M3 MacBook Air 8GB vs 16GB RAM - Explained

[@motiveminute01]

Docker when I open it: 8 GB swap memory used yikes. Never buying a 8gb ram MacBook again

[@brandonkennedy]

Yeah it’s a shame, great technology just not so great when it eats into your storage on the base model

[@axa993]

You should ALWAYS get more RAM than you think you would need. Why? Longevity. In the long run the difference in price won't hurt that much but if you decide to step up your usage you won't need to replace your entire freaking computer just to get some more RAM. That's how you actually waste money. If you're not in a position to spend more for RAM then you probably shouldn't be getting a Macbook anyway, get a cheap fast Windows machine and buy a proper Macbook or any other premium machine once you can ACTUALLY afford it. Regarding storage - Apple is a complete bitch for not allowing upgrades here but you can always buy a fast USB-C 3.2 or Thunderbolt external SSD and store the data there.

[@brandonkennedy]

Couldn’t agree more! I do think that the new standard should be changed from 8gb to 16gb given the increase in demand from even the most basic applications

[@user-hl9jq8iz4i]

So should I get 16 gb ram And 256gb storage variant???

[@maheshpun4804]

Everybody knows this, that's why Apple is overcharging for RAM

[@JustifyJustin]

Wouldn't a larger base drive offer you swap storage option and the advantage of not having to tag along with external drives? On the assumption you're buying an Air as an "on the road" portable device.

[@moasher]

im going to be starting university soon for cyber security, i think the 16gb variant is worth it, especially since I want the macbook air lasting atleast 4 5 years

[@brandonkennedy]

Completely agree, best of luck with cyber security 🙌🏻

[@chinniapparao6616]

Hii bro i am a cyber security student studying btech 2nd year my doubt is macbook air m3 16gb 256gb good for cyber security ?? Please reply

[@MenOfVALORz]

@@chinniapparao6616100% worth it

[@brandonkennedy]

Definitely worth it!

[@A3PTech]

I had the 8gb/256gb M1 Air. Upgraded to the M3 Air 16gb/512gb .... Other than the updated design, which is nice, I can't tell any difference between them. I pay for the 2TB storage of iCloud, so without that I may have struggled with the storage, however regarding the upgrade from M1 to M3 and 8GB to 16GB, literally zero difference. That M1 Macbook Air is still a fantastic laptop. If you have it, don't upgrade, not yet. It's not worth it.

[@NiyoushaAlerasoul]

hey bro, same here me having mba m1 with 8gb of ram and I would like to start learning UI design with Figma, and i was thinking about changing my device to MBA m3 with 16Gb of Ram, you think it's a waste of money and I can still use my MBA M1 ? Thanks in advance

[@brandonkennedy]

Completely agree - I think in general a good rule is if your machine isn't struggling and is working fine with your workload then you shouldn't look to upgrade.

[@brandonkennedy]

I'd stick with your M1 air until you find the limits of the machine, then consider upgrading.

[@gerardbertran11]

Have you noticed a difference in the screen/display quality between the two? I want to buy the M1 Air but I am not sure about it because of how good the screen is compared to the M3 Air..

[@brandonkennedy]

I've definitely noticed a difference, it hasn't put me off but I suggest you go to an Apple Store and see for yourself

[@theartshow1476]

High profile KZbinrs be like: “ I had 100 safari tabs open and then opened Final Cut Pro while running a geek bench test and it lagged a little, so our recommendation is for everyone to buy the 64 gb ram MacBook Pro for video editing.”

[@brandonkennedy]

@@theartshow1476 Hahah agreed

[@tiffanyzeh]

I’m wanting to do college work and maybe some photo editing on a new MacBook Air. Should I get 8 or 16?

[@brandonkennedy]

You should be fine with the 8gb version if you’re only doing light tasks and don’t plan on doing much more than that - otherwise go for 16

[@JustifyJustin]

Budget wise stuck between choosing between a M3 Air with 8GB/512GB and 16GB/256GB for Office use (corporate). Typically Office Suite, Teams, Websites and now and then (maybe 5% of the time) very light photoshop (Canva level). My mind says 8GB/512GB because the extra storage space can double as swap RAM and if you have the smaller drive space version (256GB) then you might have to do the external drive life, which is very inconvenient and potentially risky (theft, data loss etc). Looking to have a functional highly portable laptop for the next 4-5 years with the same use case. Do you perhaps have a suggestion?

