How much does RAM affect gaming?

patrior · Nov 16, 2014

So I am planning on getting an
i5 4460//R7 260x//8GB RAM
I was wondering how necessary 8GB RAM is? If I get 4GB instead I can afford a 270x which is a 35-40% performance increase over the 260x. I don't want to skimp on RAM and find out later my games run badly because of it so if it does make a difference please tell me.
Games are top priority, I probably won't be doing heavy editing or rendering either.
Thanks

Darkbreeze · Nov 16, 2014

You want 8GB if you can afford it. There are many games that recommend it. The game itself might not need 8GB, more like 2-4GB, but the system itself needs RAM in addition to what the GPU uses.

Karsten75 · Nov 16, 2014

It's probably easier to upgrade 4GB of RAM later on than it is to upgrade your video card later on.

Darkbreeze · Nov 16, 2014

What is your budget and what country are you in?

Karsten75 · Nov 16, 2014

Darkbreeze :

THe GPU does not striclly use RAM - it has its own on-board memory. APUs (AMD) and IGPs (Intel) uses system RAM and in those cases extra RAM and higher speed RAM has a noticeable effect.

Darkbreeze · Nov 16, 2014

Karsten75 :

This is also true, but you might be able to afford to do both, depending on where you are. Also, the R9 270 prices are pretty low right now and it has almost the same performance as the 270x. It can actually have AS good of performance if you use Trixx and bump the GPU settings up a bit.

Darkbreeze · Nov 16, 2014

Karsten75 :

No kidding <<edited>> the GPU doesn't use RAM. I'm not in need of an explanation, the OP is. BTW, beginning with Haswell CPUs, the benefits of faster RAM and more of it are noticeable and do offer performance benefits in gaming, unlike the Sandy and Ivy bridge CPUs that showed no performance benefits above 1600Mhz.

<<Watch the language please>>

patrior · Nov 17, 2014

It's probably easier to upgrade 4GB of RAM later on than it is to upgrade your video card later on.

Yeah you're right, it would cost me all together £200 to get 260x then upgrade to 270x but because I can just add more ram it would still only cost £60 in the long run.

patrior · Nov 17, 2014

This is also true, but you might be able to afford to do both, depending on where you are. Also, the R9 270 prices are pretty low right now and it has almost the same performance as the 270x. It can actually have AS good of performance if you use Trixx and bump the GPU settings up a bit.

I am completely maxed out on my budget with this setup and the 270 vs 270x is about £5 in the difference.

patrior · Nov 17, 2014

What is your budget and what country are you in?

I am in Ireland and will be ordering off Amazon UK. My budget is £500 about

Darkbreeze · Nov 17, 2014

So what motherboard do you have or are planning to use? Do you have ANY parts currently or is this an entirely theoretical build in which you still have the ability to choose all parts?

patrior · Nov 17, 2014

So what motherboard do you have or are planning to use? Do you have ANY parts currently or is this an entirely theoretical build in which you still have the ability to choose all parts?

Mostly theoretical, only thing is that I'm pretty sold on getting an i5 so it would be hard to change my mind on that.
I have a PSU, HDD and DVD Reader lying around so I don't need those.

Darkbreeze · Nov 17, 2014

What is the brand and model of the PSU? You don't want to use just any PSU, especially with a high end CPU and GPU. You want something high quality and reliable. The potential for damage to your expensive hardware by using a cheap PSU is not worth the risk and the likelihood of it is much higher than you might think which you'll see for yourself if you look around here a bit. Just do a search for PSU Tom's hardware on Google and there's page after page.

Anyhow, you want something Tier 2B or higher. You could possibly get by with a Tier 3 unit but it's not advisable. Here's the Tier list for reference:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supply-unit-tier-list.html

What happens when you use a cheap PSU:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezk9OA7aKOE

Some info about cheap PSUs:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-cost-psu-pc-power-supply,2862.html

And why we don't use them:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/302132-31-most-failed-computer-part

So, you need a CPU, RAM, Motherboard, GPU, case and possibly a PSU, dedending on what you've got already and whether it's decent quality and high enough capacity for the GPU. Sound about right?

Darkbreeze · Nov 18, 2014

This is about the best I could do with your budget. If it turns out you DO have a decent PSU of sufficient capacity (500w Tier 3 or higher, preferably Tier 2B or higher) that will shave some of the price off this and you can change a few things around if you want, of course. Just a recommendation.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£162.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£119.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£55.86 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £503.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-18 07:23 GMT+0000

patrior · Nov 18, 2014

What is the brand and model of the PSU? You don't want to use just any PSU, especially with a high end CPU and GPU. You want something high quality and reliable. The potential for damage to your expensive hardware by using a cheap PSU is not worth the risk and the likelihood of it is much higher than you might think which you'll see for yourself if you look around here a bit. Just do a search for PSU Tom's hardware on Google and there's page after page.

Anyhow, you want something Tier 2B or higher. You could possibly get by with a Tier 3 unit but it's not advisable. Here's the Tier list for reference:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-1804779/power-supp...

What happens when you use a cheap PSU:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezk9OA7aKOE

Some info about cheap PSUs:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low-cost-psu-pc-pow...

And why we don't use them:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/302132-31-most-failed...

So, you need a CPU, RAM, Motherboard, GPU, case and possibly a PSU, dedending on what you've got already and whether it's decent quality and high enough capacity for the GPU. Sound about right?

You're right, I originally had a much smaller budget so I could have gotten by with the PSU I have because I was going to get a much weaker GPU and when I upped the Budget I forgot to factor in that I'd be getting a better GPU.

patrior · Nov 18, 2014

This is about the best I could do with your budget. If it turns out you DO have a decent PSU of sufficient capacity (500w Tier 3 or higher, preferably Tier 2B or higher) that will shave some of the price off this and you can change a few things around if you want, of course. Just a recommendation.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor (£162.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H97M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£74.98 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£119.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: BitFenix Comrade ATX Mid Tower Case (£33.95 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Classic 550W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply (£55.86 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £503.78
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-18 07:23 GMT+0000

That looks great but I was stupid and not clear enough, I also actually need an OS and Monitor. Sorry about that but thanks for the effort.

Darkbreeze · Nov 18, 2014

We can still probably do it. Let me take a second look at it. Do you have a preference for the OS and a size preference for the monitor?

sora · Nov 18, 2014

patrior :

This is true but the performance difference is also very small.

patrior · Nov 18, 2014

We can still probably do it. Let me take a second look at it. Do you have a preference for the OS and a size preference for the monitor?

Windows 7 or 8 and 21.5inches or bigger 1080p monitor, don't worry about response time as long as it's not ridiculous.

Darkbreeze · Nov 18, 2014

Ok, I'll work on it shortly.

Darkbreeze · Nov 18, 2014

So, with the monitor and OS included, this is as close as we're going to get. Changing the GPU to the 270 isn't going to change that as the price difference isn't that much. My recommendation, save a bit longer so you can afford a slightly more expanded budget.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i5-4460 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor (£131.99 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: Asus H81M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£40.57 @ Scan.co.uk)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£57.99 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 2GB Dual-X Video Card (£119.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Zalman Z3 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case (£26.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: XFX ProSeries 450W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.00 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) (£69.99 @ Ebuyer)
Monitor: ViewSonic VA2246M-LED 60Hz 22.0" Monitor (£78.00 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £560.53
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-11-19 02:45 GMT+0000

How much does RAM affect gaming?

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