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

[fang-woem-rai]

Well, that's a pretty black and white (and cynical) belief system you have there. Not all of us are that obsessed with money, followers and whatever else you might think. I for one, have never even heard of an advertiser kickback (what is that?), and we have a reasonably large, long-lived channel that should be ripe for such hijinks according to what you expressed.

I passionately care about technology, people, and seeing the human race create better things... though 2020 has made that a little harder. Maybe I'm old enough to not obsess on followers and see the bigger picture on what we can do with our time on earth, but some of my younger YouTuber friends are like-minded.

I have watched a lot of your reviews and to be very frank I think you're really superficial in your take. I get a feeling that you never take bold stands and say things so as to not offend anybody and always strive for the middle ground without providing any real value to the viewer. For someone who "passionately care about technology", it's really sad.

 

[darngooddesign]

My opinion is that if you do anything intensive get the 16GB. When it comes time to sell your laptop will be more valuable, it will be a 16GB in a sea of identical 8GB computers, and you should get at least half that $200 back. Then amortize that $100 over two years and the upgrade is like $4 a month.

 

[fang-woem-rai]

With all this back and forth about 8 vs 16, can you guys imagine if there was a third option of 32gb. I'm sure it will be an option on the upcoming 16".

16 vs 32 is pretty clear cut because those who require 32 know their requirements fairly well.
The problem with 8 vs 16 is that 8 is certainly not enough even for light users (except for 90 yo grandmas) but they think that it will suffice due to unified memory magic or some apple f**kery.

8 GB in 2020 should be criminalized imo

 

[coorsleftfield]

Well, I really don't quite know what to think anymore... I have an 8/8/512 MBA that I got a couple of days ago, and after a day of use yesterday I was thinking of swapping to a 16GB variant.

Just spent a bit of time going through my photos (and deleting all the old ones) and my memory pressure is currently under 30% with swap going over 8GB... The huge amount of swap would suggest a 16GB would be better but yet the memory pressure is so low! And no slowing down at all during this process. Which seems to also suggest that an 8GB might be OK for me...

Ignore how much is swapped out to disk, and instead look at vm_stat and see if you are getting lots of page-in/outs . Having a lot of unused processed swapped out to disk isn't a bad thing. If memory pressure is green, you don't need more RAM for the current tasks.

 

[KShopper]

16 vs 32 is pretty clear cut because those who require 32 know their requirements fairly well.
The problem with 8 vs 16 is that 8 is certainly not enough even for light users (except for 90 yo grandmas) but they think that it will suffice due to unified memory magic or some apple f**kery.

8 GB in 2020 should be criminalized imo

Actually, it is enough for the vast majority of MBA purchasers. Even the most ardent testers here can only come up with "the memory pressure was yellow for 5 seconds" and "it felt a little slower", "My fake super long running batch processing job took 5% longer". Big deal, nothing to see here.

 

[JeepGuy]

16 vs 32 is pretty clear cut because those who require 32 know their requirements fairly well.
The problem with 8 vs 16 is that 8 is certainly not enough even for light users (except for 90 yo grandmas) but they think that it will suffice due to unified memory magic or some apple f**kery.

8 GB in 2020 should be criminalized imo

I agree, but it's not always clear cut, there are many who would still agonize over this decision, I know for myself it's pretty clear cut, for work I need more, but sadly I can't use an M1 for work regardless of how much memory it has.

 

[JeepGuy]

Actually, it is enough for the vast majority of MBA purchasers. Even the most ardent testers here can only come up with "the memory pressure was yellow for 5 seconds" and "it felt a little slower", "My fake super long running batch processing job took 5% longer". Big deal, nothing to see here.

I agree, for the vast majority it is enough, there is a reason why this is apple's best seller, it meets most peoples needs.

 

[sky87]

Ignore how much is swapped out to disk, and instead look at vm_stat and see if you are getting lots of page-in/outs . Having a lot of unused processed swapped out to disk isn't a bad thing. If memory pressure is green, you don't need more RAM for the current tasks.

Thanks! From istat menus it looks like there are occasional page ins/outs but nothing too insane. From what I can see on Activity Monitor it is almost always in green, though I caught it going into yellow a few times (just for short periods of time). Just threw in Netflix, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint all at the same time, and memory pressure is still staying at under 50%. The only additional thing I would add under my usual usage would be Zoom/Spotify, but clearly Zoom/Spotify/Netflix wouldn't all run at the same time!

So possibly I might actually get on with the 8GB of RAM.

Though if the 8/16/1TB MBA ever becomes available for store pickup, I might still be tempted to switch out this 8/8/512 for it...

 

[jabbr]

I picked up an 8GB 512 Air to test. It's a sweet computer but it feels really weird to buy a 8GB machine in 2020. If I see a 16GB variant available for pickup locally I'll be tempted to swap.

 

[The Hammer]

If you can afford more then get more. It's always better to have more than you need. Instead of needing in the future and not having.

 

[gtg465x]

Thanks! I am not a power user, but in my current Intel machine with 8GB I am feeling the pain right now and it seems crazy that Apple would sell a "Pro" machine in 2020 with 8GB unless that secret sauce really is something special.

This is the same company that still sells Apple Watch Series 3 with 8 GB of storage, 2-3 GB of which is usable. My wife has this watch, and even with a relatively fresh setup with only a few apps, no photos, and no music downloaded to it, it doesn’t have enough free storage to download and install watchOS 7 updates. Every time there’s an update now, she has to wipe it, download and install the update, wipe it again, and then restore from backup. Awful user experience. And even removing all apps, photos, music, and messages is not enough to free up enough space to install the update... I think just cache files alone, which you can’t delete, take up enough space to make updates impossible without completely resetting first. How Apple gets away with still selling that barely updatable watch is beyond me.

