Developers, the average memory usage varies depending on the project.
Developers, the average memory usage varies depending on the project.
I’m working on improving my setup. I currently have 8GB of DDR3 RAM, but I’m running low on available memory. Since I spend more time coding than gaming, I’m curious about the memory demands of other developers. Common applications I run—like Chrome (half my RAM with several tabs), Discord, Visual Studio 2019, Notepad++, Bitvise SSH, Windows RDP, Share X, and many files in File Explorer—together they consume a lot. Typical background processes such as streaming and f.lux also add up.
I believe 16GB would suffice for your needs. Right now I’m not heavily involved in programming or coding—just handling fairly simple CE university tasks at the moment. I haven’t faced any issues even with my laptop running on just 8GB of RAM. The main memory consumer, as you noted, has always been Chrome, but with more RAM, the number of open tabs becomes almost negligible (at least for me).
I'm currently using 16 GB without major problems. My main tools are Firefox, IntelliJ (UE), Android Studio, and VS Code. I'm considering upgrading to 32 GB in the future, though it probably isn't essential. Spoiler: I just started the project I usually work on and did some normal tasks, reaching about 10 GB. Since I haven't been coding much, debugging or testing might push it a bit higher, but 16 GB should still work well.
I agree with the others, 16GB is sufficient. If you plan to run Doing VS2019 with WinForms, you might get up to 6GB or more. Also, using Chrome with 10 tabs and VS2019 could push the storage to around 9GB, as I've noticed on my system when the application is running.
You're doing well with 8GB on your laptop for small tasks and minimal background work, but on your desktop you often hit the page file with 16GB. It's a good idea to upgrade to at least 16GB for smoother performance.
At the workplace I operate on a setup with 32GB of RAM and multiple instances of VS2015/2017/2019, browser windows, and active debug sessions. My average usage is about 20-25GB. You can manage with 8GB, but the goal is to avoid any unnecessary strain during work.