[@siblings5928]

I am looking to buy m3 macbook but can't decide whether to get 8gb ram or 16gb ram. I will use it for school purposes (studying) which include browsing, word/excel and other school related tasks. Which ram do you suggest to get?

[@lastpioneer]

Just bought, 4-6 tabs of chrome, emails… 10 gb already used of 16

[@siblings5928]

Guess I will get the 16gb ram

[@brandonkennedy]

You could get away with the base model - I did my entire computing degree with a base model that wasn’t apple silicon and it was fine but it did struggle as the years went on and as I threw more at it.

[@siblings5928]

@@brandonkennedy I bought the 16gb one for future proofing

[@brandonkennedy]

Great choice.

[@stw2186]

My 2012 MacBook Pro has officially died. I had upgraded it to 8/SSD 256. I am looking to upgrade to a MacBook Air M3. This device will be used to write emails, web browse, watch KZbin videos, Google Docs, Google sheets, FaceTime, and iMessage. Should I go 8 or 16?

[@brandonkennedy]

You should be fine with the base model, you likely won't need the extra RAM if you're not going to be increasing your workload past what you have said there.

[@stw2186]

@@brandonkennedy Thank you for the reply!

[@brandonkennedy]

No need for thanks!

[@stw2186]

@@brandonkennedy just purchased an M3 MacBook Air 8/256 for $850.

[@stw2186]

@@brandonkennedy just purchased the M3 8/256!

[@rollerboogie]

8GB is not enough for me. But I basically just use my macbook for browsing the internet and some basic stuff. It's nice while traveling or on the go. I didn't want to spend much on it because I already have a maxed out desktop and a work laptop. I got my M2 macbook air with 8GB for 800 or so new. Happy with that. If I need to close some applications to keep it running well then I'm ok with that. I have 2x smartphones (work/personal), 2x laptops, multiple desktops. I can switch to another device.

[@brandonkennedy]

Awesome, sounds like you have it worked out! It definitely takes some trial and error

[@angelicarluna6638]

For an architect it is a good idea to have 16GB of RAM, 10 GPU, but with 256 GB SSD? Or can I have a problem with the storage capacity? Thank u

[@brandonkennedy]

Hey it depends what kind of file sizes you will be dealing with. You could always just get an external hard drive.

[@EvolutionOfMan]

Fantastic video! Extremely helpful and thank you so much for explaining all of that. First video out of about 10 that I’ve watched that actually explained what all that stuff is and how it works 🙏

[@brandonkennedy]

I really appreciate that, glad it helped!

[@fkangalov]

The amountt they charge for a bigger SSD or more Ram is preposterous. You need to buy external later? Why not just make it upgradebale, I can never get a Mac only for these reasons really even though it may be awesome otherwise.

[@iforgotmeshoes]

ram cant be external due tot he very high speeds required in its operation however ssds 100% can be

[@brandonkennedy]

Yeah I agree, it’s another way to keep you in the Apple ecosystem and paying more sadly!

[@fkangalov]

I think at least they should make an SSD upgradeable

[@brandonkennedy]

@@fkangalov Yep, but from their perspective it doesn’t make sense - we can dream 😂

[@fkangalov]

@@brandonkennedy Then for me at least I probably will not even consider it :D

[@lalrinzualijahau350]

Hi! Should I get the MacBook air m2 16gb ram or the m3 8gb ram for uni? I will be using it mostly to work on excel and word.

[@brandonkennedy]

You should be fine with either, both are fantastic laptops and great for light workloads.

[@subayeel]

Hi I am Full stack developer, My development includes two instances frontend and backend running with 2 docker container running in Background and Chrome browser with multiple tabs open and a Postman application. Is M3 8gb / 256gb is going to suffice or i should opt for higher?

[@brandonkennedy]

I’d go for 16gb all day.

[@thisath_renuja]

What is best for a uni student + video editor

[@brandonkennedy]

It depends to what extent you’re going to be video editing, if it’s going to be quite regularly and potentially intensive you’re probably better upgrading to 16gb of ram and additional storage if you can stretch the budget

[@MohamedIsmail-sb9gm]

I have to do full stack java and python i go for 8gb ram either 16 gb ram ?

[@brandonkennedy]

16gb!

