Go for 48gb if you plan to keep your macbook for a decent amount of time and use software that will truly take advantage of it - or, if you will use multiple apps all at the same time. Needed 32gb, but went for 64gb, and with all the software updates/upgrades I am glad I did.

You're gonna have hella over kill even with 24gb of Ram for those types of things

unless you're one of those people that never closes their browser tabs and likes to have all those programs up and running and the same time

At that point tho I don't think not wanting to close things is worth an extra $600

Only thing with video editing that'll possibly give issues is heavy color grading 4k video. Rotoscoping, green screen stuff. Even then 24gb is fine. The ram on these devices goes much farther when compared to like windows based laptops

I edit 24MP images on my 32GB MBP. It is fine, and 24GB will probably be fine. You will not need 48GB unless you pile on a lot of layers or upscale or both.

Most users do not need 48GB. Anything above 36GB is niche for extreme pros, or developers using large virtual machines or containers. Probably a lot of serious Hollywood VFX artists have more than 48GB, but most of us will not ever use all of it.

Insufficient RAM will render your computer extremely irritating to use long before your CPU will.

48. Always go with more ram. It’s the most important spec.

For me, 48GB was the best choice. I'm working in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Figma simultaneously and have Chrome and Safari open. I'm always around 40GB or more of RAM usage.
I'm quite lazy, so I could lower that down because some of my Figma files and prototypes use a lot of RAM, and I don't always close them when I'm not working on them.

I'm guessing that Final Cut is more CPU-heavy, so maybe 24GB can be enough for you.

It depends on your use case.

For audio production, if you mostly record live instruments, then 24 should be more than enough. But if you use tons of virtual instruments that are 2+ gigs per patch, then it might get too close for comfort.

And video production, If you are making 5-10 minute youtube videos, it will be more than enough. But if you are working on an hour+ long movie with 4k+ raw footage, you might need more.

For me 16gb was too little for (web) programming, but with 24gb I never had any issues. I can have 3 IDEs open, game, video edit, browse with a 100 tabs etc. no problem (not all at the same time ofc)

However, if you are planning to keep this mac for 10 years or something then you might really wanna go high on the RAM

if you dont photoshop often, then 8gb ram in the sweetspot.

If you want to use Adobe stuff you probably want 16gb minimum. Thier stuff is so greedy with RAM.

8gb is suitable for basic things and Im happy with it for light gaming, microsoft office and general browsing stuff.

IMO, it’s better to ask about memory pressure. RAM usage can be somewhat misleading because macOS will bias towards using all of it (since unused RAM is wasted RAM).

So, you might hear from someone with 32GB who says, “I’m at 21GB with Safari, PowerPoint, and Excel open right now.” That doesn’t mean that a 16GB model (or even an 8GB model) wouldn’t be able to handle the same workload with ease.

I have usually about 13 gigs used (Safari, Edge, Apple Music, Tweetbot, Mail, Whatsapp, Skype and Word/Excel).

I don’t use more then 10gb and I have the 64gb On boot it uses about 4.7gb and that’s pushing a 6k display

I have an 8Gb M1 air and no issues doing normal things. 16 is plenty.

You’ll be more that okay with 16Gb for you’re workload. 16Gb on M1 is plenty for even heavier use than what you’ve stated. And the 16 inch screen is beautiful.

I just switched to MBA in April from Windows (the slowest laptop I've ever had). I chose the 24G/512G based on current needs and figuring in future needs. I expect it to last me several years and I wanted it to be fast. I guess your decision is made for you since you don't want to lose out on the 150 off at Best Buy.

My MBA shipped from Hanoi, took 10 days but totally worth it! :)

If you plan on replacing it in 2-3 years, then 24 GB will be more than enough. It will last way longer than that time frame with that hardware. If you want to have a 7-8 year machine get the 32 GB.

16GB m4 mba is easily enough for your use case and if the difference in cost isn't a big deal to you add on whatever else you'd like.

This guy is pretty awesome. m4 air

Where you're buying, is there a return policy?

