Moving from windows to mac, need advice on ram selection

[randomninja]

I have decided to switch from windows to macos primarily because of battery life
my primary use is web browsing and anki (flashcard software) with three external displays using displaylink. in future i might get an ultrawide monitor 6k to 8k res >40 inch. around 10 tabs in total in browsers are always open and additional tabs are opened as needed.
i have installed around 42 programs among which are qol programs making life a bit easier. almost all of them are open wither in foreground, taskbar, system tray or background processes. i have listed them at the end of the post. according to my understanding they are not cpu intensive and most of them utilise little ram but they add up.
currently i am using windows laptop with i7 7700hq 16 gb ram. ram usage is always around 80 percent at baseline of my workload. it increaes as i open more tabs or another program. but it does slow down when additional programs are opened although it may have to do with cpu as cpu usage jumps to 100 percent. if i were to buy a windows laptop, i would go for 32gb.
based on the above scenario, how much ram do you think i would be good with?
(i understand i would need to find alternatives to these for macos)
1.Anki – A flashcard application for studying and memory retention using spaced repetition.
2.AutorunOrganizer – A tool to manage and optimize startup programs on your Windows system.
3.Chrome – Google’s web browser.
4.ClickMonitorDDC_7_2 – Adjusts monitor brightness, contrast, and volume via software controls.
5.Cloudflare WARP – A VPN-like service that secures and optimizes your internet connection.
6.Cold Turkey Blocker – An app that helps block distractions by blocking apps and websites.
7.Dimmer – A tool for dimming screen brightness beyond system defaults.
8.DiscSoftBusServiceLite – Service related to Daemon Tools Lite, used for mounting disk images.
9.DS4Windows – Allows a DualShock 4 controller to be used on Windows PC.
10.Everything64 – A fast file search engine for Windows.
11.Explorer – Windows Explorer, the file management application for Windows.
12.Flow.Launcher – A productivity launcher that allows you to search and run applications quickly.
13.f.lux – Adjusts your display’s color temperature according to the time of day to reduce eye strain.
14.FoxitPDFReader – A fast and lightweight PDF reader.
15.GoogleDriveFS – The service that enables Google Drive's File Stream on your computer.
16.IDMan – Internet Download Manager, a tool to speed up and manage downloads.
17.Joplin – A note-taking application with markdown support and synchronization.
18.localsend_app – Local file transfer application, used to send files over local networks.
19.MEGAsync – Syncs files between your computer and MEGA cloud storage.
20.MonitorianPlus – Allows you to adjust external monitor brightness via software.
21.mpv – An open-source media player supporting a wide variety of video formats.
22.msedge – Microsoft Edge, the default web browser for Windows 10 and above.
23.Notepad – A simple text editor that comes with Windows.
24.Notepad++ – A more advanced text editor, popular for programming and script writing.
25.OneDrive – Microsoft’s cloud storage and file syncing service.
26.PersistentWindows – Restores window positions when connecting/disconnecting monitors.
27.PhraseExpress – A text-expansion tool that helps automate repetitive typing tasks.
28.PicPick – An all-in-one tool for screenshots, editing, and color picking.
29.PowerToys – A collection of utilities for power users to optimize their Windows experience.
30.qbittorrent – A free and open-source BitTorrent client.
31.SbieCtrl – A process for Sandboxie, an application that runs programs in a secure sandbox.
32.ShareX – A screen capture and file-sharing tool.
33.TeamViewer_Service – A service for remote control and file sharing via TeamViewer.
34.Unchecky_bg – Prevents unwanted software installations by automatically unchecking unwanted offers during installation.
35.WhatsApp – The desktop version of the popular messaging app, WhatsApp.
36.WindscribeService – A service for Windscribe VPN, which helps anonymize and secure your internet browsing.
37.XMouseButtonControl – A tool for customizing the functionality of your mouse buttons.
38.Xodo – A versatile PDF reader and annotator.
39.YourPhoneAppProxy – Part of Microsoft’s Your Phone app, which syncs your phone with Windows to view notifications, texts, etc.
40.Digital_Clock – desktop clock application.
41.PangoBright – A small utility that adjusts the brightness of all monitors attached to your computer.
42.MS office
43. potplayer
44. vlc
45. musicbee - music player

 

[Bigwaff]

Sorry to be blunt but… as much as you can afford.

 

[randomninja]

Sorry to be blunt but… as much as you can afford.

Suppose i can afford 64gb, that would surely be overkill and waste of money for my use case. That is why i gave detailed list of my use case.

 

[coffeemilktea]

I think you could very comfortably get by on 32 GB. Even 24 might be okay, but it'd be cutting it close.

 

[Alameda]

Suppose i can afford 64gb, that would surely be overkill and waste of money for my use case. That is why i gave detailed list of my use case.

You didn’t describe your use case at all. From what I gather, you surf the web, run Office, and download a lot of videos. You haven’t listed any productivity or game software, or any tasks you perform at all.

First thing is you need a Mac which will support your three external displays. If you’re buying a laptop, you’ll need a MacBook Pro with the M2 Max or M3 Max chipset. The “Pro” chipset models will only support two external displays.

Beyond that, it sounds like you’re just running two web browsers with VPN, a video player and a bunch of toys which don’t run on a Mac.

