[d3w4s9]

Serious question: how far can you go with base model's 8GB RAM?

Doing VM workflows is one reason I didn't bother with recent Macbooks, as nice as they are. It is simply much cheaper to get a machine with removable RAM and then upgrade them later. Without going there, I can also build a decent ThinkPad T14 with 32GB for around $1,100 even though RAM is soldered.

[_ph_]

If you want to do VM workflows, I definitely would recommend to upgrade the RAM (and probably the SSD) when buying the machine. Yes, it is not cheap with Apple, but still no reason not to get an Apple machine, if you are in the market for one in the first place. The big bonus you get is not only the nice hardware overall, but the ability to run Linux on a very fast ARM-Machine.

[mattl]

I can edit video in Final Cut Pro on my 8GB M1 Mac Mini while doing other things.

[foofie]

> I can edit video in Final Cut Pro on my 8GB M1 Mac Mini while doing other things.

I can't use IntelliJ or vscode with autocompletion on a 2023 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM with a bunch of my projects.

The same projects run like a breeze on a cheap and very crappy Beelink minipc with 16GB of RAM whose total cost is lower than a RAM upgrade on a MacBook Air.

[CharlesW]

> I can't use IntelliJ or vscode with autocompletion on a 2023 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM with a bunch of my projects.

That's surprising. (More developer anecdata: https://duncsand.medium.com/is-apples-cheapest-macbook-good-...)

Still, I'd absolutely recommend that devs and other creators spend the extra $200 for 16GB. And yes, it's outrageously priced in comparison to buying matched sticks for your PC.

[foofie]

> Still, I'd absolutely recommend that devs and other creators spend the extra $200 for 16GB.

Nowadays a Beelink SEi12 i7-12650H sells for around $550, and it ships with 32GB of RAM by default. Beelink is ultra crappy, but it goes to show how absurd is the $200 markup demanded by Apple to turn one of their laptops into a decent working machine.

[d3nj4l]

I've used both IntelliJ and vscode on significantly sized projects on an 8GB MBA with no issues. It's not as fast as with 16GB, but it's definitely not unusable.

[foofie]

> It's not as fast as with 16GB, but it's definitely not unusable.

I'm sure it varies with how large your projects are. To me the impact was serious enough to force me to shift my development work to a crappy minipc from Beelink.

[mattl]

I'm curious if a native editor like Panic's Nova or BBEdit would work better than a Java or Electron app?

[bluish29]

Bbedit is a a lightweight editor compared to Intellij IDE. It is hard to compare both as they are on the same foot. But yes, if you can work with BBedit on a project go for it.

On the same note, sublime will still win editor performance competition on Mac and probably all platforms.