M1 MBA owners with 8Gb... any regrets not getting 16?

[souko]

I had to sell 8GB MBA and get 16GB MBA. Memory pressure was yellow, sometimes even red. And system responded badly. There were even hiccups and beachballs with red memory pressure.
I use Safari with about 15-40 tabs. Mail, Signal, Telegram, NordVPN, AlDente. This is opened all the time. Sometimes + Affinity photo, Pixelmator Pro, Chrome (10 tabs), Calendar, notes, reminders, Apple Music, Apple tv,…

I do not recommend 8GB if you are not casual user.

 

[lixuelai]

I find 8GB to be fine the vast majority of the time, no regrets. That said if I were to buy another I would go for 16GB. I got the 8GB mostly because it is a new platform. But with M1 having proven itself in my eyes it makes sense to commit for a longer-term machine.

 

[steve217]

MBA 8gb.
No regrets. Thoroughly enjoying the machine.
Running Office, Teams, Outlook, FF, Edge, Safari, Apple Music, Messages.

Never look at Activity Monitor anymore so ignorance is bliss.

 

[astroPaz]

I got mine this week, and I think this would be the most stressful scenario I use the MBA.
(big Blender file with material preview on, and small-medium sized 3d level in Unity), should I change it to a 16GB?
That's some memory pressure but the softwares don't feel any bit slowed down.
Also tested 4k editing in DaVinci Resolve.
For actual rendering I'll use my 16GB desktop.

 

[steve217]

should I change it to a 16GB?

Does it act slow?

That's some memory pressure but the softwares don't feel any bit slowed down.

Question answered.

 

[JPack]

I got mine this week, and I think this would be the most stressful scenario I use the MBA.
(big Blender file with material preview on, and small-medium sized 3d level in Unity), should I change it to a 16GB?
That's some memory pressure but the softwares don't feel any bit slowed down.
Also tested 4k editing in DaVinci Resolve.
For actual rendering I'll use my 16GB desktop.
View attachment 1823161 View attachment 1823162

Brand new MBA and you're already using nearly 6GB swap. Can you imagine 2-4 years later?

Get the 16GB.

 

[philbiss]

Definitely get 16GB. My MBA is constantly looking for more RAM. Almost always in Yellow memory zone and very often into red.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Civilization VI eats up 8 GB memory quite quickly, so my next machine will have 16GB RAM.

 

[macscreenwriter]

I've got the 8 core 16gb ram 256 gb MBA . It's pretty spectacular in terms of battery life and it handles video editing pretty darn well. My only regret is that I didn't upgrade the ssd to 512 or 1TB but price was a consideration.

From what I've read and heard (feel free to correct me) the only real difference between the pro and the air is the cooling system and the Touch Bar.

 

[macbookm1airlover]

For what I do, which is light Logic Pro fiddling, Xcode dev, and consuming ATV+, 8GB is more than adequate for myself coming from a 2012 MBP!

 

[macbookm1airlover]

I've got the 8 core 16gb ram 256 gb MBA . It's pretty spectacular in terms of battery life and it handles video editing pretty darn well. My only regret is that I didn't upgrade the ssd to 512 or 1TB but price was a consideration.

From what I've read and heard (feel free to correct me) the only real difference between the pro and the air is the cooling system and the Touch Bar.

I'm in the same boat...would have gotten a larger capacity SSD, but price was a deciding factor. You are also correct about the difference in MBA vs MBP. Others on the forum have suggested that they don't really hear the fan in the Pro unless they are really pushing it. After hearing that, I saved the $300 and got the Air

 

[playtech1]

Personally I would view 16/512 as a base spec for an enthusiast's daily driver, but my wife uses an 8GB 2014 MacBook Air every day and is perfectly happy with it, so I realise there is a huge segment of the market that would prefer the low price to an occasional RAM-related performance dip (and frankly wouldn't recognise it if/when it happened).

Personally my issue with RAM constraints is that it can feel like hitting a wall - it's either totally a non-issue or you hit the wall and it bogs everything down. Same with SSD really. Predicting whether your usage hits that wall is tough as it's not always logical - to me at least - what will eat RAM or be less amenable to Mac OS's excellent memory management.

 

[steve217]

I think a behavioral psychology student could get a doctoral thesis out of the “16gb vs 8gb” question.

 

[dizmonk]

I think a behavioral psychology student could get a doctoral thesis out of the “16gb vs 8gb” question.

Amen.... that and the question about "future proofing."

 

[Phil77354]

. . . Never look at Activity Monitor anymore so ignorance is bliss.

Excessive use of Activity Monitor is likely to lead to increased memory pressure anxiety . . .

 

[jdb8167]

From what I've read and heard (feel free to correct me) the only real difference between the pro and the air is the cooling system and the Touch Bar.

