Should I upgrade the RAM or buy a new laptop?

First: is the memory actually the problem?

"It runs out of memory" has two cheap explanations that are not about the amount of memory, and both are worth ruling out before buying anything:

• No swap. With no swap, a brief spike kills a program instead of slowing it down, which feels exactly like "not enough RAM". Adding zram and a swapfile takes ten minutes and often makes the complaint go away; see what happens when memory runs out.
• Something is eating it. Temporary files in /tmp live in RAM on many Linux systems; a stray 6 GB download there is 6 GB you do not have. And one runaway process holding a third of memory is a bug, not a hardware limit.

If the machine is still short with swap in place and nothing misbehaving, the question is real. The next step is to find out what kind of memory it has.

Find out whether it is soldered

Laptop memory comes in two forms. SODIMM modules sit in slots and can be swapped. Soldered memory is a row of chips on the mainboard, fixed for the life of the machine. All LPDDR memory (LPDDR3, LPDDR4, LPDDR4X, LPDDR5) is soldered, with the rare exception of the new LPCAMM2 modules on a handful of 2024-and-later workstations; the thin-and-light class of laptop has been almost entirely soldered since about 2015 for that reason.

Linux

sudo dmidecode -t 16    # Physical Memory Array: Maximum Capacity, Number Of Devices
sudo dmidecode -t 17    # Memory Device (one block per module or bank)

In the type 17 output, look at Form Factor. SODIMM means a slot. Row Of Chips means soldered. "Number Of Devices" in the type 16 block is how many banks or slots the board has in total; if it says 2 and only one block in type 17 has a size, you have a free slot. Treat "Maximum Capacity" as a hint, not a promise: firmware often reports a figure that is wrong in either direction.

Windows

Task Manager → Performance → Memory shows "Slots used: 1 of 2" (or "0 of 0" on a soldered machine) and the form factor at the bottom right.

macOS

Every Apple silicon Mac, and every MacBook since the 2012 Retina models, has memory that cannot be changed. The last upgradeable Macs were the Intel 27-inch iMac, the 2018 Intel Mac mini and the Mac Pro.

The vendor's documentation

Once you know the form factor, the model's maintenance manual (Lenovo's PSREF and hardware maintenance manuals, Dell's service manuals, HP's maintenance and service guides) states the real maximum and the module type, which is more reliable than the firmware tables. The CPU's specification page gives a hard ceiling too: an Intel or AMD part lists its maximum supported memory and whether it supports DDR4, DDR5 or LPDDR.

How much memory the work needs

Innards scores twelve workloads and names "not enough memory" as the limit whenever the amount installed is under what that work comfortably needs. As a rough map:

The 2017 ThinkPad in Innards' own screenshots has 16 GB: "Good" for web development and as a home server, "Struggles" at photo editing, and the limiting factor named in all three is memory.

The decision

If there is a slot: upgrade

Buy the module type the manual specifies (DDR4 SODIMM at the right speed is the common case), install a matched pair where the board has two slots so the memory runs in dual-channel mode, which also helps integrated graphics noticeably. The part typically costs well under $100 and the job is a bottom cover and a clip. This is the upgrade that turns "struggles" into "good" for most desk work, and Innards ranks it right after the free fixes whenever it applies.

If it is soldered: this is the ceiling

A laptop with soldered memory that is short on memory cannot be fixed, and honest advice should not offer to sell you a part that does not exist. Innards' advisor puts it as "Memory is the ceiling — and it's soldered", marks it "No purchase", and explains that this is the strongest reason to consider a different machine rather than a component. What you can still do:

• Add zram and a swapfile so that hitting the limit slows things instead of killing them.
• Move the memory-hungry workload elsewhere: a small desktop or used workstation for compiles and containers, with the laptop as the terminal.
• Keep the laptop for what it is excellent at. A soldered 16 GB ultrabook is still a first-rate everyday machine; see is my old laptop still good enough.

If you do buy new: buy the ceiling you will need

Because it cannot be changed later, memory is the one specification to over-buy on a laptop. When Innards recommends a replacement it states a target, for example "at least 6 cores and 32 GB RAM" for a developer who wants containers and local AI models, and it also flags how much memory the chosen machine can reach. If the new laptop has slots, that ceiling is negotiable later; if it is soldered, whatever you choose at checkout is what you will have in five years.

Related guides

• Is my old laptop still good enough?Judge an ageing laptop by what you actually do with it: which workloads it still handles, which parts are the ceiling, and what is worth fixing for free.
• No swap: what happens when memory runs outWhy a Linux machine with no swap freezes and then kills programs instead of slowing down, and how zram plus a swapfile fix it in ten minutes.
• Laptop battery health: when to replace itHow battery health is calculated, how to read it on Linux, Windows and macOS, what cycle counts mean, and the point at which a replacement is worth it.