8 vs 16 GB of RAM for gaming

Solution
2x 8GB is a good choice, it'll permit you to do everything with the exception of heavy-duty video rendering (which hardly anybody who is not a graphical designer or professional video editor needs anyway).

It'll run current Triple-A Games and will continue to do so with new games coming up in the next few years.

As for latency: anything from 15 downwards will do fine for you.
There will be no discernible difference between a CAS of 15 and one of 13, so don't spend extra money for a few clock cycles.
Stay below 16 and you'll be okay.

G.Skill's Ripjaws V series (which I have linked in my first post) is pretty good and goes for an acceptable price.
Looks pretty cool, too, in case you have a Window-Kit case.

Make sure both your...

gaius_iulius

Notable
Sep 6, 2017
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So you are looking for somebody to tell you you need 16GB because you want to have 16GB ...
:D

8GB will be sufficient to play even AAA-games, as you have seen in the first of the two youtube videos you've listed above.

On the other hand ... an extra 8GB of DDR4-2666 RAM will cost you only 70-90 bucks (depending on manufacturer and latency), so if you are not on a very tight budget, go for 16GB. It will give you the warm and fuzzy feeling that you are slightly over-equipped.

Have a look at this 2x8GB Kit by G.Skill, it's pretty good and goes for approx. 170 bucks.

Cheers,
Gaius
 


Don't randomly pick 2 rams since they may be incompatible with MB...
 

rob.salewytsch

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Sep 6, 2017
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16 GB it is.

I guess another consideration was that if I went with only 8, I would likely go with 2 x 4GB. Thus when it came time to go to 16, I would either need to get another set of 2 x 4GB (don't know if my mobo has 4 DIMM slots) or remove it all and go with 2 x 8GB (seems like an extra cost)

What CAS should I be shooting for? is 14 ok?
 


Depends on your cpu, For APUs and Ryzen you should get faster ram with higher timings, for other cpus it really doesn't matter. There's always a trade off, with fast ram you often get bad timings and with slow ram you get good timings.
 

gaius_iulius

Notable
Sep 6, 2017
156
0
860
2x 8GB is a good choice, it'll permit you to do everything with the exception of heavy-duty video rendering (which hardly anybody who is not a graphical designer or professional video editor needs anyway).

It'll run current Triple-A Games and will continue to do so with new games coming up in the next few years.

As for latency: anything from 15 downwards will do fine for you.
There will be no discernible difference between a CAS of 15 and one of 13, so don't spend extra money for a few clock cycles.
Stay below 16 and you'll be okay.

G.Skill's Ripjaws V series (which I have linked in my first post) is pretty good and goes for an acceptable price.
Looks pretty cool, too, in case you have a Window-Kit case.

Make sure both your motherboard and your CPU support the RAM frequency (2133, 2400, 2667 etc) you want.

Cheers,
Gaius
 
Solution