32GB RAM won't speed up exports in Lightroom or Photoshop.

No. Export times are almost entirely limited by your CPU, GPU, and storage speed — not RAM.

More RAM helps when you’re working: scrubbing through lots of photos, stacking layers, keeping dozens of browser tabs open. It keeps things snappy while you edit. But the export process is mostly a batch math problem that your processor churns through. If your CPU is the bottleneck, 64GB won’t make a difference.

The real difference between 16GB and 32GB shows up if you run out of memory mid-workflow — Lightroom starts swapping to disk, everything lags, and then export feels slow because you’re fighting the system. So 32GB is worth it for a smoother editing experience, just not for faster finishing times.

If export speed is your main concern, put the money into a faster CPU or an NVMe SSD instead.