TRUTH | 1 week with 8GB M3 MacBook

I used the M3 MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM for software development - FOR A WEEK!
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#macbook #macbookpro #m3

[@AZisk]

Sharing my experience here, good and bad. Trying to be neutral here, and make conclusions BASED ON ACTUAL TESTS, instead of rhetoric.

[@TechwithStefan]

only if Apple will see this video and understand you cannot ship a 1000$+ with 8GB of RAM in 20xx when you can buy any laptop with 16GB RAM with less than 400$

[@AZisk]

@@TechwithStefan Yes if only Tim saw my video, then he would definitely lower the prices.

[@TechwithStefan]

@@AZiskI do sense the sarcasm here Alex, nice point But still I wonder how Apple will be pricing / spec products today if Steve Jobs will still be around, Saying that because I remember watching a lot of keynotes from him and each year he will present more memory for that product and even for same price or cheaper, he understood the impact of this and this helped Apple grow Even back in the day , Apple had let’s say expensive products but some had similar or even better price than what PC can offer Coming back to 8GB on a Pro machine .. the problem is also MacOS , it is no Damn Small Linux , and back in the days I used to build hackingtosh using snow leopard 10.6.8 on my Acer Aspire One with 2GB of ram and it will run great Even before I had a Thinkpad T61 and run MacOS on it and using Paraleles run Windows virtually and had 3GB of ram on a dual core T7100 intel.. today software is demanding too much RAM and we don’t see the improvements, so yes macOS has become like Chrome , hungry for ram. PS: if Steve Jobs will be around we sure will have had better prices or/and 16GB RAM 512GB ssd on 1000$ Apple machines Ps2: maybe also an Apple car and a cheap and good iPhone SE4 for 459$ today PS3 I enjoy your videos , keep up the good work !

[@JohnSmith-pn2vl]

it's so refreshing to have a content creator who really gets it, your Analysis is spot on. my father is a woodworker, the money to invest as a developer to be able to work is a complete joke. even if you buy the most expensive mac pro with triple Studio XDR displays + 3 stands for well over 100k it's still nothing in comparison. a single big machine costs more than that, not to mention the building, the energy, the employee's etc... a developer just needs a laptop and that's basically it, yet we are crying for couple 100 bucks for more memory or storage.

[@user-hn1cy5ee5l]

8GB is not an option at all, My daily usage of RAM is ~14GB without LLM. Docker (redis+postgresql) + Pycharm + Webstorm + Chrome + all messangers like slack, signal etc. And since this is unified memory e.g. it''s being used by CPU and GPU then we are talking that for CPU it's not even 8B but less, because some RAM is taken by GPU

[@NetImperia]

I have a friend(web developer) who bought an m1 with 8 gigabytes of memory. He used it with docker. His ssd died 1.5 years later...

[@RunForPeace-hk1cu]

I have a 2012 MBP15 16GB, 256GB SSD .... (web developer) ... lasted me 10yrs before the SSD died. 🤷🏻‍♂

[@ThePgR777]

@@RunForPeace-hk1cu exactly, you had double ram == less swap

[@akin242002]

RIP SSD. It didn't deserve the RAM abuse.

[@julianojosoa2145]

​@@RunForPeace-hk1cu well like the person before already said the SSD died not because it's a bad SSD but because of Swap. 8Gb of RAM will use SSD as Swap pretty much all thé time especially now in 2024. That's why OP's SSD died in 1.5years

[@yanz_77]

I don't think it's because of the memory swap. My friend did the same, even worse. still good on 4 years

[@DannyMexen9]

I remember when you were sub 100K and look where you are now. Thank you for all your hard work! Let’s go 300K!

[@AZisk]

thanks for being there along with me

[@alextgordon]

I feel like if you are developing software professionally, then just go crazy and spec way more RAM than you'll ever need. $3k, $4k, it's a drop in the ocean for your primary professional tool. It's better to waste money and have more RAM than you will ever need, than to try to predict how much RAM you'll need and to come up short. Software devs are blessed, the tools of our trade are cheap compared to e.g. video or audio gear. If you're not a professional and you're on a budget, then find some way to buy a machine with 16GB, even if it's an older gen. A CPU upgrade just makes a machine faster, but a RAM upgrade gives a machine new capabilities.

[@AZisk]

well said

[@Winnetou17]

Very well said. I'm still on a laptop that's over 7 years old. It has 64 GB of RAM because that's how I wanted it to have when I bought it and I knew I'll use them. This did help me greatly in being able to have many things opened at once and even using RAMDisks, which I love. Now I'm bitter that 128 GB laptops are still not really a thing. They're rare and the RAM is at terrible speeds (even on desktops). While right now I don't reallly need 128 GBs, since I want my next laptop to also last for 7 years (preferably 10), I know I will eventually use 128 GB of RAM. Hopefully with Arrow Lake I might be lucky (or Zen 5, but I kinda want Intel)

[@veoquenoesunproblema]

True, i had top 2017 PC with 32 at 3200mhz, i used to use 20 daily, better to have more than less and more important on apple equipment which sucks for upgrading something: you can’t

[@eldonad]

I would have to disagree slightly: for development in a compiled language (C++,Rust and so on) having a good CPU can be life changing when dealing with large projects, more so than RAM. And for gaming Vulkan compatibility is becoming more and more a requirement, which most old pc's don't meet. For everything else, 100% agree, RAM and repairability are the most important factors if you want a long lasting device. (To drive the point a bit, my Samsung Tab from two years ago, a tablet running android, compiles at times thrice as fast as my windows professional grade i5 laptop from 2013)

[@LeetDroid1]

Not everyone can afford the luxury. I earn below $150 a month

[@phongnamhai]

I’ve decided to opt for a pre-owned M1 MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM, as it’s more affordable. In my experience, having ample RAM to ensure smooth program execution outweighs the marginal speed increase from a newer M3 MacBook Pro with only 8GB of RAM

[@tylerpestell]

This is the route I was just thinking of going… my old 2013 MacBook Pro just died… so I am thinking the M1 would still be an amazingly faster system compared to my old one.

[@gingertew9249]

I use the 16gb version of the m3 macbook from apple refurbished for unity. It gets the gpu results of a m1 pro, the battery life of an air, and the cpu results of like an m2 pro. If you are on edge about spending too much money, get an m3 refurbished you will not regret it.

[@robgardner4754]

Bought an M3 Air 15 16/512 and it is a brilliant laptop. A pro device for people who don’t need something that needs to sit there churning through sustained tasks

[@barknbryce6993]

@@robgardner4754 that kind of defeats the pro name

[@jonahjesus9650]

@@barknbryce6993 Well he got an Air, not Pro

[@xAnonymousComedia]

m3 refurbished? these things are barely out, so they probably have the same price as new

[@gingertew9249]

@@xAnonymousComedia they don't have the listing anymore but I got a m3 macbook pro 16gb ram 512gb storage for $1520 which is basically $300 off retail.

[@andyH_England]

Yes, common sense. If the apps you run are RAM-intensive and you make your living from developing, then 8GB should not even be on your radar. The question would be 16GB or 24GB on the base M3, or 18GB or 36GB on the M3 Pro MB Pros? As a professional driver for 40 years (60-80K miles a year) I bought expensive cars like Audis and VWs. I could buy a similar car for 66% of the price, but it was my living so I bought premium due to quality and reliability. If it is your living, do not skimp out on RAM or storage; as a dev the computer is your livelihood, an investment...common sense.

[@mihael.stojanovic]

Good comparison, true 👍🏻

[@veoquenoesunproblema]

I thought you would buy good cars like Toyota or Honda

[@BaieDesBaies]

Buying Audi or VW for reliability ? LMAO

[@andyH_England]

@@BaieDesBaies I have driven every single car as part of my job and VW and Audi are the most reliable from my experience. I have multiple of both over the years and had no issues with any of them and a couple of them did over 200,000 miles and we're still going strong. Mercedes went for a bad time with reliability way back when. So I don't know what else in the premium sector was as good as these two. I did have BMWs but they didn't work for me.

[@BaieDesBaies]

@@andyH_England Of course you have driven every single car since there are only thousands of models among 400 brands.

[@TheOnlineCorner]

The problem is not about paying for 8gb of ram, the problem is that Apple doesn’t allow you to upgrade anything.

[@bren.r]

Not to mention, usable memory is actually lower since some memory is used for the GPU. It’s an absolute insult that Apple is selling entry level products with 8GB of RAM.

[@morbix3683]

I was tempted to get the m3 macbook pro base model for android development. But 8gb is just not enough everywhere you look. I ended up getting used m1 macbook air 1tb ssd 16gb ram config. The experience with this machine is amazing. It can handle the project I am working on pretty well (about 84 screens). It is super light and the battery is the best. If you are on a tight budget, m1 air is the best value.

[@mairhart]

Apple's miserly view of Pro memory is making the Snapdragon Elite chip look really attractive.

[@AZisk]

some real competition coming? maybe

[@NumanQ.]

Just buy an x86 chip.

