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M1 Air 16gb or M2 Air
- Thread starter Dnzilla
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I usually have the above list yep..
All maximised so theyre own desktop and switching between them.. A few thing give me grief atm.. Facebook wont upload videos smoothly, sometimes Canva lags a bit, and MS teams is super bad.. switching ti tasks or groups in it is like a 5 second wait..
Im actually a bit frustrated that the M2 is such a price lift, and then the base is so..not as exciting as the M1 base was at release.
Its almost like they tried especially hard with M1 because it was the debut - the jump was too big, the quality too much - and now they gotta just focus on lifting margin again and small incremental upgrades as the leap isn't there anymore.
Really dont like how they dont even do a bundle on the upgrades.. like why not have 512/16gb models where if you pick it has a % discount for doing both.. grr..
Right now you can get a refurbed M1 MBA with the 8 graphics cores (instead of 7) with 16GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD for only $1399 at the Apple Refurbed store:
Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 8‑Core GPU - Space Gray
Now that is a deal.
This is absolute BS. I use an 8GB laptop from 2016 just fine. I regularly have 5+ long word docs open, multiple 100+ page pdf, Figma and dozens of tabs open on Edge (including gmail, Google docs, etc, and occasionally photoshop on top of all of that. 8GB plus swap handles it just fine. More ram would be better, because of course it would, but it’s not like 8GB is suddenly unusable. I sometimes hit yellow memory pressure, rarely ever red.
A few quick but important questions.
1. Do you use multiple (as in more than one) external monitor(s.) If so you may want to consider waiting for a deal (if that's a thing in Australia) or a refurb M2. Either way you'll have to rely on DisplayLink which uses USB (and thus CPU/GPU/RAM) to allow you to go beyond the one external display limit, but with a bit more headroom I'd imagine the M2 (with 16GB) might handle this a bit better.
2. Is there any way you can wait a bit longer? It sounds like maybe you've been waiting for a while already but your options right now are kinda... meh.
The M2 MBA has a lot of nice updates beyond just the M2 chip itself but the price, especially with the current strength of the USD (relative to the Australian $) is IMHO pretty unattractive. The M1 MBA with 16GB is nice enough but its approaching two years old at this point. I feel like the base 14" MBP would be a great fit but again, price.
If at all possible i'd try waiting for a sale/refurbished devices and see if you can't snag an M2 (16GB) or M1 Pro (or maybe wait until the M2 Pro/Max are released and pick one up for a nice big discount)
Thank you for that. The number of people ready to defend 8GB to the death on this forum is insane. It really does boggle the mind. 16GB is such a massive improvement for even relatively light usage. This poll gives me some hope though that the 16GB deniers are just a very vocal minority (where have I seen this behavior before... 😵💫)
1. Do you use multiple (as in more than one) external monitor(s.) If so you may want to consider waiting for a deal (if that's a thing in Australia) or a refurb M2. Either way you'll have to rely on DisplayLink which uses USB (and thus CPU/GPU/RAM) to allow you to go beyond the one external display limit, but with a bit more headroom I'd imagine the M2 (with 16GB) might handle this a bit better.
2. Is there any way you can wait a bit longer? It sounds like maybe you've been waiting for a while already but your options right now are kinda... meh.
The M2 MBA has a lot of nice updates beyond just the M2 chip itself but the price, especially with the current strength of the USD (relative to the Australian $) is IMHO pretty unattractive. The M1 MBA with 16GB is nice enough but its approaching two years old at this point. I feel like the base 14" MBP would be a great fit but again, price.
If at all possible i'd try waiting for a sale/refurbished devices and see if you can't snag an M2 (16GB) or M1 Pro (or maybe wait until the M2 Pro/Max are released and pick one up for a nice big discount)
🤣
Thank you for that. The number of people ready to defend 8GB to the death on this forum is insane. It really does boggle the mind. 16GB is such a massive improvement for even relatively light usage. This poll gives me some hope though that the 16GB deniers are just a very vocal minority (where have I seen this behavior before... 😵💫)
If it hasn’t been mentioned yet, the M2 will likely get 2 or more years extra OS support compared to the M1, which is already 2 years old.
That’s the thing with Apple, they don’t support their hardware very long. MacBook Pros that were sold well into 2017 are already locked out of upgrading to Ventura.
That’s the thing with Apple, they don’t support their hardware very long. MacBook Pros that were sold well into 2017 are already locked out of upgrading to Ventura.
Rarely use 2nd screen just swipe to my desktops usually
I do think I will end up waiting as the wiser choice.. find better priced options/raise more funds over next few months…
Just means I’ll be glued to macrumours longer hahaha
Sounds nice but here in Australia very limited and don’t wanna go over 1800 AUD, that’s my budget if I get something now.
It’s a good buy for someone out there tho- grab it!
I didn’t read all the comments but check the Apple Refurbished store. You could probably get an M1, 16GB & 512GB. Refurbished Macs look exactly like brand new and a new battery.
What a load of tripe.
I did my whole uni dissertation on my 2016 8GB 13" MBP. Large Excel file with many many graphs, a 100 page Word Doc full of graphs and images, tens of Chrome tabs and Rstudio, PDFs and a few other things.
