Becoming The Muse

About

Of RAM Drama

RAM Drama

Apple introduced its new entry-level MacBook Neo, priced at $599, making it the most affordable laptop Apple has ever sold.

MacBook Neo

Its 8GB of RAM, sparked a heated internet debate on how much RAM one needs, with power users saying that an 8GB MacBook is only good for use as a browsing device and not much else. The MacBook Neo has the A-Series processor similar to the one on the iPhone line of products with some even suggesting simply getting an iPad with a keyboard as a better deal.

Newsflash its not a better deal, a similarly priced iPad has a smaller screen, slower processor and less storage. A worthwhile consideration if you are not invested in Apple product system is a Windows laptop or Chromebook.

Gamers and tech enthusiasts tend to advocate for heroic levels of RAM, and high speed processors, which are overkill for an average computer user who simply wants to work on documents, do presentations, conference meetings and some internet browsing.

How Much Ram Do You Really Need?

It depends on what you need to do.

RAMTypical UseLimitations / Notes
4GBBasic web browsing, word processing, simple multimedia playbackBare minimum for modern systems. Can become slow when multiple browser tabs or applications are open.
8GBEveryday computing, web browsing, streaming, office applications, video calls, light photo or graphic editingComfortable for most average users. With good resource management it can handle light creative tasks.
16GBHeavy multitasking, creative work such as editing and design, large spreadsheets, running virtual machinesIdeal for users who regularly run demanding applications or many programs at once.
32GB+Professional workloads such as video editing, 3D rendering, complex development environments, virtual machinesPrimarily for power users and specialised professional tasks.
Most everyday users will never fully utilise this amount.

AI systems have a huge appetite for high-performance memory and storage, contributing to a rise in RAM and SSD prices and modern machines will ship with more RAM as standard for the AI features

Windows 11 Requirements

A standard installation of Windows 11 requires:

  • At least 4GB RAM
  • A 1GHz processor
  • Around 64GB of storage

While Windows OS isnt particularly demanding, modern software can be. Applications like Chrome have a reputation for devouring RAM, with each additional tab quietly nibbling away at your available memory.

The Bottom Line

For most people:
8GB RAM – perfectly adequate
16GB RAM – comfortable
32GB+ RAM – only if you know exactly why you need it.

How much RAM does your computer have?

~B

, , , , , , , , ,

Responses to “Of RAM Drama”

  1. Bookstooge avatar
    Bookstooge

    Anyone not using a net/chromebook really should have 32gb. Especially if they use chrome and use a lot of tabs at once. My previous laptop had 16gb and if I had more than 3 chrome tabs open, it just started chugging. With 32, I can handle about 10-12 tabs easily now.

    But for all my other operations, yeah, 8gb would be more than enough. But as soon as you start using multiple programs at once, you need 16, period, especially on windows. And I usually have chrome open (multiple tabs), a file explorer to my book covers, Calibre (my ebook manager program) and then I’ll use things like paint or Caesium (image compressor) while also having signal, whatsapp, messages, etc open. and half the time I’ll have a torrent client running in the background. I can’t imagine ever going back to having only 2 programs open at once and having to close one to start another to keep things going smoothly.

    Reply
    1. Beaton avatar
      Beaton

      I have always found it weird that Chromebooks arent streamlined to efficiently handle running multi-tabs of Chrome without putting a strain on a machine (with limited ram)… yet other Chromium based browsers arent as resource heavy…
      Never used to be a fan of the Microsoft browser but the “new” Edge browser runs on Chromium and uses signficantly less ram even with multiple tabs open.

      My laptop has 16GB and I usually have multiple tabs of Chrome and Edge simultaneously, and Chrome chows almost 3GB of ram while Edge is under 1GB for the same number of tabs…

      I also usually have MS Word and PowerPoint, and Spotify and can still add a couple more programms which on my previous machine I had to run one at a time, for image and video editing…
      Also not just a ram thing, the processor on my current laptop is an 8-core high perfomance one and it uses the SSD as virtual ram which means effectively it performs beyond what 16GB would do…

      This might also explain why the new machines might seem to perform fairly decently, despite not having loads of installed physical ram… the solid state drives can double as fast ram…

      Definitely cant imagine running one program at a time because usually its all connected, like I am researching on various browser tabs, while editing images, and writing on word and of course music in the background is standard…..
      ~B

      Reply
      1. Bookstooge avatar
        Bookstooge

        Yep, mult-tasking is the way we almost all use our laptops and computers today.

  2. Johnbritto Kurusumuthu avatar
    Johnbritto Kurusumuthu

    The Air/Neo represents elegance and mobility, while the Pro represents power and professional capability. Both are excellent machines, but they serve very different kinds of users.

    Reply
    1. Beaton avatar
      Beaton

      Indeed even looking at the marketing and the colour range… The Neo range is more for students and a young hip crowd its not supposed to be a workstation…

      cheers
      ~B

      Reply
  3. M. avatar
    M.

    None. I no longer have one

    Reply

Leave a Reply to BookstoogeCancel reply

Discover more from Becoming The Muse

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading