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Looks great, but base RAM is still only 8GB which (incredibly) is barely enough to browse the internet these days. Why does it cost $400 to add another 16GB of

Looks great, but base RAM is still only 8GB which (incredibly) is barely enough to browse the internet these days. Why does it cost $400 to add another 16GB of RAM when the chips themselves cost $50 on Best Buy? Is it that much more expensive to make the RAM small enough to fit in the Air?

danaris 3y ago
Have you actually tried using one of the Apple Silicon Macs with 8GB RAM? When they first came out, there was a great deal of hay made over the fact that this was still the base RAM—and then people started using them, and reporting that it was fine. As long as you're not trying to put them under heavy loads, 8GB RAM is plenty for the M1 and M2. And if you want to put it under heavy load...then you're not really the target customer for the base model, are you?
- highfrequency 3y ago
  Yes, I have tried using the M1 with 8GB RAM. I frequently bumped into RAM issues while using Chrome whenever I accumulated more than ~15 open tabs. At this moment I am on a 16GB M2 Air and using 14.6GB of RAM. The only substantial app I have open is Chrome.
  - danaris 3y ago
    Chrome is well-known to be a vicious memory hog. Maybe you should try using Safari? It's not only much better with memory, it doesn't actively punish you for avoiding giving Google direct access to all your browsing...
    - lotsofpulp 3y ago
      Same with all Google software, complete disregard for efficiency.
      - floydnoel 3y ago
        they actually added a setting to let tabs drop out of memory, but it's an opt-in
    - andrekandre 3y ago
      fwiw safari can also be a memory hog as well; it really comes down to the site you are browsing unfortunately (its just a reality of the web nowadays) just open a few tabs of youtube in safari and 8gb laptop starts to feel cramped
  - hgsgm 3y ago
    What benefit would you get if Chrome dropped cache earlier instead of later?
- yumraj 3y ago
  I don't how/why/where these myths have been perpetuated from that Apple Silicon Macs magically needs less RAM or magically Apple Silicon Macs are better at memory management. Software didn't start needing less RAM. All that changed is that RAM and SSD speeds became much faster which allowed for faster swap which reduced the perceived impact of low RAM. If you watch the Activity Monitor, Memory would run into yellow all the time with 8GB machines. So, you still need RAM based on the use case, Intel or Apple Silicon, and if you pair low RAM with small SSD, you'll just wear out the SSD sooner.
  - acchow 3y ago
    > I don't how/why/where these myths have been perpetuated from that Apple Silicon Macs magically needs less RAM or magically Apple Silicon Macs are better at memory management. It depends. For the Intel macbook pros, the GPUs had their own separate memory. For the intel macbook airs, the graphics could use up to 1.5GB of the system memory (so your 8GB MBA could have as little as 6.5GB of system memory) The unified memory model in M1 means the graphics can hopefully eat up less RAM since data from the system memory can be read directly by the graphics chip (no need to copy from system memory into graphics-reserved memory)
- gentleman11 3y ago
  that performance is due to extremely aggressive use of swap on the SSD, which is non-replaceable. I often use 4-7GB of swap, and wrote a TB in one day once when testing it. This "speed" is like goku's set himself on fire ability: it is killing him, but it makes him a bit more powerful. Ie, it's going to kill those macbooks long term They're rated for what, 150TBW in their lifetime? Suppose it lasts double that, then a macbook would last somebody like me 1-3 years before the ssd died and the entire machine became scrap
Toutouxc 3y ago
Nope, the $400 isn't really the price of 16 GB of RAM, it's more like the price difference between a "MacBook with 8 GB RAM" and "MacBook with 24 GB RAM". These two products are priced separately and aimed at different customers with different budgets.

danaris 3y ago

Have you actually tried using one of the Apple Silicon Macs with 8GB RAM? When they first came out, there was a great deal of hay made over the fact that this was still the base RAM—and then people started using them, and reporting that it was fine. As long as you're not trying to put them under heavy loads, 8GB RAM is plenty for the M1 and M2. And if you want to put it under heavy load...then you're not really the target customer for the base model, are you?

highfrequency 3y ago
Yes, I have tried using the M1 with 8GB RAM. I frequently bumped into RAM issues while using Chrome whenever I accumulated more than ~15 open tabs. At this moment I am on a 16GB M2 Air and using 14.6GB of RAM. The only substantial app I have open is Chrome.
- danaris 3y ago
  Chrome is well-known to be a vicious memory hog. Maybe you should try using Safari? It's not only much better with memory, it doesn't actively punish you for avoiding giving Google direct access to all your browsing...
  - lotsofpulp 3y ago
    Same with all Google software, complete disregard for efficiency.
    - floydnoel 3y ago
      they actually added a setting to let tabs drop out of memory, but it's an opt-in
  - andrekandre 3y ago
    fwiw safari can also be a memory hog as well; it really comes down to the site you are browsing unfortunately (its just a reality of the web nowadays) just open a few tabs of youtube in safari and 8gb laptop starts to feel cramped
- hgsgm 3y ago
  What benefit would you get if Chrome dropped cache earlier instead of later?
yumraj 3y ago
I don't how/why/where these myths have been perpetuated from that Apple Silicon Macs magically needs less RAM or magically Apple Silicon Macs are better at memory management. Software didn't start needing less RAM. All that changed is that RAM and SSD speeds became much faster which allowed for faster swap which reduced the perceived impact of low RAM. If you watch the Activity Monitor, Memory would run into yellow all the time with 8GB machines. So, you still need RAM based on the use case, Intel or Apple Silicon, and if you pair low RAM with small SSD, you'll just wear out the SSD sooner.
- acchow 3y ago
  > I don't how/why/where these myths have been perpetuated from that Apple Silicon Macs magically needs less RAM or magically Apple Silicon Macs are better at memory management. It depends. For the Intel macbook pros, the GPUs had their own separate memory. For the intel macbook airs, the graphics could use up to 1.5GB of the system memory (so your 8GB MBA could have as little as 6.5GB of system memory) The unified memory model in M1 means the graphics can hopefully eat up less RAM since data from the system memory can be read directly by the graphics chip (no need to copy from system memory into graphics-reserved memory)
gentleman11 3y ago
that performance is due to extremely aggressive use of swap on the SSD, which is non-replaceable. I often use 4-7GB of swap, and wrote a TB in one day once when testing it. This "speed" is like goku's set himself on fire ability: it is killing him, but it makes him a bit more powerful. Ie, it's going to kill those macbooks long term They're rated for what, 150TBW in their lifetime? Suppose it lasts double that, then a macbook would last somebody like me 1-3 years before the ssd died and the entire machine became scrap

Toutouxc 3y ago

Nope, the $400 isn't really the price of 16 GB of RAM, it's more like the price difference between a "MacBook with 8 GB RAM" and "MacBook with 24 GB RAM". These two products are priced separately and aimed at different customers with different budgets.