Moral of the story... don’t think Apple is looking out for you. I think they purposely sell underspecced products because they know it will likely cause people to upgrade sooner, not because they think the underspecced products are capable enough. Worked on us... buying my wife a new Apple Watch series 6. Luckily I have the cellular Series 3, which has 16 GB storage, and I haven’t had any of the issues my wife has had with her 8 GB one.

edit: By the way, to prove this is a widespread issue with updating Series 3 8 GB watches, Apple even made an official procedure that includes multiple wipes for us unfortunate folks: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211283

 

[Paul1980]

16 vs 32 is pretty clear cut because those who require 32 know their requirements fairly well.
The problem with 8 vs 16 is that 8 is certainly not enough even for light users (except for 90 yo grandmas) but they think that it will suffice due to unified memory magic or some apple f**kery.

8 GB in 2020 should be criminalized imo

So explain how its not enough for even light users? What problems are light, and even heavy users facing right now using the 8gb on an M1 system?

 

[R3k]

Beside the cost, this all seems exacerbated by shipping times. Many people likely want to go 16gb but are wondering if they can make do with a 8gb so they can get one sooner.

I’d say just go 16 if the price is not the be issue. Think of the extra cost spread out over the lifetime of the laptop. Not much a day.

 

[1240766]

Let’s say $1650 for 16gb and 1TB for MBA, that is $46 month for 3 years. Or $1250 for 8gb and 512gb, which is $35 month for 3 years... that is $11 difference per month for double ram and storage...

 

[moldy lunchbox]

Let’s say $1650 for 16gb and 1TB for MBA, that is $46 month for 3 years. Or $1250 for 8gb and 512gb, which is $35 month for 3 years... that is $11 difference per month for double ram and storage...

If you have to make monthly payments on a laptop for 3 years, you probably shouldn't be buying any of them.

 

[1240766]

If you have to make monthly payments on a laptop for 3 years, then you probably shouldn't be buying any of them.

First, you missed the point, go back and read

Second, you missed an opportunity to not to sound stupid your money does you better while on your account working for you

 

[turbineseaplane]

I have an 8/512 MBA in hand right now and, aside from weird bluetooth stuff with my Trackpad, it's mostly glorious..

That said - I also can't tell if I want to keep this spec or try to get one with 16GB or RAM

I'm just worried this will be a mistake over the long term (only 8gb)

 

[Sydde]

This is the same company that still sells Apple Watch Series 3 with 8 GB of storage …

This thread is not about storage, though, it is about RAM.

 

[sky87]

I have an 8/512 MBA in hand right now and, aside from weird bluetooth stuff with my Trackpad, it's mostly glorious..

That said - I also can't tell if I want to keep this spec or try to get one with 16GB or RAM

I'm just worried this will be a mistake over the long term (only 8gb)

This is my exact feeling about the 8/512 I have.

Just saw the 16/1TB pop up for pickup at my local Apple store so have ordered one for pickup in a couple of hours. Unfortunately the only 16/1TB they have is Space Grey, but I can live with that (might make a bit of a change from my current Silver macbooks).

Edit - wow, just in time too, checked about 5-10 minutes after I ordered and the 16/1TB is no longer available. That was fast...

 

[gtg465x]

This thread is not about storage, though, it is about RAM.

I know, but my point was that just because Apple sells a certain spec, whether it’s RAM or storage, that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to work well. Another poster suggested that since Apple sells a version with 8 GB of RAM, that the machine must work well with only 8 GB RAM, but I don’t think that’s always true.

 

[moldy lunchbox]

First, you missed the point, go back and read

Second, you missed an opportunity to not to sound stupid your money does you better while on your account working for you

Sure, keep making your minimum payments. I'll keep sounding stupid living debt free with a highly positive net worth.

 

[russell_314]

I know, but my point was that just because Apple sells a certain spec, whether it’s RAM or storage, that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to work well. Another poster suggested that since Apple sells a version with 8 GB of RAM, that the machine must work well with only 8 GB RAM, but I don’t think that’s always true.

You know why different specs are sold? Because people have different needs. My mom has 256 GB on her MacBook Air and will never go over 100 GB. I'm struggling with 512 GB and my next MacBook will likely have 1 or 2 TB. It's up to the user to buy what he or she needs.

 

[russell_314]

Sure, keep making your minimum payments. I'll keep sounding stupid living debt free with a highly positive net worth.

You're name doesn't happen to be Dave Ramsey? If so I love the videos LOL

 

[rui no onna]

You know why different specs are sold? Because people have different needs. My mom has 256 GB on her MacBook Air and will never go over 100 GB. I'm struggling with 512 GB and my next MacBook will likely have 1 or 2 TB. It's up to the user to buy what he or she needs.

True. At least 8GB RAM/256GB PCIe is actually adequate unlike 4GB RAM/32-64GB eMMC on super low end Windows 10 systems.

Mind, I've read an article and one of the manufacturers mentioned to the tech journalist that they know the 32GB eMMCs aren't particularly long lived and there's significant potential of those dying with a desktop workload after the one year warranty is up. As long as it survives the warranty period, they don't care.

 

[russell_314]

True. At least 8GB RAM/256GB PCIe is actually adequate unlike 4GB RAM/32-64GB eMMC on super low end Windows 10 systems.

Mind, I've read an article and one of the manufacturers mentioned to the tech journalist that they know the 32GB eMMCs aren't particularly long lived and there's significant potential of those dying with a desktop workload after the one year warranty is up. As long as it survives the warranty period, they don't care.

To be fair those super cheap Windows 10 computers are used for nothing but web browsing and maybe a MS Word document. I would cringe if I had to use one but as they say you get what you pay for.