Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Microsoft now recommends 32GB of RAM as the future-proof 'no worries' config for gaming — 16GB becomes the new 'practical starting point' during the RAMageddon
Microsoft recently published a new support document for gaming on Windows, serving as a guide for what hardware people should choose in 2026. Just a day later, that post has already been deleted because it recommended 16GB of RAM as the "practical starting point," while suggesting users go for 32GB if they want to future-proof their system. That means 32GB is no longer overkill according to the Windows maker.
Despite the grim outlook of the market, if you follow recent hardware trends, the data actually backs up this argument. Last year, before the RAMpocalypse ushered in, we covered September 2025's Steam Survey that showed 16GB configs falling behind in popularity while 32 GB systems were gaining notoriety. The lines still haven't overlapped, though, and 16 GB remains more common than 32GB, especially with the current situation in mind.
RAM has gotten significantly more expensive in the past few months, thanks to the AI boom snatching production lines. Manufactures are trying to come up with solutions to alleviate the crisis, such as the HUDIMMs proposed by ASRock, Intel, and TeamGroup. Despite prices flatlining as of late, DDR5 in particular is still out of reach for most DIY builders.
Latest Videos From
The company does lay out its reasoning for this — it says that more RAM will help in running apps like Discord alongside your game, while AAA blockbuster titles also benefit from the extra breathing room. That's true in essence because, of course, having more RAM will always be nice; it'll allow the system to rely less on the page file, which is much slower, while keeping more things in memory.
GPUs with limited VRAM, such as those with only an 8GB pool, will also appreciate the higher system RAM capacity as assets spill over during intense workloads. If you're using an APU like the new Ryzen AI 400 series, a high-speed, high-capacity memory config is pretty much essential to squeezing out as much performance as possible from the integrated graphics.
All that being said, Microsoft is not "recommending" 32GB for gaming since most developers still outline 16GB as the actual baseline; it's just claiming that 32GB is the new norm we're working toward. Now, some titles actually do require 32GB of RAM, but many are edge-case scenarios tied to very high-fidelity presets (such as 4K Ultra in Stalker 2). Microsoft's own Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 lists 64GB as the ideal RAM config, so the Redmont giant is definitely an exception to the rule.
Alongside memory, the company also recommends a much more reasonable upgrade: an SSD. It outright shuts down using any hard drive for either gaming or running Windows in 2026, saying that "active games and the OS should live on an SSD for the best experience." Moreover, the guideline states that "HDDs are best reserved for bulk storage." That much has been universally true for about a decade.
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
The SSD advice goes hand in hand with the memory advice, since your CPU will swap to system storage once the RAM fills up, so it's good to have a fast drive. Also, with features like DirectStorage poised to become the standard going forward, SSDs truly are a zero-compromise component. Unfortunately, we're in the middle of a global shortage right now, so even though the 32GB RAM recommendation is technically valid, it still comes off as tone-deaf for a company that's reportedly spending $190 billion on AI this year, which is the reason the shortages and high pricing exist.
Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.
Bj5v52R4qnk
It's been a while since I watched this, but I think some of the subtesting demonstrated 16 GB RAM + 16 GB VRAM being a good pair to reduce spillage compared to 8 GB VRAM. But usually, 16 GB RAM is fine. And the Tom's article mentions this aspect as well.
24 GB kits could be a good compromise in theory, but the $/GB was bad compared to 32 GB last time I checked. Maybe we'll see a 16 GB + 8 GB HUDIMM push. Better to ignore it and look for a 32 GB bundle deal or something.
Some folks were freaking out about these recommendations but they are not that crazy. Close other applications if 16 GB is cutting it close.
Tsk tsk, 16GB has been my personal bare minimum since 2011.
Having more RAM would also extend the life of your SSD since it would require fewer page file writes, would it not?
You're correct. The problem with "benchmarks" is they're just lab testing, usually on a clean Windows installation, with little else installed to interfere with the benchmark testing. That doesn't reflect real world use for the average gamer who might have many other things installed and we all know that most everything today wants to run some crap in the background. Even Chrome pushes a default keep your browser running in the background setting that you have to toggle off or it doesn't actually close.
If you're a serious gamer that doesn't run Windows 11 in a clean lab environment get 48GB or 64GB of ram. When Microsoft says 32GB is enough today you can bet it's only a few Windows update before Windows is gobbling up much more and all the other poorly optimized software is doing the same.
You're likely to get better performance from ram in a two stick configuration than if you try to fill 4 slots later, and if you're really going for the best performance you probably should be buying a matched kit to begin with so you never have to upgrade and try to gamble on matching RAM on specs alone, especially if you want to run EXPO or XMP profiles.
The SSD argument is valid as well, even though modern SSD's generally last pretty long. But at 64GB of ram the swap file is barely needed for most gamers.
If you're a serious gamer that doesn't run Windows 11 in a clean lab environment get 48GB or 64GB of ram. When Microsoft says 32GB is enough today you can bet it's only a few Windows update before Windows is gobbling up much more and all the other poorly optimized software is doing the same.
You're likely to get better performance from ram in a two stick configuration than if you try to fill 4 slots later, and if you're really going for the best performance you probably should be buying a matched kit to begin with so you never have to upgrade and try to gamble on matching RAM on specs alone, especially if you want to run EXPO or XMP profiles.
Indeed, which is why I went "overkill" and bought a two-stick, 64GB kit on my last system build. I never plan on upgrading unless building a new system entirely.
Gaming aside, my workload often requires having PowerPoint, Word, Photoshop, and Illustrator open simultaneously. On top of that, I usually have a browser open with multiple tabs, streaming music, and I'm driving 3 screens all with live wallpapers. I frequently see as much as 30-35% of my RAM capacity being utilized, which is above the "minimum" threshold of 16GB. - It's nice to not have to worry about it though, and so glad I built before the RAMpocalypse. I thought my price of $275 was expensive for the kit - at one point I saw that it had climbed to over $1000.
I was using 16GB for the longest time... until Cities Skylines with DLCs and Mods filled up all 16GB of it.
I subsequently bought 32GB kits for my main PC and laptop since DDR4 was dirt cheap in 2023~2024.