Today the most taxing thing I use it for is make 1080p videos in FCPX. Otherwise it's just browsing and light work.
Yes it might a littler slower than 16GB, but it was adequate. Never got beach balls, nothing froze.
Logic and analysis of a purchase choice can only take you so far....my own experience is that I have to consider how I am going to feel with each option.
In this case, if I know if chose the M1/16 I would always be niggled by not having the later design, and if I chose the M2/8 I would always be niggled by only having 8GB RAM.
So my assessment is you have analysed yourself into corner, you will not be happy with either.....the only way out is to delay until you can the M2/16.
In this case, if I know if chose the M1/16 I would always be niggled by not having the later design, and if I chose the M2/8 I would always be niggled by only having 8GB RAM.
So my assessment is you have analysed yourself into corner, you will not be happy with either.....the only way out is to delay until you can the M2/16.
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I am analysed into an ABYSS!
Heres my little MBP 8gb RAM today... I dont know why the RAM looks so OK
It still lags a bit loading Safari pages, teams etc.. just not snappy anymore and frustrating at times cause of it.
Btw thanks everyone for the fantastic discussion here!!
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Oh, I know, Safari alone can easily take 7-8Gb RAM. But macOS is very smart about memory management and a lot of that is cache which will go to swap. So 8Gb is enough, even though 16Gb is, of course, better.
Don't get me wrong, 16Gb is nice, but not required.
Yup. No one inflates RAM needs like Macrumors Forums
haha but check the poll, huge majority rather get 2 year old model with 16gb over the brand spanking new oneYup. No one inflates RAM needs like Macrumors Forums
I was surprised actually I thought it would be closer 😅
A lot of factors influences if a computer is snappy or not. It's not just RAM, but RAM in combination with other components - memory bandwidth, CPU performance, SSD speed, etc. You can't really compare your 2014 MBP with the M1 and M2 Macs. Your M2 Air will certainly run much better regardless of RAM. Honestly, I don't think 8Gb will be an issue, the difference between your old Mac and new one will be huge.
Here's the thing - performance wise, for what you do, the M2 chip will not be much better than M1 and you won't notice it, so a 16Gb model is better for the same price. However the M2 comes with an awesome new design, with MagSafe, with a better webcam, with better speakers, with a better keyboard, etc. So, if these things are the things you care about, I say go for the M2 version, you'll be fine with 8Gb. If these are the things that are not that important, choose the M1 model.
That's why I feel bad about anyone who asks a RAM question here, because they might get some bad advice. A lot of people don't even understand how memory management works, they have a 32Gb computer and take a look at their usage and see that Safari is taking up 15Gb, so obviously, their usage requires that much RAM, right? Makes sense. But that's not how things work, the system dynamicaly allocates memory and does a lot of things to optimize workflow. Then there are people who attribute any slowdown to RAM - my computer with an 8 year old CPU running the latest software is lagging, it must be the RAM! (It *could* be the RAM, but it's most likely a combination of many factors).
If you can go to an Apple Store, find an 8Gb MacBook (see if they have an M1 with 8Gb somewhere) and play with it - open a bunch of tabs, load some demanding webistes, open the most demanding apps they have installed and see how it works. Then decide if it's enough - don't listen to the "experts" here (which includes me, lol).
Again, don't take anyone's advice, but personally - I'd see if the M2 Air with 8Gb gets the job done. If you have a return window where you live, I'd certainly go for that, test it for a few days and then decide. Because it looks so nice and comes with some very nice improvements, and I expect it to work quite well (certainly much, much better than your current MBP).
If you have two Macs that are identical (same processor and hard drive) save for the amount of RAM, do applications use the same amount of RAM if they are given identical tasks, such as open the same two tabs on Safari and stream the same video from YouTube, or will the Mac with more RAM use more simply because it can?
If I’m the only one on the sofa, I’ll stretch out and use all of it. If a couple of other people need to sit down, I’ll use just a third of the sofa. Do applications do a similar thing with RAM? And does that drive up our expectations, making us think we always need to have more available? Are applications sloppy with RAM?
If I’m the only one on the sofa, I’ll stretch out and use all of it. If a couple of other people need to sit down, I’ll use just a third of the sofa. Do applications do a similar thing with RAM? And does that drive up our expectations, making us think we always need to have more available? Are applications sloppy with RAM?
Another vote for the 16GB M1. For a start 16GB will be more future proofed than the 8GB and secondly the 256GB M2 will almost certainly be slower in real world scenarios than the M1 version for reasons I'm sure you've read about.
Oh man now I have hope again for M2, what an emotional rollercoaster.
Maybe some people will even change their vote 🤣
Getting the 16GB version of the older machine instead of the 8GB version of the newer machine is IMO a complete no brainer. Not only is the 256GB M2 MBA going to be slower than the 256GB M1 MBA, 16GB RAM is a far safer bet if you intend to keep the machine long term. In five years time 8GB machines will probably be too under-spec'd to run MacOS Bognor Regis*, or whatever the new OS in 2027 will be called.
*I know, it doesn't sound as good with UK place names.
🤦♂️ It's just a fact. I don't say they will use two chips in all configurations for sure, but we have to see until someone has a real device at hand and runs a speed test or opens it up. Until then, you know nothing @ian87w. 🙂