8GB or 16GB M1 Mac? | Everything you need to know! | Mark Ellis Reviews

What a lovely friendly person thanks for your info geeza

Always puzzled me if you got £1000 to buy a Mac or £2000 what an extra £200 to upgrade ram.dont go to pub for a month or buy some close stops buying Christ and sweets for two months!! And you saved £200 if it's going to improve your life as computers do then.....just do it baby

Came across your video today and it was pretty informative. I am stuck with the same question as I am planning to buy my first macbook.
Macbook air m1 8gb and 256 gigs is what is available in the stores nearby my place.
My use cases are -
1. Ms office and apples office suite
2. Spreadsheets
3. Research
4. Articles
5. Browsing
6. Content consumption
7. Music creation as a hobby
8. Occasional video and photo editing - nothing big time. But I do do it sometimes

Have been doing all of these in my phones from the last few years and now I am planning to get my first macbook.
What would you suggest-
To get an M1 or M2.
And will 8gb suffice or do I need to jump and go for 16gb Ram

If I purchase it now
I will be using it for the next 5-6 years.

What would be the best bet???

You have a great voice Mark. Would love to see you narrate a Pixar movie :)

16gb done!

Will 8 be enough for coding?

I will be purchasing a M3 MBA with 16GB RAM and a 1TB SSD because I want this device to be functional for at least 6 to 8 years. My current 2015 MacBook Pro has 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD. My old MacBook Pro is still operational, but the SSD is slightly half full. The SSD is still very healthy and shows no age-related degradation. I can imagine that the interior of my MacBook Pro is covered with lint and dust…ugh! The M3 MBA should remain as pristine as the day of purchase.

Thank you that was so helpful ❤

I have the M1 MBA with 8GB, 1TB SSD, 8 Core GPU. There have never been any problems. Quite the opposite. It works so smoothly.
I use it for my job and in private life.
For my job I use outlook, word, team calls,
In private Apple Mail, google chrome, Facetime, iMessage…

Never had problems. Not even at a dell 4K Monitore ❤

even back then, one should have gotten 16 GB. Future MacOS versions come, new features usually need more RAM. New applications will be available over years, probably also needing more RAM. Getting an 8 GB machine means one risks pressure to buy a whole new laptop within 3 or 4 years. A 16 GB model would be good for a couple more years. Now those 200 bucks look a lot less frightening.

🦮🐕‍🦺🐕🐶

While everyone wonders how much ram to have for a MacBook. I am over here on my Dell XPS upgrading my ram. And it is far more cheaper to do so.

Hi Mark I'm a aver old (75) ex designer. However I still dabble in producing greetings cards of various sorts and logo's. Is the M1 Macbook Air 8gb adequate to do my tasks Cheers Terry

I am learning iOS development and plan to work as an indie developer. I am using the base model air m2. It is enough for me. I never need to do any video or image editing. However, if I have a choice, I would pick m1 8gb. I had no choice as there are limited supply of Macbook in Macau.

swap memory feature fucks up your small 256gb ssd mate, why is nobody talking about this??????

great review

Came across your channel when I was so confused by 8GB vs. 16GB. Thank you so very much. M1 8GB is definitely for me.

Could you help me please? 😢Do I have to choose 8Gb or 16Gb for English lessons with 13 people in Zoom? Should I opt for Air or Pro?

I bought the 256GB/ 8GB version and it's fantastic. Does all that I need with zero issues.

I believe from experience everyone knows how much RAM needs if not? Get the base model! So simple...

Getting tired of Apple jerking customers around with NO means of upgrading RAM or SSD storage after buying their computer. Either pay exorbitant amount to Apple to upgrade in the beginning or NO option later on. Unified memory that is built into the CPU itself is one thing but the SSD that is soldered onto the logic board so the upgrade is made impossible is beyond annoying.

Me watching this because I'm in Costa Rica and they don't bring the 16gb 🥲 so I'm not sure if buy the 8gb or wait and try to go to the US and buy it (here you either have the 8gb air or 16gb pro 🥲 which here's absurdly expensive)

I just love the accent -- the M2 Max of accents.