[@jjcoolaus]

Snapdragon elite with Linux wouid fly. My 16GB RAM AMD Ryzen 7 laptop uses just 4GB in Ubuntu but about 10GB in Windows just doing office tasks and cloud devops. Huge difference. Ok not for everyone but my experience in Linux has been very positive and yes I even play games in Linux.

[@samrandhaji]

Totally you are the most amazing dev I have ever saw in my entire dev life since 2010, just wanted to tell you cheers,

[@TheOnlineCorner]

I think Apple should be forced to allow us upgrade the SSD. They always argue environment as one of the reasons they do things. Not allowing us to upgrade RAM or SSD is complete against that same philosophy.

[@Thezftw]

SSD sure, but the RAM is also used as video memory so the soldering right next to CPU/GPU makes sense.

[@TheHaykokalipsis]

@@Thezftw Saw some test. It doesent make sense. 0 difference

[@percy9228]

storage and RAM are on the SOC die. this is part of the reason they are so fast. They don't work like windows machine. It's no different to buying a smartphone, you can't upgrade ram afterwards. It's not like apple have a gun to your head and say buy their stuff. You know before hand what you are paying for. If you don't like it, don't pay. and if you want to upgrade them do so at time of purchase. They've never argued environment for upgrades LOL. they are charging more because you are getting more.

[@MarkStoddard]

You’re free to do whatever you want to your machine or buy something else. Apple’s free to design and sell what they want. It’s a great thing

[@chic_luke]

​@@percy9228 Wrong. Storage is very much not on the SoC die. Only the storage controller. The storage chips, which determine the actual performance, are soldered down but not located on the die. And they are the same exact storage chips you would find on an NVMe drive from major manufacturers. RAM - fine. But storage - no.

[@casperes0912]

My work laptop has 16G ram. It’s not enough for my work. I mean it runs very well considering the memory pressure but it is slower than if I could close some stuff. But closing some stuff would make me slower. Xcode, android studio, android and iOS emulator and simulators take up the most ram. Then there’s Teams, OneNote, Safari, Zed, iterm2, Figma, Mail, Music and those are just the ones permanently open. Sometimes need more too. It generally works just fine in terms of everything “working” and happening eventually. No UI hitching and such. Just compile times are longer than if I quit some things. Personal laptop with 32G of ram and same cpu compiles noticeably faster in the same setup

[@rhoderzau]

Went for the 24GB 15" to replace a loud 16" M3 Max and I'm happy so far. I have similar workflows to you but drivinga Pro Display XDR with it. I noticed slight stutter a couple of times when typing in Spotlight and closing a tab but the load was low so I've no clue what that was. Using the Hot utility to easily see if I'm thermal throttling. No issues so far, using Android Studio next week though so 🤞 I'm only missing the display quality a little but prefer the how light the 15" Air feels compared to the 14" even though they're similar in weight. 120hz OLED MBA 15" would be my perfect laptop I think.

[@DamianDemasi]

Awesome moving timelapses!

[@kosalino]

I had an Macbook Air M1 with 8gb because I had a notebook(Dell) from my last job, I started to work in a new place where you had to use your own computer I worked with a Macbook Air for 1 month to see if I could but was insane the amount of swap, in the end I bought a Macbook Pro with 16gb which still doing some swap but works fine (I have a friend who have a 64gb MBP but never reached more than 30gb, the ideal for development I think would be 24-32gb)

[@akin242002]

The Air with 8GB is fine for middle school kids or blue-collar workers that use it for general web browsing and light photo editing. Maybe even light video editing if someone stops using browser tabs. Past that, get 16GB of RAM.

[@alphaspace1100]

​@@akin242002in my opinion, 8 GB memory are completely acceptable, but in any situation, where the advantages of a MacBook would actually matter (like video editing), your RAM would really limit you. All the use cases you described can probably be done with an old MacBook/normal laptop for way cheaper without any real perceived performance hit

[@eructationlyrique]

If you plan on reselling or trading-in, it's a good idea to stick to base models. for instance, if you need 16GB of RAM and plan on reselling, get the M3 pro mbp. It's more expensive than the M3 mbp upgraded to 16GB, but you make up for it in resale value

[@hajjdawood]

If you are working or have a business buy what you need and write it up.

[@RunOs3]

Excellent video. I love videos that have a lot of useful information and a little bit of appropriate rambling.

[@Tech-geeky]

don't stop the rambling..

[@Skatox]

MacOS always tries to fillup the RAM with cache and improve performance for cold start and apps reopen. So even if you close things or have nothing opened, the RAM will look like it has a lot of data loaded. But actually MacOS handles RAM very well and these models do Swapping very fast.

