this post was submitted on 13 Apr 2024
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I've been using a Macair with 8GB of ram since they came out. It was on sale at Costco and I had a gift card. I think I paid $500 out of pocket.
I was worried that 8GB would limit me but it was the one on sale so I rolled with it. I can say that after several years, the only time it's limited me was when I tried to run an AI model that was 8GB. Obviously, that becomes an issue at that point.
But for all I do with my air, including creating a 1GB ramdisk for a script/automation ml job I run, I have never felt limited by the ram.
I open a bagillion ff tabs. Never close windows etc. it's an air after all, not a workstation substitute, so my use ases arent overly taxing in the grand scheme of things. I'm not editing my 4k video or doing rendering with it. But ram hasn't been an issue outside of the AI workload with the 8GB model--and tbh that's only an issue because of the ML cores. They absolutely scream vs my 1080ti that's in my server. My m1 with 8GB of ram runs circles around my 24 core 128GB ram server that has a 1080ti.
I did just get a MacBook pro for work that I requested 128GB of ram. But that's because I wanted it for bigger AI models(and work is paying not me).
I have an m1 16gb, and i can easily hit the ram limit. Few android emulators and docker containers and im there. It may be an Air, but the CPU is perfectly capable of all of that and more, but the RAM is definitely holding it back.
Cant upgrade it without buying a whole new laptop, so Im stuck with it.
I totally believe you can hit the ram limit on these. I was just saying Ive surprisingly managed to be fine with 8GB.
Android emulators are notoriously memory hungry and there are certain tasks that just flat out require more ram regardless of how well it's managed.
The advice I heard about these a while back is: if you know 8GB isn't enough for you, then you aren't the market segment they are targeting with the basic models.
That said, no "pro" model should come with just 8GB. It just waters down what "pro" means.