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Don't buy M1 Air with 8Gb of RAM
- Thread starter ctjack
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- 8gb vs 16gb air macbook air ram
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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 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.
Telling people not to get the 8GB of RAM model is terrible advice.
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.
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)
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)
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.
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.
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.
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?)
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.
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.
I find the problems start with MS Office when you launch the apps.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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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).
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
I don't program or anything just a casual user of MacOS
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.