[@debbs_io]

I absolutely loved your review here. One of the best MacBook reviewers on KZbin in my opinion. You leave no stone unturned in your reviews. Please continue. I love your videos. ❤❤

[@AZisk]

Wow, thank you!

[@xingzhexin8843]

The HDMI port matters so much to me. To me this is the best presentation laptop. Dongles use 5-15 watts of power and plugging directly into the HDMI port gives phenomenal battery life when hooked to a projector. Videos can be shown in HDR, SD cards can be plugged in no sweat, speakers are great. Presentation presentation presentation. There is a very specific audience for this device. I have a m1 Max 32GB machine, and the M3 14inch Macbook Pro is a great secondary device.

[@MoonshineOctopus]

Loving the tongue in cheek editing, Alex!

[@nexTabDE]

@8:42 "... before I truly understood the value of time." 🤣🤣🤣

[@martyk656]

There's nothing "Pro" about 8GBs of RAM since at least 2014. The last PC I built with only 8GBs of RAM was in 2010.

[@AZisk]

here we go. another commenter who didn’t watch the video

[@andyH_England]

If you are soppy enough to base a laptop on what the marketing term is, then you really shouldn't; I suspect you will be buying an AI PC because you think it is an AI machine! Ignore the marketing and names, do your research and base a purchase on your own sense. Really! Thinking a "pro" label makes it a pro machine is nuts! The iPhone Pro is not a pro iPhone. Apple uses "Pro" to define their most feature-packed device within a line! Come on...common sense needed...

[@AdamBuker]

I see the M3 MacBook Pro as a pro machine for business users/office professionals who are not usually going to be power users. It's Pro as in Professional. I could see this being a perfect laptop for someone who works in marketing, real estate, sales, etc that need the long battery life, HDMI output, SD card input, more-durable-than-the-air but still portable chassis, and so on, but not necessarily need the higher RAM and performance that the M3Pro and the M3Max offers. I think so many people get hung up on the word 'Pro' and confuse it for power user. These pro machines are not for power users, but they are every bit professional devices for those that make their living with them.

[@martyk656]

@@AZisk I watched the video. That doesn't keep me from having a problem with Apple calling a laptop with 8GB of RAM in 2024 a Pro model. I got the impression you agree. Or you wouldn't have to go back to 2007 in your own history for a computer with just 8GB. Apple's upgrade costs keep them from selling more units. It's their choice but I'd have 3x as many Apple products in my home if they had more realistic pricing on RAM and storage. Anything other than a base model isn't worth buying unless it comes with ample storage and RAM. Upgraded models don't hold value the way base models do.

[@AZisk]

@@martyk656 I''m with Andy here - just because Apple calls it Pro doesn't mean it's going to match some people's opinion of Pro. However, as I've mentioned in prior videos, THIS machine (the M3 MacBook Pro) is the least Pro MacBook Pro that Apple has released since I've been using them (2013). I'm ok with that, just look at specs, not the name.

[@janeS9773]

I loved the video! Thank you. Learned a ton! xo

[@AZisk]

Glad it was helpful!

[@sepehrazizi1491]

I actually was about to buy a 16Gb M2 Air. Fortunately they didn't have that spec so they offered me to put a little bit more money and get 24GB 512GB SSD version which i'm absolutely happy with. this thing can run vscode and ios simulator and android emulator at the same time without using swap and best part is it doesn't even make a sound. It's literally a powerhouse for programmers. oh and btw don't worry about the fan, it's doesn't even get warm let alone getting hot

[@benwoodhead6991]

Thank you for the information. I am interested in running ai linux mixtral on a macbook pro. How much memory do you recommend or should I just go with a studio?

[@rusnyg]

Can you do the same with 16GB model?

[@ullaskunder]

awesome please could you do the same kind of test for other modal and end result which one is best for no-lag high performance development

[@carlospcpro]

Yup, i have a MBA 15 M2 and I thought it would be enough for my angular development environment and it kind of is ... but once I start my docker server or just anything else "heavy", its struggles definitely 16GB has to be the new minimum

[@withstyle9216]

I like the tune at the end

[@Jang1r]

I use my base M1 Air for web,office,tuner studio/megalogviewer setting up my track car and media consumption...8/256 is just fine for my use.You should choose your machine based on usage.

[@a_macaulay]

I have a 8gb m1 air that I use for development when I'm traveling. As you mentioned it is perfect for most tasks and I do enjoy using it, but as soon as you need virtualization (windows/android/...) it's rough. I have to do tricks like doing 80% of the mobile cross-development on iOS and using a physical Android for the rest, remoting into a cloud Windows PC, etc.

