do I have to do to get such issues?

I find the problems start with MS Office when you launch the apps.

 

[dogslobber]

I have problems with excel on all platforms.

Even on windows with 32gb of ram. But that’s more because I’m forced into excel for stuff it’s really not supposed to be doing.

Excel is terrible as are all the Office products on a PC, even with 16GB. The advantage a Mac M1 has with Office is that it runs longer and is quieter than a typical Intel PC which will fire up the fans when Office apps start doing their function.

 

[Lihp8270]

I dont believe you.
Can you tell me how I could reproduce it?

Use a macro to open, collate data, close, for several thousand workbooks.

 

[hovscorpion12]

My M1 12.9 iPad Pro with 8GB of RAM runs out of memory, so I don't see how 8GB of RAM is sufficient on a MBP.

This is near impossible. iPadOS does not have a task manager. I very much doubt that the iPad Pro can run out of ram let alone believe that this is true. Unless you can prove that your M1 iPad “ran out of Memory“ I’m casting doubt.

No apps in the app store today can max out the 8GB or 16GB of RAM. Before iPadOS 15, Devs had a 5GB RAM limit on iPad with 6GB RAM. Even then its not possible to see any RAM Max.

 

[ctjack]

Two thoughts:
1) Update to the current version, 11.6
2) Stop watching Activity Monitor, as Aggedor said.

I am also running my 2 factor authentication software, which is an IOS app on my M1 Mac. I have already got half of my ios apps break during transition 11.2 -> 11.5. So i am not welcoming any upgrades, since that will interupt my workflow. I am using 2FA software 10-20 times a day, and if it breaks on my Mac, i will have to use that software on my iPhone everytime which is really inconvenient.

 

[ctjack]

Telling people not to get the 8GB of RAM model is terrible advice.

I made this topic name for those who are going to get M1 now, so that people can read the thread and decide if they really want to skimp on RAM. Otherwise i have never mentioned that everyone shouldn't buy 8 gigs - casual users will be glad with 8GB.
Overall i have nothing against 8GB of RAM, i am against that with macOS update i am getting less and less headroom with that amount.

Your use case sounds like you'd benefit from 16GB but I don't know if most users of 8GB MBAs would run such advanced technology products such a Office, Teams, Python, and Lightroom.

Yeah, i was just trying to catch people's attention, so they would be aware that 8GB is barely enough for the work purposes. 8GB was fine for me either, it is just macOS update gave me less headroom. Otherwise it is totally perfect for any level of casual use even with 100 tabs.


=====================
Just for reference, i have only 4 tabs in Chrome. Overall you can see the amount of apps open, which is really minimal bare minimum of casual user. My usage is in high Yellow zone, which was green on 11.2.
General consensus on this forum was that you shouldn't worry about your ram usage numbers unless you are in the yellow or red zone.
It is really easy to imagine that if i start my work then i would hit red zone really quick.

 

[mr_roboto]

mm, this is what makes me hesitant on staying with Apple.

the M1 will soon be slow as molassses and 16 GB will not help anyway because of forced upgrades and the iOSification of Mac OS.

my i7 is still as snappy as it was when it was new - bacause I stayed on 10.11 and get no nags about that.

What forced upgrades and iOSification are you talking about? I haven't been forced to install a single Big Sur update on my M1 Air. I am not going to be forced to install Monterey (though I plan on doing so).

 

[dieselm]

If you're doing anything beyond light computing, having 16gb vs 8gb is like night and day.

You can "get by" with 8gb. But the quality of life difference is substantial. Just much smoother overall.

 

[trevpimp]

Don't mind me I'm going my very own little way with my 8GB M1 Air

I don't program or anything just a casual user of MacOS

 

[Argon_]

This is near impossible. iPadOS does not have a task manager. I very much doubt that the iPad Pro can run out of ram let alone believe that this is true. Unless you can prove that your M1 iPad “ran out of Memory“ I’m casting doubt.

No apps in the app store today can max out the 8GB or 16GB of RAM. Before iPadOS 15, Devs had a 5GB RAM limit on iPad with 6GB RAM. Even then its not possible to see any RAM Max.

Agreed. iOS doesn't 'run out' of RAM because its kill protocol is so aggressive. The OS trims background memory sinks before you run out, which isn't surprising given that the first gen iPhone had 128 megabytes of RAM.