macbook RAM specs for premiere, after and graphic design

36GB/2TB is a good student configuration.

96GB/2Tb is a good professional configuration.

Working in broadcast, I haven't used a system for work with less than 128GB of RAM since 2013.  While issues come up now and again, overall performance is very good across Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Audition, and Media Encoder.

If you go with the 36GB/2TB option, try doing as complex of work as you are currently capable of doing in Premiere Pro, After Effects, Photoshop and Media Encoder as you can - keeping an eye on the Memory Pressure.  That's the best measure of whether or not your system memory is adequate for how you work.  If it's green, great.  If it's red, hopefully you're still in the return window to exchange it for a model with more RAM.  I believe Apple offers 14-days if you're purchasing directly from them.  Best Buy might allow up to 30-days.  Costco allows 90 days, but typically has base model configurations.

As a student, you likely have no idea how you'll be working, so you could launch some of the Learn modules in each application at the same time to monitor RAM usage.

- Warren Heaton, CBS On-Air Promo

Overall, you’re going in the right direction.

2TB SSD is a nice amount of space on the startup volume. You might still need external SSDs for source files and maybe also caches, but at least externals are cheaper than ordering more internal Mac storage.

The M3 Max is a great choice for video editing and AI-driven photo editing, especially because of the 30-core GPU. Is there a reason you didn’t go with the new M4 Max? If it’s because of budget, that’s OK…the M3 is still a great choice especially for a student.

For Unified Memory, 36GB would be OK, I am happy with my 32GB. If you want the MacBook Pro to keep up with growing system requirements for more than five years, 48GB would be better. It is more difficult to justify the high cost of going beyond 48GB, especially for student work. The main benefit of more than 48GB would probably be in After Effects, where the additional memory could be used to extend real time RAM previews. Or if a Photoshop document is extremely large. Otherwise, memory beyond 48GB probably won’t get used all that much. 96GB is kind of extreme unless you actually have extreme production needs.