so, i’m planning on getting the Macbook Air and i don’t know if i want 8 GB memory or 16 GB, basically what does memory mean? will the computer be stronger with 16 GB?
In: Technology
TLDR: is your desky messy and covered with the things you are working on? If no 8GB is fine.
Memory, or RAM, is where software stores information it needs to access quickly.
One dated metaphor might be to think of memory as the space on your desk, where you keep the papers you are currently working on, while a filing cabinet or bookshelf more like a hard drive and backpack would be more like portable drive. The filing cabinet can store a lot more but to do that has to organize them in a way that makes picking an individual item out take more time.
More memory is like having a bigger desk, you can have more active projects and work on bigger projects. Like space on your desk you can free up memory by putting away things you are not currently working on, closing an application or browser window you don’t need open right this moment.
As a general student (meaning not one with a computer focused major like digital art, music or some engineering fields) the largest use of memory is probably going to be a web browser with multiple tabs open while doing research. As long as you are not like me and don’t keep dozens upon dozens of tabs open you will likely never notice the difference between the 8 and 16.
(i am currently using about 20GB or ram to run a web browser with dozens of tabs across 10 browser windows, also my physical desk has about enough free space on it to write a note on a post it without me having to move something, don’t be like me)
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