Discussion 8GB vs 16GB vs 32GB in 2018

[mohit9206]

 

[VirtualLarry]

What was interesting to me about that video, was not that 16GB was the "sweet spot", as IMHO, that should be obvious to most gamers these days, but that many current titles, were still more-or-less playable in 8GB of RAM. So budget gamers need not dispair, if they only have 8GB of system RAM. (Probably best if they have an SSD in that case, though, to handle paging with less visible stutter.)

I'm putting together a "refurb gaming rig special", with a Dell MT Optiplex 3020 with a Haswell i5, and I bought a 16GB kit of DDR3 off of Newegg (yeah, probably should have seeked out some used RAM, new is still fairly pricey, even for DDR3), and a refurb GTX 1060 3GB card to throw in, as well as potentially a new PSU to drive it. Topped off with a moderate-sized SSD for boot/OS, and a HDD for the game library. Should be a decent gaming rig, more or less, and come it at around $600 or lower.

 

[Oyeve]

My old fourth gen intel gaming system had 32gb of DDR3. My current 8th gen intel gaming system has 16gb DDR4. I wasted $$$ a few years ago getting 32gb of DDR3 but now its going to be in the FS forum soon.

 

[mohit9206]

What was interesting to me about that video, was not that 16GB was the "sweet spot", as IMHO, that should be obvious to most gamers these days, but that many current titles, were still more-or-less playable in 8GB of RAM. So budget gamers need not dispair, if they only have 8GB of system RAM. (Probably best if they have an SSD in that case, though, to handle paging with less visible stutter.)

I'm putting together a "refurb gaming rig special", with a Dell MT Optiplex 3020 with a Haswell i5, and I bought a 16GB kit of DDR3 off of Newegg (yeah, probably should have seeked out some used RAM, new is still fairly pricey, even for DDR3), and a refurb GTX 1060 3GB card to throw in, as well as potentially a new PSU to drive it. Topped off with a moderate-sized SSD for boot/OS, and a HDD for the game library. Should be a decent gaming rig, more or less, and come it at around $600 or lower.

Well in some games even 6GB of ram is sufficient but that's at 1080p. I've noticed that when i played Evil Within 2 and Prey ram usage is very low. Out of the 6GB, only about 4GB is in use while Mafia 3 takes 5.5gb but ofcourse i don't play at max settings and also no other applications running in background other than fraps and Speccy. So it shows if a game is well optimized it can run well on modest hardware.

 

[bonehead123]

I'm putting together a "refurb gaming rig special", with a refurb GTX 1060 3GB card to throw in

IMHO, you will regret this decision on that GPU.....been there, done that with my son's gaming rig..... the 3gb card was constantly lagging, stuttering, skipping frames etc..... switched to a 6GB card and boom, no moar problemos 🙂

He runs a Z170 mobo, skylake cpu @4.7GHZ/ with 16GB of 3200 ram, so that wasn't the problem...

 

[mohit9206]

IMHO, you will regret this decision on that GPU.....been there, done that with my son's gaming rig..... the 3gb card was constantly lagging, stuttering, skipping frames etc..... switched to a 6GB card and boom, no moar problemos 🙂

He runs a Z170 mobo, skylake cpu @4.7GHZ/ with 16GB of 3200 ram, so that wasn't the problem...

Its ok, he builds a new pc every week so it should be fine

 

[Harry_Wild]

When I purchased my Thinkstation P300 I purchased it fully loaded. Memory cost a fortune but like the idea of having the top of the line model with everything on it to start with a new machine. It might have been a big lost in terms of cash but feel to me like it was worth it; even if I do not game on it! Just feels great to have that amount in my PC. The Lenovo guy said at the time that 4GB was the normal; so I told him I wanted the maximum and he was speechless - 4 banks of 8GB.

My PC is still very fast for what I do - internet surfing and watching streaming videos and movies. It is already 4 years old in January!

 

[UsandThem]

Nothing much has changed with this yearly question it seems.

