8GB vs 16GB RAM - Gaming/720p60FPS Rendering/Streaming

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AtomicNarb

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Hello fellow Toms! I have a question for the community today. I am soon going to buy myself parts for a computer. My uses will be playing games such as CS:GO, rendering a few videos a week in 720p @ 60FPS on Sony Vegas 13, and streaming about once every week or every two weeks. I am now faced with a decision based upon RAM. Will 8GB be sufficient for gaming, light video editing, and streaming? Or is 16 worth it? Please provide a full response with your reasoning, this will help me out a lot. If 8GB will be sufficient enough for these tasks, then I'm fine with it. If 16GB renders a video out about 1-5 minutes faster, I'm still fine with 8GB. If there's a very large difference between the performance, then I will probably consider it. P.S - I don't really edit my videos, I just render them out.

Thanks,
Narb.
 
Solution
migronesien
You can max out pretty much ANYTHING with 8gb RAM at 1080p. So since you're only using 720p (around half the amount of pixels) it's VERY unlikely that ANY game will even reach up to 4gb RAM. More like 2-3gb even at max settings. And CS:GO will use even less, because it's not a demanding game. So you still have at least additional 4gb RAM for the rest. (Streaming, Windows and stuff)

8gb are EASILY enough for a 720p system. :)
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migronesien

migronesien

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You can max out pretty much ANYTHING with 8gb RAM at 1080p. So since you're only using 720p (around half the amount of pixels) it's VERY unlikely that ANY game will even reach up to 4gb RAM. More like 2-3gb even at max settings. And CS:GO will use even less, because it's not a demanding game. So you still have at least additional 4gb RAM for the rest. (Streaming, Windows and stuff)

8gb are EASILY enough for a 720p system. :)
 
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reclusiveorc

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You did not say what cpu your where thinking about buying. When I upgraded from an I7-3770k to an I7-6700k, my encoding time was cut in half. I think it was the new AVX2 extension that my encoding software supports.
 
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InvalidError

InvalidError

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If the extra $40-50 does not bother you, get 16GB RAM: even if your applications and games do not make immediate use of it, the OS will use the spare memory to cache recently accessed files, which cuts down on (re-)loading time, improves responsiveness and reduces the frequency of swapfile usage.
 
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Uberragen21

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The simple answer is: you can't go wrong with "too much" memory, but you certainly can have "too little." If you can afford 16GB of memory, I would highly recommend you go for it. A lot depends on how you have your system setup.

If you plan to strictly run SSDs then you will want more memory and disable the system cache (virtual memory) to avoid burning up the NAND in the SSD with unnecessary write cycles. In this case I would go with 16GB of memory.

If you are strictly running HDDs or a combination of SSDs and HDDs I would say you can "get away" with only 8GB and have the virtual memory pointed to the HDD to avoid burning up the NAND in the SSD. This is what I do in my system as it's older and can only support 8GB of memory.

Example: My computer is currently running a few programs in the background that is using about 2.5GB of memory (the large memory use programs are: AVGCSRVA.exe, Javaw.exe, explorer.exe, chrome.exe). However, Google Chrome uses up a ton (6 instances). With only 3 Chrome tabs open (and Windows Resource), my computer is using 3712MB of memory plus 2903MB of virtual memory. Chrome alone is eating up 1024MB of physical memory and 748MB of virtual memory (1772MB or 1.73GB combined).

If I had my virtual memory disabled (if only running SSDs) then my system would be using 6615MB or 6.46GB of system memory out of a maximum of 8192MB or 8GB. That's not enough headway for memory intensive programs to run while having Chrome running as well. I played around with disabling my virtual memory and kept getting Windows error windows appearing stating my system memory was running low.

One more reason to go with 16GB of memory over 8GB. Future proofing. If you build a system now with more memory you will not have to upgrade down the road when the memory may be more expensive and you have less options to choose from (as was my case).
 
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InvalidError

InvalidError

Titan
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Some applications start to freak out if you disable virtual memory (the page file) because they try to reserve memory against the page file instead of forcing the OS to immediately make room in RAM.

Hibernation is another feature which may behave differently when the pagefile is disabled since memory pages written to the swap files get omitted from the hibernation file, which makes hibernation and resume quicker.
 
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Uberragen21

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I have never come across a program that had an issue with the virtual memory disabled, but that could be a plausible scenario. However, it is not the program the controls page files, rather the OS. DRAM memory is several magnitudes (10,000x) faster than HDDs and SSDs, so disabling the virtual memory is unlikely to cause a problem unless you run out of system memory (hence why more memory is better). Modern Windows OS won't allow the lack of system memory to crash the OS as it reserves memory for this purpose, so Windows will shut down some programs when the system memory is exceeded.

Another thing to consider is the page file (virtual memory) is used primarily for non-currently used or dormant applications (think of minimized programs or stuff that runs in the background only during scheduled tasks). Therefore, disabling the page file will not affect whatever current program you are using.

Hibernation should always be disabled on a desktop computer (non laptop). I even go so far as to disable it on my laptops, but that's a personal preference. Hibernation is also referred to as "coma mode," by the IT community. Windows Vista and 7 have a long documented history of coma mode, and even Windows 8.1 and 10 have problems waking up from hibernation.
From the command line it's a simple command: powercfg -h off
 
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reclusiveorc

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I have, Titan Quest and Titan Quest: Immortal Throne will not run without having access to the page file.
 
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InvalidError

InvalidError

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I have run into a handful of programs that get massive slow downs from the swapfile being turned off but that was years ago and I forgot what they were. These weren't caused by being low on RAM - I have 32GB of it. I created a 1GB swapfile and that fixed the performance issues. Something in some software or the OS itself chokes big time when software tries to reserve memory directly against the swapfile and no swapfile is available.



I always enable it on mine and set the power switch to hibernate so I can quickly shut down my PC when my UPS kicks in from a power outage without having to worry about losing stuff if I'm not already logged in to manually save open files first. I do not remember any of my PCs having trouble resuming from hibernation and I use it a few times per week when I want some extra quiet without blinking lights.
 
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AtomicNarb

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The CPU I plan on buying for this build is a i5 4690K.
 
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reclusiveorc

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Go for an i7, when you do your encoding, the extra threading will save on time.
 
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