I'm in the 16gb minimum camp always as macOS is just Unix and inherits the aggressive disk caching of Unix. macOS alone eats 5gb and does everything it can to prevent purging memory hence the swapping aggression. In a unrelated note, are you a Canadian or American RUclipsr? Just curious.
I wouldn't use a hard drive now days, I would use NVME SSDs or even a SATA 3 SSD, is MUCH faster than a hard drive, also SSDs cut down on weight,but if you must have a hard drive,make sure its a 7200RPM hard drive. I will say,IF I can get around it,I won't use a Mac laptop/an Apple laptop,due to their lack of memory/RAM/there is no 128 GBs of RAM option,also the limited internal SSDs situation/multiple internal NVME SSDs aren't an option,my laptops support 3 SSDs,which allows me to put my OS,on one SSD,my project/emulator/testing environment on one and I can have the other SSD for storage,which splits up work loads/storage/the OS and allows for A LOT faster/more efficient work loads/work environments, Apple's desktops are great used as remote servers/to utilize their power,but for on the go or portability, I prefer the MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V, which has the i9-13980HX,128 GBs of RAM,a 4090 and a 17.3inch 3840x2160p 240HZ display,which allows me to emulate different environments , for testing and if its an Apple project,it allows me to do most everything,in a much better work environment, before switching to an Apple laptop,for final testing/I have the latest pro M.2 Apple laptop,but its limited,for my work loads,due to screen size, RAM capacities, internal SSD configurations and so on, I do offset somethings by connecting to my Apple desktop,which offers more RAM and I also connect/use my other desktop too,which has an i9-13900ks a 4090, 9TBs of NVME SSD storage and I have Manjaro and Windows,on all of my computers as well.
Memory compression. The MacOS uses memory compression to dynamically store data in ram, which is not swap and is always used first since Mavericks. All this talk of memory and swap is therefore misleading. Your Mac will compress memory long before is swaps, and swap is now more of a last ditch attempt to allocate more ram for processing rather than the first step on a memory constrained system.
First video I've ever seen that offers a summary beforehand for the "in a rush" crowd. I honestly never comment either, but felt the need to do so to highlight that. Thanks for doing that!
16gb is the sweet spot. Buying a $1200 laptop with 8gb makes no sense. I could not afford 1400 laptop, so I bought an m1 with 16 as the same price as an m2 with 8gb. I am happy. That m1 16Gb is wonderful, I use revit, solid works through parallels and I have no problem.
finally an engineer with macbook. do you install the x86/64 version of revit and sw2022 on the win11 arm vm? i just got an macbook and thinking how to get things to work
I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing. Looking for a new laptop for casual use (have a pc for anything more demanding), and am impressed by the battery life of apples new skew. However I want it to last at least 3 years and is doubtful 8gb will do even for light tasks. In my region m1 16gb is about 1500 USD while m2 8gb is about 1600 USD. Upgrading m2 to 16 gb is almost 2000 USD and that's more than I'd like to spend for a casual computer.
@@Dftba_hitch 8gb is not enough in my opinion. Why? Because that ram is not just the processor ram but the gpu ram at the same time. So, buying and m1 with 16gb is also a laptop with a better gpu, overall performance. For casual use maybe 8gb is ok. But $1000+ for a 8gb ram……
Does solidworks run fine? Is 16gb enough for vm's bro? I'm in a dilemma between a Mac and windows, I just needed some software rarely for my project works other than I'm a browser and pdf based user! Help me out!
In my honesty opinion, I think the 16GB RAM would be the sweet spot for many moderate users (including myself), at least for a MacBook Air. Heavier users of business applications, and university students, and for occasional light photo and video editing. That amount of RAM (16GB) would also provide some future proofing for those who would be planning on keeping their machines for a long time.
I did buy the 16 gb ram variant. But I have noticed that there is almost 4 gb of cache. I am new to MacOS so I have no idea if its normal or how to clear it.
The fact that there is even an 8gb option is a smack in the face. I don't care if it's a light operating system or not, 8gb of ram is not ok in ANY computer. Even smartphones are starting to get 16gb or more
@@billjamal4764 yes! yes! I couldn't agree with you more on the 8GB RAM. It's just like how I don't think the 256GB baseline storage is sufficient enough nowadays. Apps alone also take up a sufficient amount of storage nowadays.
The overview at the beginning is a genius idea,everyone should do it, as a reward I watched all the ads, comment and thumbs up and the 40 second I watch is liquid gold
I am a full time teacher and part time game dev. I occasionally use Parallels to run Windows, and spend a fair amount of time developing in Unity and Construct 3. I almost always have 17 - 18 GB of RAM in use. 24 GB of system RAM is exactly right for me for right now. 32 would be overkill, and I would be using swap with only 16. I know the video-production-centric users out there might feel they can use more GPU cores of the Macbook Pro for rendering, but for my game dev use the macbook Air with 24 GB is cheaper and more performant than a 16 GB macbook pro. The pro is sub par for my use case in every respect that I care about. The key here is that for me 24 GB of memory enables me to do everything without constantly relying on swap memory. 16 GB wouldn’t be enough. Assuming the 13” mba I bought lasts for another ten years like the previous one did, even 24 GB is going to get tight in short order. Bottom line: 24 GB is the best deal around for most people if they are planning to keep their laptop for 5+ years.
Another youtuber had actually compared m2 macbook pro 16gb vs 24gb for video editing with multiple softwares and keeping 30 tabs open in chrome parallely. The difference in rendering times are negligible. Another shocking thing is they use same swap memory. U expect the 24gb mac pro to use less swap memory but that's not the case, it uses almost same swap mem as 16gb one. It's crazy.
2:34 Swap is not the only tool macOS uses to manage memory. You’ll notice in Activity Monitor that it also measures Compressed memory. With the rise in CPU speed and core counts, macOS monitors current memory demands and CPU load, and decides whether it would be faster to compress low priority data in memory instead of swapping it to storage. So if a Mac has a lot of CPU cores and enough unified memory is available, it may be more likely to use memory compression to save time over swapping.
I’ve been using M1 macbook air for 2 years now. I am a web developer. 20 chrome tabs + mysql client + local server + 2 editor + finder + apple notes + terminal + 2-3 other apps always open, and I never faced any issues when I thought I should’ve gone for the 16 gb version… Totally flawless
Why do people make such a big deal out of Chrome tabs? On my iMac 2011 with 12gb ram I recently casually ran 100 chrome tabs in the background and had no issue.
Hey I want to buy a MacBook Air M1 or M2 but not sure which one I need, literally all I want to do is trade on it I wouldn’t be using it for anything else. Just need something that is fast and can have a few tabs/apps open but I definitely wouldn’t have as much open as you do, my friends say get at least 16 ram but I don’t think I need it at all looking at these comments. Im so lost which one to get
@@Razertw Chorme is famous for being a browser that takes a lot of PC resources, RAM included... So when people use loads of tabs, they're mostly likely using a lot of resources... Safaria will be less taxing on your mac and give you more perforamce for example...
Well, I'm pretty happy with my 8gb M2 macbook air (base model). I have like 15 tabs on safari + light python coding + Capture One editing on a 1300+ photo catalog. The system makes a wonderful job managing the resources.
I recently purchased air m2 8/512, after watching this kind of videos where was told that 8 gb is not enough for coding(i am a student, learning python) i got really disappointed, does it really handle well? How do you think for beginners during the work will be lots of problems or freezes?
@@insanandabekov240 for coding is more than enough, specially now that most of the packages I use are supporting Apple Silicon natively. If you are going to train really big models for machine learning, not even 32gb will serve you well (better to use a cloud service). M2 macbook air offer incredible battery life, portability, a very nice screen and trackpad so I thing is great. And even more important for me: is fun to use, I just want to spend hours and hours with my mac, and that help me to practice more. That's the real reason why I choose it over the 14" pro.
maybe you need more for video editing but I've done some video editing with base config no problem, also base config has longer battery life, (7 core GPU/8GB RAM and 256 SSD). Plenty for most tasks. Higher config may run hotter and throttle more due to no fan at least on M1 not sure if M2 air has fan.
@@bokuwatoki5983 yep I have Office 365 installed and use my work subscription to activate. All apps including teams now run native on apple silicon and it is fast on base M1 MacBook Air
This video is outstanding!! Thank you. I got the 15” Air in Space Gray with 16GB RAM and the 512GB SSD. It’s spectacular and I never see the spinning beach ball with 30 browser tabs, video editing, photoshop, etc all open and running at the same time. I sold my 16” M1 Pro MacBook Pro because I like this upgraded 15” Air so much more.
who actually opens 30 browser tabs lmfao. Seems a bit overkill but with what you are talking about doing the Air should have never really been in your consideration. People with super heavy work loads like yourself should ONLY be looking at the high end pro models.