[@razankout6650]

Hello, i’m a medical engineering student, i’ll be using my laptop mainly for school work , watching online lectures, research maybe some zoom meetings, but i’ll be using it everyday for long hours , i’m considering buying the M3 8GB but i’m not quite sure , because i really want it to last for the whole 4 years, love to hear a second opinion

[@ericreinwald4294]

For 4 years so you need 16 GB bro

[@MADDGAMMER]

I’m a regular medical student using Anki with heavy add-ons and huge deck with images and video, notion, Pages, Goodnotes and loads of tabs of AMBOSS and Thieme eRef open on a MacBook Pro m1 with 8gb and trust me get the 16gb one. The memory pressure is constantly in the orange with loads of swap. Still fast but not as much as it could be.

[@brandonkennedy]

Agreed with everyone replying that you'll need 16gb to have an enjoyable experience for years to come - think of it as an investment. Your workload doesn't sound very intensive so the 16gb will likely only come into use a few years down the line as you increase your workload.

[@Imaginer10]

Hello brother basically i am going to start video editing and content creating, also i have to do my university works and other stuffs like that. So which one is best for me. 8 gb or 16 gb MacBook air?

[@brandonkennedy]

I’d go with the 16gb to be safe, it will also give you room to grow into should you take on more intensive tasks.

[@Imaginer10]

@@brandonkennedy thank you brother 🤍✨

[@brandonkennedy]

@@Imaginer10 any time🙏🏻

[@larissamarie514]

hey i recently had just bought a macbook and im a college student just to use my macbook for my education and a bit of personal use. (streaming, music, photos) Looking to use it long term did i make the right choice M2 chip/16 GB with 512 GB SSD? Was expensive but i was afraid 16GB was too much since i don’t do anything heavy like editing.

[@brandonkennedy]

Yeah you've made the right choice! It was expensive but it's going to last a lot longer than the base model would have so enjoy it. Plus who knows, you may take up video editing or the likes in future and at least you'll know your laptop will be capable. Enjoy it!

[@o_KingOfKings_o]

I want to buy MacBook for my mom because his laptop from 2016 is so slow , should I get the 16 gb ram oh 8 ? I’m not familiar with Apple products, maybe I wait for Black Friday but idk

[@brandonkennedy]

Hey what would she be using it for?

[@andychen4037]

Good job for the explanation!

[@brandonkennedy]

Thank you!

[@sunnyvirk888]

My Dell XPS 15 has 32GB RAM and it still sucks most of the time. How's compared to that? I'm planning to switch to a Mac, probably Mac Air 16/512 variant. I wish I could get a refurbished one in India.

[@Rusty01]

what xps ??? what year --- dont be fooled 8gb of mac is not 16gb on windows.

[@brandonkennedy]

As Rusty mentioned, RAM on a windows machine vs Mac are really not compatible, MacOS is far better optimised to use the RAM it has.

[@sunnyvirk888]

@@Rusty01 XPS 15 9510, 2023 It’s not that old but really sucks randomly on normal use. Sometimes it works just fine even with resource intensive work but not reliable I’d say.

[@brandonkennedy]

You'll be impressed with how the latest Apple laptops work.

[@sunnyvirk888]

@@brandonkennedy yep. I got my MacBook air M3 a couple of days ago and it seems really smooth. More to explore...

[@Roger_Rademakers_1971]

I have just ordered this MacBook Air 13" in silver ( M3 / 16GB / 512 GB ) for €1349 ( £1125 ) !! --> ♥🍏

[@brandonkennedy]

Awesome, enjoy it!

[@corruptx7]

Like you said, the base model is suitable for the majority of users. Most people, especially college students will have a few browser tabs opened, word/excel and even an IDE. In most cases you won’t be running complex tasks that require more than 8GB of RAM. Top video and good explanation my g!

[@brandonkennedy]

Completely agree man, thank you🙏🏻

[@eemanahmad329]

I’m thinking of getting the 8 GB/256 GB variant and will be using it for normal tasks such as Word/Excel, browsing, research etc. Since I do research I will definitely have too many tabs open at once, although I won’t use Chrome considering how it much RAM it uses. I will also be using R on RStudio. Is the 8 GB option good enough? I need to save money but don’t want buy a Windows laptop

[@brandonkennedy]

It should be fine, but if you want to future proof yourself the next model up (even just 16gb of ram) will be a massive help.

[@giselle319]

is the macbook pro m3 14 inch 16gb ram good for carrying around in my backpack or would it be too heavy? I like how it has a good screen so I can do homework outside and the 16gb for future proof. The 16 inch might be good cuz if a bigger size right but then I feel it would be too heavy since the pros are heavy the airs. I found an open box pro m3 14 inch 16gb ram 512 gb for $1,413, and I paid $1,400 for the same version except 16gb. So I was thinking about getting the 16gb since its pretty much the same price. Also, since the pro has an HDMI port I can connect it to my tv right?