There are a few other differences. The display is brighter by 100 Nits (500 vs 400), the battery is larger and gets about 1 to 2 hour longer life, the speakers are supposed to be better (this is disputed), and the microphones are better. The only thing on that list that appeals to me is the slightly better and brighter display but not $300 better.

 

[zoom25]

Ordered a 7 core GPU, 512GB and 16GB RAM for my parents.

I didn't think the 8 GPU would provide them with any/much benefit, so kept the savings. 16GB RAM for future proofing as I/we do like to keep our computers for as long as possible. Most people I know tend to use their computers/laptops for as long as possible. They only replace it once something doesn't work well enough or gets broken. Completely different from people here recommending to change computers every 2-3 years and/or sell it every year and keep upgrading. The overwhelming vast majority of the people don't do this. They wouldn't even consider it because of how silly it sounds.

I have them setup with iCloud but 512GB just gives them headroom. Lugging around external drives with a laptop on a regular basis is beyond stupid to me. External storage with laptops IMO should only be used for backups/transfers and big media. You shouldn't be in a position where you are REQUIRED to have an external drive just to make things work. Outside of our tech pop, I've found most people would rather spring for the extra storage over the RAM. Hence why Apple sells more storage over RAM on their higher priced models for all their Macs.

Having said that, this will be the Mac I've bought for myself and/or family among several iPhones/tablets. If you plan to keep and use these devices for a long time and don't change it often, definitely consider the extra RAM. I can't tell you how much this screwed up some of my computers and phones as they aged.

For example, my 27" late 2009 iMac came with 4GB and was practically unusable after a few years with later operating systems. Luckily, I was able to upgrade the RAM and it drastically improved the performance (along with SSD change) and the machines were usable again. This isn't possible with the new soldered on RAM. Lack of RAM also plagued my iPhone 6 Plus. Absolutely crippled, so slow and keeps refreshing. The next year's model on the other hand (6S) still works fine as a travel backup and still gets updates.

 

[radamo]

I have now had my 8/256 MBP for close to 3 months... In that time there is not one instance where memory was an issue. I am a heavy user of Pixelmator Pro, Adobe Elements, Adobe Bridge and Numbers. The M1 architecture handles memory management superbly. Very few users will put enough pressure on these machines to warrant 16Gb.

 

[CE3]

I returned my 8GB model from BestBuy when I realized I could get a 16GB configuration from Apple for the same price at the time. Having double the RAM came in handy the other night when I was finally putting my Air to the test with some fairly hefty photo editing. Not saying it couldn’t have done the job with 8gb, but if you’re working with large files and big applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, FinalCut, etc.. and deciding between more RAM or more storage, 16GB is the smarter upgrade to choose.

 

[smirking]

I returned my 8GB model from BestBuy when I realized I could get a 16GB configuration from Apple for the same price at the time. Having double the RAM came in handy the other night when I was finally putting my Air to the test with some fairly hefty photo editing.

I'm not sure what hefty photo editing is on your end, but it probably would have done just fine on 8GB... but hey if you get a "free" upgrade to 16GB it certainly won't hurt.

I had an 8GB M1 MBP that I was trying to beat into submission by doing all my usual photo management and editing tasks in Capture One Pro while running multiple browsers, lots of tabs, and a whole bunch of other programs at the same time. It performed entirely on par with my 2018 32GB Vega20.

 

[Phil77354]

I returned my 8GB model from BestBuy when I realized I could get a 16GB configuration from Apple for the same price at the time. . .

Really? That means that the BestBuy price for the 8GB was marked up from retail (by $200)? I'm surprised. Usually BestBuy is either the same price as Apple, or slightly less.

 

[Dwalls90]

Really? That means that the BestBuy price for the 8GB was marked up from retail (by $200)? I'm surprised. Usually BestBuy is either the same price as Apple, or slightly less.

I also would like clarity on what they meant... Does BB stock more variants of pre-configured models compared to Apple? Apple doesn't sell a 16GB off the shelf, and I'm not seeing any on BB's website.

 

[jdb8167]

I also would like clarity on what they meant... Does BB stock more variants of pre-configured models compared to Apple? Apple doesn't sell a 16GB off the shelf, and I'm not seeing any on BB's website.

Sure they do. The 16GB/1TB models. Only for M1 MacBooks though and not for the M1 mini for some reason.

 

[brandoman]

The 8GB version works great. No complaints here.

 

[Dwalls90]

Sure they do. The 16GB/1TB models. Only for M1 MacBooks though and not for the M1 mini for some reason.

I must be blind, or they offer additional configs in store vs. what they sell online. Only seeing the same 2 models on BB's website as compared to Apple:

macbook air - Best Buy

Shop for macbook air at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up

www.bestbuy.com