Minimum amount of RAM
- Thread starter Leander_1
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xFeaRDom
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- Jul 28, 2016
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The minimum is probably 8GB, but I would recommend buying a dual kit of 2x8GB RAM, as 16GB RAM may be needed at some point, if you have lets say YouTube on while playing a game, it may exceed the 8GB limit, so 16GB is definitely recommended. Anything above 16GB is a waste unless you have a software that can utilise more than 16GB.
Getting 16GB also adds a nice additional bonus over 8GB, as you won't get the annoying 'Low System Memory' popup that happens if you have low amounts of RAM left. Some people may disagree with my opinion, but when I upgraded from 8GB to 16GB it felt great, as it didn't slow down as much when I had a lot of tabs open, games open etc.
I would recommend buying 16GB.
aquielisunari
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- Mar 31, 2011
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The minimum amount is posted by the game's manufacturer. Minimum and recommended specs are posted on the game's package/website.
Generally speaking 8GB is the standard amount a gamer installs in his/her PC. I'm a casual gamer with about 50 titles across 3 gaming clients and 8GB of system RAM is plenty.
4GB of GDDR5 is the minimum amount of VRAM I would recommend for a new graphics card. My first GFX card had 32MB.
mcconkeymike
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- Dec 31, 2007
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Typically 8gb is what I consider the minimum, but like what xFeaRDom said 16gb is most likely where you want to be. 8gb can be used up pretty quick by background processes and any other programs you may be running, such as Twitch, Skype, whatever. I would go with 16gb, because RAM is pretty cheap nowadays and that is one small way to somewhat "futureproof" your rig.
- May 18, 2007
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At DRAM's current rock-bottom prices, I really cannot recommend buying less than 16GB either.
As has been said above, 8GB is generally adequate for most uses and gaming but with 16GB, you won't have to worry about leaving a bunch of trivial stuff open in the background while playing games or doing other more intensive stuff in the foreseeable future. It also leaves plenty of room for the OS to cache frequently accessed HDD/SSD data to eliminate most storage IO when repeating the same task, such as reloading game levels or zones.
As has been said above, 8GB is generally adequate for most uses and gaming but with 16GB, you won't have to worry about leaving a bunch of trivial stuff open in the background while playing games or doing other more intensive stuff in the foreseeable future. It also leaves plenty of room for the OS to cache frequently accessed HDD/SSD data to eliminate most storage IO when repeating the same task, such as reloading game levels or zones.
aquielisunari
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This answer is imo a reflection of misinformation being passed on. I've ran RAM tests dozens of times over the years to answer questions. Hm... I remember answering a question over at Yahoo Answers a while back. Let's see how Google's memory is. As you can see https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120416211457AAh7THq I didn't exceed 5GB. But that's 5 YEARS ago. I'll admit it's outdated. I went ahead and opened Edge and opened the Live presidential debate on Youtube to stay within the scope of this answer. For good measure I opened Firefox and opened a random video on Youtbe. I then went ahead and opened Batman: AC. After about 15 minutes of play I was comfortable exiting because the RAM wasn't going any higher than 4608MB. It was happily fluctuating but that was its peak.
What you offered imo was an assumption. It's best to offer people facts. It's true I offer assumptions at times when I can't confirm information but this is a case where confirmation is only one utility away(MSI Afterburner). I was able to watch my CPU and GPU loads and temps and see my VRAM and system RAM in real time as opposed to ALT+tabing out which was a fault of mine. 8GB is MORE than enough.
Take my information for what it's worth. Should someone else wonder how much RAM is necessary, you can see how much RAM is being utilized on a system https://postimg.cc/image/4lwdzu29f/ with WIndows 10, a security suite, two browsers and two videos playing on YouTube and a game with its options maxed out on a 1080p 60Hz(vsync enabled) TV. 16GB is still overkill these days for the casual gamer..
- May 18, 2007
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Not if you want level, game and application reloads/re-launches to run mainly from the OS' file system cache instead of SSD/HDD or want to leave more than a few trivial things open in the background.
With only part of my usual background stuff opened, I have around 9GB in-use and another 17GB used by the file system cache. Under normal use, I'm usually in the 11-13GB range. The rest of my 32GB RAM gets used by the OS file system cache and practically eliminates all benefits from having an SSD other than the SSD being silent.
You also do not want to aim for the bare minimum necessary to fit only "in-use" memory as Windows will end up doing swapfile overtime to reclaim RAM for the file cache. There was a story on THG about the benefit of 8GB vs 16GB about a year ago where the conclusion was that although you may not gain much net performance from 16GB, having 16GB did result in reduced swapfile activity when a swapfile is on an SSD, fewer avoidable writes means longer SSD lifespan.
aquielisunari
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As far as my SSD is concerned I'm really not worried about it. Sure, it true that one article means not much so take http://techreport.com/review/27909/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-theyre-all-dead with a grain of salt. I found that when researching SSDs for my system. There are other stories out there such as http://lifehacker.com/performance-tests-show-that-16gb-of-ram-is-overkill-1724827429 . And probably just as many supporting your view. But 9GB IN USE?!!! I usually only have about 2GB in use and 2GB cached.I agree with you about the in use vs in use and cached. Some have gone as far as moving their swapfile to another drive. I didn't do that but I did leave a nice chunk of it free. From what I've read the lifespan of a SSD is not as short as some would have us believe.
What's THG? More information will help me offer better answers. If it's Tom's Hardware Guide can you point me to that story?
- May 18, 2007
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It may have been this one: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html
That was 4GB vs 16GB though, which makes things considerably worse.
That was 4GB vs 16GB though, which makes things considerably worse.
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