The beauty of getting 24Gb RAM is that you can run Windows in an virtual machine with 8Gb allocated (using UTM, for free, not the Parallells scam which is $90 per year), and the remaining 16Gb allocated to MacOS, and essentially get 2 ultra-fast laptops in one.
I have the 8 core 16/512 M2 Air and I would definitely not want less ram. I am not a pro user, literally only use it for school and the sims. When I have like 5 Safari tabs open, Spotify open and Onenote for school, it always uses around 10 gb ram. I am REALLY glad I spent the extra money on upgrading the ram
@@Hgaara0204 Nah, it's the same on windows and probably the same for linux as well. It's more to do with the software itself and if your computer has the excess ram capacity it will use it instead of handicapping itself for no reason.
@@ZahBroskeeit is not the same for Linux at all that is the most crackhead statement I’ve ever seen. I can have 100 tabs on a 2014 4gb ddr3 laptop when running arch Linux.
Agree. Same here, use xcode, android studio and react native on my machine. Aswell as other dev tools like proxy servers for example. Often push 18 to 19 gbs, sometimes a bit more. 16 was ok on my old m1 mac mini, but my mac mini m2 with 24 gigs flies and doesn’t seem to throttle as far as I can tell.
So for my 3D modeling i decided to go with the extra 512gb of storage because you get the extra gpu cores. That boost from the cores to me was a no brainer because of thermal throttling. The ram can be useful but in a couple years I’ll be upgrading again and have my main PC for the extra power IF I need it. So far it’s been plenty powerful
I opted to upgrade to the 512gb instead of the ram for the same reason. It has more cores, plus the store upgrade was more worth it cause of school and photo/video editing. I know 8gb is enough for my use case.
@@Clt.princee exactly. Like these things are shockingly powerful. They can even game now (even though more devs need to make stuff) that along with the form factor of the m2 air you just can’t beat it in terms of quality and performance to get stuff done in my opinion. Developers are keeping it in mind of those with 8gb of RAM as well. So most of the time you prolly wouldn’t notice it with how well developers optimize their apps on Mac OS. Awesome that you’re loving it and went the same route!
@@TylerKhan Right! I love the design and portability of the M2. Even though the M1 was on sale, it was literally the same design as my 2019 intel MBA so I didn’t really see it as an upgrade. Glad I went with the M2.
@@sunitjoshi3573 I went with the configuration with the more gpu cores and 8gb of ram. It comes with 512gb ssd and only 8gb of ram because with thermal throttling, 16gb of ram isn’t fully used.
I have a 16' MBP with 16GB of RAM. I can do pretty much anything without swap kicking in. Under normal conditions, doing school work and not caring what's opened etc, I usually do not use more than 10GB of RAM. If however, I run Blender or sth.. I have to close everything else. 16GB is not enough for 3D work. When you aren't rendering, it's never really a problem. But even a simple scene will take 5-10GB of memory to build and before you know it, you're swapping RAM. The most I've ever used in blender was like 75GB to build a scene during a 16K render and the laptop just crashed.. So.. 32GB for 3D, maybe even more.
32GB seems to be the most common choice for Macbook Pro among software developers. For example profiling tools require lots of RAM. I have even seen crashes on 16GB system as the data capture ran out of memory and swap wasn’t fast enough.
I worked with a developer that had a M series macbook pro of some sort last year in a software development environment. I don't know how much ram he had, but I'd assume he had 16gb. That would be fine for 99% of software development, and honestly 8gb is probably also fine for 90% of small software projects and even web development. However, in our case, we were maintaining and adding features to some system that was importing hundreds of gigabytes of data from various third party providers, and migrating that into our client's databases. This system runs on AWS instances with 64-128 gigabytes of ram to perform these data transformation and migrations. The developer I was working with could not run locally one of the transformations because his macbook pro would run out of memory and freeze up mid-way through. Whenever we had to test changes to this particular migration, unless we wanted to provision another EC2 instance, we had to use my workstation, which was a retired gaming PC with 32GB of ram that had become my main work PC. For a pure consumer device, 8GB of ram is still plenty. 16GB of ram is honestly where I'd start for a machine that has to do proper "work". Personally 32GB is my desired amount for a "work" station as, in addition to my previously mentioned anecdote, it just gives so much more capabilities. I can run multiple VM's / docker containers and have multiple projects open and running while developing some systems. For instance, there are multiple projects I've worked on where I need a linux dev environment as well as a windows server to run MS SQL server and .net. Instead of running a windows workstation and linux workstation side-by-side on my desk, I run the windows workstation on my linux workstation in a VM. More commonly though, vIdeo editing with multiple imported source files becomes very smooth with more ram. I wouldn't want to do more than clip together multiple 4k video files in a timeline with anything less than 16GB of ram.
I have the 16GB, 10 Core GPU, 256GB SSD. Amazing computer. Ive never noticed any slowdown with the lower storage because I don’t work with large files. I use safari, office, email, and specialized economic modeling software. Everything works great.
@@beri232 With the price of the MacBook Air, it would be better to get the base model and buy cloud storage + external memory, perhaps. Safer and also uses funds for a future upgrade, instead of wasting all resources on a Mac that, at the end of the day, is not made for heavyweight tasks and won't have the thermals for it, no matter the RAM bought.
If you can find a second-hand 8GB model, they make for good travel devices. If a Chromebook can work with 4GB of RAM, a MacBook can get plenty done with twice that. My biggest gripe is with Apple's pricing for RAM. A ton of people are offloading them for fairly reasonable prices because they feel they need to upgrade - they are selling near-new-condition M1/M2 8GB Airs for half price or cheaper, which helps alleviate that gripe.
I have 8gb ram and I run 5 desktops with around 5 chrome tabs on every desktop on average. Also 4 to 5 apps running all the time but somehow it works fine, no issues so far.
8GB is completely fine if you're just using it as a video consumption/web browsing, emails, documents etc. If you're editing media or gaming then 16GB is probably what you need
I just got the 13.6 M2 MacBook Air with 16 gigs of ram memory, and 512 SSD storage. I've been a Windows desktop user since 1999 with Windows 98. My last Dell desktop had Windows 7 pro with 2T hard drive because I had a website, building my own web pages. That's why I upgraded my ram and storage, even though I don't have a website anymore. This is my first laptop, and I love it, very user friendly. I kept the 8 core GPU though, cause allot of reviewers on here said there wasn't that big a difference with the 10.
I have the 16GB, 8 Core GPU, 256GB SSD. Amazing computer. Ive never noticed any slowdown with the lower storage because I don’t work with large files. I use for Android, iOS and Flutter development and I have used Xcode and Android Studio simultaneously but still not faced any problems. the machine is beast 🔥🔥🔥🔥
I’m really close to ordering the very same one, I’m just on the fence about the 8-core , or I should get a 10-core one. Do you think yours handles video editing (premiere pro) smoothly? I’d really appreciate feedback
@@cineturon Hey sorry, I dont use the premiere pro or any video editing tools so cant comment my experience but I asked my friend and he said its doing good job with his needs(editing with 2-3 layers with 1080p and 4k) but it may vary with whats your need. But if u ask me I think there is not much difference between 8 and 10 core in practical life. So if money is concern get 16 gb Ram with base model 8 core and u r good to go.
hey I am from India and watching ur video on MacBook m2 air 15inch 512GB and 8GB ram , my Mac works very well , I do coding like java , web development and also watch 4k video movies and more and still my MacBook work best , I also try to edit 4k video on my Mac and even games to like asphalt 9 and my Mac still handle everything easily
I read the reviews and they all said something like this: 8GB is enough and you won't notice a difference. I made the mistake of trusting that and bought my gf a 8GB M1 MacBook Air. She constantly have 30+ tabs open, 10 Acrobat tabs, spotify, and so on. It absolutely brought the M1 to its freaking knees. I should have gotten her a MacBook Pro 32GB to run all those things together.
@@megavessal3008 I know but that’s just habit. Sometimes she does research and need all those. Definitely can be improved but I’m surprised that the M1 actually becomes unusually slow because of this.
I bought the base mode MacBook Air m2. By the time you add ram and bigger hard drive may as well get the 14inch pro . The base model works perfectly for normal computing tasks. As if you need more power then that it’s probably the wrong laptop to buy
Ok so….. All i need it for is OBS recording 4k videos plus screen capture for reading webpages, then use either Adobe premiere or Final Cut adding an audio track, various slicing and dicing the video, then editing that video to post on Rumble and RUclips. It’s never going to be effects heavy, or crazy stuff, just basic single file video and audio, kind of what Quartering, or Tim Pool does with displaying webpages with their videos of themselves. I want it simply so there is no freezing problems when recording, or editing, or crashing because of maxed out CPU, GPU, and RAM. 8GB 16GB 24GB Which one do you recommend? Speed means nothing, just no problems recording because that’s the issue I am running into now.