[@lelin4732]

How's your experience with m1 macbook air so far. Can you tell little bit more about your workflows. I'm planning to get m3 macbook air for my university and I'm kinda confused between all of these. I do full stack web dev, ios dev, some radio astronomy from sdr as a hobby

[@The062Violinist]

what if you kept your MacBook running, but except waiting for the system automatic fan to kick in, you're going to set it to max speed the whole time? (not related to video, just a video idea)

[@danielrice5474]

I love to see you do the exact same thing using your Macbook Air 24 gb model. I bet it would be fine for that week. But love to know for sure.

[@steveoc64]

My spare MacBook that I only use with Neovim and serious zig development has 8gb, and never needs to reach for swap. Plenty of room.

[@elelan]

Thanks Alex! Very informative as always. Especially about mobile development with Xcode and Android Studio. Also, how much RAM would be ideal for doing parallel Xcode and Android Studio development along with emulators and simulators?

[@twilightDD]

From my experience as an iOS developer I think that 16 GB should be good for most projects. If you're using iPhone and iPad simulators in parallel and/or are messy with your browser tabs (Chrome!) and you may consider 24 GB. But 16 GB should be enough. I use an Intel iMac 27" with 32 GB as my main development machine and a MacBook Air M1 with 16 GB for onsite or mobile working - I've never had any problems.

[@Reynaldohpc]

The worst part isn't the 8GB of RAM, but the fact that is not even upgradable.

[@andyH_England]

All Core Ultra 7 laptops from Intel have soldered RAM, and 100% Snapdragon X Elite will be soldered RAM. And remember all tablets and phones have soldered RAM.

[@alphaspace1100]

​​@@andyH_Englandyea it's a plague, if manufacturers are too greedy to put another $20 into their $1000+ devices, then at least make it upgradable (for laptops, I understand that it would be hard for phones), otherwise it's just manufactured garbage and in case Snapdragon X Elite will have AI branding, guess what you'll need a lot of? that's right, RAM! (as the video stated, you'll probably need 32 GB at least if you want to do something kinda decent

[@AaronFigFront]

It is not even that. Non upgradable is the result of extreme thin chassis and better performance. It is the upgrade price that is outrageous as RAM price has gone down significantly.

[@andyH_England]

@@AaronFigFront the surface Laptop 6 and Dell XPS 14 all start at 8GB and have the same upgrade costs. Both are premium ultrabooks. I'm not sure why you pick Apple out and let Microsoft and Dell get a free pass. Maybe it is a lack of understanding of how demand side economics works.

[@AaronFigFront]

@@andyH_EnglandI am not. Not mentioning them doesn’t mean I am giving Dell and Microsoft a pass. Their stuff is even worse.

[@thefluxlife]

Although I still personally struggle with the idea of 8GB ram on a laptop $1500+, I completely agree with your conclusion. Re: how well macs depreciate and resale value ... I can see older but higher-speced macs reselling well, but do lower end macs also have that great a resell value? I imagine a M3 MBA 8gb model wouldn't resell as well in a few years.

[@thecon_quererarbitraryname6286]

They will have no resell value because they're most likely dead in a few years when the SSD reached its TBW threshold (from the constant swap attacks) and the thing transformed into e-waste...

[@kangmasful]

How long is the battery life with the fan constantly running ?

[@sinhaljoshi7497]

I'm getting my diploma in computer science and I'll go on to get a bachelors degree that'd be roughly around 5 years looking at my use case being not that intense would you suggest I buy the m3 base model or should I go with an windows laptop instead

[@psydude21]

Hey Alex, love your videos, could you do a competition between a windows snapdragon VS a MAC air? Thanks man keep it going !

[@AZisk]

yes, when the X series comes out i will

[@psydude21]

@@AZiskcool Alex, because i need a good machine for the go, and im between a MacBook air or snapdragon. Any idea when is this gonna happen?

[@AZisk]

@@psydude21​​⁠not till later this year, but i don’t have any specific info

[@raguel259]

I don't have too much hope for the Snapdragon X Elite, it seems that they carefully curate the benchmark results to make it look better.

[@sebastiandenis]

Great content Alex! I've been using Windows machines since 1995, but last year I also started using M2 Max 64GB and I can tell that my life is mostly better now ;) The only pain I experience is switching every day from a Win machine (work) to my Mac or to my Mac with an external Win keyboard 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[@Betancourtdm]

Uninstalling on MacOS is probably the only thing I hate about that OS. Generally it is easy with a drop of an app to the trash or a uninstall app, but there are so many times where you gotta dig to get rid of all the files.

