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

[Ethosik]

Looks like if you’re doing this it may be good to get 16GB otherwise 8GB is fine for almost all cases

I would still recommend 16GB for 4K. 1080p is fine for 8GB even in Intel as I have verified this and had instructors state the same thing.

 

[theluggage]

MacOS Big Sur (and/or the M-series chip) has bloated macOS by 40-50%; the time will come when Apple will cut of all macOS upgrades on machines with less than 16GB or RAM.

That won't necessarily have any effect on RAM usage. You don't load every file included in MacOS into RAM at the same time.

It is an issue for the default 256GB SSD size - especially if you're going to install things like XCode or Logic Pro, which also use a ton of disc space, on top of that.

 

[Ethosik]

I think that videos conclusions should be helpful to a lot of people here - i.e. most people won't need more than 8GB unless they're running specific RAM-hungry jobs which - until now - they wouldn't have expected to work on Apple's cheapest machine because the CPU and GPU wouldn't cut it.

It's a pity that he finished by trotting out the old nonsense about 16GB on M1 being equivalent to 32GB on Intel. Not if you actually need 32GB for a specific workload.

However, there is still a point being missed: there's not a lot of point running a test on a 16GB machine when it isn't even running out of memory on an 8GB machine - and the reviewer seemed to be making the usual mistake of looking at "RAM usage" rather than "Memory pressure" which is the real indications that lack of RAM is slowing things down.

Otherwise, it's like having a race between a Bugatti and an economy city compact... through a school zone at max 30mph.

The real test is to find a realistic workload which is pushing the "memory pressure" into the red on an 8GB Intel machine, and then try that on a M1 8GB and/or 16GB machine.

It is actually quite difficult (not saying it CAN'T be done, just difficult) to receive completely Out of Memory errors on modern operating systems. You would typically swap SO MUCH where the performance is absolutely horrible before you receive an out of memory error. Sure things like trying to load up a Virtual Machine that requires 16GB of RAM when you only have 8 will produce the errors. But programs like Adobe are designed to use every bit of memory you have. Doesn't mean you need to have that much memory.

I think the fact that 8GB handled an 8K footage well, while taking 2x as long to export it still handled it well is saying a lot. I still recommend 32GB of RAM for 8K work.

 

[kp98077]

assuming I'm using office, watching you tube doing light photo editing, large document 8 should be more than enough on the Air?

 

[pshufd]

That won't necessarily have any effect on RAM usage. You don't load every file included in MacOS into RAM at the same time.

It is an issue for the default 256GB SSD size - especially if you're going to install things like XCode or Logic Pro, which also use a ton of disc space, on top of that.

256 GB probably works best where your work is in the cloud, or you're willing to hand a drive or two or use a NAS. But where you need CPU performance.

 

[pshufd]

assuming I'm using office, watching you tube doing light photo editing, large document 8 should be more than enough on the Air?

Yup.

If you're doing that right now - go take a look at how much memory you're using on your current Mac.

The CPU horsepower of the M1 is just ridiculous - that will not be a bottleneck. A lot of people don't like Geekbench 5 but I do for my workload and I just compare the M1 to high-end Intel and AMD chips. The single-core performance is nuts. The high-end Intel and AMD chips do better with multicore but you have 8, 10, 16 performance cores on those things. If you compare the M1 to their low-end chips, it's crazy. If you compare it to older gen chips, it's also crazy.

 

[kp98077]

Yup.

If you're doing that right now - go take a look at how much memory you're using on your current Mac.

The CPU horsepower of the M1 is just ridiculous - that will not be a bottleneck. A lot of people don't like Geekbench 5 but I do for my workload and I just compare the M1 to high-end Intel and AMD chips. The single-core performance is nuts. The high-end Intel and AMD chips do better with multicore but you have 8, 10, 16 performance cores on those things. If you compare the M1 to their low-end chips, it's crazy. If you compare it to older gen chips, it's also crazy.

thanks very helpful, how about screen ? I know the nits difference but will people really notice that between the Air and Pro? Love the form factor of the air, tiered of the boxy pro..... and it hurts my old palms... lol... wall 40's so mid age! .... but worry about brightness!