I see what you’re saying on your last point but I disagree. 256 GB of storage even in an age of a lot of cloud-based storage and online apps is just not that much. I’m not saying 512 GB is significantly better, or that fast external storage doesn’t exist, but the benefits of moving away from the slower 256 GB SSD to the 512 GB SSD while also benefiting from the extra storage is probably a better suggestion for most individuals looking to purchase an M2 MacBook Air, especially when you consider the fact they wouldn’t even be particularly pushing it that hard. A normal user is more likely in my opinion to care about their storage than the amount of swap memory they have. Ultimately, it really just comes down to the fact that Apple still releases a laptop, with no more than about a quarter of a terabyte of storage. It’s just bad, and the way I see it the 256 GB storage option is really there mostly to entice individuals to move up to a 512 GB storage option which puts the starting price at $1499 for this laptop which feels like the price Apple really wants to sell this laptop for. I do agree from a technical standpoint, that the 16 GB would actually end up being better than using 8 GB of swap memory from your SSD.
Depends who you ask 8GB is plenty for people who use it for regular day to day task. Some people have been running with 8GB Intel machines for a decade and it’s perfectly fine. 8GB UMA will be vastly superior to the Intel 8GB machines. If you have to ask if it’s enough, chances are you probably need 16gb.
That’s the thing, they ran 8GB *a decade ago* A decade ago 4GB was the 8GB and 8 GB was the 16 GB. Memory requirements increase over time and if you want to future proof it the 16GB is a better buy.
@@jesselam5867 you don’t need to future proof tech. Just sell your old shit when you are done with it and get a new one when you need it. By the time you need to upgrade, DDR5 is out, ddr6 is in, socket change, usb5 is out etc … Pointless
@@RunForPeace-hk1cu That is true and you can do that, but some people (like me) don’t need the latest and greatest and would rather hold onto their devices as long as it’s useable. Upgrading ram can potentially double the lifespan of the device. You prematurely end the life of the device by not getting enough ram which I think is a waste.
I’ve just ordered the Macbook Air M2 512GB yesterday when I was in an electronics store. I haven’t informed myself beforehand about the new macbooks and the sales assistant hasn’t mentioned one thing about the slower SSD (maybe he didn’t know about them) So when I was looking for more info AFTERWARDS my search results got overflowed by “The Air M2 IS A SCAM” “Don’t buy the macbook air m2” “Why the macbook air 1 is better than the m2” “This is why you should buy the macbook pro 14 NOT THE MBA M2” and I got very nervous/anxious I’ve always used a Macbook Pro 12.1 Intel 5 Early 2015 with 256GB and 8GB RAM. I also use Final Cut Pro X - casually. I often had some problems with my storage and sometimes FCPX stopped working when I put many different files or soundtracks in one single video. It also freaked me out when the notebook got very heated and LOUD very fast. So I wanted to go for an upgrade - The mba M2 because it was recommended to me since I need the notebook for school and studies aswell and it’s extremely portable. But meanwhile I’m not sure anymore if it’ll have an overall better performance than my old macbook pro 12.1 early 2015 and I’m a bit scared
@@mostcreativenickname Don’t worry about SSD speed and it will perform miles faster than your 12.1 macbook. Remember the roles of reviewers is to get views as it is their job, therefore they make click bait titles to get views which can be misleading. The youtube algorithm suggests you similar content and once you watch one video it will keep suggesting you more macbook videos with click bait titles, making issues sound worse than they actually are. Also the slower SSD is only for 256GB variant and you mentioned you got the 512GB you don’t have anything to worry about to begin with. As for the titles, the M2 is only worse than the M1 on the principle of value. It is less value for performance than the previous generation, but as a whole package it still is an upgrade over the M1, so i wouldn’t feel bad about purchasing it.
You need 16 gb period. 24 is overkill, but 8 you're definitely on the line. I've had 8 gb on both a PC and a mac, and i've constantly run into resources issues for my general workflow. Even with just web browsing. We also do a lot more video calling these days, and that sucks up a lot of memory, and normally when video calling, you are sharing content etc. Go with 16!
if u r a software dev, i would recommend 24gb as my 16gb m1 pro 14 uses swap just by having 2 IDE open, 1 android emulator, youtube and a few browser tabs.
Like 4 gb ram in iPhones beat upto 12 gb android ram just because of optimisation similarly 8 gb ram in MacBook is same as somewhere 20 gb of windows if you don’t believe go check what 8 gb ram MacBook can do windows 16 gb ram cannot do even 24 gb
Thank you sm for the video. Exactly what I needed for my buying decision, actually explaining the relevance between the RAM option, the opposite of what far bigger youtubers have been doing. Congrats!!
Sorry. If I choose MBA M2 256/16 instead of 512/8 will I feel a big difference in speed working with editing short videos and multitasking (8-10 tabs, RUclips, Canva …) ?
I do mainly PHP programming in Docker and I am using PhpStorm. In my case I have only 5 containers per project, max 2 projects are running at the same time and 16GB is OK. Usually 10-14GB of RAM are used and swapping is not needed. If my projects were a little bigger I would need 24GB to avoid swapping. When I run a NodeJS project with Laravel backend, 14GB of ram are used again, plus additional 3GB are swapped. I am now using only 80-100GB of disk space so I could go for 256GB drive and invest into 24GB of RAM instead of 512GB disk to reach the same price. Sadly Apple is selling the valueless memory and disks for crazy money so people have to make these stupid decisions about RAM and disk size.
@@janushomer9111 You are right. I wanted to test what the Apple world is like and I am amazed by the Macbook Air. Great piece of hardware. Sadly all other things are too expensive for ordinary people. I think I will return back to Ubuntu in 1 year. Mainly the Mac keyboard is a pain in the a... for me.
8GB is not enough for me. Never again going for the lowest tier option. 😅 but other than that the Mac does surprisingly well even with intensive tasks.
Watched a few videos. This helped the most. Thank you. Buying for a 1st year college student, will likely also watch movies etc. I think I will upgrade to 16
6:41 THANK YOU. For real I'm tired of the tests only taking into account rendering, while it's not that important if it's not unconcievably slow. Which it won't be on these machines. Timeline experience is much, much and much more important. I'd rather have a two hours export for a 10min but butter smooth editing than 10s rendering and terrible timeline experience. You genuinly earned a subscriber and a like just for that lol.
The system will use as much memory as you throw at it. I'm using 12GB on my 16GB M1 Pro just watching this video and having a few other tabs open in Chrome. Just get as much as you can afford, and when you realize how much you're spending buy the 14" Pro.
I do have the same as you, the only thing I hate is the touchscreen when I write, I accidentally click something and I fck up. Just for that reason, I'll upgrade to M3. 24/1TB for sure.
Interesting stuff. I was thinking of getting an M2 Air instead of upgrading my iPad. I have an iPad Pro 12in (the original iPad Pro). I am currently running a 14in Mac Book Pro M1 with 16GB Ram and 1TB HD (the mid-grade model if you buy at the Apple Store) as my main laptop for creative work. But I usually travel with my iPad. So I wanted something light and portable for light work while traveling and in the past the iPad was almost there but you just can't do certain things on an iPad that you can do with a laptop (Apple must hold back the tablets so you still buy a computer). I've been traveling with the 14" and gotta say it's actually lighter and less bulky than my 12" iPad after I put the logitec case with built in keyboard (with the idea to make it laptop replacement), but if the Air is even more portable, and I can leave my $2500ish laptop at home, I think it would be nice to have the second laptop for "non-professional" work and as a basic computer at the park or coffee shop. With the option to occasionally work on some higher caliber stuff if I need to (which is why the iPad as a laptop replacement sucks) and not worry as much about drops, spills and even worse since Apple care doesn't cover, theft. I remember my iPad Pro when I bought it was almost if not just as much as the M2 Air is today. So I wonder if the 8gb M2 Air would be a better alternative to an iPad Pro with a keyboard if someone wants a casual computer for travel and non-office/studio environments for quick work in the cloud. And I wonder bang-for-buck wise, if the 16gb option would be better than the 8gb option as an iPad Pro replacement. Thanks.
If you just need an extra travel laptop, get the base M1 Air. For daily tasks it’s awesome. The only bad thing IMO is the terrible webcam, which isn’t great for video calls. But it’s not worth paying so much more for a better cam on the M2, as MacOS now allows you to use an iPhone as an even better webcam anyway, if you need it.
