16GB vs 32GB RAM: 16GB is still the sweet spot for almost everyone

If your peak usage is 14GB, you don’t need 32GB — 16GB leaves plenty of headroom for browsing, docs, light coding, or gaming. The only real reason to go to 32GB is consistent heavy video editing, multiple VMs, or huge datasets. Future-proofing is a trap: by the time you need 32GB, you’ll likely want a faster CPU anyway. Spare the cash for a better monitor or chair instead.