 

[Frantisekj]

There are myths spread around that UMA has different memory consumption. That’s wrong. The way it moves data around is different from the x86 architecture (which has various interconnects to memory and GPUs) but the amount of memory the operating system, apps and documents/files consumes doesn’t change.

It will always be preferable to use real RAM than swapping to disk. The latter will age your drive faster. If you’re a creative or developer you should get more RAM every time.

1) there is one small difference and it is that integrated graphic has access to wast majority of M1 memory at blazing speed. Second Arm version of macOS is probably less memory intensive so 8Gb is quite enough for most tasks.

There are few test, recently one published today by Maxtech channel.

2) Agree completely with SSD aging. And test showed that few intensive operations benefit from more RAM. So if someone multitask while rendering, compiling it is good idea.

 

[IG88]

Enthusiasts will upgrade to a higher end more demanding video standard. Unless you'll sell the M1 sooner than 2025 then get 16GB.

If you're a developer follow the DTK's 16GB memory and 512GB storage.

Here's a comparison on M1 "Pro" with 8 and 16 GB RAM. I use "" for Pro bc I don't consider & have never considered that model as a real MBP. I had the Intel version awhile back. It was more like a "Pro" MBA.

They had to goto 8K RED Raw to get a significant difference between 8 / 16 GB RAM.

Me personally, if I were editing 8K RED RAW, I wouldn't be getting a M1. I'd be holding out for M1X or whatever it's gonna be called, in what I consider to be the real 13" MBP, that's hopefully gonna be a 14" with an 8 + 4 CPU and even stronger GPU.

 

[pshufd]

thanks very helpful, how about screen ? I know the nits difference but will people really notice that between the Air and Pro? Love the form factor of the air, tiered of the boxy pro..... and it hurts my old palms... lol... wall 40's so mid age! .... but worry about brightness!

I've never owned an Air before - just MacBook Pros: 2008, 2014, 2015. The 2008 wasn't that bright as it used the old CCFL backlights. The 2014 and 2015 are bright enough for me. I guess you need to try them out in the store. If the Pro had more ports or more storage options, like an NVMe slot, then sure. But it seems like it just has the fan, touchbar, monitor. I could go either way.

 

[richard371]

Im sure the 8 is fine but for future proofing I decided to wait and get the 16.

 

[thegiftofdom]

thanks very helpful, how about screen ? I know the nits difference but will people really notice that between the Air and Pro? Love the form factor of the air, tiered of the boxy pro..... and it hurts my old palms... lol... wall 40's so mid age! .... but worry about brightness!

I own an M1 Air, and let me tell you, it looks WAY brighter in person in comparison to what you see on Youtube, I have to turn it down at times. This is coming from a guy with a 2020 iPad Pro that likes to BLAST the brightness at times, and the iPad Pro is brighter than all models of Macbook Pros, but falls slightly below the max brightness of an iPhone 11/12 Pro max. And the form factor/ergonomics are much better for typing on the Air in comparison to the Pro.

 

[phl92]

I was going for the 16 gig version but Max video changed my decidion. After this video I definitely opting for the 8 gig version.
I dont do 8k and most probably wont do 8k in the near future (5years).
Is 16 gb more future proof? Maybe. But the fact that most Apps will run natively within the next 1,5 years is a even better proof that 8 gb is enough.