[@agrupalos3367]

Is there a triple display (usb c) for MacBook Air M3 you would recommend ?

[@parthokr]

Hi Alex This is an off-topic question. What’s your primary machine as a .net developer? Mac or windows?

[@AZisk]

For legacy.NET stuff i have a PC. For newer stuff, I use my Mac

[@DrewHawken68]

My M2 Max with 96GB Ram does not seem to have these issues ... 🤔 Giving 40GB to Windows Allows me to run Studio and Rider at the same time with zero lag, which was my plan when I bought it.

[@brunopedrosa278]

What are good options for an app to measure the temperature inside the MacBook Air?

[@kingsamvisuals]

8gb is the weak link with my m1. Hope to jump to a pro.

[@vithanpipugsmoot7598]

Could u kindly make a video showing how to setup MySQL and Oracle server on Apple Mac M series and .NET connector ? i am planning to renew my mac intel but still struck on how to setup both database for my working projects.

[@asmokanu]

As a devops/sre i need minimum 32gig. And quite often i find myself in a situation then i have 20gb+ of swap used on my m1 max mp pro with 32gb ram. BTW i never seen less than 98% of ssd life left on any of my macbooks. Currently im looking to buy micropc with linux for VMs/docker.

[@tony2473]

Where is the site you use to sell your MacBooks? 💻

[@getsetcode8162]

Hey Alex, I had a suggestion. Why don't you compare the M2 Air 16gb 256gb variant with the M3 Air 8gb 256gb variant. They cost the exact same.

[@alphaspace1100]

very good; finally someone who realised that getting the latest CPU with 8 GB RAM may be a worse choice than some CPU that's a bit slower but that doesn't run into that hard memory bottleneck

[@I_am_Ashish]

Hey Alex. Big fan of the videos. I’m thinking of getting a m3 MacBook Pro 8gb. I usually have about 20 chrome tabs + and IDE for code + notes + a couple of light applications at the same time. Will this be a good purchase for me?

[@AZisk]

I always recommend more RAM if you can afford it

[@SreejithKSGupta]

No, Max tech did a test with about 20 tabs, and a single benchmark, and the scores were dramatically lower... Atleast go for 16GB

[@G5mariusG5]

But can it connect to 3 devices on bluetooth and one of them being a headset, and yet not lagg on the sound? (My M1 cant)

[@llima3000]

If someone needs virtual machines and docker the minimum is 16 GB… or an external machine to do the virtualisation is also possible too

[@davidmedina4504]

Hi, which program do you use tu view your temperature and RPM in the menu bar?

[@Oozyisland]

I feel like something you missed is that most of apple’s sales are through other retailers like best buy, and at those places, getting a 16gb model is even more absurd. For example BB has 8gb models for the m2 air at $850 on sale, and the cheapest 16gb model is $1300 on sale. So for most people don’t even have the option unless they want to shell out $450+

[@KatySei]

Immense battery life for the pro? My M1 lasts around 6 hours. MBA lasts way more and much lighter. I just wish Apple would put a decent screen on it so I can replace my Pro with MBA.

[@williamsquires3070]

I’ve still got my M1 MacBook Air. I mostly do Xcode, Python 3, and Xojo for programming and Pages for reading the occasional MS Word document. 😅

[@adrianflores3952]

friend, based on your experience, you continue to recommend the MacBook air m1, because I want to learn python from scratch but I want a computer that will last for years without changing equipment all the time and I want to learn to program and use databases, I hope you can help me, thank you

[@pylvr8021]

i'm on a budget , i need the cheapest mac for work, i have found a mac mini M2 with 24gb ram and 265gb of ram and of course i will add an external ssd , so you think the machine will do fine for android and ios dev >?

[@twilightDD]

Yes! 24 GB RAM is really good and 256 GB SSD is enough for macOS, Xcode, Android Studio and some other tools. But you may end with ~200 GB usage for the SSD.

[@JohnSmith-gb6tg]

Except Lenovo's Thinkpad lines also have relatively good re-sale values, and they are developer friendly running in Windows. But used Apple products demand high prices 4sure.

[@user-jj6wc6wj5j]

I am the demographic for the macbook air 8gb lol. i just need it for every day use/ light gaming... (very light) its perfect for me, and i know it will last YEARS!

[@ashraffouad]

Hello Alex, I like yr videos and sense of humor. May I ask if u have done review for the mini PC u have on yr desk? I 'm looking to buy one but in a question should I use cheaper laptop instead of mini PC?