@matthewg.garcia9415 Similar to me. I am a graphic designer and have a MacBook Pro 16" Intel i9 16GB 1TB, which is big and does all the work very smoothly. I mean, I really can't complain at all about this laptop. It's amazing in terms of productivity. The only downside... is that it is very big and super heavy. Apart from being a graphic designer, I'm also a content writer, and writers love to take their laptop everywhere to get inspired :D but I can't do that with this huge laptop. So looking for a small, light laptop, where I can do this writing thing and occasionally, very occasionally, if I happen to be travelling and need to run Adobe Illustrator, I can still do it. I also have an ipad pro, where sometimes I draw, but apps on tablet do not have the same features as on a laptop. As you said, they still want us to buy laptops. :D What did you end up getting? And how is it going?
Thanks for the video. You provided me with exactly the content I was looking for. Thanks for sharing relevant content for people who are between the very basic user who opens one app at time and gamers/creators. 🎉
What doesn’t see to be taken into account is lifetime growth of RAM use. By that I mean that over a few year the amount of RAM programs use tends to increase so the example given of the OS and one program just fitting into the available RAM will be different in maybe two years when they probably won’t. Never mind if you expect your machines to last 5 years.
@@mightymeowz many videos on max tech and other channels show this information. Buying the higher capacity ssd (512gb) is always better than upgrading the ram because even with 16gb of ram the slow ssd will bottleneck you in many cases. The fast ssd configuration will allow for amazing swap memory capabilities and mitigates the lesser ram capacity.
Due to the un-upgradeability of most modern laptops, I'm a firm believer in there is NO such thing as too much RAM. Buy once cry once and just max out the RAM when you buy it.
A very balanced view. Thank you so much. Confirms modern OSes handle RAM really well thanks to swapping but, crucially, compression. Granted there's CPU cycles to spare effective RAM can grow several gigabytes. That's why modern macOS (Maverick onwards) can manage huge amounts of memory when running non-intensive, burst-wise programs (web browsing, office, background processes ...) with aplomb while won't be as effective if the CPU is busy, having to resort then to conventional purging / swapping.
10:56 MacOS tends to fill out excess ram, caching parts of opened programs for quick access. But it'll gladly dump that ram if it needs it. "Unused memory is wasted memory." That's what memory pressure indicates, it doesn't account for RAM that's being used as idle cache, so that's why the graph is so low.
32GB is the only option if you use any sort of intensive background apps. Also, these sort of videos always focus on creative work - but no one focuses on data analysis and data science. This sort of work can max out 32GB with ease
I got the 16gb ram and 512 SSD to avoid buyers remorse and it is lightning fast it. But maybe I should have waited for the M3 :/ even tho this is my first MBA upgrade since 2014
Always a new one in the pipeline. These new Macbooks will not leave you wishing for more power very soon, as long as you avoid the base model. It'll still be lightning fast and more power than most will ever max out, long after the M3 arrives.
@Alexander- I think you bought at right time. Current products are discounted right before new products. 4 to 5 years from now you can consider the current items also at a discount.
@@sunitjoshi3573 I’m not a graphic designer but for school purposes , average web browsing tons of streaming on HBO / Netflix etc I’ve not had issues with throttling or over heating so far. It’s still as great as the first day I booted it
Nice video, congratulations! What is your Mac configuration recommendation for those who are going to use data analysis, both on Mac, but also need a virtual machine with Windows 11 running Power BI?
❓Rookie question: Is there a way to suspend tabs on Safari on a Mac as there is on Chrome on a Chromebook (an extension or Chrome itself)? I bought an 8/256 M2 MacBook. I'll be a light user for sure, but now I wish I got 16/256, because I'm worried that having several programs open plus many many tabs will cause hiccups and slowdowns. Any knowledgeable advice would be appreciated on this question as well as how to maximize my existing RAM.
I am used to desktop pcs with atleast 32gb. I thought with 18 having to close background apps while working would bother me but honestly it helps me focus better
8gb might be enough. But that doesn’t mean we should sit here and accept it. Apple has been selling the 8gb 256gb configuration since 2015. It’s now 2022, enough is enough.
Hello, I am considering getting the M2 Air and am wondering if it is a good idea to upgrade the RAM or SSD. I can't really afford both. The slow ram speed of 256GB doesn't really bother me other than it being slower swap memory. Would upgrading to 16GB make it so I don't have that problem? I dont really need the extra storage and if I do then I could just get external storage rather than buying the worlds most expensive SSD. I plan on using it for school, maybe video editing in the future and some occasional gaming on games like CSGO. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Hi brother can anybody help me out!! I was planning to buy macbook air m2 15 inch. My specification is 256gb ssd with 16gb ram. But in stores they have only base models which is maximum 8gb ram. Can anybody advise how to buy this 16gb model??
Best M2 MacBook Air deals: geni.us/m2macbookair
I'm in the 16gb minimum camp always as macOS is just Unix and inherits the aggressive disk caching of Unix. macOS alone eats 5gb and does everything it can to prevent purging memory hence the swapping aggression.
In a unrelated note, are you a Canadian or American RUclipsr? Just curious.
Please make a video on Cores and GPU for MacBook M2 air
I wouldn't use a hard drive now days, I would use NVME SSDs or even a SATA 3 SSD, is MUCH faster than a hard drive, also SSDs cut down on weight,but if you must have a hard drive,make sure its a 7200RPM hard drive.
I will say,IF I can get around it,I won't use a Mac laptop/an Apple laptop,due to their lack of memory/RAM/there is no 128 GBs of RAM option,also the limited internal SSDs situation/multiple internal NVME SSDs aren't an option,my laptops support 3 SSDs,which allows me to put my OS,on one SSD,my project/emulator/testing environment on one and I can have the other SSD for storage,which splits up work loads/storage/the OS and allows for A LOT faster/more efficient work loads/work environments, Apple's desktops are great used as remote servers/to utilize their power,but for on the go or portability, I prefer the MSI Titan GT77 HX 13V, which has the i9-13980HX,128 GBs of RAM,a 4090 and a 17.3inch 3840x2160p 240HZ display,which allows me to emulate different environments , for testing and if its an Apple project,it allows me to do most everything,in a much better work environment, before switching to an Apple laptop,for final testing/I have the latest pro M.2 Apple laptop,but its limited,for my work loads,due to screen size, RAM capacities, internal SSD configurations and so on, I do offset somethings by connecting to my Apple desktop,which offers more RAM and I also connect/use my other desktop too,which has an i9-13900ks a 4090, 9TBs of NVME SSD storage and I have Manjaro and Windows,on all of my computers as well.
Memory compression. The MacOS uses memory compression to dynamically store data in ram, which is not swap and is always used first since Mavericks. All this talk of memory and swap is therefore misleading. Your Mac will compress memory long before is swaps, and swap is now more of a last ditch attempt to allocate more ram for processing rather than the first step on a memory constrained system.
First video I've ever seen that offers a summary beforehand for the "in a rush" crowd. I honestly never comment either, but felt the need to do so to highlight that. Thanks for doing that!
The quick verdict that you wrote at the beginning of the video is highly appreciated.
16gb is the sweet spot. Buying a $1200 laptop with 8gb makes no sense. I could not afford 1400 laptop, so I bought an m1 with 16 as the same price as an m2 with 8gb. I am happy. That m1 16Gb is wonderful, I use revit, solid works through parallels and I have no problem.
finally an engineer with macbook. do you install the x86/64 version of revit and sw2022 on the win11 arm vm? i just got an macbook and thinking how to get things to work
I'm thinking of doing the exact same thing. Looking for a new laptop for casual use (have a pc for anything more demanding), and am impressed by the battery life of apples new skew. However I want it to last at least 3 years and is doubtful 8gb will do even for light tasks. In my region m1 16gb is about 1500 USD while m2 8gb is about 1600 USD. Upgrading m2 to 16 gb is almost 2000 USD and that's more than I'd like to spend for a casual computer.
Don't need the newest processor cause a 1 year difference is not really gonna affect any uni student...
@@Dftba_hitch 8gb is not enough in my opinion. Why? Because that ram is not just the processor ram but the gpu ram at the same time. So, buying and m1 with 16gb is also a laptop with a better gpu, overall performance. For casual use maybe 8gb is ok. But $1000+ for a 8gb ram……
Does solidworks run fine? Is 16gb enough for vm's bro? I'm in a dilemma between a Mac and windows, I just needed some software rarely for my project works other than I'm a browser and pdf based user! Help me out!
In my honesty opinion, I think the 16GB RAM would be the sweet spot for many moderate users (including myself), at least for a MacBook Air. Heavier users of business applications, and university students, and for occasional light photo and video editing. That amount of RAM (16GB) would also provide some future proofing for those who would be planning on keeping their machines for a long time.
