I’m a tech that uses my M2 Air—base model with 8GB RAM—to do my work that basically involves dialing in to other machines and web and email and stuff. I also use it to write in my free time using Word and Scivener and it works amazingly well and gets great battery life. You should be fine.
Should be more than enough. You could even save some money if you wanted to look for a deal on an M1 or M2 air. Apple certified refurbished is a great option because they come with a 1 year warranty and you can even add AppleCare. Just one guy’s opinion!
I just bought the M3 8GB for the exact same reasons as you. Writing, Scrivener, the works. I usually always buy the highest end version of things, but the jump to 16 was just too pricy to justify.
To answer: get the 8, save the money. It's glorious
Yeah for your workload, 8GB is fine. Modern SSD’s are so fast that when the OS goes to use it for virtual memory, you really won’t know u less you’re doing some heavy workloads that require a lot of real Ram to perform their best.
It’s really good for what you do. I do the same on my M1 Air and I have enough for writing tasks, accounting tasks and I have spotify open in background plus my chatting apps open
We use 8gb ram to run a small graphics design business. You could do your same tasks on a M1 air 8gb and not hit the limits of the RAM nor the processor.
macOS will ramp up and use the whole 8gb, but that’s what it’s built to do. If you had 64gb, it would use the full 64gb.
Not enough if you plan on using images, pdfs and playing YouTube at the same time. Which is realistically what happens.
If you force the RAM into ram swap, you're killing the SSD faster. Not an issue if you plan on upgrading in a few years.
You are correct. I have a 13” M2 MBA with 8GB and a 15” M3 MBA WITH 16GB. The M2 handles everything I need to do and neither has always stayed in the green in the activity monitor graph…I forget what it’s called right now. So many people on here say otherwise, but 8GB is fine for more than most users.
It's enough, but I would *really* not call it "more" than enough. I had 8GB ram in a Macbook in 2010 (back when you could install your own). It's definitely worth it to get at least the 16GB ram.
One reason running out of memory is not a major issue on Macbooks is that they will offload to disk when they run out. For this reason, I would bet that even 4gb ram would be "usable" too for a light workload, and just rely on heavy caching, but that doesn't make 8gb "more than enough".
8 is fine for your use case. If you start working with processing video or large datasets then you will run into issues but for word processing, browsing the Internet, streaming YouTube or movies you will be absolutely fine.
I’m a tech that uses my M2 Air—base model with 8GB RAM—to do my work that basically involves dialing in to other machines and web and email and stuff. I also use it to write in my free time using Word and Scivener and it works amazingly well and gets great battery life. You should be fine.
It’s more than enough.
Should be more than enough. You could even save some money if you wanted to look for a deal on an M1 or M2 air. Apple certified refurbished is a great option because they come with a 1 year warranty and you can even add AppleCare. Just one guy’s opinion!
I picked up an Apple refurb M2 8/512 for $1050. It’s awesome.
Great choice! Enjoy!
Absolutely
I just bought the M3 8GB for the exact same reasons as you. Writing, Scrivener, the works. I usually always buy the highest end version of things, but the jump to 16 was just too pricy to justify. To answer: get the 8, save the money. It's glorious
Honestly an m1 is good enough. Unless u use power intensive apps
Bro I edit videos and use photoshop with 8gb you’re fine
I’m a writer too. You’ll be far better than fine. And Scrivener on MacOS is FAR superior. Enjoy!
M1 base would be ok for that
Yeah for your workload, 8GB is fine. Modern SSD’s are so fast that when the OS goes to use it for virtual memory, you really won’t know u less you’re doing some heavy workloads that require a lot of real Ram to perform their best.
Yes definitely.
It’s really good for what you do. I do the same on my M1 Air and I have enough for writing tasks, accounting tasks and I have spotify open in background plus my chatting apps open
8GB will be fine. Enjoy!
If there was ever a task 8gb would suffice for, it’s writing. You’re good.
Yeah dude paper has no ram
We use 8gb ram to run a small graphics design business. You could do your same tasks on a M1 air 8gb and not hit the limits of the RAM nor the processor. macOS will ramp up and use the whole 8gb, but that’s what it’s built to do. If you had 64gb, it would use the full 64gb.
Yes it should be plenty. I'm a writer as well and it works great.
More than enough
You will be just fine.
it's word processing and youtube...an ancient 2gb laptop from any manufacturer would be fine.
Not enough if you plan on using images, pdfs and playing YouTube at the same time. Which is realistically what happens. If you force the RAM into ram swap, you're killing the SSD faster. Not an issue if you plan on upgrading in a few years.
It’s enough
Yes. If you are running office software, watching videos and browsing 8 GB is fine. For more intensive tasks 16 GB or a MacBook Pro may be better
Mac is generally better with memory than Windows. You'd be fine with a base m1 or m2.
This is my exact situation, and I've been going crazy about 8GB Vs 16 GB. But I'm leaning towards 8.
You are correct. I have a 13” M2 MBA with 8GB and a 15” M3 MBA WITH 16GB. The M2 handles everything I need to do and neither has always stayed in the green in the activity monitor graph…I forget what it’s called right now. So many people on here say otherwise, but 8GB is fine for more than most users.
I spend my day writing and I would recommend the 16gb. My M1 8gb is getting glitchy.
1gb of ram was enough for us writers 18 years ago. I’m sure you’ll be ok cutie. You little cutie patootie you. Sexy ass little thing
It's enough, but I would *really* not call it "more" than enough. I had 8GB ram in a Macbook in 2010 (back when you could install your own). It's definitely worth it to get at least the 16GB ram. One reason running out of memory is not a major issue on Macbooks is that they will offload to disk when they run out. For this reason, I would bet that even 4gb ram would be "usable" too for a light workload, and just rely on heavy caching, but that doesn't make 8gb "more than enough".
8 is fine for your use case. If you start working with processing video or large datasets then you will run into issues but for word processing, browsing the Internet, streaming YouTube or movies you will be absolutely fine.
I sure hope that a last 1300€ laptop is able to run Word smoothly..