Chrome uses memory/ram in mint, roughly the same amount as in win 11. But since mint runs leaner than win-11, mint gives chrome/any browser more ram/memory living space. btw I see great used laptop deals on eBay, every day. Laptops with 16gb / 32gb ram for running win-11. $160 on up.
When you get usb mint running do NOT press the install mint desktop icon.