M1 Air vs M1 Mini for streaming device. Which do you use? Is 8GB enough?

[Mity]

Is there any performance difference when using an M1 Mini vs. M1 Air as a streaming device?

There are a lot of sales for Minis right now (~$550). I have a base M1 Air that I use for streaming (not on a TV) and surfing the web before bed. It's great but I could use more RAM since I have ~20 tabs open at any given time.

So, should I use my 8GB Air as a content streaming device for Netflix, Amazon, etc. on a TV and buy a 16GB Air for my personal browsing? Or should I buy the Mini for $550 and use that for content streaming and just stick with the Air for personal browsing?

Does anyone use their Air as a content streaming device and can you share your experience? The only time my Air gets hot is when I watch YouTube music video playlists. Other than that, it stays quite cool. Does the Air get hot when you stream 4K Netflix, for example?

 

[wilberforce]

Why not just use Amazon Firestick 4K for streaming on a TV? $25 on sale

 

[Mity]

Why not just use Amazon Firestick 4K for streaming on a TV? $25 on sale

I actually bought a Chromecast 4K recently and a big problem is that you can't log into individual accounts for Amazon Prime. So, watch history in that app gets mixed. The same thing happens with Apple TV. I think the best thing to do is to use an inexpensive computer, which would allow a person to sign into/out of his/her accounts. A computer also gives me the flexibility to type easily like on YouTube.

 

[wilberforce]

I actually bought a Chromecast 4K recently and a big problem is that you can't log into individual accounts for Amazon Prime. So, watch history in that app gets mixed. The same thing happens with Apple TV. I think the best thing to do is to use an inexpensive computer, which would allow a person to sign into/out of his/her accounts. A computer also gives me the flexibility to type easily like on YouTube.

I and my wife have different "profiles" I think it is called, so our watch histories and favorites do not get mixed. However, I seldom watch TV so am not proficient in this

 

[spiderman0616]

OP, I've done exactly what you're asking about, and I used a Mac mini.

I think it depends on what ELSE you want to do with the computer. If you get a Mac mini, I would suggest using it like a streaming box, and then have a wireless keyboard and trackpad available to control it. I even used to have a bracket that was designed to hold the Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard together in one piece so I could carry it around the room with me.

The problem with this setup is that, of course, a Mac mini is a desktop computer and the MacBook Air you can grab and take anywhere.

Also, I think there is an option you're not thinking of: Get an Apple TV and AirPlay your screen to it.

 

[Gudi]

It's great but I could use more RAM since I have ~20 tabs open at any given time.

I have 100+ tabs open on an iPhone XR with 3 GB RAM. Twenty tabs shouldn't be a burden for a MacBook Air. Please open Activity Monitor and look for the color of your Memory Pressure history. Is it all green? I bet it is.

 

[Jack Neill]

My M1/8/512 Air with 84 Tabs open in Safari and the music app playing. It wasn't even that laggy. It felt like 2 tabs do on my 2017 14,3

 

[spiderman0616]

My M1/8/512 Air with 84 Tabs open in Safari and the music app playing. It wasn't even that laggy. It felt like 2 tabs do on my 2017 14,3 View attachment 2095349

That sounds about right. Side note: My M1 Pro MBP as we speak has pretty much the same kind of stuff open as your machine does. It has 16 GB RAM and has 13 GB of it used up right now.

OP: the OS is going to try to fill up your RAM regardless of how much you have. macOS has always behaved like this in my experience.

 

[Jack Neill]

That sounds about right. Side note: My M1 Pro MBP as we speak has pretty much the same kind of stuff open as your machine does. It has 16 GB RAM and has 13 GB of it used up right now.

OP: the OS is going to try to fill up your RAM regardless of how much you have. macOS has always behaved like this in my experience.

Yeah mine too.

 

[solouki]

Yeah mine too.

As you say, this is precisely what the macOS attempts to do, and is precisely what you want it to do: fill as much of your RAM as possible since your RAM is much faster than your SSD and/or network. By filling your RAM means that you will experience minimal lag time when switching between browser tabs, etc.

That being said, I suspect that usually it is the "user" who is the slow bottleneck, that the user's manual interaction with the laptop is slower than the laptop's loading from RAM or SSD, and thus for most users 8GB versus 16GB of RAM won't make a noticeable difference for most uses. That's not to say that some uses won't benefit performance-wise from more RAM, say Stable Diffusion for instance, but many everyday uses won't see much difference in performance.

 

[Mity]

I have 100+ tabs open on an iPhone XR with 3 GB RAM. Twenty tabs shouldn't be a burden for a MacBook Air. Please open Activity Monitor and look for the color of your Memory Pressure history. Is it all green? I bet it is.

That sounds about right. Side note: My M1 Pro MBP as we speak has pretty much the same kind of stuff open as your machine does. It has 16 GB RAM and has 13 GB of it used up right now.

