How much RAM do you have assigned to the virtual machine(s) you have created in Parallels? Set that to the minimum you can get away with for whatever you're doing those VMs. If you're doing heavy work in VMs and the RAM allocations of whatever VMs you have running at the same time adds up to (at a rough guess) more than half your total RAM then yeah, you probably need a 36GB machine.
There are at least a couple of M3 Pro MacBooks in the Apple Refurbished store right now with 36GB memory and 1TB storage. Others with same memory and more storage. You can probably find what you want.
Yeah thats true - I would not have noticed anything if it wasn't for looking !
36GB of ram model is the one I went for. future proofing if I need it long term
Option 2: don't virtualize on Mac. Instead, put a few years of the virtualization software annual subscription rent towards buying a dedicated Mac Mini-like PC. Since the vast bulk of the world isn't looking for towards 50% profit margin on their products, a little money can buy a LOT of PC.
Then let the PC do the PC-ing and the Mac do the Mac-ing. Even a few hundred dollars will buy a fairly useful PC. And since PCs are generally user upgradable, you can start with what you need in 2024 and then- and I know this will seem crazy to us Apple people now- upgrade RAM & storage later if you need more.
I went this way and am quite pleased with this instead of annual ≈$60 "subscriptions" to only get ARM Windows vs. full Windows. 32GB of RAM + 10TB of fast SSD + the entire PC itself with good graphics card cost less than Apple charges only for a storage upgrade to 8TB SSD. Had I not decided to "go big" (and go ahead and grant myself access to just about all AAA gaming too), I could have got a "good enough" PC still fairly loaded for a budget down in the $400-$600 range.
If:
- your main computer is Mac but you sometimes need Windows, this is a good option.
- your main computer is Windows but you sometimes need Mac, a variant of the same using Mac Mini is a good option... and will cost a lot less overall.
- you really need both "on the road" with you, perhaps 2 laptops in the bag might be a better option. Then, just selectively bring the second one whenever you can anticipate needing it on the road. Else, you are only carrying 1 laptop when you are confident you won't need immediate access to the other.
I've just had a very bad experience moving from an Intel Mac to an M3 b/c Apple insisted on under-speccing the RAM. Despite claims to the contrary, my real-life benchmark testing revealed that Apple's RAM isn't magic and if RAM-hungry apps and/or multiple apps used at once, you can't get away with half what you had before, regardless of the processor. Annoying as it is (given Apple's exorbitant RAM pricing), if you want the same performance you get on a 32GB desktop, you may find you're very frustrated it you buy less than 32GB.
I run Parallels on my M2 air with 16GB and I have no issues with memory pressure. Completely stays within the green. I have the memory set for 6GB with 3GB for graphics. No issues with anything I need to run in Parallels.
Of course, it all depends on (a) what you want to do in Parallels/Windows and (b) what you want to do in MacOS at the same time. I think minimum required for Windows is still 2GB, minimum for Office (some features/applications not available on MacOS) 365 is 4GB , Visual Studio (not VS code - you can run that on Mac) 2022 is 8GB minimum/16GB recommended...
Apple's claim was that 8GB of unified memory is equivalent to 16GB of conventional memory on a Windows PC. Their argument was that macOS's memory management was superior to Windows so you can do more with less. That claim is still BS, but it's important to at least understand what they were claiming.
