While the current version of macOS runs fine with 8 GB of RAM (not including swap usage), it's a good idea to future-proof a new Mac at the time of purchase. I don't even see the RAM cache being an issue since nothing will be very memory intensive, so why pay Apple $200 extra for another 8GB of RAM? Then again, I may be way off here since I don't own one (yet).Īm I being a little too minimalist, or worse, too frugal? I don't know for sure, so that's why I'm asking.

I've told my friend that with an external drive for their excess media plus iCloud, the entry-level MacBook Air has all the speed they need for work, play and school, including importing iPhone pictures, playing music and the SIMS 4 (with Expansion Packs), watching YouTube and Vimeo and finally using Apple programs like iChat, Safari, Mail, Pages, etc. Their current Mac, an early 2015 MacBook 1.1GHz Dual-Core M, also with 8GB RAM and 250GB SSD, has slowed down over time, so they're afraid that an entry-level MacBook Air M1 won't suit their needs because it will too slow, get too hot and suffer from low-battery life like their current Mac basically, it won't be able to handle all of their day-to-day tasks without more RAM memory. The Mac my friend gets will be an essential part their life: they go to college full-time and also work as an instructor online, so they need to record Zoom presentations, then use teaching software that requires Intel i5 processing speed or better to do various tasks like securely upload course recordings and download course materials. I'm asking this question here because I have a wonderful, very dear and amazing friend who simply does not believe me that 8GB RAM will be enough memory for their needs and was actually also considering paying more for a MacBook Pro than the Air because at $1000, this Mac must be too slow for everything that they need to do. Entry-level Macs used to be real slow because they used slow processors and came with too little RAM memory.

8gb ram for apple macbook pro 2011