[@brandonkennedy]

Yeah the Pro is far heavier than the air but I carried around my pro for 4 years during my degree and it was fine. The HDMI port will allow you to connect straight to your TV but if you get a USB-C to HDMI that will work the same so don't let that put you off.

[@the____echoes]

Subscribed Sir . Great and short explanation. Much love from India. I am planned to buy MacBook Air 15 inch M3 16 GB / 512 GB SSD storage especially for my coding and web development. Along with video editing maybe in the future endeavours. Your short information was very crucial for me to buy the 16 GB Ram . Sukriya ! 🤍🥹🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@brandonkennedy]

Thank you my friend, enjoy your new laptop🙏🏻

[@futboltop-ku1sh]

Hey there, nice video. Do you think it would be enough having 8gb of ram? I'll be mostly doing excel, word, youtube, browsing, emailing, a bit of image editing (on the browser), etc. Not video editing at all nor gaming.

[@brandonkennedy]

Hey! Thank you - good question, how long are you planning on keeping the laptop? For future proofing I'd go with 16gb but you won't need it in the next 2 years if you sustain that level of workload.

[@gb649]

I will be doing MBA. Is 8GB Ram enough? Mostly MS office stuff like excel and PPT

[@brandonkennedy]

Yep you should be fine!

[@gb649]

@@brandonkennedy thanks!

[@brandonkennedy]

Anytime!

[@oleksiytsabun8985]

omg.... wish I had seen this video before buying air m3 with 8 gb ram. Im really bad at laptop specs, so asked shop assistant help me with the choice. He said 16 and 8gd have no differences in performance, so i went with the cheaper option.... Maybe il try trade in and get even m2 with 16gb

[@brandonkennedy]

Don’t worry you still have a very capable laptop. What kind of work do you do on it?

[@oleksiytsabun8985]

@@brandonkennedy I wanna try myself in video editing, but mostly I’m gonna use it for studying

[@brandonkennedy]

@@oleksiytsabun8985 Try out some video editing and see how it goes - it may be fine depending on how complex you go!

[@JustifyJustin]

Is your laptop struggling with your tasks or do you just have FOMO? ;-)

[@ADCarson7393]

Hey, I'm High School student looking at the M3 Mac book Air, I do a little bit of photoshop but mainly need it for getting good grades at school do you think 8gb would be enough? Also, i need one for 3 years would it last me that long also?

[@ZeldagigafanMatthew]

8 gigs is barely enough for anything but the lightest of loads. For photoshop work, 16 gigs is the bare minimum I'm comfortable with recommending, and if it were me making this purchase, I'd go with no less than 24.

[@brandonkennedy]

It depends what photoshop work you're going to be doing and how much of it because it will fast become a bottleneck on 8gb of RAM. As for getting good grades and general use of the laptop 8gb will be perfect.

[@fatih7106]

should I get m3 air 8/256 just for youtube netflix web browsing? is this good enough? is that good for 6-9 years? (sorry for my english😅)

[@brandonkennedy]

Hey! The base model will be perfect for years to come if that’s all you are doing 😎

[@Vanshgarg27]

Would macbook air M3 16 gb 256gb and 16 gb 512 gb will work the same ….and for storage i can use a small external ssd ?

[@ix0xo]

you don't need more SSD storage when you are worried about the swapping get only the max RAM. 16GB or even 24GB. Even the 512 GB SSD is not too big. 1 TB very tiny portable samsung ssd is 100 € / 100 $ only.

[@brandonkennedy]

@@Vanshgarg27 should be fine. What is your normal workload?

[@gregorycalixte8070]

I just bought the MacBook Air M3 16gb ram and base storage 256gb is this good enough for everyday use?

[@brandonkennedy]

It definitely is!

[@AadavPonShankarSrinivasan]

I will just use it for browsing, watching videos and trading. Also i want it to be future proof. So i should get 8gb or 16gb ram ?

[@brandonkennedy]

You should be fine with the base model if you don’t plan on increasing workload to the likes of video editing, etc.

[@tosaksanetaweesuk3441]

Im mostly gonna use it for trading, Where many tabs, and apps will be used like spotify, discord, trading and just basic movies/youtube is the 16B really worth it?