Totally right
I did buy the 16 gb ram variant. But I have noticed that there is almost 4 gb of cache. I am new to MacOS so I have no idea if its normal or how to clear it.
@@nicholasmushi6311 my m1 pro has 5gb cache.
The fact that there is even an 8gb option is a smack in the face. I don't care if it's a light operating system or not, 8gb of ram is not ok in ANY computer. Even smartphones are starting to get 16gb or more
@@billjamal4764 yes! yes! I couldn't agree with you more on the 8GB RAM. It's just like how I don't think the 256GB baseline storage is sufficient enough nowadays. Apps alone also take up a sufficient amount of storage nowadays.
The overview at the beginning is a genius idea,everyone should do it, as a reward I watched all the ads, comment and thumbs up and the 40 second I watch is liquid gold
Dude i love that you included the summary at 39 sec, thank you
I am a full time teacher and part time game dev. I occasionally use Parallels to run Windows, and spend a fair amount of time developing in Unity and Construct 3. I almost always have 17 - 18 GB of RAM in use. 24 GB of system RAM is exactly right for me for right now. 32 would be overkill, and I would be using swap with only 16. I know the video-production-centric users out there might feel they can use more GPU cores of the Macbook Pro for rendering, but for my game dev use the macbook Air with 24 GB is cheaper and more performant than a 16 GB macbook pro. The pro is sub par for my use case in every respect that I care about.
The key here is that for me 24 GB of memory enables me to do everything without constantly relying on swap memory. 16 GB wouldn’t be enough. Assuming the 13” mba I bought lasts for another ten years like the previous one did, even 24 GB is going to get tight in short order.
Bottom line: 24 GB is the best deal around for most people if they are planning to keep their laptop for 5+ years.
Another youtuber had actually compared m2 macbook pro 16gb vs 24gb for video editing with multiple softwares and keeping 30 tabs open in chrome parallely. The difference in rendering times are negligible. Another shocking thing is they use same swap memory. U expect the 24gb mac pro to use less swap memory but that's not the case, it uses almost same swap mem as 16gb one. It's crazy.
2:34 Swap is not the only tool macOS uses to manage memory. You’ll notice in Activity Monitor that it also measures Compressed memory. With the rise in CPU speed and core counts, macOS monitors current memory demands and CPU load, and decides whether it would be faster to compress low priority data in memory instead of swapping it to storage. So if a Mac has a lot of CPU cores and enough unified memory is available, it may be more likely to use memory compression to save time over swapping.
I’ve been using M1 macbook air for 2 years now. I am a web developer.
20 chrome tabs +
mysql client +
local server +
2 editor +
finder +
apple notes +
terminal +
2-3 other apps always open, and I never faced any issues when I thought I should’ve gone for the 16 gb version… Totally flawless
Hi. For coding which one should i choose? 8/512 or 16/256. Which one u suggest (im a RN developer)
@@Ayrtonsenna75 16/256 cus u can get external ssd
Why do people make such a big deal out of Chrome tabs? On my iMac 2011 with 12gb ram I recently casually ran 100 chrome tabs in the background and had no issue.
Hey I want to buy a MacBook Air M1 or M2 but not sure which one I need, literally all I want to do is trade on it I wouldn’t be using it for anything else. Just need something that is fast and can have a few tabs/apps open but I definitely wouldn’t have as much open as you do, my friends say get at least 16 ram but I don’t think I need it at all looking at these comments. Im so lost which one to get
@@Razertw Chorme is famous for being a browser that takes a lot of PC resources, RAM included... So when people use loads of tabs, they're mostly likely using a lot of resources... Safaria will be less taxing on your mac and give you more perforamce for example...
Thank you for that summary at the start of the video! It shows your genuineness in conveying your message!
Would be interesting to see the good old M1 Air 8/256 at the side with those numbers.
Well, I'm pretty happy with my 8gb M2 macbook air (base model). I have like 15 tabs on safari + light python coding + Capture One editing on a 1300+ photo catalog. The system makes a wonderful job managing the resources.
I recently purchased air m2 8/512, after watching this kind of videos where was told that 8 gb is not enough for coding(i am a student, learning python) i got really disappointed, does it really handle well? How do you think for beginners during the work will be lots of problems or freezes?
@@insanandabekov240 for coding is more than enough, specially now that most of the packages I use are supporting Apple Silicon natively. If you are going to train really big models for machine learning, not even 32gb will serve you well (better to use a cloud service). M2 macbook air offer incredible battery life, portability, a very nice screen and trackpad so I thing is great.
And even more important for me: is fun to use, I just want to spend hours and hours with my mac, and that help me to practice more. That's the real reason why I choose it over the 14" pro.
maybe you need more for video editing but I've done some video editing with base config no problem, also base config has longer battery life, (7 core GPU/8GB RAM and 256 SSD). Plenty for most tasks. Higher config may run hotter and throttle more due to no fan at least on M1 not sure if M2 air has fan.
Would the 8gb be enough for Microsoft office - excel, ppt?
@@bokuwatoki5983 yep I have Office 365 installed and use my work subscription to activate. All apps including teams now run native on apple silicon and it is fast on base M1 MacBook Air
As a student with a gaming pc already, went for 16gb/512 in silver, cant wait until it arrives
Every created tech video: Unless you edit high resolution 4K videos and game seriously on your Mac, you don’t need that 16GB RAM.
Me: I’m *both*
Thank you!! You are the first one I’ve seen talk about VM’s - great video! - no hype, smart assessment
I've bought and gone through maybe ten different laptops and I find the sweet spot in both MAC and Windows to be 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD.
This video is outstanding!! Thank you. I got the 15” Air in Space Gray with 16GB RAM and the 512GB SSD. It’s spectacular and I never see the spinning beach ball with 30 browser tabs, video editing, photoshop, etc all open and running at the same time. I sold my 16” M1 Pro MacBook Pro because I like this upgraded 15” Air so much more.
who actually opens 30 browser tabs lmfao. Seems a bit overkill but with what you are talking about doing the Air should have never really been in your consideration. People with super heavy work loads like yourself should ONLY be looking at the high end pro models.
But doesn’t the 16 inch m1 pro has the same specs
The beauty of getting 24Gb RAM is that you can run Windows in an virtual machine with 8Gb allocated (using UTM, for free, not the Parallells scam which is $90 per year), and the remaining 16Gb allocated to MacOS, and essentially get 2 ultra-fast laptops in one.
Well said, this is my current style of use.
Did you get a 24GB one?
“scam” lmao, because it's a paid software?
Wait! Are you telling me I could play my whole steam library on it if I do that?
@@Smokeybanjo It's virtualization, it's slow af compared to running native on a machine. Forget Gaming.
I have the 8 core 16/512 M2 Air and I would definitely not want less ram. I am not a pro user, literally only use it for school and the sims. When I have like 5 Safari tabs open, Spotify open and Onenote for school, it always uses around 10 gb ram. I am REALLY glad I spent the extra money on upgrading the ram
Damn, MacOS must be absolutely garbage optimize.
@@Hgaara0204 Nah, it's the same on windows and probably the same for linux as well. It's more to do with the software itself and if your computer has the excess ram capacity it will use it instead of handicapping itself for no reason.
Any issues with throttling and heating so far?
@@ZahBroskeeit is not the same for Linux at all that is the most crackhead statement I’ve ever seen. I can have 100 tabs on a 2014 4gb ddr3 laptop when running arch Linux.
My macbook M2 is 24 GB RAM. I develop apps with vscode and emulators, and consistently consume 16-17 GB of RAM.
Any issues with throttling and heating so far?
can I use 256gb ssd and 24gb RAM? it's good or not? I want to develop an apps
Agree. Same here, use xcode, android studio and react native on my machine. Aswell as other dev tools like proxy servers for example. Often push 18 to 19 gbs, sometimes a bit more. 16 was ok on my old m1 mac mini, but my mac mini m2 with 24 gigs flies and doesn’t seem to throttle as far as I can tell.
So for my 3D modeling i decided to go with the extra 512gb of storage because you get the extra gpu cores. That boost from the cores to me was a no brainer because of thermal throttling. The ram can be useful but in a couple years I’ll be upgrading again and have my main PC for the extra power IF I need it. So far it’s been plenty powerful
I opted to upgrade to the 512gb instead of the ram for the same reason. It has more cores, plus the store upgrade was more worth it cause of school and photo/video editing. I know 8gb is enough for my use case.
@@Clt.princee exactly. Like these things are shockingly powerful. They can even game now (even though more devs need to make stuff) that along with the form factor of the m2 air you just can’t beat it in terms of quality and performance to get stuff done in my opinion. Developers are keeping it in mind of those with 8gb of RAM as well. So most of the time you prolly wouldn’t notice it with how well developers optimize their apps on Mac OS. Awesome that you’re loving it and went the same route!
@@TylerKhan Right! I love the design and portability of the M2. Even though the M1 was on sale, it was literally the same design as my 2019 intel MBA so I didn’t really see it as an upgrade. Glad I went with the M2.
What configuration did you get?
@@sunitjoshi3573 I went with the configuration with the more gpu cores and 8gb of ram. It comes with 512gb ssd and only 8gb of ram because with thermal throttling, 16gb of ram isn’t fully used.
I have a 16' MBP with 16GB of RAM. I can do pretty much anything without swap kicking in. Under normal conditions, doing school work and not caring what's opened etc, I usually do not use more than 10GB of RAM. If however, I run Blender or sth.. I have to close everything else. 16GB is not enough for 3D work. When you aren't rendering, it's never really a problem. But even a simple scene will take 5-10GB of memory to build and before you know it, you're swapping RAM. The most I've ever used in blender was like 75GB to build a scene during a 16K render and the laptop just crashed.. So.. 32GB for 3D, maybe even more.
If you are a developer I recommend getting 16 gb one. You can live with 8 gb but feel yourself very limited, and pressure on ram rises too.
32GB seems to be the most common choice for Macbook Pro among software developers. For example profiling tools require lots of RAM. I have even seen crashes on 16GB system as the data capture ran out of memory and swap wasn’t fast enough.
I worked with a developer that had a M series macbook pro of some sort last year in a software development environment. I don't know how much ram he had, but I'd assume he had 16gb. That would be fine for 99% of software development, and honestly 8gb is probably also fine for 90% of small software projects and even web development. However, in our case, we were maintaining and adding features to some system that was importing hundreds of gigabytes of data from various third party providers, and migrating that into our client's databases. This system runs on AWS instances with 64-128 gigabytes of ram to perform these data transformation and migrations.
The developer I was working with could not run locally one of the transformations because his macbook pro would run out of memory and freeze up mid-way through. Whenever we had to test changes to this particular migration, unless we wanted to provision another EC2 instance, we had to use my workstation, which was a retired gaming PC with 32GB of ram that had become my main work PC.
For a pure consumer device, 8GB of ram is still plenty. 16GB of ram is honestly where I'd start for a machine that has to do proper "work". Personally 32GB is my desired amount for a "work" station as, in addition to my previously mentioned anecdote, it just gives so much more capabilities. I can run multiple VM's / docker containers and have multiple projects open and running while developing some systems. For instance, there are multiple projects I've worked on where I need a linux dev environment as well as a windows server to run MS SQL server and .net. Instead of running a windows workstation and linux workstation side-by-side on my desk, I run the windows workstation on my linux workstation in a VM.
More commonly though, vIdeo editing with multiple imported source files becomes very smooth with more ram. I wouldn't want to do more than clip together multiple 4k video files in a timeline with anything less than 16GB of ram.
I have the 16GB, 10 Core GPU, 256GB SSD. Amazing computer. Ive never noticed any slowdown with the lower storage because I don’t work with large files. I use safari, office, email, and specialized economic modeling software. Everything works great.
your modeling software takes advantage of the 10 core GPU right?
Only 8GB can slow down. 16GB will work fine.
@@KelvinKMS agreed! 16gb is also a lot more future-proof if you keep your laptop for 10 years like I do.
Any issues with throttling and heating? I’m thinking 16/512!
@@beri232 With the price of the MacBook Air, it would be better to get the base model and buy cloud storage + external memory, perhaps. Safer and also uses funds for a future upgrade, instead of wasting all resources on a Mac that, at the end of the day, is not made for heavyweight tasks and won't have the thermals for it, no matter the RAM bought.
If you can find a second-hand 8GB model, they make for good travel devices. If a Chromebook can work with 4GB of RAM, a MacBook can get plenty done with twice that.
My biggest gripe is with Apple's pricing for RAM. A ton of people are offloading them for fairly reasonable prices because they feel they need to upgrade - they are selling near-new-condition M1/M2 8GB Airs for half price or cheaper, which helps alleviate that gripe.
I'm blown by how well the 16GB version of my wife's MBA works. I was hell bent on getting a 64GB system. I'm entirely re-thinking that.
I have 8gb ram and I run 5 desktops with around 5 chrome tabs on every desktop on average. Also 4 to 5 apps running all the time but somehow it works fine, no issues so far.
I bought the 8gb (M1) Air. I must admit I do regret not going for 16gb, the lack of ram causes me quite a few issues.
Care to elaborate? What tasks are you doing on the laptop and what issues are you facing? I'd help me with my decision
8GB is completely fine if you're just using it as a video consumption/web browsing, emails, documents etc. If you're editing media or gaming then 16GB is probably what you need
You know what would be even better? 512MB aka 0.5GB of ram. That would be just fine for you
Or an iPad.
Or programming
I'm just binge watching and found the summary pretty nice.
I just got the 13.6 M2 MacBook Air with 16 gigs of ram memory, and 512 SSD storage. I've been a Windows desktop user since 1999 with Windows 98. My last Dell desktop had Windows 7 pro with 2T hard drive because I had a website, building my own web pages. That's why I upgraded my ram and storage, even though I don't have a website anymore. This is my first laptop, and I love it, very user friendly. I kept the 8 core GPU though, cause allot of reviewers on here said there wasn't that big a difference with the 10.
Imo, 16GB RAM should be the new standard to many PC’s/Macs these days.
yeah seems like the m2 air with 24gb of ram will be perfect for my workflow. development can use so much ram even if nothing is that cpu intensive
I have the 16GB, 8 Core GPU, 256GB SSD. Amazing computer. Ive never noticed any slowdown with the lower storage because I don’t work with large files. I use for Android, iOS and Flutter development and I have used Xcode and Android Studio simultaneously but still not faced any problems. the machine is beast 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Hi brother how to buy macbook air M2 15 inch with 16 gb ram.
Here no where in stores available 16gb ram
I’m really close to ordering the very same one, I’m just on the fence about the 8-core , or I should get a 10-core one. Do you think yours handles video editing (premiere pro) smoothly? I’d really appreciate feedback
@@cineturon Hey sorry, I dont use the premiere pro or any video editing tools so cant comment my experience but I asked my friend and he said its doing good job with his needs(editing with 2-3 layers with 1080p and 4k) but it may vary with whats your need. But if u ask me I think there is not much difference between 8 and 10 core in practical life. So if money is concern get 16 gb Ram with base model 8 core and u r good to go.
@@eternussolutions1084 I got mine (16 gigs/512 gb) few hours ago and my god, this is a smooth machine... thanks!
hey I am from India and watching ur video on MacBook m2 air 15inch 512GB and 8GB ram , my Mac works very well , I do coding like java , web development and also watch 4k video movies and more and still my MacBook work best , I also try to edit 4k video on my Mac and even games to like asphalt 9 and my Mac still handle everything easily
I read the reviews and they all said something like this: 8GB is enough and you won't notice a difference. I made the mistake of trusting that and bought my gf a 8GB M1 MacBook Air. She constantly have 30+ tabs open, 10 Acrobat tabs, spotify, and so on. It absolutely brought the M1 to its freaking knees. I should have gotten her a MacBook Pro 32GB to run all those things together.
I think that’s more her fault. 10 acrobat tabs and 30! Browser tabs? Good lord
@@megavessal3008 I know but that’s just habit. Sometimes she does research and need all those. Definitely can be improved but I’m surprised that the M1 actually becomes unusually slow because of this.
😮😮😮 that's like people at my job having alot of apps, 20 excel workbooks, etc....then putting in a ticket for a slow laptop
They created the 196GB $15k M2 Ultra Mac Pro for demanding gfs.
Noted demanding gf is expensive gf
Thank you for the summary at the beginning!!!
I bought the base mode MacBook Air m2. By the time you add ram and bigger hard drive may as well get the 14inch pro . The base model works perfectly for normal computing tasks. As if you need more power then that it’s probably the wrong laptop to buy
that is just not true, the 14inch pro starts at 1999$... thats like 700$ more if you just upgrade to 16gb and 512ssd
@@sayanskywolf13 in the uk it’s only like £500 more that the base MacBook Air m2
Best Buy just had the Mac Book 14 in M1 Pro on sale for 1599, if they bring that back around Thanksgiving, that is the way to go.
Ok so…..
All i need it for is OBS recording 4k videos plus screen capture for reading webpages, then use either Adobe premiere or Final Cut adding an audio track, various slicing and dicing the video, then editing that video to post on Rumble and RUclips. It’s never going to be effects heavy, or crazy stuff, just basic single file video and audio, kind of what Quartering, or Tim Pool does with displaying webpages with their videos of themselves.
