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DaMax85

macrumors member
Original poster
May 19, 2011
88
34
Got the "Service Recommended" notification for the battery on my 12" MacBook Retina. It's running hot, and battery health is now 72% (declining by the day.) Under normal circumstances, I'd just pay the $200 for a new battery, but these new M1 MacBooks look so incredible, I think it might be a smarter move to put that money towards an upgrade!

I'm planning to upgrade to an M1 MacBook Air but I don't know if I should get 8gb or 16gb of ram. The heaviest program I run is FCX (not editing feature films or anything...mostly short form content.)

FCX is really taxing on my 2016 12" Retina MacBook (8gb/256gb). I imagine even a base MacBook Air M1 is going to blow it out of the water. But what kind of gains would I see on 16gb of ram versus 8gb? Is it worth the upgrade?

I'm not big on "future proofing" as within 5 years, the displays, hardware design, camera etc. should all be greatly proved and I'll want to upgrade to a new Mac anyway. I just want something that will work GREAT for the next 3-4 years. I'm usually good with the entry-level models. I got 4 years on a 12" MacBook retina base model, and got 5 years out of my 2011 13" MacBook Pro unibody base model.

But I am using FCX a lot more these days. Either way, I'm definitely going to get a 512gb SSD. Is anyone using FCX on their new M1 MacBook? Is 8gb enough? Or should I bite the bullet for the 16gb's?

Thanks!
 
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