[@AZisk]

i haven’t done it yet, but planning to. I don’t recommend the one on my desk though

[@ashraffouad]

@AZisk Thanks Alex, I got similar feedback outside yr channel, but as u knkw everyone test for gaming or video editing, I'm waiting for yr developer prespective review.

[@souravchakrabarti5029]

I am gonna buy it mostly for word excel and intensive hdr 4k movie viewing? Is the 8gb enuf?

[@AivarsMeijers]

I have a 2013 MBAir which is still used regularly. It has 4GB of RAM and the SSD is still alive. The charger died a few months ago, but before that MacBook was still used regularly by kids. I started freelancing and my own app development using that MBAir and it was fine. 8GB is okay for beginner iOS developers today, you will need a few years of experience to hit the limits of it :) Sure, upgrade RAM if you can, then MB will last longer.

[@christophermungiria2876]

I bought the 13" M1 base model (8/256) during my final year in Computer Science. It was a huge upgrade over my Lenovo Ideapad s340 which had a 1TB HDD (I upgraded it with a 512GB SSD) and 8GB RAM. I definitely enjoyed the upgrade but recently when I've had to run 3 or more simulators and multiple Node servers I've been able to easily max out the RAM. I think 16 should be a minimum for devs.

[@guidosmit3197]

Thanks for this, I was almost tempted to buy a 8GB M3, thinking running a couple of VM's and LLM's would be no problem.

[@AZisk]

😆 you’ll need a lot more than that to be comfortable

[@guidosmit3197]

@@AZisk My business laptop is M1 Pro 16gb, which runs ok doing that. But I realise now that its not that much different from an M3 on a MB Air.

[@SanderCokart]

the docker container argument definitely holds on any computer.

[@bloggervince6492]

Is possible to use mac m1 or m2 for working and gaming

[@mikewright2858]

I'll keep my Legion 9i with a 4090 and 64GB ... I can do anything and not worry about "do I need" or "is it enough".

[@AZisk]

64GB is enough for some tasks, but not enough for other tasks :)

[@mishathassan6988]

For that much money, if you are not gaming, m3 pro max specced would provide you much better performance. As a senior engineer who codes at least 40 hours every week (some projects on Mac, some on linux through windows (using ELD) because of NDAs and different company policies) I wish windows could do the stuff mac intuitively does. I mean I still use windows desktop with 4080 super for gaming, multimedia and basically everything else but when it comes to coding/developing, it’s a no brainer

[@asura4938]

I am a doctor was thinking of getting 8gb m3 .. will it be enough! Things i will be doing is power point,taking notes ,and some web browsing( i have at least 10 tabs open)???

[@anshulchowdhury9749]

Its more than enough doc, dev's need high memory to work with but most people would be completely fine with the base variant. For eg. I am a designer currently using the base variant, I have 10 chrome tabs open at all times and a software that I work on and its a breeze. For your work a base variant is enough, you can get the 512 gb ssd or use an external ssd like me.

[@MaryJane-lh5el]

i develop in both windows and linux (windows 10 and debian), and i was using 8 gigs of ram as of recent on a 1185G7 (cheaped out on ram) and my oh my was it painful. all i remember was the pagefile being thrashed profusely when compiling or running a kvm under debian. upgraded to 32 gigs and it was legit a night and day difference(i even disabled my pagefile in windows and i can still run it withour maxing it out) id say minimum would be 16, especially with how bloated things are getting. dont skimp out on ram.

[@ScoutSniper]

Alex what software is that you are using for coding

[@alexanderekeberg4343]

should i upgrade from macbook pro 2020 (intel core i5 8th gen quad-core 1.4ghz) to macbook air m3 15 inch for coding?

[@Spaffel]

My old 16G M1 Macbook Air died because i spilled water over it. I needed a quick replacement. So i bought the M3 8G Macbook air and it is enough. I mostly develop Apps for Android and even with Emulators, 25 Chrome tabs and more it does not struggle. It is amazing.

[@ganderthepanda8146]

Thanks for finally putting a video of real world usage of 8gb M3. Been looking for this for years now. Would like to see the same tests on 16gb

[@Nemesis-db8fl]

You've been looking for m3 benchmarks for "years" ?

[@ganderthepanda8146]

@@Nemesis-db8fl Real world usage is not the same as benchmarks

[@Schlaughter]

It's the one screen only thats frustrating me. Do you have any work arounds. (I have a 16gig and 1tb HD Macbook pro M3) and loving it so far.

[@busyjt]

I have an M2 MacBook Air. I’m running 2 external displays plus the laptop screen using the OWC USB-C Dual HDMI adapter which uses DispkayLink. Primary monitor is running at 3840x1600 @75hz. Secondary is running 1080p 60hz and then there is the laptop display. I’m sensitive to refresh rates and am pleasantly surprised at what this adapter can do. I’ve been using this configuration almost every day for 4 months.

