How much RAM is taken up by Yosemite?

[dcs.79c]

I want to get a 13" Macbook Air.
On a brand new fresh-out-of-the-box Air, how much RAM is taken up by Yosemite? How much RAM is taken up by graphics processor?

 

[RadDave]

I want to get a 13" Macbook Air.
On a brand new fresh-out-of-the-box Air, how much RAM is taken up by Yosemite? How much RAM is taken up by graphics processor?

Just curious - are you asking this question because of trying to decide 'how much' RAM you want? If so, Apple claims that 2 GB of RAM (HERE) is sufficient to run Yosemite; however, 4 GB is often suggested here as the minimum, and 8 GB typically recommended - my MBPro has 8 GB RAM and handles Yosemite w/o a problem.

Now as to your specific questions above, it's rather difficult to provide a set answer since the RAM being used is constantly changing - take a look below of a screen capture from my 'Activity Monitor' - at the moment, I'm not doing much (10 windows opened in Safari and a few apps running in the background) and nearly 5 GB RAM are being used - some useful data provided under the 'Memory Pressure' box - see HERE for some further discussion. SO, I'd recommend getting 8 GB of RAM - who knows what the next OS X or that after will need? Dave
.

 

[pigoo3]

I want to get a 13" Macbook Air.
On a brand new fresh-out-of-the-box Air, how much RAM is taken up by Yosemite? How much RAM is taken up by graphics processor?

I wouldn't exactly look at things this way…just keep things simple. In 2015…ANY Apple computer running Yosemite should have at least 4gig of ram…8gig of ram would be a lot better.

- Nick

 

[McBie]

As mentioned above, if you have 8 gb of RAM you will not have any memory questions to worry about.
I bought a maxed out MBA in 2013 ( 512 SSD, 8 GB, i7 @ 1.7 Ghz. ) and I love this little thing.

Cheers ... McBie

 

[pm-r]

As for the amount of Mac graphics memory, you might want to read the older but useful article at:
Does your Mac graphics card have enough video memory? | conrad chavez | blog
and the associated Apple article of their models and their use of integrated video and/or discrete video and memory usage.:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204349

And then, maybe check on what apps you're planning to use that may be heavy GPU users and whether you'll be using apps like Adobe's or games as they can use the RAM differently. But having more is always usually better, but you can go overboard.

 

[harryb2448]

Should you go with your decision to get the Air, strongly suggest getting the 8GB model. A s you no doubt know you cannot upgrade the memory after purchase.