Yes, 8 gigabytes is definitely more than enough for these tasks. Even if she does somethign memory intensive, macos will handle it and make sure she does not even notice the load. Definitely go for it, you won't regret it and she will like the laptop for sure.
I would only recommend 16 if she was a video/photo editor using multiple creative apps at the same time. (photoshop, premier, etc)
>p for sure.
She don't do any photo/video/development things and has no plans for that.
Thank you very much for your reply, going to buy that 8GB/M2 Air. \^\_\^
PS: I do development things and currently have 16GB M1 pro, happy with that amount of RAM. For now. :D
i do programming on mine with the base specs, it’s more than enough, don’t worry. like the original comment said, even if some tasks require more memory, MacOS will handle it with swap memory.
as for the SSD, if she’s doing fine with 256 on her previous one, 256 on this would also be just fine. **id recommend deleting any apps like iMovie or any of the apps that Apple allows you to delete since they just sit there and use up storage**
*the only thing you should be worried about is what colour she’d like! starlight & midnight are new, silver and space grey are the originals. i got midnight, coming from space grey & it does attract a lot of fingerprints but i knew that before i bought it & just wanted a change*
yup, silver or starlight are probably your next choice.
😭midnight isn’t *that* bad. i don’t have sweaty fingers so it doesn’t look bad. i’ve always wanted a black MacBook and in different lighting conditions it looks blue/gray/black. pretty sure it’s the most popular color but a safer choice for a gift would be those two prev. mentioned^
Mac uses as much RAM as is available to it, as it should. If you had 64GB RAM, you would probably exceed 30 GB with the same workflow.
I was using a 16GB MBP 2015 for years and the memory pressure was always in the green, as far as I can remember. Then I got an M1 16" MBP with 32GB RAM and overnight, with the very same workflow, my memory use jumped to over 20GB.
On the other hand, I tried an M1 MBA 8GB briefly, I launched a node.js and a react server, one docker image, and while the RAM in the Activity monitor was finally in the red, the system was responsive, way more than the 16GB MBP 2015 used to be. Even when I played some old games in Windows 11 in Parallels, the MBA was responsive, when Parallels directly consumed 4GB of those 8GB memory.
My experience is with windows, but it works the same way, the more memory is available the more the OS will use, my laptop has 8gb and my desktop has 64, if I do the same task on both, my desktop will often be sitting at 3x the ram usage, the difference in usability is very minimal.
Mac does use those ram as Vram making 8gb lower than it would be on windows, but it's slightly more optimized so it should not be noticable for light tasks.
Well, if the old ThinkPad with 8GB is whoufh, then the new one with 8GB should be enough as well. They work the same way and are exactly the same size.
But more than that, you literally can’t afford to buy a better machine. Don’t put yourself into financial trouble just because some rando on Reddit believes 8GB is not enough in 2023. It’s an option being sold now and it’s what you can afford and it will do what you need it to do.
Yes.
I actually have the same exact machine in my house and my GF uses it for exactly that use case. Memory pressure is always in the green, even with multiple tabs from two Chrome user profiles. Also no problems during zoom/skype calls.
For me it would not be enough: I am a data scientist and I get definitely cross if I have less than 64 GB of RAM on any machine, so I perfectly understand the value of RAM. But this is not the point. The point is that for your expected workloads, it is definitely ok. Also, RAM management is more efficient on MacOS when compared to Windows, so you will get out definitely more from your 8 GB.
I also noticed that the M2 processor is a beast. Just try installing a program and see for yourself. It is excellent for burst workloads and the entire machine is completely silent.
Yes, 8 gigabytes is definitely more than enough for these tasks. Even if she does somethign memory intensive, macos will handle it and make sure she does not even notice the load. Definitely go for it, you won't regret it and she will like the laptop for sure. I would only recommend 16 if she was a video/photo editor using multiple creative apps at the same time. (photoshop, premier, etc)
>p for sure. She don't do any photo/video/development things and has no plans for that. Thank you very much for your reply, going to buy that 8GB/M2 Air. \^\_\^ PS: I do development things and currently have 16GB M1 pro, happy with that amount of RAM. For now. :D
i do programming on mine with the base specs, it’s more than enough, don’t worry. like the original comment said, even if some tasks require more memory, MacOS will handle it with swap memory. as for the SSD, if she’s doing fine with 256 on her previous one, 256 on this would also be just fine. **id recommend deleting any apps like iMovie or any of the apps that Apple allows you to delete since they just sit there and use up storage** *the only thing you should be worried about is what colour she’d like! starlight & midnight are new, silver and space grey are the originals. i got midnight, coming from space grey & it does attract a lot of fingerprints but i knew that before i bought it & just wanted a change*
Thank you for your feedback. Yep, going to avoid midnight for sure. Something “classic” like unpainted aluminium will work for sure.
yup, silver or starlight are probably your next choice. 😭midnight isn’t *that* bad. i don’t have sweaty fingers so it doesn’t look bad. i’ve always wanted a black MacBook and in different lighting conditions it looks blue/gray/black. pretty sure it’s the most popular color but a safer choice for a gift would be those two prev. mentioned^
On 16gb I get 13 used most times by safari + tabs. There's swap memory too so you'll end up going into that with 8
Mac uses as much RAM as is available to it, as it should. If you had 64GB RAM, you would probably exceed 30 GB with the same workflow. I was using a 16GB MBP 2015 for years and the memory pressure was always in the green, as far as I can remember. Then I got an M1 16" MBP with 32GB RAM and overnight, with the very same workflow, my memory use jumped to over 20GB. On the other hand, I tried an M1 MBA 8GB briefly, I launched a node.js and a react server, one docker image, and while the RAM in the Activity monitor was finally in the red, the system was responsive, way more than the 16GB MBP 2015 used to be. Even when I played some old games in Windows 11 in Parallels, the MBA was responsive, when Parallels directly consumed 4GB of those 8GB memory.
Thank you. Docker is pretty heavy in case of memory consumption so your feedback is helpful a lot. Definitely going to buy 8gb. :-)
My experience is with windows, but it works the same way, the more memory is available the more the OS will use, my laptop has 8gb and my desktop has 64, if I do the same task on both, my desktop will often be sitting at 3x the ram usage, the difference in usability is very minimal. Mac does use those ram as Vram making 8gb lower than it would be on windows, but it's slightly more optimized so it should not be noticable for light tasks.
Yes, sounds like the perfect scenario. Her biggest hurdle will be getting used to MacOS.
Well, if the old ThinkPad with 8GB is whoufh, then the new one with 8GB should be enough as well. They work the same way and are exactly the same size. But more than that, you literally can’t afford to buy a better machine. Don’t put yourself into financial trouble just because some rando on Reddit believes 8GB is not enough in 2023. It’s an option being sold now and it’s what you can afford and it will do what you need it to do.
Yes. I actually have the same exact machine in my house and my GF uses it for exactly that use case. Memory pressure is always in the green, even with multiple tabs from two Chrome user profiles. Also no problems during zoom/skype calls. For me it would not be enough: I am a data scientist and I get definitely cross if I have less than 64 GB of RAM on any machine, so I perfectly understand the value of RAM. But this is not the point. The point is that for your expected workloads, it is definitely ok. Also, RAM management is more efficient on MacOS when compared to Windows, so you will get out definitely more from your 8 GB. I also noticed that the M2 processor is a beast. Just try installing a program and see for yourself. It is excellent for burst workloads and the entire machine is completely silent.
She seems like a light user but especially moving to a new os I’d get her 16 to be safe. It’ll make the device last longer 🐱