Guide
How Much RAM Does a Laptop Need? What Real Requirements Say
There's no single right amount of RAM, because it depends on what you run. Rather than guess, here are the figures the publishers themselves list — each one also appears, with its source, on the matching What Can I Run? page.
Everyday productivity
Microsoft lists 4 GB of RAM as the requirement for Microsoft 365 apps such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint on both Windows and Mac. Visual Studio Code lists 1 GB. These are the floor for the software itself — browser tabs, video calls and other apps open alongside them all draw on the same memory.
Coding and development tools
Visual Studio 2022 lists 4 GB as its minimum and Microsoft recommends 16 GB for typical professional solutions. Android Studio lists 8 GB minimum, 16 GB if you also run the Android Emulator, and recommends 32 GB. Unreal Engine 5.8's recommended Windows specification is 32 GB.
Games
Published minimums for recent big games commonly sit between 8 and 16 GB, with recommended tiers often at 16 GB. For example, Cyberpunk 2077 lists 12 GB minimum and 16 GB recommended, and Baldur's Gate 3 lists 8 GB minimum and 16 GB recommended, both on their Steam store pages. Lighter titles list far less.
What this means when buying or upgrading
If a laptop's memory is soldered you can't add more later, so buy the amount you'll need for the life of the machine. If it has SO-DIMM slots you can start lower and upgrade — check your exact model to see which case you're in.
See it in a real device
Laptops with user-upgradeable RAM
Verified examples from our database (highest supported memory per brand):
- HP ZBook Fury 16 inch G104 slots, up to 128 GB DDR5-5600
- Dell Precision 77704 slots, up to 128 GB DDR5-4800
- MSI Titan GT77 HX 13VI4 slots, up to 128 GB DDR5-5600
- Framework Laptop 16 (AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series)2 slots, up to 96 GB DDR5-5600
- Lenovo ThinkPad P14s Gen 5 Intel2 slots, up to 96 GB DDR5-5600
- Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 AI PHN16-732 slots, up to 64 GB DDR5