Is the MacOS ram management better than Win 11? 16GB RAM on win11 vs a latest M2 macbook (currently using 16gb ram & 5600h Asus Vivobook 16")

MYR7PUTE · May 7, 2023

I am a Uni student doing his masters program, and I have an unreasonable amount of tabs on my laptop at any given time. My ram is stuck at 94% of the available 16gb. Sadly the RAM in my laptop is not user upgradable, and I am considering changing my laptop. I still want something that is not v heavy and has a long battery life (8-12 hours is the target). I am open to hearing laptop suggestions too, as I do not see any other option for me. I am currently considering getting a refurbished macbook pro 14"/16". But the biggest question in my mind is, should I go with the 16 GB ram model to save money as Apple charges unreasonable money for a 32 gb model.
(would love some windows based laptops as suggestion too under 2500 AUD/1700 USD)

manikyath · May 7, 2023

that's not an OS thing as much as it's a browser / website thing.

for the use cases where i might open up 150 tabs, i use vivaldi.

vivaldi had this feature where it can "sleep" a tab, essentially just taking it out of ram until you open it back up. this way i can easily go <1GB RAM on 150 tabs full of image content. (product pages)

or to answer your question: unless safari has a similar feature, no, ram usage will be largely similar.

DrMacintosh · May 7, 2023

45 minutes ago, MYR7PUTE said:

But the biggest question in my mind is, should I go with the 16 GB ram model to save money as Apple charges unreasonable money for a 32 gb model.

For some background knowledge, Apple Silicon has a "unified memory architecture" which really just means the memory is on the same package as the SoC. The result is that the memory is incredibly fast with minimal latency. This makes running out of memory very hard to notice. The real world impact of this is that any Mac with Apple Silicon that is running out of memory will feel faster than any traditional PC under the same circumstances. 16GB should be plenty on a Mac.

For the battery life improvements over PCs alone, I highly recommend any Apple Silicon Mac. If you aren't doing engineering, programing, or heavy video editing, I would highly consider a M2 MacBook Air. You'll get almost all the same performance and all the battery life for less. I'd only get a Pro if you need the bigger displays.