Is 8GB of RAM Enough? MacBook Air Torture Test
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
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For more details about our stress test read the full breakdown here: quicktutorials...
How much RAM is enough? Is 8GB enough or do you need to upgrade? There’s been a lot of talk about Apple’s base models and how 8GB of RAM is not enough for a modern computer. Many users are unsure if 8GB is enough for their needs and unless you already own a Mac there isn’t an easy way to tell, it’s something you have to try and test yourself.
Here’s a stress test on a 2020 M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM. We start with a UA-cam video and a bunch of browser tabs and then proceed to launch Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and a bunch of applications. At what point does a base model start to freeze?
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I use it for complex motion graphics and it's slow sometimes but that's to be expected but I can still work on it It's not annoyingly slow, it's an incredible device
Depends on the usecase. I have the base m1 air (8/256) and I use it 8-12 hours every day for all my computing needs. Work stuff is perfect (ms office mainly, but apple apps as well like reminders/calendar), for browse and research (safari with 30-40 tabs with notes/word), for a little video editing with imovie (4k60fps video from i13 mini), nothing fancy just 10-20 minutes with few effects and edits mainly of my kids and family events, that's also perfectly fine. Some pixelmator pro to do little corrections, and sometimes a little garageband to record my guitar tunes and make some music. So I would say it's pretty capable, the battery life is amazing, the OS is rock solid.
If you want to push it harder, you definitely need more ram, but for me 8gb is fine for now, will see what the future brings.
That comment is kind of funny. It explains how nothing you did pushed the m1, even though 4k 60fps is really heavy for many mashines, but you still say "depends on the usecase". Tell me a use case the 8gb would be a problem.
@@seifenhasedreizehn4077 For bigger projects. My videos are short family stuff with very few effects as mentioned. Longer projects with multiple video sources and color correction will definitely consume more resources and swapping became very aggressive. Garageband also the same, I just use it to have some base drums and bassline that I can play along with, but with multiple added instruments it gonna suffer.
Still, as a non-pro user I think 8GB is enough. If you are a professional you definitely need at least 16GB to boost productivity. I can wait for renders to complete, it's just for fun. If I got my money for completed videos, the cost of upgrading pays for itself over time.
You deserve more subs!!
Thanks for the support! Only getting started with the channel so every like, comment, share and sub helps 🙏🏻
@@quick-tutorials Your efforts are outstanding, brother!! You are making good quality videos for 100 subs. You deserve much more appreciation and recognition!!
Most people have a model in their head based on PCs and gaming of how far 8Gbs of RAM gets you. Apple uses a unified memory model and swap memory with specific controllers on their storage for speed. NOW there is complaints specifically around the base MacBook Pro and pricing but one should consider everything you are getting for the base MacBook Pro.
This is amazing knowledge! I have a m1 MacBook Pro 8GB ram that I've been using for podcast production and some light video work. I was considering upgrading to a m3 model with as much ram as I can afford. But after watching this, I might keep this MacBook around a little longer. Thanks!
I think a lot of people focus too much on specs. I upgrade my computers only when I start regularly feeling like my work and productivity are being slowed down because the computer can’t handle the type of work I do. When it’s time to upgrade, you’ll feel it. If you’re not sure about it, then you probably don’t really need the upgrade.
I use it as a light software development work station and works like a charm. Amazing what that M3 chip can do with memory handling
Thanks so much111Very interesting test
Thanks for watching!
M1 still а legend! Base M2/M3 would be worse in this scenario, because of slow SSD
Base model M1 Macs really are great value for the money.
SlowER ssd. 3 GBPS is faster than most people will even notice with the only real use case being moving very large files consistently, something more attuned to a server rather than something you'd do on a Macbook. That said, everything else being identical, no reason to pay money to downgrade equipment.
This video is heavily relying on swapping. I am guessing he has a 1TB drive because on the base 256g even the swap would be out of space. The fast SSD in the M1 makes it feel less bad to swap, normally hitting the HDD to swap is TERRIBLE for performance.
@@Spladoinkal nope. some tests on UA-cam shows, that even in not demanding tasks, but when ram almost full (swap on) - M1 quicker and smoother than M2 base version
@@OmegaNineProfile my MacBook Air has a 512GB SSD but you're right, it did a decent amount of swapping.