And yet running a Teams meeting with a 48 inch curved monitor attached and mail, safari, what’s app and messages open I put the RAM into the orange pressure zone. Looks like I did what all the bench mark experts couldn’t do, all before 9am a Monday!

new subscriber!!! I have the Macbook Pro 13inch 2017, and it started acting up yesterday. Apple support helped me fix it temporarily but the same problem keeps reoccurring (stuck on question mark folder) So now I'm thinking of getting a new Macbook on a budget. THANK YOU FOR THIS!

Please do a detailed review for those who want to buy M1 for Music Production.

How did you get that softness in your video? What camera are you using and what are you settings?

multiple concurrent vms which interact is the only reason for stacking ram on.

good evening bro great work on your channel! one question do you think 8gb is enough for using lightroom? on macmini m1!

Considering that Mac silicon doesnt support Windows natively ergo Bootcamp, then you'll need to run it via Parallels within MacOS, so with MacOS using up RAM then Windows will also require a fair bit of RAM. Thus 16GB is very important for those of us that like to use Mac and Windows on the one device.
My Surface Pro with 8GB struggles as Windows 10 uses a fair bit of memory and Google Chrome is a memory hog as people know. So memory becomes very important for that reason.

Hi! tell me please, do you think it's worth buying a Macbook Air M1 7 core gpu/16Gb/2Tb SSD/Space gray at this moment for $1585, or are there other better macbook options? in my country macbook pro M1 14inch the base model is 1980$, and a macbook air M2 8/256/1300$ thank you in advance!

Hi, Mark. Is the base model M1 MacBook Air (8GB/256GB) enough for Parallels? The subtitle editor I’m using is only available on Windows, that’s why I’m planning to buy a new Mac and use Parallels.

Look historically: 10 years ago 2 or 4gb ram was enough. Now 8 is the minimum. In 5 years 16 will be the minimum standard. Get 16gb.

Thank u fo the explanation

I bought a 8c 8GB 512GB M1 Air and it really struggles with Steam. Today I left Civilization V open for a few hours and it was completely frozen when I got home. Sucked up all the RAM and got very hot. I decided to return it and order a 16GB 256GB M1 13" MBP because it will handle games better as well as getting the nod for active cooling. Have reservations about a Touch Bar but will see how it goes once I get my hands on it. Close to the same price on Apples refurb store so I hope it will give me what I want.

For Microsoft 8gig isn't enough.

Hi! Thanks for the video! I'm studying graphic design assume that 16 ram is enough..

This is the calmest review I’ve seen and the best British accent I’ve heard. You sir have a new subscriber.

Thanks for the vid. Does the size of SSD influence performance or life span? Unsure whether to go 1 or 2TB. Trying to keep costs down but if it will have an impact on longevity then I would prefer to invest a bit more up front. Otherwise I'll go 1TB and buy external as and when needed.

Awesome video man!! Lots of people here said that 8GB is for people browsing, and 16GB if you're into heavy editing and everything. And you answered the question for me, someone who often edits stuff, but doesn't do it full time or with 8k video files. Ill be getting the 8GB for me, thanks so much!!

I chose 8gb just for microsoft office

I went with 16gb ram mac mini m1 but macbook air 8gb. I am a photographer and 95% of the editing will be done on mac mini. Macbook air's 8gb should be enough for the remaining 5% times


I hope :D

So helpful! I am currently looking at macbooks for my daughter at university studying fashion design. Sounds like the 8GB will fit the budget!!

What about storage??? Did you get 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB

I understand and agree with all that you’ve said, but wouldn’t the 16gb option be useful for those who want to use their machine for as many years as possible? I mean, with software updates and all that, in a couple years the extra memory might come in handy

2160p is 4k resolution. Not 2k.

Please do M1 MacBook Air get hot when using it for a long period time in a day?

Please do M1 MacBook Air get hot when using it for a long period time in a day?

Very helpful review answering actual questions that I have. Thank you!