MacBook Air M2: 8 GB or 16 GB RAM for school applications and light gaming?
Hello, I wanted to buy the MacBook Air M2 with 8 GB RAM and 512 GB storage for €1,199. Do you think it would be more sensible to buy it with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB storage for €1,461? I would use it for school, mainly for office programs like Word, PowerPoint, Excel, surfing the internet, and occasionally playing Minecraft.
I advise you to buy a basic model with 8 GB as macOS will reserve some of them for the quick start of application. The RAM requirement is also increasing when simply surfing the Internet, as pages become more extensive. If you often have too little memory, your MacBook will always store data in the swap and thus on the flash memory. As a result, both the system is braked and the service life of the memory is shortened.
A current notebook or MacBook should actually have at least 16 GB or more memory because it can not be easily expanded later. I currently work with a MacBook Pro (M2, 2022), which has been configured with 24 GB. Even if I use it professionally and much more instead of, yet pass on to you, that I always take 15-17 GB of macOS. A tab in the browser alone can quickly make up more than 100 GB or over a 1 GB.
LG medmonk
Probably too late for OP but still, you shouldn’t look at the memory print on usage. Win/MacOS will always claim at least 70% of the RAM, see cached ram to improve performance. However, this is not necessary to use grds. MacOS does this to use the RAM it also has and not to have “learning”. But if programs need the space, the RAM will be allocated to them.
The storage pressure is more meaningful. In the green area everything is wonderful. Shows that your system has excess RAM also to improve system performance. That’s why you never see a Mac with less than 50% utilisation.
Conclusion remains the same. 8gb is much too little
Thank you for your comment and it is never wrong to keep these values in mind regardless of the system. With the new Macs, the memory (RAM) is not used exclusively for the CPU.
While dedicated GPUs have their own memory, the construction of Macs with silicone chip is another. Accordingly, it affects the storage pressure, the general utilization and the possible outsourcing in the swap.
It’s enough to play Minecraft occasionally. In particular, since 260€ extra charge for 8 GB more RAM is genuinely unharmed.
8 GB.