[@brandonkennedy]

Probably not man, unless you have the spare cash and want to future proof it further you’d be fine with the base model 😎

[@tosaksanetaweesuk3441]

@@brandonkennedy this company where am gonna buy it allows me to pay in installments, after 2 years andfinishing the down-payment it will allow me to swap the pc for a certain price. This vid helped me a lot bro thanks for quick response and also saved me about 600$

[@brandonkennedy]

@@tosaksanetaweesuk3441 you are very welcome, enjoy your new machine 🙏🏻

[@FrancesAdoraLavilla]

Help! What should I buy? Air w 16 gb or Pro w 8gb?? Im mainly doing uni work and research. Thankss!!

[@ItsTheSidJ]

Buy the 8GB. You’re welcome 👍

[@brandonkennedy]

Base model air would be perfect for you 🙏🏻

[@brandonkennedy]

My thoughts exactly 😁

[@galasitygaming]

Depends on what type of research are you doing! 8 gb will be fine for papers, doing web assignments, and more! Even coding if that’s what your research involves. But you might want to invest in 16 gb of RAM if you plan on running intensive applications. For example, I bought a MacBook Pro M1 Pro with 16 GB of memory 2 years ago! It got me through college perfectly fine, and I was mainly doing coding with Python and astronomy software. 8 GB would have been completely fine for my studies, and even for intensive code I run, I was running them on another server. However, overtime my needs grew! I have a hobby where I create video game music on Logic Pro, and I found some amazing plugins that eat up a good amount of memory! Also, the python code that I’m running now grew in complexity, and I find myself using 30 GB of swap memory running a machine learning model. If you know in the future that you’re in a field where you are going to run intensive applications, I’ll say you’re better off with 16 GB or more depending on what kind of research are you doing and are likely to do. Otherwise 8 GB is completely fine, and you can likely get away with doing intensive tasks in the cloud

[@plastictreeee]

Please help me out here! I am confused between M3 Air 16gb and M3 Pro 8gb I am going for a masters in AI so it would include a lot of coding as well, i dont game or video edit at all.

[@theaungmyatmoe]

You need RAN not fan

[@brandonkennedy]

Air 100% - the RAM is most important.

[@gerardbertran11]

Thank you so much for your video. Very professional and informative.

[@brandonkennedy]

Thanks a million for the feedback. I hope it helped 🙏🏻

[@sc.studio]

M3 Air still calling my name 😄 Really nice breakdown!

[@brandonkennedy]

Thank you sir - I think it would suit you😎

[@IshwariBire-k3j]

8/256 or 16/256 or 8/512

[@brandonkennedy]

Depends on what you’ll be using it for but always more RAM less storage if you have to pick one. External SSDs can always be added

[@ФадиМансурСюлейман]

I really like the way you explained it :)

[@brandonkennedy]

Thank you my friend, glad it was helpful😁

[@ФадиМансурСюлейман]

@@brandonkennedy In what you say. I believe that Apple made the right decision by equipping devices with 8 GB of RAM with more affordable price, as it is more than sufficient for casual mac users. I dont understand why there is such a push for casual, non-professional users to upgrade to 16 GB, 24 GB capacities, particularly given that the cost of these upgrades in Europe are about 400 $ just 8gb for the ram. The battery will likely run out the ride long before the 8 GB of RAM becomes the "bottleneck" for powerpoint or word.

[@brandonkennedy]

@@ФадиМансурСюлейман While I agree that most people won't need 16gb+ that doesn't mean Apple aren't overcharging - comparative laptops are available for much cheaper/with better specs - When you're paying almost thousands for a laptop you don't want it to become obsolete in a few years.

[@Naylay_lifestyle]

$2097 for 16gb ram 😅 oh god

[@brandonkennedy]

It ain’t cheap!

[@pombonerdoficial]

I really don't know what to do, please help me out ! I really enjoy playing games, and I know all the macs are not for gamers context. But even than I really don't want a windows PC gamer. Anyway I plan to play mostly world of warcraft, apple arcade games and some steam games such as civilization 6 some total war games and I plan to play assassins creed shadows just announced as native for mac. I have two options in my country....A macbook pro 13" 8gb ram 2022 (the one with the touchbar) for U$ 1100 or a macbook air m3 13" but with 16gb ram for U$ 1500, both with 512hd. I know the m3 is much better but for my kind of gaming do you think 8gb would be enough ?

[@brandonkennedy]

I’m not sure 8GB would be enough for gaming to be honest, it might be okay for the likes of Apple Arcade or some Minecraft but past that I’d say it will struggle. Probably best to look up a review on people who have done something similar and see what they think🙏🏻