I got my first Mac a week ago, MacBook Pro with basic M3 chip with 8GB of RAM. I am a first-year student, studying computing for business. I do not run any serious pro apps and do not play games on it (maybe some small indie projects), and my budget was very strictly limited and I couldn’t spend more. I didn’t experience any issues with it and didn’t feel any lack of performance or anything. This is my first and only laptop so I couldn’t wait any more as I needed it for college. Asking because everyone says that 8GB is waste of money, but if I don’t really know why do I need a more powerful Mac, did I really made a mistake for buying basic M3 ? Should I have waited and bought on M3 Pro chip ?
Lots of people will say this was a mistake. They are wrong.
You’re a student who doesn’t need a huge amount of computing power, so the specs are fine for you. This laptop was a great choice for this use case, because of the great screen, battery life and frankly stunning great big speakers. Most students don’t have TVs, so actually these benefits far outweigh sinking money into computing power that you don’t need. (Yes the air has great battery too, not the point here).
It’s unlikely that you’re going to really tax the processor/ram in this machine and it’ll provide an enjoyable media experience throughout your degree.
Thank you, wise words, I had doubts but now I feel that I made a right choice and there were no need to spend more. Enjoying my new Mac and happy to become a part of a community. It is so much more comfortable to use than a Windows machine))