You prefer to save money, so I recommend you do the following:

• Buy the 24 GB RAM model (to save cash)

• When you get it, setup your apps, and simulate your heaviest workload (for design and drone footage editing)

• While doing all that, open Activity Monitor and keep an eye on Swap Used and memory pressure.

If swap used is 0, then 24 GB RAM is sufficient. If swap is several GB, and it's a task you're doing often, and you notice slow down or stuttering, then I would return it for 32 GB.

You know, video editing apps want to put as much video data into RAM. So its impossible (for me at least) to say what exactly you need in terms of memory for your projects. More is usually better, but you want to save money (understandably) and the best thing to do is buy the cheaper model but just confirm with data that it's ok.

I do 3d modeling/rendering, video editing etc on a MacBook Air M1 8gb without any problems at all.

Yes. I have the Air M1 with 8GB and it's plenty for standard multitasking.

It does me fine

I would go for 16gb and 512gb as minimum respectively. With 8gb you have a lot of swap, and system can become irresponsive with many tabs open. Maybe 8gb does it for you but if you can go for 16gb I highly recommend it for near future proof. JMTC.

For general use, you would likely be fine with 8gb. You can add storage via external drives, so I typically go 16gb as a baseline since the apple silicon chips tend to utilize a lot of swap.

As a developer, your memory requirement as same as windows. MacOS is efficient with its apps, but things we use have their own requirements. If you have git 26gb on windows, then you will hit 26gb on mac too. So it's better to bulk up to 32gb or more, as there won't be a way to change it once you made the purchase. I had the 16gb m2, I am constantly at 14 for last 6 months. Having offloaded db to cloud.

Solely based on you needing docker I would suggest you go for a 48gb ram model, docker works differently on macOS and tends to use more memory compared to windows, especially if your windows docker uses WSL.

Seeing your price constraints the more ram is better here so even 32gb with a slower chip would serve you well.

Don't believe the hype bout 8GB on a Mac being like 16GB on a PC. If you're working with big files, they still need to take up space in RAM.

MacOS does a good job of memory managment in general, and in particular makes good use of fast, tightly integrated SSDs for swap, so that many users won't notice when they're bumping up against memory limits during casual use. So you can get away with 8GB for a browsing-and-MS-Office Machine, if you don't mind that all that swap use is wearing down your SSD faster. It'll feel zippy enough.

But once you start in on heavy productivity, development, multimedia use, don't expect miracles. There's no magic here. Your needs are essentially the same as they would be on a PC.

Given what Apple charges for RAM and storage, prioritize the former and use external storrage for the latter, if it's practical for you.

Have you considered an Apple refurb? An M2 Pro or an M3 Pro with more ram will still be a beast of a machine. If you buy from Apple they’re like new and come with warranty.

24GB is not enough especially if you're running 4-5 containers a+ your other stuff. You'll be using a lot of swap. Ideally 48GB ram but with your budget, i guess its better to downgrade to m4 and get the 32GB.

Also i would get at least 1TB storage min since you're running 4-5 containers + stuff. 512GB is workable on a desktop like the mini because its stationary and you can just leave your SSD connected all the time; not so much with a laptop.

Return it. I had an 8gb M1 air and it was almost useless for what I needed. All I did was web browsing and opening aircraft maintenance manuals and it would slow to a crawl. I have an M2 air 16gb/1tb and I'm much happier

It really depends on what applications you are using. If you're going to be using the same applications you will usually get similar results.

If you're changing applications in addition to Ones you may see different results. That said you'll almost never regret upping the storage and the ram on a Mac. They often last a really long time and while it may be painful the day you purchase it it'll be much less painful over the life of the computer.

the bigger the ram the longer u can use it, in my experience. files and what applications use are only getting bigger with the years, streaming an 8k movie will be a reality at some point etc pp. and if u do any graphic work at all…. i mean i do video editing so i love the biggest ram possible anyways.

If you can, get 16GB of RAM.

The bigger the wallet, the bigger the RAM. You can’t update it later, and demands go up with time. Get all you can get for the long run

Macs are not magic. If you’re limited by 8GB elsewhere you will be limited by 8GB on you Mac. Go for 16GB. You’ll be able to use this machine for a long time so get a spec that will give you a little headroom