 

[kp98077]

I own an M1 Air, and let me tell you, it looks WAY brighter in person in comparison to what you see on Youtube, I have to turn it down at times. This is coming from a guy with a 2020 iPad Pro that likes to BLAST the brightness at times, and the iPad Pro is brighter than all models of Macbook Pros, but falls slightly below the max brightness of an iPhone 11/12 Pro max. And the form factor/ergonomics are much better for typing on the Air in comparison to the Pro.

yes good points! thx

 

[pugxiwawa]

My 2 cents. Have 8GB/512GB M1 MBA for a few days now and today is the real test in a full day-to-day working environment. I want to see if it can replace my 16" MBP i9 16GB/1TB setup. Typical usage

1. Citrix Workspace to remote login to work
2. a few Safari tab opens, with Yahoo Finance running (memory hog), a few Macrumors page, FB pages (memory og)...etc.
3. Mail app open
4. Messages/FB Messengers/other chat app open

In my experience I think MBA definitely struggles at times to keep up with only 8GB. I can feel the machine lags here and there. It doesn't always lag, but it is there and I can definitely feel it. After today's test I would definitely order the 16GB model instead. I have not opened Lightroom or Photoshop yet so if you are doing any creative work I would definitely recommend going with 16GB. Hope this helps.

 

[jerryk]

I've never owned an Air before - just MacBook Pros: 2008, 2014, 2015. The 2008 wasn't that bright as it used the old CCFL backlights. The 2014 and 2015 are bright enough for me. I guess you need to try them out in the store. If the Pro had more ports or more storage options, like an NVMe slot, then sure. But it seems like it just has the fan, touchbar, monitor. I could go either way.

Same for me.

Previous Airs were not strong systems, especially when pushed. So there was a distinct advantage to the 13" MBPs. But with the M1 Air, it's big heat sink, and low amount of heat generated generate close to the same performance. Difficult decision.

 

[Maconplasma]

Im sure the 8 is fine but for future proofing I decided to wait and get the 16.

This 8GB argument has been going on for the past 5+ years. It's NOW the future and we're still talking about it. I'm saying this because there's no such thing as "Future Proofing" a computer. If after 5+ years 8GB of ram still runs on computers very well then it defeats your argument about "future proofing".

 

[Herrpod]

OK, so I want to revise my previously positive assessment to state that the 8GB model croaks with video playback if you have more than one app open or trying to play more than one video. Basically, if you're relying mainly on swap, you will notice some hiccups and jitters.

The 16 GB models haven't been shipped yet have they? Because I think they may very much alleviate this problem.

Memory isn't going to change what you saw.

And what's with all this stupid "future proofing" talk I keep seeing? In 5 years there's going to be a myriad of other reasons to update (better screen tech, touch screens or whatever etc). An additional 8 gigs of ram isn't going to make your 5 year old laptop viable in the future.

 

[jon08]

My 2 cents. Have 8GB/512GB M1 MBA for a few days now and today is the real test in a full day-to-day working environment. I want to see if it can replace my 16" MBP i9 16GB/1TB setup. Typical usage

1. Citrix Workspace to remote login to work
2. a few Safari tab opens, with Yahoo Finance running (memory hog), a few Macrumors page, FB pages (memory og)...etc.
3. Mail app open
4. Messages/FB Messengers/other chat app open

In my experience I think MBA definitely struggles at times to keep up with only 8GB. I can feel the machine lags here and there. It doesn't always lag, but it is there and I can definitely feel it. After today's test I would definitely order the 16GB model instead. I have not opened Lightroom or Photoshop yet so if you are doing any creative work I would definitely recommend going with 16GB. Hope this helps.

Thanks for an honest review. Seriously, I have difficulty believing people in onine reviews giving performance nothing but praise and saying it’s always 100% buttery smooth - it just doesn’t make sense. Judging from iPhone experience: even though it’s mostly very smooth, there are certainly some jerky animations with slight lag etc every now and them. And I’d assume M1 Macbooks are not totally immune to that either...?!

 

[pugxiwawa]

Thanks for an honest review. Seriously, I have difficulty believing people in onine reviews giving performance nothing but praise and saying it’s always 100% buttery smooth - it just doesn’t make sense. Judging from iPhone experience: even though it’s mostly very smooth, there are certainly some jerky animations with slight lag etc every now and them. And I’d assume M1 Macbooks are not totally immune to that either...?!

