Please help me figure out my upgrade needs

[m97]

I purchased a base model MacBook Air in 2020 (M1 chip/ 8GB RAM/ 256GB storage). The storage is fine (I still have about 150GB available) but the computer itself doesn’t seem to meet my needs. I don’t play video games or edit photos or videos, but for my work I almost always have at least 50 browser tabs open; sometimes it’s more than twice that (I know that many tabs may be unusual, but it really isn’t optional for me). When I have more than ~75 tabs open, my Air slows down and sometimes just stops for 30 seconds to a minute.

Because it’s for work I want to find a way to resolve this, but I’m not sure how to proceed.
Do I need to upgrade the RAM (I know I can’t upgrade my current model, I mean buy a new computer with better RAM)?
Should I instead/also be looking for a better CPU, like a Pro model?
Or is there something I’m missing to get my current Air to work better, even with so many open browser tabs?

 

[KaliYoni]

The Activity Monitor utility is a good place to check your CPU and memory usage. In particular, the Memory Pressure graph will be very useful in your situation. I'd write more but MacRumors already has a good guide to Activity Monitor:

How to Use the Activity Monitor App on Mac

With the Activity Monitor app in macOS, you can force quit misbehaving apps, find out how much energy your Mac is using, and see which apps or...

www.macrumors.com

 

[GoetzPhil]

Instead of Google Chrome you should use Microsoft Edge.
Its the same chromium engine but Edge is less resource hungry than chrome.

 

[m97]

The Activity Monitor utility is a good place to check your CPU and memory usage. In particular, the Memory Pressure graph will be very useful in your situation. I'd write more but MacRumors already has a good guide to Activity Monitor:

How to Use the Activity Monitor App on Mac

With the Activity Monitor app in macOS, you can force quit misbehaving apps, find out how much energy your Mac is using, and see which apps or...

www.macrumors.com

Thank you, it seems like I definitely need more RAM. Out of the 8GB, it's consistently showing a little more than 7GB in use, with around 3.4GB compressed, and the memory pressure is always in yellow.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"Do I need to upgrade the RAM (I know I can’t upgrade my current model, I mean buy a new computer with better RAM)?"

RAM is no longer upgradeable in modern Mac laptops.
What you buy it with, is what is "in there forever".
This is the way it's going to be from now on with Apple.

You should hold out several more weeks until the NEW m1x MacBook Pro's are announced/released.

These should have RAM options of 16gb and 32gb.

I would recommend that you DO NOT buy ANY new Mac UNLESS it has 32gb of RAM. Too many tabs!

The RAM will add to the cost, but since you probably won't "change your ways" regarding tab usage, you need to "change the RAM" -- UPWARDS.

Again, the new MacBook Pro 14" and MacBook Pro 16" ARE "coming" and will be here soon. Wait for them...

 

[m97]

Instead of Google Chrome you should use Microsoft Edge.
Its the same chromium engine but Edge is less resource hungry than chrome.

Thanks, I'll check this out and see if it'll help me live with my computer until I see a good deal for a better one.

 

[mk313]

The above suggestions are excellent ones and what I’d do if it were my computer. The only other thing I’d add is to make sure that you shut down and restart the browser every day.

At least with safari, which I use, leaving a web page open for multiple days seems to cause that page to use up a lot of system resources and cause the computer/application to run slowly. Not 100% sure it’s the same with other browsers, but it’s definitely worth checking out as it can make a huge difference in performance.