RAM Matters: How Much Do You Need for Gaming? 4GB, 8GB, 16GB or 32GB

[Julio Franco]

Measuring the impact that RAM capacity has on gaming is harder than it sounds because of all the factors at play. However we've tested different hardware configurations to determine how much memory is truly useful for gaming from 4GB up to 32GB.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/article/1535-how-much-ram-do-you-need-for-gaming/

 

[Slavjan]

Good to see that there's at least some hope with 8GB considering current pricing.

 

[Evernessince]

I agree steve, those GTX 1060 results are a little disappointing, although we have to remember that the 3GB model also is a bit more cut down than the 6GB so not all of that is attributable to VRAM. It's mostly the hit to the minimums, which show larger frame variance, that is the result of the GPU being RAM starved. Unfortunately people buying the 3GB 1060 are also likely to be the ones with less system RAM, so I guess it's a double whammy.

 

[dickdon71]

Playing Jenga with DDR4 RAM made me cry inside.

 

[BSim500]

I love these Feature Articles. Great job Steve. I was lucky enough to pick up 16GB DDR4 last summer at half the price it is today, but I do feel for those who are upgrading to DDR4 today and are sitting there with "WTF Eyes" over the ridiculous pricing.

 

[cliffordcooley]

but I do feel for those who are upgrading to DDR4 today and are sitting there with "WTF Eyes" over the ridiculous pricing.

I'm not buying DDR4 but I do have those eyes.

 

[Mustafa OZCAN]

It's another attentive article.. (thanx to TechSpot )

If planning to combine new mid-game pc it's absolutely clear that min. 4gb or 6gb gpu should be taken.

Have a nice day.

 

[Badvok]

Not sure why you insist on considering only 4, 8, 16, 32. Some people will have spare memory slots that can be used to upgrade rather than throwing away memory modules, thus 12 and 24 are also options (so long as you obey the channel rules). So the conclusion should really be that 12GB is the minimum.

 

[paul s2]

Try playing ARK lol it eats ram for lunch

 

[Shibas]

Hey steve, what about 4gb vram cards like the 4gb vs 8gb rx 580? I read somewhere that nvidia has better compression and it generally uses less vram, so a 4gb amd card would still be fine?

 

[Digitalzone]

Upgrading is not worthy, the differences are very small considering the price you will pay. If you are buying new PC, get 16 GB. If you have 8 GB, its still ok. All those games are optimized primarily for consoles with 8GB (XONEX has 12 now).

 

[dirtyferret]

This review is awesome, that is all

 

[Steve]

Not sure why you insist on considering only 4, 8, 16, 32. Some people will have spare memory slots that can be used to upgrade rather than throwing away memory modules, thus 12 and 24 are also options (so long as you obey the channel rules). So the conclusion should really be that 12GB is the minimum.

12GB is not a configuration you should use in any dual-channel system. So that is why you don't see that configuration as we don't encourage it for the modern dual and quad platforms.

 

[Shknawe]

Not sure why you insist on considering only 4, 8, 16, 32. Some people will have spare memory slots that can be used to upgrade rather than throwing away memory modules, thus 12 and 24 are also options (so long as you obey the channel rules). So the conclusion should really be that 12GB is the minimum.

Well No the minimum is still 8gb ram, for those that may or may not have extra memory laying around.8 is less than 12 so 8 is the minimum, minimum being the amount of least needed to accomplish the goal at hand.

 

[Shknawe]

Thank you for such a thorough article on ram usage. Finally you have convinced my brain that MORE RAM isn't always better. I have been toying with going from 16gb ram to 32gb for gaming because it had to be better right? Well now I know the true answer is no silly! Thank you for saving me from myself. Now I can spend that money on a better M2 ssd.

 

[datingsitespot]

16 GB always has been enough for me tho !

 

[amstech]

Might have to bump the old beast to 12GB.

 

[BitcoinRICH]

I prefer to have as much as possible. Basically as much as my motherboard will support. For my last build I had 32GB of DDR3.

This time, 64GB of DDR4 which I may increase to 128GB.

More memory means that if the system's usage requirements ever peak, you won't even notice.

As the article states, some data gets offloaded to the SSD. I'm fairly certain most gamers use SSD rather than slower HDD by now.

 

[Solace50]

Just an FYI to anyone who read this article that is a load of inaccurate tests. Unless your looking at the games process utilization along with what resources are being stored on the drive this is all nonsense, yes faster drives will help performance drops if limitations are hit but your ram and pagefile are not used until you are out of VRAM when it comes to gpu rendering. Hence the inconsistent results across the board. An appropriate test if testing vram is to crack the settings on ULTRA/UHD for a specific game while bottle necking VRAM with a tweaked bios locking a set amount forcing the game to use alternate resources.

Aside from cache shaders which are specifically set to the drive to reduce vram usage

 

[dirtyferret]

I've seen 8GB sticks on sale on newegg for $69. I actually picked up a 2666 8GB stick a few weeks ago upping my RAM to 16gb

 

[gamerk2]

Going from 8GB to 16GB is probably my last upgrade on my 2600k based rig; held up surprisingly well all things considered.

 

[LeroN]

Not sure why you insist on considering only 4, 8, 16, 32. Some people will have spare memory slots that can be used to upgrade rather than throwing away memory modules, thus 12 and 24 are also options (so long as you obey the channel rules). So the conclusion should really be that 12GB is the minimum.

There is no 2GB RAM for sale anymore. They stopped manufacturing 2GB modules at least for 2400 and above speed and maybe OEM reserved all stockes. I boght two Dell computers for my friends some days ago and both had 12GB RAM. Sure it could be intresting to pair 2x2GB + 2x4GB but unfortunattely practically is impossible for retail.

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

Try playing ARK lol it eats ram for lunch

If it was truly worth playing. In either case, that boils down to piss poor programming.

 

[MaikuTech]

Honestly 8gb of ddr3 or 8gb of ddr4 memory will be plenty for gaming, if your streaming, gaming, multitasking all it once.
16gb or 32gb at best is what you will want, if your like me a power user that 16gb is needed at best.

 

[Someone8MyPosts]

Here's a fact. If you're not processing video or extremely big audio files or doing crazy 3d modeling and animation, chances are you only need 8 or less. You'll rarely hit the 8Gb ceiling. If you find yourself doing that, then some application designer out there doesn't know what they're doing or are very lazy programmers.