Ram and memory upgrade

Photoshop loves memory, though M1 main memory and M1 main storage are substantially faster, so less main memory can be workable.

Main memory is where the apps and data reside, and where macOS caches storage.

Simplistically, more main memory can be used to mask a slower main storage, but M1 has much faster main storage. More memory was the usual workaround for the contending with glacial hard disk drive speeds.

Adobe states 8 GB will work and 16+ GB is recommended for M1: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/system-requirements.html

Your choice of a half-terabyte for main storage seems a little suspect though, if you plan on keeping this Mac M1 model for a while. But you know your storage best.

Hello all,

I currently own a MacAir 2018, 1.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, 8GB memory RAM, with Intel UHD Graphics 617 1536 MB.

I use lightroom and photoshop as a hobby and laptops get's slow and sometimes impossible to use, so I am considering upgrading the memory ram to the max possible, 16GB. Would that be enough for a much smooth use of these softwares for now?

thanks!

surfinginthelight wrote:

I currently own a MacAir 2018, 1.6 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5, 8GB memory RAM, with Intel UHD Graphics 617 1536 MB.

I use lightroom and photoshop as a hobby and laptops get's slow and sometimes impossible to use, so I am considering upgrading the memory ram to the max possible, 16GB. Would that be enough for a much smooth use of these softwares for now?

You’re on a low-spec (~bottom) Intel processor with low-spec (~bottom) memory, and working with apps known to use copious system resources. That’s not an auspicious combination.

Look up the Adobe hardware recommendations, and—if you plan to keep the laptop or the iMac for five or potentially more years—go higher than what Adobe mentions for recommended hardware. Why more? Because with many of the heavier apps in a few years, recommended will become minimum. And your memory and storage requirements will likely only increase. And because you can’t add more memory or more storage after purchase.

If you don’t absolutely need the laptop and its portability for your usage, an iMac can get you a number of benefits, and quite possibly for less money. Why I mention even this? I’ve worked with a number of folks that bought laptops for portability, and then vanishingly rarely or never actually moved the laptop from their desk. They paid much for portability they never used, and lost out in the bargain; added portability involves trade-offs in cost and cooling and size, etc.

Caveat: among the very few downsides of M1 is not being able to run any commercial version of Microsoft Windows, or any other operating systems or hypervisors requiring x86-64 architecture.

Thanks for your answer, I purchased this MacAir 2019 (2018 model) I will like to use it at least one more year, my question is if I upgrade the memory RAM I will have a better/descent performance or better do not invest on that and buy a new computer.

surfinginthelight wrote:

Thanks for your answer, I purchased this MacAir 2019 (2018 model) I will like to use it at least one more year, my question is if I upgrade the memory RAM I will have a better/descent performance or better do not invest on that and buy a new computer.

You can not upgrade the RAM on a computer you already own.

surfinginthelight wrote:

Thanks for your answer, I purchased this MacAir 2019 (2018 model) I will like to use it at least one more year, my question is if I upgrade the memory RAM I will have a better/descent performance or better do not invest on that and buy a new computer.

You seem to have missed the… And because you can’t add more memory or more storage after purchase… part, there.

MacBook Air 2018 was the first of the fully-soldered Air models: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ssd/owc/macbook-air

The Intel iMac 27” and Intel Mac Pro are among the last Mac models that can be reasonably user-upgraded, other than via Thunderbolt expansion.

The Apple laptops have been increasingly difficult to upgrade after purchase, and the last several years’ have ~everything soldered.

Yes… This integration is bad for buying and upgrading immediately or buying and upgrading later, but (as has been the case with increasing integration over the decades of computing) it also means denser, faster, and more reliable gear, with fewer connectors and joints to fail. Ever bigger parts get swapped, for repairs.

We’re in a trend for the entire computer to be integrated onto a single chip, and M1 is a step closer to that.

Your options here with a 2018 or newer MacBook Air are to contend with what you have, until you decide to sell it and upgrade.

Get as much storage and RAM as you can afford. Your needs will always expand never decrease. In 3 or 4 years you'll be sorry you did not get the 32 bit RAM and 1TB storage.

2019 computers cannot upgrade the RAM or SSD, both soldered to the logicboard. If you want more you will have to replace the entire system.

Thank you all for your answers, I have been told by Apple that I can upgrade my memory ram to 16GB.