What Macbook is best for casual virtualization? is the M3 Air good?

[topblud]

I'm trying to buy a MacBook during the Black Friday season as my current laptop (2016 HP i5 16/256GB) is on its last legs, and I'm having a hard time deciding which MacBook is worth buying.
I'm mainly considering one since I've seen the M series chips being called the best in the laptop market, and I'm overall becoming dissatisfied with Windows. I do however run a Windows VM for casual development, and I was wondering what MacBook model would be best for running a VM in the background? I don't know how it translates in the Mac world, but my current VM runs with 2vCPUs (the CPU only has 2 real cores but has 4 vCores?) and 8GB of RAM. I'm debating between the Macbook Air (24/512GB, $1300), the M4 Macbook Pro (16/512GB, $1400), and waiting to see if the M4 Pro Macbook Pro base comes on sale from Costco from its current price ($1800). I'm leaning towards the Air since its cheaper, lighter, and has more RAM (I'm not intending to major in Comp Sci, so I don't know if the marginal increase of the Pro makes sense for me unless it's the M4 Pro chip).
I'm very confused with the differences, so any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Bigwaff]

I do however run a Windows VM for casual development, and I was wondering what MacBook model would be best for running a VM in the background?

Apple M-series Macs can only run Windows ARM version in virtual machines. Make sure your development software and workflow support Windows ARM.

 

[Isamilis]

I think Air is better option. VM needs more RAM than CPU. Also, Silicon processor has been quite advanced for current needs, hence M3 vs M4 won’t differ much for typical usages.

 

[topblud]

Apple M-series Macs can only run Windows ARM version in virtual machines. Make sure your development software and workflow support Windows ARM.

Thank you for mentioning that, I believe of the programs I used (VS/Code, Java) should function on ARM, but I'll be sure to double check.

I think Air is better option. VM needs more RAM than CPU. Also, Silicon processor has been quite advanced for current needs, hence M3 vs M4 won’t differ much for typical usages.

Thank you for the advice, do you think I need to be concerned about the core count of the M3 (Since it only has 4P Cores)? I agree with your insight on RAM, I don't believe any of the M4's new functions will apply to me as much as 24GB will.

 

[philosoraptor1]

VSCode has a Mac version; no virtualization is needed. Also, IntelliJ is much better for Java development.