For someone who mainly uses their computer for creating documents, FaceTime/Zoom, and surfing the web (granted with far too many tabs), do you think it makes sense to purchase the new MacBook Air with 16 GB memory or is that overkill? What do you think?
I’m trading in my iMac for a MacBook Air and wanted to know whether it made sense to spend the extra $250 Canadian for 16 GB of memory.
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Michael
You can probably do fine with 8GB. The new M1 Macs are excellent with memory management. My MacBook Pro has only 8GB and I've never had an issue. But I never have more than a few tabs open at the same time and only use Safari, not Chrome. If you are on a budget and the extra $250 is something you'd rather keep, then I think you'll be OK.
Thanks, Gary!
Hi all, i want to buy the M1 Macbook pro and i also wandering if i need 16GB of memory. I don't usually do heavy tasks, but every time my current Mac is open, it runs about 25 - 30 apps (i mean that they are opened in hiding mode) Now for example the activity monitor app indicates about 10GB used RAM. There are many times that i open 10 tabs of safari and 1-4 in firefox. My current Mac is a 2018 Mac mini i7 - 16GB and it can handle all of the tasks without problems. Any opinions? TY in advance!
George: First, you can't just measure RAM use and predict like that. A lot of apps will use available memory but can do with less. If a task can be done a tiny bit quicker with more memory, and the memory isn't being used, then it will get used. You didn't get 16GB of RAM for it to do nothing, after all. So in some situations 8GB is fine, and 16GB is just a tiny bit better. But either will work. But if you have 16GB of RAM now, why would you downgrade yourself for your "new" Mac?