16 GB enough ram for my use case?

Is 16gb ram enough on macbook pro 16 inch for my use case?

I just purchased a 2019 refurbished 16 inch pro last night to replace my current 2011 iMac (24 gb ram 2.7 GHz i5). I thought I only had 16 gb ram on this machine so figured it would be fine on the macbook as this machine is running fine for me. Now that I've realized I actually have 24 GB ram, and you can't upgrade MacBooks afterwards, I'm starting to get worried I won't have enough on the MacBook. I also was reading something about retina displays/new OS taking up more RAM?

I only use the computer for programming in python/django/java and generally have a simple text editor, intellij, command prompt, and chrome open (normally with atleast 10 tabs open lol). I don't do heavy video/image editing.

Do you think I should cancel the order and upgrade to 32 gb ram? Or will I be ok with 16?

Thanks!

Solution 1:

I program in 8 GB and run light virtual machines and docker. You’d only need 16 or more for very specific cases. The new OS take less ram since Apple is dropping all the 32 bit frameworks and libraries. In general 3rd party apps are slimming faster than they are growing now as well, but with M1 and Intel, apps will be larger for a short term but that doesn’t really affect RAM at all, just disk space and network time to download.

You can compile LLVM from first principles on a 2015 MacBook or 2016 MacBook Air, so seriously large and complicated builds don’t require exotic hardware anymore.

The only cases for large RAM are massive browser needs and several VM for more than light testing.

Solution 2:

Apple has been getting really smart in managing its memory usage over the years.

For what you're doing, you should be just fine with 16GB as a minimum.

Anything more is just a bonus.