You could do the same exact thing on windows, on 8GB, with chrome, and it would also work exactly the same, would probably use like 4-5GB of ram. I have a laptop with 8gb of ram and it works fine with couple of actual programs open, and 40 tabs open.

Even now i have 20 tabs open (in chrome, imagine the horror), and it takes only 1720mb of ram. 

Also what do you mean by "virtual desktops"?

I have the exact same button and interface on windows, and afaik they arent all separate VM's, they still run inside the same OS. Is that different on Mac?

A virtual desktop is another desktop on your machine. Your Laptop only has 1 monitor, so a single desktop space. If you create another desktop that you switch between, that is called a "virtual desktop" 

Aah so completely the same as on Windows. Ok, thanks

Yes, though macOS added it first  

Haven't really used the feature on either OS, so wouldn't know. 

It's pretty handy. Especially for this kind of situation. Spreading out your resources reduces clutter and makes it easier to focus. 

Apple really knows how to optimize their software to the hardware. 

the thing about macOS is that it will use more ram if you have it. if i do that on my macbook with 16gb of ram it will use nearly all of it.