[@Luca-mt5mz]

which software does he use to to track fan rpm and temperatures?

[@hokage2778]

Hey bro can u help, im planning to buy 15 inch m2 8/512 or mbp14inch m3 base 8/512 for starting dev work as python backend jun. in my country i cannot find the models with 16gb of ram. Ones with 16 is overpriced af

[@ozgesagiroglu]

i had to return my m3 8 gb mbp 14 after a few days because even using just safari i could tell when it started using swap by looking at the screen. it started lagging and screen refresh rate taking a plunge. idk why they did that. awesome machine but no way to push it.

[@avataros111]

I have 3 macbooks pro and I and I had to change the motherboard 3 times for the 15", the 13" sits in a drawer broken, and the intel 16" is barely keeping up with Laravel development and is quite slow. I will not buy another anytime soon. I bet they have more than 80% margin at these insane prices. I am waiting for the competition.

[@ryshask]

you want to give windows vm less memory not more. Rely on the fast ssd in the vm.

[@ullaskunder]

I wonted to bye my first mac and doing a lot of search for AIR m3 15 some same good some say bad, I want to know what will happen with multiple chrome tab, vs code, xcode, androdi studio need help

[@VinniiMiranda]

Great video, I have a doubt and would be happy if you can help me. I'm a Fortnite Player, I would like to know if is possible to play fornite on Macbook M3, or even if is possible to play through Windows on VM as you are using on this video. Thanks

[@user-gt6gq1tw1q]

I went with the 8 GB base model simply because I know this year for some personal reasons I'm not going to work that intensively with my machine and not going to push it that far anyways, until I need to, then I will buy whatever the new model they lunch and max it out.

[@theandrefilipe90]

Do you code progress? Nice mug.

[@BestFire03]

Hi, great video, can you make the same test with 16gb of ram ? :)

[@AZisk]

i think that will be a great experiment

[@PinoyDIY]

My experience, it's definitely not enough. The moment I start using docker, firefox browser, visual code (worse if jetbrain rider) , performance start crawling on my 8gb M1 macmini. Memory utilization already peaking red lines. In my opinion 32 GB is the minimum for developers. I have the 2020 MacBook pro 16" with 32GB from work and it's still power horse for all of my development workflow.

[@totaldomination247]

Dear god I just thought about this, and it pops as a video in recommended This is kinda insane I was literally just thinking about what it would look like having the 8ghb mbp as a daily driver

[@eraditortv]

Hope you noticed it by now man....but there is a dirt particle on ur camera and its visible in the video. From my perspective its below the "next track" button

[@AZisk]

didn’t notice, but I’ll give the lenses a dusting

[@jackdominiak445]

At last a reviewer with brains & common sense 👏

[@JanuszKrysztofiak]

Well... 8 GB is enough for some web browsing, content consumption, remoting, light development work. And that's mostly it. One can slightly increase the mileage by enabling RAM compression (I guess macOS does this by default on that machine, in Linux it can be enabled, not sure about Windows).

[@EricMuranoAU]

My work M2 air has 16gb (I asked for 24 :( ), but worse, they went with 128gb ssd. It fills up quick and therefore you run out of space for swapping.

[@FruityHuevos]

What developer is buying base model laptops?

[@iteranq]

I'm more than satisfied with my 16'' Macbook Pro M1 Pro, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD

[@a1ltair]

I am using 8gb M1 mac pro for last year as work machine for flutter development. Works fine for me, I have no issues at all with emulator and simulator, android studio and other programs. Swap file are huge, but I don't care much. My company want to change machines to 16gb M3 macs, so I waiting for replace now :D

[@EricLeung-hk]

8 G ram is only good for very light loading users. Before I upgrade my Fujifilm X H1 to 40MB pixel sensor X T5, I was very happy to work with my 8G M1 MBA. I usually take landscape photo, and sometimes for panaroma photos. Sometimes I might combine at least 10 or more raw photo. This is not possible with my M1. And therefore I upgrade for 16M M3 MBA. Even with this upgrade, I just manage to handle this task. Therefore the investment on hardware is well worthy. We are forced to catch up with new technology advancement.

[@vladislav148]

I'm using Macbook Air M1 with minimum 8 GB... as a remote development machine with VSCode and terminal, so I don't have any struggles about low amount of RAM at all ))

[@jaxontn]

Should I go for the 24GB RAM M3 MacBook Air instead? As a Developer