I want it simply so there is no freezing problems when recording, or editing, or crashing because of maxed out CPU, GPU, and RAM.
8GB
16GB
24GB
Which one do you recommend?
Speed means nothing, just no problems recording because that’s the issue I am running into now.
Get 16GB
I see what you’re saying on your last point but I disagree. 256 GB of storage even in an age of a lot of cloud-based storage and online apps is just not that much. I’m not saying 512 GB is significantly better, or that fast external storage doesn’t exist, but the benefits of moving away from the slower 256 GB SSD to the 512 GB SSD while also benefiting from the extra storage is probably a better suggestion for most individuals looking to purchase an M2 MacBook Air, especially when you consider the fact they wouldn’t even be particularly pushing it that hard. A normal user is more likely in my opinion to care about their storage than the amount of swap memory they have. Ultimately, it really just comes down to the fact that Apple still releases a laptop, with no more than about a quarter of a terabyte of storage. It’s just bad, and the way I see it the 256 GB storage option is really there mostly to entice individuals to move up to a 512 GB storage option which puts the starting price at $1499 for this laptop which feels like the price Apple really wants to sell this laptop for. I do agree from a technical standpoint, that the 16 GB would actually end up being better than using 8 GB of swap memory from your SSD.
Depends who you ask
8GB is plenty for people who use it for regular day to day task. Some people have been running with 8GB Intel machines for a decade and it’s perfectly fine. 8GB UMA will be vastly superior to the Intel 8GB machines.
If you have to ask if it’s enough, chances are you probably need 16gb.
That’s the thing, they ran 8GB *a decade ago* A decade ago 4GB was the 8GB and 8 GB was the 16 GB. Memory requirements increase over time and if you want to future proof it the 16GB is a better buy.
@@jesselam5867 you don’t need to future proof tech. Just sell your old shit when you are done with it and get a new one when you need it.
By the time you need to upgrade, DDR5 is out, ddr6 is in, socket change, usb5 is out etc …
Pointless
@@RunForPeace-hk1cu That is true and you can do that, but some people (like me) don’t need the latest and greatest and would rather hold onto their devices as long as it’s useable. Upgrading ram can potentially double the lifespan of the device. You prematurely end the life of the device by not getting enough ram which I think is a waste.
I’ve just ordered the Macbook Air M2 512GB yesterday when I was in an electronics store. I haven’t informed myself beforehand about the new macbooks and the sales assistant hasn’t mentioned one thing about the slower SSD (maybe he didn’t know about them)
So when I was looking for more info AFTERWARDS my search results got overflowed by “The Air M2 IS A SCAM” “Don’t buy the macbook air m2” “Why the macbook air 1 is better than the m2” “This is why you should buy the macbook pro 14 NOT THE MBA M2” and I got very nervous/anxious
I’ve always used a Macbook Pro 12.1 Intel 5 Early 2015 with 256GB and 8GB RAM. I also use Final Cut Pro X - casually. I often had some problems with my storage and sometimes FCPX stopped working when I put many different files or soundtracks in one single video. It also freaked me out when the notebook got very heated and LOUD very fast.
So I wanted to go for an upgrade - The mba M2 because it was recommended to me since I need the notebook for school and studies aswell and it’s extremely portable.
But meanwhile I’m not sure anymore if it’ll have an overall better performance than my old macbook pro 12.1 early 2015 and I’m a bit scared
@@mostcreativenickname Don’t worry about SSD speed and it will perform miles faster than your 12.1 macbook.
Remember the roles of reviewers is to get views as it is their job, therefore they make click bait titles to get views which can be misleading. The youtube algorithm suggests you similar content and once you watch one video it will keep suggesting you more macbook videos with click bait titles, making issues sound worse than they actually are.
Also the slower SSD is only for 256GB variant and you mentioned you got the 512GB you don’t have anything to worry about to begin with.
As for the titles, the M2 is only worse than the M1 on the principle of value. It is less value for performance than the previous generation, but as a whole package it still is an upgrade over the M1, so i wouldn’t feel bad about purchasing it.
I got the 16gb m2 off the education store for coding. The ram really helps day to day use.
You need 16 gb period. 24 is overkill, but 8 you're definitely on the line. I've had 8 gb on both a PC and a mac, and i've constantly run into resources issues for my general workflow. Even with just web browsing. We also do a lot more video calling these days, and that sucks up a lot of memory, and normally when video calling, you are sharing content etc. Go with 16!
RAM is very important in 3D when you have a scene with millions of polygons. That's how you test it.
if u r a software dev, i would recommend 24gb as my 16gb m1 pro 14 uses swap just by having 2 IDE open, 1 android emulator, youtube and a few browser tabs.
My MBA M2 uses 12 GB of RAM with ONLY Safari and 4 tabs open (no other app), which is bad..
How about 24gb RAM and 256gb ssd it is good?
Finally a precise video about this topic. Thank you!
This comparison is very clear and it is the definitive answer to most of our questions :)
I was until recently creating music on my late 2013 MacBook pro. The Air M2 base model is totally fine for music production.
What configuration did you get?
If you work with development, buy one with 16GB ram. You can get the job done with 8GB, but it does a lot of memory swap, it's health in a long term.
Don’t think I’d ever get a Mac with gaming on my mind. I think as long as you have a console there’s no need
I have 16gb ram and I can't see myself going back to 8gb, average workflow with everything comfortably open, essential apps, is between 10-11gb ram.
Like 4 gb ram in iPhones beat upto 12 gb android ram just because of optimisation similarly 8 gb ram in MacBook is same as somewhere 20 gb of windows if you don’t believe go check what 8 gb ram MacBook can do windows 16 gb ram cannot do even 24 gb
Thank you sm for the video. Exactly what I needed for my buying decision, actually explaining the relevance between the RAM option, the opposite of what far bigger youtubers have been doing. Congrats!!
Thank you for the quick summary snapshot. Liked and subscribed coz of that screen!
Totally agree. 16 GB of ram is the best config for casual users but also the base config for pro users.
That goes for Windows and Linux as well. 16gigs of ram.
Sorry. If I choose MBA M2 256/16 instead of 512/8 will I feel a big difference in speed working with editing short videos and multitasking (8-10 tabs, RUclips, Canva …) ?
@@angelinakhotulova9305I am planning to get this one too, what do you think abt it 8 months later?
why
Which one is better option in terms of performance:
MacBook Pro 8-core M1 (16GB/512GB) or
MacBook Air 8-core M2 (16GB/256GB) ??
Macbook book air
Pro has fan and bigger battery!
Retired IT engineer for over 30yrs. Buy the largest amount of RAM and the largest HDD/SSD you can afford. Minimum 16gb RAM and today 512gB storage.
I do mainly PHP programming in Docker and I am using PhpStorm. In my case I have only 5 containers per project, max 2 projects are running at the same time and 16GB is OK. Usually 10-14GB of RAM are used and swapping is not needed. If my projects were a little bigger I would need 24GB to avoid swapping. When I run a NodeJS project with Laravel backend, 14GB of ram are used again, plus additional 3GB are swapped. I am now using only 80-100GB of disk space so I could go for 256GB drive and invest into 24GB of RAM instead of 512GB disk to reach the same price. Sadly Apple is selling the valueless memory and disks for crazy money so people have to make these stupid decisions about RAM and disk size.
Just buy a PC. Stop giving apple your money, and they might start proposing decent solutions...or not. Just move on.
Finally I found the best Answer. Anw same Laravel developer here. Thank you!
what external storage are you using?
@@2JZ-it8ug None
@@janushomer9111 You are right. I wanted to test what the Apple world is like and I am amazed by the Macbook Air. Great piece of hardware. Sadly all other things are too expensive for ordinary people. I think I will return back to Ubuntu in 1 year. Mainly the Mac keyboard is a pain in the a... for me.
8GB is not enough for me. Never again going for the lowest tier option. 😅 but other than that the Mac does surprisingly well even with intensive tasks.
Watched a few videos. This helped the most. Thank you.
Buying for a 1st year college student, will likely also watch movies etc. I think I will upgrade to 16
6:41 THANK YOU. For real I'm tired of the tests only taking into account rendering, while it's not that important if it's not unconcievably slow. Which it won't be on these machines. Timeline experience is much, much and much more important. I'd rather have a two hours export for a 10min but butter smooth editing than 10s rendering and terrible timeline experience.
You genuinly earned a subscriber and a like just for that lol.
Thank you ... Crystal clear explanation!
This is the video I was looking for
The system will use as much memory as you throw at it. I'm using 12GB on my 16GB M1 Pro just watching this video and having a few other tabs open in Chrome. Just get as much as you can afford, and when you realize how much you're spending buy the 14" Pro.
