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Looking for some thoughts

DNAlevelC

DNAlevelC

Gawd
Joined
Jul 3, 2004
Messages
810
I have a mid 2012 13' MacBook Pro base model that I have upgraded with a 240GB SSD, original 500GB HD in an optibay, and 16GB Ram. I was offered a 2013 13' MacBook Air with a 256GB SSD and the drawback of only 4GB Ram. I use the MacBook for surfing the net, some webpage work, and minimal photoshop. I like the idea of an Air since they are so light. My only concern is the 4GB Ram that I can't upgrade.

I have Parallels on this this MacBook but I don't use it often. I use it mostly on my Mac Mini. I am looking for thoughts on this. I know the decision is all mine and based on my usage, but I do like to hear what other people think.
 
I wouldn't buy/trade anything with less than 8GB of ram these days.
 
If that's really all you use the machine for, you shouldn't have any real issue with 4GB. Note that Mavericks does working set compression, which, while not as good as actual memory, does reduce application memory requirements.
 
Swap is being used but you have basically no memory pressure. With the current ssd speeds I don't even think swap is noticeable. Mavericks is so cache happy that's what my activity monitor looks like with just safari and mail open. It's also what my roommates pro classic looks like with 16gb of ram. Whatever you have mavericks will happily gobble up :).

I agree that 8gb is my *preferred* minimum but for his needs that air is going to fly and be an all around upgrade and the usage habits aren't dictating a lot of ram.
 
I purchased the Late 2013 rMBP in January with 4GB of ram and the i5 Haswell CPU. Honestly, for what I do which is similar to what you are describing i havent noticed any lagg or odd behavior. Running OS X 10.9.2 the memory is always 85% in use but the raw speed of the PCIe SSD really keeps things moving along quite well. i even use Final Cut Pro to edit 1080p video for youtube and it does quite well.
 
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