[blunte]

TL;DR: 16GB is enough for most use cases on Intel Macs, so it should be as good or better on M1 Macs.

In my experience with 16GB Intel Macs for years, I have never had memory problems. I'm sure there are some large data migration cases which could make it a problem, but for my typical development (1-3 instances of a JetBrains IDE open, PostgreSQL and MySQL servers running, Docker running, sometimes even VirtualBox running, half a dozen or more terminal sessions, 1-5 Rails apps running - all of these simultaneously) I have been fine with 16GB.

If anything does start to create memory pressure, it's usually Chrome or Firefox after they've been open for weeks (since my laptop uptimes are usually 30-90 days), with far too many tabs open.

[zebnyc]

Have a 2019 2.6 GHz 16 GB Macbook pro. Between Chrome / Docker the machine can barely keep up. I notice that after Slack / Google hangout calls my laptop overheats and becomes generally unusable. Sometimes requires a reboot. Zoom calls don't cause same issues though.

[blunte]

Strange. My work laptop is a 2019 13" pro with only an i5 and 16GB RAM, and I very rarely have any problems. On the rare times I do, it's usually because some app went nuts and needs to be killed. Google Hangouts, however, is a pig.

But then, when on a Hangouts (now Meet, I guess) call, I typically won't be pushing any of the other apps; they'll be idling.

[jayd16]

You also lose any dedicated VRAM. That's an extra 4-8 gigs the Intel Macs have.

If you don't need it, you don't need it but to say 16 gigs on an M1 is somehow "better" seems silly to me.

[blunte]

In the developer use cases I described, video memory should not be a big concern. (Edit - also, my described scenario is on my 2019 13" MBP with 16GB RAM, i5 CPU, and puny Intel GPU.)

[Abishek_Muthian]

They key is whether you come from a workflow > 16GB intel mac, if you already had your workflow tuned for 16GB or lesser then you'll not find any issues w.r.t lack of memory.