32GB RAM is the sweet spot for VMs.

Yes, it helps. A lot. If you’re running more than one VM at a time—or even one serious VM with 8-16GB assigned—16GB will choke fast. 32GB lets you keep the host responsive while the VMs breathe.

VMware and other hypervisors need to carve out real memory for each virtual machine. Windows 11 alone wants 4-8GB. A Linux VM might be fine with 2GB, but add a database or dev environment and you’re quickly at 8-12GB per VM. With 16GB total, you’re either shutting things down or your host starts swapping to disk, which kills performance.

32GB gives you headroom: give a main VM 12GB, leave 16GB for the host and any other apps, and you’ve still got 4GB spare for a small test VM or Docker containers. That’s a comfortable setup.

If you’re only ever running one tiny Linux VM with 2GB, 16GB is fine. But for real work—multiple VMs, heavy workloads, or Windows guests—32GB is where you want to be.

Don’t bother with 64GB unless you’re running six VMs simultaneously. For most people, 32GB is the right answer.