You should keep Activity Monitor with memory tab on screen during these tests.
It's hard to present it in a clean way when juggling with so many windows, but I agree, that would be better. If I ever make more tests I'll make sure to include that.
I'm glad somebody has done this. of course you're taking a performance hit as soon as you hit too much swap (like 10GB is a lot), but this is an absurd situation; and the computer is still far from being on its knees. I have a similar configuration and swap won't be much more than 1GB, pressure will rarely be above green.
Impressive! Thank you!
I don't know if this affects somehow the results, but I use a M1 Macbook Air as my daily driver, but I boot from an external Thunderbolt 4, PCIe Gen 4 SSD, with 2TB of storage, and it kinda feels snappier than just the internal storage (I mean, its faster, the controller in the case allows up to 2800MB/s write speed). I'm not sure if the swapping is more efficient due to the disk speeds, but it seems so.
Interesting setup. Do you also utilize the internal drive for storage? I could see splitting the workload between two very fast drives helps run things smoothly.
Excelent video. I have a Mac book air M1 too, and whit davinci resolve works really well.
Apple now needs to start from a minimum of 16 gb ram for the base model. It offers upgrades starting at a minimum price of $ 200 for 8 gb ram!
nice video!!
Thanks!
That's absolutely amazing. I have a Macbook Air M1 myself (what an absolute magical device) and choose for 16GB RAM. When I see this, 8GB was actually enough, since I only use native programs such as Logic Pro X and FCP as my heaviest workflows, without all the stuff in the background that is.
8GB works really well but to be fair it does slow down occasionally. Usually it happens when working on a video project with hundreds of assets, multiple layers of high-resolution media etc. In this test it performed surprisingly well, but there definitely are tasks that make it struggle. M1 with 16GB is a great choice.
Underrated
One thing tho; the music are really loud and annoying
I think this type of content doesn't even need a music you have already got the good mic and for me at least that's enough
Appreciate the feedback! Noted on the music loudness.
@@quick-tutorialsi enjoyed the music 😂
Hard to believe.. Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
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In my country, the m1 air base model is 750 usd
The m2 air base model is 1080 usd.
I definitely dont think the m2 air is worth it
I gotta say that was impressive
About 10 seconds to open an application like photoshop? It's a disaster. I have MacBook Air with M1 and 16gb ram and it is much faster.
16GB is faster for sure but I feel like Adobe apps are not the best benchmark for this stuff. One of the studios I work at has Mac Studios with 128GB of RAM and I’m pretty sure Adobe apps sometimes take around 10 seconds to launch on those.
the simple answer is - no
I just have a macbook air m1... i use it for light use of youtube, shopping, and that's about it nowadays... i have had "clean my mac" for over 5 years and that often pops ups asking if i want to clean the memory to free it up. I think if you use Apple apps that are well tuned then it's fine - but if you start using non-apple apps thats when you run into issues. Considering computers are expected to do more - even if you are streaming you are streaming in higher res etc and needing more memory. Websites are bigger and more complex with more adverts - people are wanting to quickly switch between these.
I would say 8gb on an entry level macbook air which is designed for light use is acceptable... but for pro laptops - nah - it should never be an issue so should have at least 16gb. The pro laptops are now being pushed for gaming...also people are plugging them up to several monitors as well as churning out several streams of 4k or even 8k content... when you are paying all that money for a pro laptop you really don't want to run the risk of having to adjust your workflow
Certain games that are supposed to play on the m1 macbook air do play ok... but with a bump in ram they play better - so absolutely i can justify 8bg for an entry level but for a pro laptop i should be having to make adjustment to play my game because i dont have enough ram
the main issue i have though is if you do want to upgrade from 8gb to 16gb they are wanitng to charge £200 for it - thats ridiculous
I use ableton and pretty intense stuff with and it's perfectly fine.
I would still recommend 16gb because of the headroom
is this headroom worth the upgrade price is the question (but I'd maybe go used anyway)
But ssd will wear out this way
So will your shoes if you walk in them.
bloke r u gizzzin dah glizzey 2 dat ol gwerl
for that price... no it's not enough. nobody it's gonna convince me otherwise
the price of a used macbook air M1 base model is about 800$, maybe less. It's actually an incredible value for the CPU performances it has.
No.