 

[randomninja]

You didn’t describe your use case at all. From what I gather, you surf the web, run Office, and download a lot of videos. You haven’t listed any productivity or game software, or any tasks you perform at all.

First thing is you need a Mac which will support your three external displays. If you’re buying a laptop, you’ll need a MacBook Pro with the M2 Max or M3 Max chipset. The “Pro” chipset models will only support two external displays.

Beyond that, it sounds like you’re just running two web browsers with VPN, a video player and a bunch of toys which don’t run on a Mac.

If you mean by productivity video editors, I do not use any. This machine will not be used for gaming.
Macs even those that support only one display can support more using displaylink but it isn't preferred by many due to latency for example with gaming. Otherwise for casual use, displaylink does the job such as my case for browsers and pdf readers etc.
As for the toys, they either have mac version of themselves or alternative programs exist that can do the same function

 

[Algr]

It doesn't sound to me like you have huge demands, so a lesser ram configuration might be fine. Don't forget to think about internal storage though. 256 GB can get awkward really quickly.

 

[wonderings]

As others have said, as much as you can afford. There is no upgrading the RAM later. A Hard drive you can go external or use an SD card or go cloud, RAM there is no option. Bare minimum I would go with is 32 gigs personally. A lot of what you have in there seems pretty unnecessary. Fast application launcher? You have the dock, you have spotlight, not sure what else you can do to make this even faster.

 

[Alameda]

If you mean by productivity video editors, I do not use any. This machine will not be used for gaming.
Macs even those that support only one display can support more using displaylink but it isn't preferred by many due to latency for example with gaming. Otherwise for casual use, displaylink does the job such as my case for browsers and pdf readers etc.
As for the toys, they either have mac version of themselves or alternative programs exist that can do the same function

You still haven’t described what it is you do.
I have a 16 GB MacBook Pro with an M1 and it’s fine for me. I have no problem running MS Office, a bunch of Office apps all at once and the web browser. I also have no problem editing my 45 megapixel photos in a RAW editor and Photoshop.

I don’t do riculous things. I don’t run 350 web browser windows, I keep it to ten or twenty tabs at most. When I do photo editing I quite out of my MS Office apps, because I don’t need to do all of that at the same time. Just basic things like that.

 

[klasma]

Half the RAM that you would need on a Windows PC, according to Apple.

 

[Algr]

A Hard drive you can go external or use an SD card or go cloud,

Cloud storage is awful, and can slow your system to a crawl. External hard drives give a huge hit to portability, which is supposed to be the main point of a laptop.

I do 4k video editing and AI visuals on my Studio. 32 gig seems to be working for me so far. 512 GB storage has been more of an issue. Having to put my Photos and iTunes on an external drive seems to confuse those programs. And perversely, Apple won't let you backup an iPhone to an external drive! (AFAIK.)

 

[Fishrrman]

Unless you're going to be doing 4k video, or heavy plugin-intensive audio work, or processing HUGE images in a photo editing app, I'll suggest that 24gb should be fine.

IF you can afford 32gb (and if it's available, RAM configurations on Macs seem to be changing with the newer m-series CPUs), then get that.

And be sure to buy enough SSD space.
512gb has become "the new minimum" in my opinion.
1tb is better (generally costs $200 more).

 

[Rkuda]

How long do you intend to use the computer? The longer you will keep the better it would be to go with more RAM. 24 is probably the sweet spot but 32 would be better if the cost isn't an issue and you want to use the computer for 5+ years.

From what you've described most of what you do is not very intensive, and also a quite a number of the apps you used are things that are built into macOS so you won't need near as many utility apps running all the time.

I have had 32GB on my M1 Max and have used apps like Xcode, Final Cut Pro, Blender, Unreal Engine without issue.

 

[randomninja]

You still haven’t described what it is you do.
I have a 16 GB MacBook Pro with an M1 and it’s fine for me. I have no problem running MS Office, a bunch of Office apps all at once and the web browser. I also have no problem editing my 45 megapixel photos in a RAW editor and Photoshop.

I don’t do riculous things. I don’t run 350 web browser windows, I keep it to ten or twenty tabs at most. When I do photo editing I quite out of my MS Office apps, because I don’t need to do all of that at the same time. Just basic things like that.

Sorry i don't understand what you mean by what is it you do. If you are asking about profession, i am a medical student. If you mean what will i use my laptop for, then it will be for study purposes which involves browsing, flashcard software called anki, pdf readers and the other programs i have mentioned above.

 

[kschendel]

Memory usage displays can be misleading, as all modern OS's use memory as a file cache when it's not needed for other things. Given what you describe, you could probably get away with 16 GB; you might go for 24 just because. I doubt that you would actually need more.

 

[Alameda]

Sorry i don't understand what you mean by what is it you do. If you are asking about profession, i am a medical student. If you mean what will i use my laptop for, then it will be for study purposes which involves browsing, flashcard software called anki, pdf readers and the other programs i have mentioned above.

Your memory needs aren’t excessive and 16 GB will be fine. I’d get a model which supports three external displays directly, without the need for your display link boxes.

 

[steve123]

You may want to consider the impact AI will have on your future computing needs. These types of applications can be very memory intensive especially if someday you desire to train an AI.