2GB RAM vs 4GB Ram in MBA

So I'm thinking about getting a MacBook Air 11" ($999), and I'm trying to decide between 2GB of RAM or 4GB of RAM. I would probably be running Photoshop, Espresso, and Safari. On my MBP (4GB of RAM) it's fine, but would it be okay with the SSD on 2GB of RAM? Thanks.

 

Go with 4 if you plan on using photoshop regularly.

There's no adding ram down the line so going with 4 upfront seems like the cheapest way to extend the life of your MBA.

 

The inclusion of SSD does not mean that you can decrease the amount of RAM in a system. An SSD will allow for programs to load faster, a computer to boot quicker, etc. It will not increase performance in anyway for programs that need to access large amounts of RAM. So, if you plan to run such programs (and Photoshop is one of them), then you would be wise in upgrading to 4GB especially since the entire MBA line does not support any aftermarket upgrades. Whatever comes pre-installed in the MBA (whether you customize it on Apple's website or buy one in a store) is what you get. The RAM cannot be upgraded and installing a higher capacity non-traditional SSD (since the MBA does not use standard 2.5" SSD's much like most other notebooks) is an expensive endeavor that requires major technical skills.

So buy whatever upgrades you want/need now when you order the MBA as that will be it for that unit. That includes both the RAM and SSD size. One thing to look at, aside from purchasing from the education store, is that the baseline 11" MBA (which I assume is the one you are looking at since it is the only model that comes with 2GB of RAM as an option) is $999. Upgrading it to 4GB of RAM increases the cost to $1099 (both of those numbers will be a little lower in Apple's educational store). For an additional $100, you can still buy the 11" MBA but get the model that comes with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD as standard options.

Yes, that is $200 more than the standard $1000 price you were originally looking at spending but it is only $100 more than the baseline model with 4GB of RAM. So not only would you get 4GB of RAM but the SSD would be doubled thus furthering the life of the MBA since 64GB of storage really isn't a whole lot. I have a 120GB SSD in my MBP and it has about only 20GB left of free space. That is with a fair amount of programs installed on it (including Windows 7 Ultimate) but you can see just how short 64GB will take you. That is fine for a media device or tablet but I don't think that is enough for a system especially since many programs take up between 1-3GB.

 

Honestly, even if you weren't using Photoshop, having 4GB justifies itself by attracting more buyers in the future and making it compatible with future software.

However, since you are doing Photoshop and since I assume you want to keep it for a extended amount of time, I strongly suggest you opt for the 4GB ram.

 

2GB is really too small for anything activities except word docs and the web.

 

I get by with 2GB on my MBA as a engineering graduate student. That being said I wish I would have gotten the 4GB model instead.

Considering you cannot upgrade the RAM later, get the 4GB version.

 

I would get 4 GB because you can't upgrade it in the future. However, I disagree with kornchild concerning the performance. I think that 2 GB w/ SSD is much better than 2 GB with a hard drive. I think it would increase performance dramatically for programs which need a large amount of ram.

If your program needs 8GB of ram let's say... You have a choice of swap space on a slow (relatively) SSD, or on a slow-as-a-slug HDD. I agree that you shouldn't drop ram on account of the SSD, I disagree with that one specific point on performance.

 

That is not the lines of what I was saying though. I was stating that the inclusion of SSD does not mean that one can decrease the amount of RAM that they have if they are going to run RAM intensive programs. Swap space is irrelevant whenever a program is looking for RAM (and is written to do such as SSD cannot be substituted for RAM, hence why programs load faster on SSD equipped systems but they may not run as smoothly if said system has a low amount of RAM). A more correct analogy to what I was trying to get across is that 2GB of RAM with SSD is not better than 4GB of RAM with an HDD for programs that require a large amount of RAM (the SSD system would boot faster and load programs quicker but applications would drastically slow down if they required hefty amounts of RAM). In either case, pairing 4GB of RAM with an SSD would be the optimal solution which is what the MBA does. The RAM would cover the programs requiring such an amount and the SSD would allow for faster load times.

I believe the OP was thinking that the inclusion of SSD would allow them to float by with 2GB of RAM with their list of programs but that isn't the case.

 

Right.

It was just that you said "[An SSD] will not increase performance in anyway for programs that need to access large amounts of RAM."

This is the only problematic statement. The rest was fine.

 

Which still holds true. Applications that were programmed for X amount of RAM and, are denied that certain amount of RAM, won't still work fine just because they are on a system that has an SSD. My statement was a little poorly worded but I was getting the idea across that an SSD drive cannot makeup for a lack of RAM when programs require it anymore so than having 16GB of RAM will makeup for an SSD that is completely full requiring the installation of a 3GB program.

One does not allow the other to be reduced. Instead, they both compliment each other in various ways.