I want to purchase MacBook with apple silicon. I will, sometimes, run Widows (for ARM) using Parallels and use an external monitor. Other times, I will use it for mobile and web app design. I will also run some spreadsheets. Should I purchase M1 Macbook Pro (with a fan) or M1 Macbook Air? Should I get 8 GM or 16 RAM? I plan to use this laptop for 7 years.
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Need help with configuring M1 Macbook Air/Pro
- Thread starter shpongle11
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Both M1's can handle your described workflow. However, I think the MBP with 16GB is a little better suited to run things and still give you some head room.
Do you think Pro will get updates as long as Air? It has touchbar which might not a feature on future macbooks.
It should get updates as long as the M1 MBA does.
If you aren't in real need at the moment, you could wait until late summer for more detailed information about the upcoming Mac releases rumored to release around September / October.
I'd go with 16 GB of RAM for the VM and get the Air because it's cheaper, thinner, lighter and its burst performance is the same. The M1 Pro and Air are basically the same machine, but the Pro has some bonuses you may or may not want (brighter screen, a bit more battery life, sustained 100 % performance, the TouchBar, better microphones etc). They're not major things.
Just remember that software will bloat over the years. 8GB might be adequate today, but will it be adequate for what you are doing seven years from now? Operating system? Applications? Maybe new uses such as editing 8K video?
Also the current M1 systems do not have discrete VRAM. Like the machines with Intel integrated graphics the system RAM is shared with the graphics subsystem.
We have seen this very clearly in one of the Mac mini 2018 thread discussions where the OP was complaining about performance on a system with 8GB RAM driving a 4K monitor.
Since you want to keep your system 7+ years, I highly recommend stepping up to 16GB.
You should also consider an alternative. Buy an 8GB system today and plan to upgrade it in a few years.
The current M1 lineup is basically 1.0 hardware. Certainly the software that runs on it (Big Sur, Apple's native apps) can be considered the same. The software will improve but the hardware will stay the same until you replace it.
This is why I am staying on the Apple Silicon sidelines for the time being. I have zero interest in being an early adopter when my Mac mini 2018 is capable of handling its tasks.
Also the current M1 systems do not have discrete VRAM. Like the machines with Intel integrated graphics the system RAM is shared with the graphics subsystem.
We have seen this very clearly in one of the Mac mini 2018 thread discussions where the OP was complaining about performance on a system with 8GB RAM driving a 4K monitor.
Since you want to keep your system 7+ years, I highly recommend stepping up to 16GB.
You should also consider an alternative. Buy an 8GB system today and plan to upgrade it in a few years.
The current M1 lineup is basically 1.0 hardware. Certainly the software that runs on it (Big Sur, Apple's native apps) can be considered the same. The software will improve but the hardware will stay the same until you replace it.
This is why I am staying on the Apple Silicon sidelines for the time being. I have zero interest in being an early adopter when my Mac mini 2018 is capable of handling its tasks.
@shpongle11 Which ever one you get, get one with 16GB Ram for two reasons. Firstly if you are running a virtual machine for Windows then you will need to allocate your Ram, you may run into issues with 8GB. Secondly if you are keeping the machine for a long period of time like @Erehy Dobon says, the additional Ram will give an additional degree of protection if Apps become more memory intensive. The choice between MBA and Pro really boils down to how useful the Touch Bar is for you. As you mention in your post, There are rumours that the new MBP may drop the Touch Bar. Personally I would pump more money into internal storage and go for the 16GB MBA.
On M1 the ones that should get 8 or 16 gig the ram is on the CHIP! The 16 is the MAX and is for if a user uses his Mac for professional Mac users that up use one or just two programs all day need 16gig!
