RAM is the short-term memory your editing software uses to hold footage, effects, caches and the timeline itself. When there isn’t enough, the computer swaps data to disk, and playback stutters, scrubbing lags and exports slow down. But past a certain point, extra RAM does nothing at all. With a 64GB kit now costing close to $1,000, it pays to know where that point is.
What Adobe and Blackmagic recommend
Adobe, Premiere Pro technical requirements. Blackmagic Design requirements for DaVinci Resolve 21 as summarised by iFilmThings (October 2026). Check the vendors’ pages for the latest versions.
Official requirements are a floor, not a target. They describe what runs the software, not what keeps a busy studio editing smoothly.
How much RAM video editors actually need
Suggested RAM: Cut Pro Media guidance for full-resolution editing. Prices: Tom’s Hardware RAM price index, lowest current US prices (19 October 2026).
Codec matters as much as resolution. Heavily compressed long-GOP footage such as H.264 and H.265 is harder to play back than intraframe codecs such as ProRes, even at the same resolution. A timeline with several such streams, effects and noise reduction will use far more memory than a simple single-camera edit.
How to check how much RAM your projects use
Open your heaviest real project
Not a test file: your biggest multicam or most effects-heavy timeline.
Watch memory while you edit
On Windows, use Task Manager’s Performance tab. On a Mac, use Activity Monitor’s Memory tab and watch memory pressure.
Play, scrub and export
If memory stays below about 80% and playback still stutters, the bottleneck is likely the graphics card, storage or codec, not RAM.
Check your software settings
Premiere Pro lets you set how much RAM is reserved for other apps (Settings › Memory). Make sure Premiere isn’t being starved.
How to edit smoothly with less RAM
- Use proxies: both Premiere Pro and Resolve can create lightweight proxies on ingest. Edit on proxies, then switch to the originals for grading and export.
- Use optimised or intraframe media: converting long-GOP footage to an editing codec reduces playback strain.
- Render previews: render heavy sections in the timeline rather than playing effects live.
- Close other apps: browsers with many tabs can quietly use several gigabytes.
- Split huge projects: separate long ceremonies or feature edits into smaller sequences.
- Outsource the outliers: if only a few projects a year need 96GB or more, sending those out costs less than buying memory you rarely use. See our upgrade vs outsource comparison.
What about Macs and unified memory?
On Apple Silicon Macs, memory is shared between the processor and graphics, so it counts for both. Blackmagic’s Mac requirements are lower than on Windows: 8GB minimum, or 16GB with Fusion. In practice, editors cutting 4K multicam on a Mac usually want 36GB or more. The new M5 Max Mac Studio starts with 36GB at $2,499.
The big difference is that you can’t add memory to a Mac later. Whatever you choose, you’re locking in for the life of the machine, at 2026 prices. Apple also raised Mac prices on 25 June 2026, moving the base Mac Studio from $1,999 to $2,499.
Common questions
Sources: Adobe, Premiere Pro technical requirements; iFilmThings summary of Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve 21 requirements (October 2026); Tom’s Hardware, RAM price index (19 October 2026); Gamertech, Mac Studio M5 Max and M5 Ultra (September 2026); Wccftech, Apple price increases (25 June 2026). Suggested RAM levels are Cut Pro Media guidance.