OP: the OS is going to try to fill up your RAM regardless of how much you have. macOS has always behaved like this in my experience.

I need more RAM. I have a 2019 16" Intel MBP 64GB RAM that I use for coding and I have NEVER used Swap and I have never felt it being slow.

Today, I tried out an M1 Mini with 16GB of RAM and it did feel better than the M1 Air. It struggled with two 4K monitors but it was fine with one.

 

[Gudi]

View attachment 2095773

Jesus, what kind of websites are these? Have you tried using a different browser? Usually my websites eat ~100MB, not half a gig. And WhatsApp wants 2GB, for a messenger?

 

[Zest28]

Or maybe buy a big new TV? Smart TV nowadays have an Operation System with apps you can download.

 

[Mity]

Jesus, what kind of websites are these? Have you tried using a different browser? Usually my websites eat ~100MB, not half a gig. And WhatsApp wants 2GB, for a messenger?

Have a look:

Mostly just shopping. 8 YouTube tabs (1080p). I also had Netflix open in another Window. WhatsApp and Mail were open but minimized.

 

[spiderman0616]

I hate to be that guy, but why not use Safari with Tab Groups instead of memory hog Chrome with all this craziness? I can barely get myself to look at all those tabs you have open.

 

[Gudi]

8 YouTube tabs (1080p).

But why do you even want to keep all that in memory forever? Let the system throw out the trash and delete the cache for the tabs you're not looking at. Memory is meant for data you're working on right now. It's no supposed to be a local copy of the entire internet.

 

[spiderman0616]

But why do you even want to keep all that in memory forever? Let the system throw out the trash and delete the cache for the tabs you're not looking at. Memory is meant for data you're working on right now. It's no supposed to be a local copy of the entire internet.

Exactly this.

 

[Mity]

I hate to be that guy, but why not use Safari with Tab Groups instead of memory hog Chrome with all this craziness? I can barely get myself to look at all those tabs you have open.

Chrome has better features like Google translate. I'm learning another language and it's super easy to just right and translate a page. Some people don't like their search history being recorded but I do.

I also use Safari but only for secure logins like online banking.

 

[Mity]

Exactly this.

I haven't turned off my Mac in a month. I just leave stuff in because it's very easy to just pick up where I left off. Also, content websites like YouTube are a rabbit hole. One link takes you to another and before you know it, you're watching a tangentially related video, albeit still entertaining.

 

[Mity]

But why do you even want to keep all that in memory forever? Let the system throw out the trash and delete the cache for the tabs you're not looking at. Memory is meant for data you're working on right now. It's no supposed to be a local copy of the entire internet.

You just told me you had 80ish tabs open. What the difference in my case? Those tabs I'm looking at aren't active. They were there from yesterday.

 

[Gudi]

You just told me you had 80ish tabs open. What the difference in my case? Those tabs I'm looking at aren't active. They were there from yesterday.

But I'm running Safari and you run Chrome. I don't remember which macOS update it was, but one was all about bringing energy saving methods from iOS back to the Mac. And since then Safari does not even render invisible tabs. All the windows you can't see are not rendered and their cache is eventually emptied when the system runs out of memory. I don't even notice it.

 

[Mity]

But I'm running Safari and you run Chrome. I don't remember which macOS update it was, but one was all about bringing energy saving methods from iOS back to the Mac. And since then Safari does not even render invisible tabs. All the windows you can't see are not rendered and their cache is eventually emptied when the system runs out of memory. I don't even notice it.

I closed most of the YouTube tabs except one and the memory pressure eased:

Then I closed out Excel and WhatsApp and that helped even further:

Now, I have only static windows open but I think 6.76GB is still too much. Switching to Safari is going to require changing my workflow. Knowing my habits, I may just buy a 32GB M1 Macbook Pro instead.

 

[Gudi]

Polyglot: Safari-Extension

Try this Safari Extension, maybe it does what you need.

 

[Gudi]

Now, I have only static windows open but I think 6.76GB is still too much.

Do not look at the numbers! They are misleading. Only the color of memory pressure is relevant. And only red means you need more RAM. When you close an app, macOS will not throw out of RAM right away. In case you misclicked and want to reopen it again, it is still there. At the same time the system might suspend and shut down apps, you think are open. If they are tiny and can be reloaded quickly, there's no need to keep them in memory. Empty memory is good for nothing, it needs to be filled and managed. Only then it can speed up repetitive calls on the same data. The system makes these decisions, so you don't have to worry. But it can't integrate with Chrome the way it can with Safari.

 

[Mity]

Polyglot: Safari-Extension

Try this Safari Extension, maybe it does what you need.

Does Apple verify Safrai extensions to make sure there is no malicious code? The only extension I've ever used is Adblock Plus, mainly because it's the most popular one. Other than that, I have no extensions installed on Chrome.