32 GB in Gaming build.. Is it over kill?

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Eliposin

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So I'm about to buy a new build and have pretty much everything I need picked out. Except the ram. I know I am going with G.SKILL Ripjaws X for the ram, but I can't decide between 16 GB and 32 GB. Is it likely that I will need the 32 GB? I'm going to be running Windows 8. I'm new to the custom build and PC gaming arena so I'm not sure how much memory I'll need. Below is the full details of my build if it's needed.


Seagate Barracuda 3 TB HDD
ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX
AMD FX-8350 Vishera
Mushkin Enhansed Callisto Deluxe 120 GB SSD
HIS IceQ Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition 2GB 256-bit GDDR5
and then my RAM that I haven't decided on yet.
 
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Would seriously doubt it, 8GB is basicallly entry level for new PCs, 16GB is more than enough for most people, 32GB would be if you run a lot of VMs, video rendering, CAD, GIS, images, multiple apps with large data sets, etc

Amdlova

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for real 4gb for gaming is really good. but 32 gb for work its insane. games don´t use more than 4gb even gta4 on ultra can use more than 4gb
the new console will use only 8gb ram for all system. and u want 16gb or 32gb ? spend that money on another card...
 

princejeet

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Hey 32gb ram is much much more. It means wasting of money. In these days 8gb ram is enough for everything. 16gb of ram is more than u need. But if want to go with 16gb then u can buy it for some future proof system.

Ur GPU. Go with sapphire HD 7870 GHz edition for more reliability or performance and a long life. It is best than other brands.
I hope it helps.
Thank you.
 

lostsurfer

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Yea get the 7878 XT , you can find great deals on them via Newegg. Got one and she's a beaut. You can easily overclock it with stock cooling to a 7950. Also 32gb of ram is way over kill, unless your rendering 3D or video encoding.
 

bunz_of_steel

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I have 32G ram in my system and the games I play is C&C and BF3 and yah way overkill. Only really need 8G as increased amount of ram won't increase game play performance. I use my rig for more than just gaming so the extra ram is gr8. Would have liked to have gone to 64G but $$. I would put the extra $$ to SSD, Video card or a Gaming keyboard & mouse, monitor ... list goes on.
 

Eliposin

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That is because most games are based on GPU not RAM.
 

Jamie Broughton

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Maybe for now, but even in Minecraft the amount of RAM you allocate to java can affect how well minecraft runs. So the more Ram the better. Now it does not use that much, but say you are useing FTB or other mods then you will notice it. I have 32gb 1833mhz ram in my system but I also render a lot of videos.
 

sedona

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I'm curious too why many people want to spend that kind of money on 32GB memory. I played Battlefield 3 and use the Windows 7 Resource Monitor to check memory usage, and noticed that usually the browsers and email client and other Windows services only took up 1.7GB or so. Start the game up and only reach 3GB memory usage. From my experience 4GB is enough for Battlefield 3 but 8GB will eliminate the need to access pagefile. I think anything over 8GB is wasted memory space. But if you have money to spend, why not 32GB of the most expensive gaming 2400Mhz/2666MHz/2800MHz memory kits.
 

Jamie Broughton

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Mine is just not a gaming rig, I use it for video editing too. So to give you an example, I can render a 20 minute 1080 hd video using Sony Vegas in about 23 minutes. So maybe that helps you understand what 32 gigs of ram can do. Also my son plays FTB a minecraft mod which is all ram dependent and some mods like Monster take a lot of resources to run. Also my computer has 3 screens hooked up to it so I can play a game on max settings while watching a youtube video at the same time also at max settings. I may want to note I also have a GTX TITAN video card as well and 100/50 fiber internet. Not to mention I can afford it and I like having the best.
 

davout777

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Jamie, I have about the same need as you have - I wanna play a game on one monitor at max settings, and watching a youtube or something on another one at the same time. Do you think a 16g ram can not give a good performance for this use? so we have to go upto 32gb? thanks.
 

Jamie Broughton

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Jamie Broughton

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It really depends on what games you are playing. Some are ram dependent and others are cpu. Others use the video card also. I feel that my ram was a bit of overkill at this time. I may want to mention that I now have two gtx Titans in this pc with the 32 gigs of ram overclocked or 2300 MHz. With a 2 terabyte ssd in it. The pc is overkill but there is nothing it can't run or play or render. If you have a pc with a good processer hopefully overclocked, mine are at 4.2 ghz on all 4 cores. All these things help the pc multitask. I may also want to mention my pc is water cooled and I strongly recommend this if you want your pic to run as cool as possible. To sum up my answer I guess is it depends on what games and how your ram and cpu are set up. I had a unlimited budget for this build so I went all out. I will say if I did it again I would have stuck to 16 gigs of overclocked ram.
 

davout777

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Thanks, Jamie.
The game i play is like CS1.5/1.6, world of tank, and watch youtube at the same time. My sense is that 16gb ram would be enough. please correct me if i get it wrong. thank you!
 

griffon9

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Trust me it's not overkill. COD BO3 and various other new AAA games are memory hogs and they even exceed the 16GB ram sometimes. If you can afford 32GB then go for it. It's very future proof.
 
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