Agreed 100%. I was under the impression from the reviews that this is as smooth and fast as an i9 16GB MBP, with only 8GB of ram. But that's definitely not the case from my test. It's an impressive machine as the first iteration no doubt, but at times you can definitely feel the bugginess around the edge as the first generation product. Not to mention it's having some issues with external montior. I'm using LG 5k2k and it's not able to display 4k resolution natively, and it's not able to wake up the monitor after sleep due to issue with thunderbolt 3 connection. I kind of regret the decision of selling my 16" MBP now to be honest.

 

[Maconplasma]

Thanks for an honest review. Seriously, I have difficulty believing people in onine reviews giving performance nothing but praise and saying it’s always 100% buttery smooth - it just doesn’t make sense. Judging from iPhone experience: even though it’s mostly very smooth, there are certainly some jerky animations with slight lag etc every now and them. And I’d assume M1 Macbooks are not totally immune to that either...?!

I hope you realize that everyone has different perceptions on things. I swear it blows me away when I've seen posts here of people saying, "My Space Grey is a little darker than the one in the store, blah blah blah". Others that use their computers for real work and not dissecting every section of it every minute of the hour and won't ever notice slight animations changes during use. Another thing I hope you realize is that many people use different software. The worst I've seen is people using music software such as Pro Tools where they are using very old plugins that might present an un-smooth experience. They will report that their new Mac has jerky scrolling and such, but they won't talk about all the software they use, so you should keep that mind.

Lastly if you want totally honest reviews you should check out Max Tech on YouTube. Apple does not send him machines so he has no stake in saying everything perfect about them. He's very spot on with his reviews, and unlike some people here who will refuse to let go of old un-optimized software that can present issues Max uses the latest softwares to show viewers what to expect.

 

[pshufd]

This 8GB argument has been going on for the past 5+ years. It's NOW the future and we're still talking about it. I'm saying this because there's no such thing as "Future Proofing" a computer. If after 5+ years 8GB of ram still runs on computers very well then it defeats your argument about "future proofing".

I have a 2008 Dell Studio XPS mt435 with Core i7-970 48 GB of RAM. It's surprisingly usable. I was using it up until I built an i7-10700 desktop. But I can still use the old system for trading, web browsing, building Firefox, etc.

 

[kp98077]

Agreed 100%. I was under the impression from the reviews that this is as smooth and fast as an i9 16GB MBP, with only 8GB of ram. But that's definitely not the case from my test. It's an impressive machine as the first iteration no doubt, but at times you can definitely feel the bugginess around the edge as the first generation product. Not to mention it's having some issues with external montior. I'm using LG 5k2k and it's not able to display 4k resolution natively, and it's not able to wake up the monitor after sleep due to issue with thunderbolt 3 connection. I kind of regret the decision of selling my 16" MBP now to be honest.

Agreed 100%. I was under the impression from the reviews that this is as smooth and fast as an i9 16GB MBP, with only 8GB of ram. But that's definitely not the case from my test. It's an impressive machine as the first iteration no doubt, but at times you can definitely feel the bugginess around the edge as the first generation product. Not to mention it's having some issues with external montior. I'm using LG 5k2k and it's not able to display 4k resolution natively, and it's not able to wake up the monitor after sleep due to issue with thunderbolt 3 connection. I kind of regret the decision of selling my 16" MBP now to be honest.

Oy! i dont miss my 16" at all! lol.... was never impressed by it, and it was hugE!

 

[jerryk]

This 8GB argument has been going on for the past 5+ years. It's NOW the future and we're still talking about it. I'm saying this because there's no such thing as "Future Proofing" a computer. If after 5+ years 8GB of ram still runs on computers very well then it defeats your argument about "future proofing".

Agreed. Also, IMHO the whole idea of future-proofing an M1 processor-based system is questionable. M1 is the first in a series of processors. I would be quite surprised if it was in the rumored 14" or 16" in 2021. And if Apple's history is any guide, the 2021/22 Air and 13" mbp will get this next step processor.

 

[Maconplasma]

Oy! i dont miss my 16" at all! lol.... was never impressed by it, and it was hugE!

Odd, when the 2015 15" was new people never complained about it's size even though it was over 1/3 larger and heavier than the 16". ?‍♂️