I do have the same as you, the only thing I hate is the touchscreen when I write, I accidentally click something and I fck up. Just for that reason, I'll upgrade to M3. 24/1TB for sure.
Interesting stuff. I was thinking of getting an M2 Air instead of upgrading my iPad. I have an iPad Pro 12in (the original iPad Pro). I am currently running a 14in Mac Book Pro M1 with 16GB Ram and 1TB HD (the mid-grade model if you buy at the Apple Store) as my main laptop for creative work. But I usually travel with my iPad. So I wanted something light and portable for light work while traveling and in the past the iPad was almost there but you just can't do certain things on an iPad that you can do with a laptop (Apple must hold back the tablets so you still buy a computer). I've been traveling with the 14" and gotta say it's actually lighter and less bulky than my 12" iPad after I put the logitec case with built in keyboard (with the idea to make it laptop replacement), but if the Air is even more portable, and I can leave my $2500ish laptop at home, I think it would be nice to have the second laptop for "non-professional" work and as a basic computer at the park or coffee shop. With the option to occasionally work on some higher caliber stuff if I need to (which is why the iPad as a laptop replacement sucks) and not worry as much about drops, spills and even worse since Apple care doesn't cover, theft. I remember my iPad Pro when I bought it was almost if not just as much as the M2 Air is today. So I wonder if the 8gb M2 Air would be a better alternative to an iPad Pro with a keyboard if someone wants a casual computer for travel and non-office/studio environments for quick work in the cloud. And I wonder bang-for-buck wise, if the 16gb option would be better than the 8gb option as an iPad Pro replacement. Thanks.
If you just need an extra travel laptop, get the base M1 Air. For daily tasks it’s awesome. The only bad thing IMO is the terrible webcam, which isn’t great for video calls. But it’s not worth paying so much more for a better cam on the M2, as MacOS now allows you to use an iPhone as an even better webcam anyway, if you need it.
@matthewg.garcia9415 Similar to me. I am a graphic designer and have a MacBook Pro 16" Intel i9 16GB 1TB, which is big and does all the work very smoothly. I mean, I really can't complain at all about this laptop. It's amazing in terms of productivity. The only downside... is that it is very big and super heavy. Apart from being a graphic designer, I'm also a content writer, and writers love to take their laptop everywhere to get inspired :D but I can't do that with this huge laptop. So looking for a small, light laptop, where I can do this writing thing and occasionally, very occasionally, if I happen to be travelling and need to run Adobe Illustrator, I can still do it. I also have an ipad pro, where sometimes I draw, but apps on tablet do not have the same features as on a laptop. As you said, they still want us to buy laptops. :D
What did you end up getting? And how is it going?
Thanks for the video. You provided me with exactly the content I was looking for. Thanks for sharing relevant content for people who are between the very basic user who opens one app at time and gamers/creators. 🎉
Running Chrome with more than 10 tabs open for prolonged period of time will easily get you to 10GB RAM usage. Get the 16GB RAM, minimum.
What doesn’t see to be taken into account is lifetime growth of RAM use. By that I mean that over a few year the amount of RAM programs use tends to increase so the example given of the OS and one program just fitting into the available RAM will be different in maybe two years when they probably won’t. Never mind if you expect your machines to last 5 years.
But by the time you need these extra rams, you will need a better CPU and GPU to keep up isn't it?
So, in case if someone wants to keep it for more than 5 years, upgrading RAM is the way to go, isn't it?
The 8 vs 16gb differences are made more apparent by the slow ssd on the 256 model. Upgrading the ssd to 512 nullifies most of that difference.
Really? Do you have any info about that somewhere, like a video or an article?
@@mightymeowz many videos on max tech and other channels show this information. Buying the higher capacity ssd (512gb) is always better than upgrading the ram because even with 16gb of ram the slow ssd will bottleneck you in many cases. The fast ssd configuration will allow for amazing swap memory capabilities and mitigates the lesser ram capacity.
Well... ruclips.net/video/YKRO-4BiZrI/видео.html
Great video, straight to the point with all the required details. Thank you!
What do you recommend, m2 8gb ram or m1 16 gb ram?
I got the 32gb M1 Max with 10 core cpu simply and base gpu.
I need to work fast and my pc has to work properly.
Love it
I feel like if I'm going to upgrade, I might as well get an M1 Pro 14" MacBook Pro right away....
Due to the un-upgradeability of most modern laptops, I'm a firm believer in there is NO such thing as too much RAM. Buy once cry once and just max out the RAM when you buy it.
Playing league, discord multiple tabs at the same time and some ocasionally video editing on premier.
What do you recomend?
A very balanced view. Thank you so much. Confirms modern OSes handle RAM really well thanks to swapping but, crucially, compression. Granted there's CPU cycles to spare effective RAM can grow several gigabytes. That's why modern macOS (Maverick onwards) can manage huge amounts of memory when running non-intensive, burst-wise programs (web browsing, office, background processes ...) with aplomb while won't be as effective if the CPU is busy, having to resort then to conventional purging / swapping.
10:56 MacOS tends to fill out excess ram, caching parts of opened programs for quick access. But it'll gladly dump that ram if it needs it. "Unused memory is wasted memory."
That's what memory pressure indicates, it doesn't account for RAM that's being used as idle cache, so that's why the graph is so low.
32GB is the only option if you use any sort of intensive background apps. Also, these sort of videos always focus on creative work - but no one focuses on data analysis and data science. This sort of work can max out 32GB with ease
Personally to me it doesn’t matter how much ram I have on my MacBook, but when it comes to my iMac I need at least 16 or 32.
I got the 16gb ram and 512 SSD to avoid buyers remorse and it is lightning fast it. But maybe I should have waited for the M3 :/ even tho this is my first MBA upgrade since 2014
Always a new one in the pipeline. These new Macbooks will not leave you wishing for more power very soon, as long as you avoid the base model. It'll still be lightning fast and more power than most will ever max out, long after the M3 arrives.
@Alexander- I think you bought at right time. Current products are discounted right before new products. 4 to 5 years from now you can consider the current items also at a discount.
@@Applecompuser I am sooo careful with my M2 MacBook midnight blue lol it’s no joke how easy it scratches.
Any issues with throttling and heating!
@@sunitjoshi3573 I’m not a graphic designer but for school purposes , average web browsing tons of streaming on HBO / Netflix etc I’ve not had issues with throttling or over heating so far. It’s still as great as the first day I booted it
Really informative video. Thank you 😊
Nice video, congratulations! What is your Mac configuration recommendation for those who are going to use data analysis, both on Mac, but also need a virtual machine with Windows 11 running Power BI?
Thank you so much! Finally I made my decision through your video 😊
Very informative and clear video.
Thanks a lot!
❓Rookie question:
Is there a way to suspend tabs on Safari on a Mac as there is on Chrome on a Chromebook (an extension or Chrome itself)?
I bought an 8/256 M2 MacBook. I'll be a light user for sure, but now I wish I got 16/256, because I'm worried that having several programs open plus many many tabs will cause hiccups and slowdowns.
Any knowledgeable advice would be appreciated on this question as well as how to maximize my existing RAM.
I am used to desktop pcs with atleast 32gb. I thought with 18 having to close background apps while working would bother me but honestly it helps me focus better
So helpful. Thank you!
Well as an MacBook pro owner Created Tech is my only tech channel choice
I was actually in a rush, so thank you for the "preview" but i have to boost the algorithm in some other way...
Running ml with 8gb is a pain. Anything slightly more advanced goes oom very fast! Even 16 isn't enough
Swap memory isn't just a mac thing. In windows you can literally customize your swap size.
8gb might be enough. But that doesn’t mean we should sit here and accept it. Apple has been selling the 8gb 256gb configuration since 2015. It’s now 2022, enough is enough.
Would running multiple apps and web tabs with 2 external monitors deplete more RAM? Can you make a video on this?
the summary given at the beginning of the video shows that this channel deserves to be subscribed
big thanks for the quick answer in the beginning
Finally a video talking about ram. Everyone ignores it.
Hello, I am considering getting the M2 Air and am wondering if it is a good idea to upgrade the RAM or SSD. I can't really afford both. The slow ram speed of 256GB doesn't really bother me other than it being slower swap memory. Would upgrading to 16GB make it so I don't have that problem? I dont really need the extra storage and if I do then I could just get external storage rather than buying the worlds most expensive SSD. I plan on using it for school, maybe video editing in the future and some occasional gaming on games like CSGO. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Get the extra RAM
If you save more money, you can get them both.
Hi brother can anybody help me out!!
I was planning to buy macbook air m2 15 inch.
My specification is 256gb ssd with 16gb ram.
But in stores they have only base models which is maximum 8gb ram.
Can anybody advise how to buy this 16gb model??