There are a couple of games that need more the 8 GB, but not many. That said, if a person is a heavy gamer and uses Windows 10 (which with all the background processes), the smart money would be to go with 16 GB if building a new PC today. They could be fine with 8 GB, but now that RAM prices have returned to Earth somewhat, it would be what I would go with.

It really just comes down to what people do with their machines, and how much they multitask on the PCs.

 

[mohit9206]

Ram prices haven't returned to earth atleast not where i live. 8gb ram was $40 now it is still $70. Yeah its down from $100 but still long ways to go

 

[UsandThem]

Ram prices haven't returned to earth atleast not where i live. 8gb ram was $40 now it is still $70. Yeah its down from $100 but still long ways to go

I agree it's not back where it started, but for a while the prices were all the way to the moon. Now at least they are back inside Earth's atmosphere. 😛

At least here in the U.S., a person can get a 16 GB kit of decent DDR4 for $100 (or maybe a few bucks lower), whereas that same kit was over $200+ a year ago. At least now I wouldn't shed a tear buying another 8 GB of RAM like I did when the manufacturers price fixed the crap out of it "ran low" on supply due to demand. 🙄

 

[Harry_Wild]

DDR5 will be showing up in stores sometime in the second quarter or a little later. 2 times faster then the fastest DDR4 now! Price will be falling for DDR4 after DDR5 gets the volume cranked up probably in the Fall!

 

[DrMrLordX]

DDR5 will be showing up in stores sometime in the second quarter or a little later. 2 times faster then the fastest DDR4 now! Price will be falling for DDR4 after DDR5 gets the volume cranked up probably in the Fall!

Really? Who is going to use DDR5 in 2019? Maybe DDR5 will be on the commodity IC market, but I doubt we'll see it on consumer DIMMs or SODIMMs.

Sometimes I get paranoid and wonder if 16GB is enough. There's a lot of fun things you can do (like drive caching) if you have extra RAM. That being said, some platforms take well to 32 GB RAM (Z370/Z390) and some do not (current AM4).

Regardless, I've been running 16GB since 2014 or so and I would not dream of going to anything less.

 

[whm1974]

DDR5 will be showing up in stores sometime in the second quarter or a little later. 2 times faster then the fastest DDR4 now! Price will be falling for DDR4 after DDR5 gets the volume cranked up probably in the Fall!

DDR5 isn't expected to arrive until 2020 at the earliest when AMD and Intel release platforms that will use it.

 

[Harry_Wild]

Really? Who is going to use DDR5 in 2019? Maybe DDR5 will be on the commodity IC market, but I doubt we'll see it on consumer DIMMs or SODIMMs.

Sometimes I get paranoid and wonder if 16GB is enough. There's a lot of fun things you can do (like drive caching) if you have extra RAM. That being said, some platforms take well to 32 GB RAM (Z370/Z390) and some do not (current AM4).

Regardless, I've been running 16GB since 2014 or so and I would not dream of going to anything less.

I have 32Gb of system RAM feel the same way! A RAM obsessive person!

 

[DontMessWithJohan]

8 GB of RAM for a modern "high-end" gamer or streamer is insufficient. 32 GB is excessive to most but a select few groups of users. 16 GB of DDR4 is indeed the sweet spot.

 

[bigi]

Lately, I've been running some custom enlargement PhotoShop actions on large files. I did hit the memory limit. I have 64GB now. Need 128 apparently.

I am sure you'll do fine with 8GB for watching pron, but hey people sometimes use PCs for something else.

 

[whm1974]

Lately, I've been running some custom enlargement PhotoShop actions on large files. I did hit the memory limit. I have 64GB now. Need 128 apparently.

I am sure you'll do fine with 8GB for watching pron, but hey people sometimes use PCs for something else.

I thought about upgrading my memory to 32GB about maybe over a year ago, but decided that I don't need it. Looks like you need one of AMD's or Intel's HEDT platforms if you need more then 64GB of memory.

 

[Shmee]

I agree that 16GB is the sweet spot currently, though 12GB is also likely fine if you are on x58, due to liking triple channel.

 

[zink77]

but that many current titles, were still more-or-less playable in 8GB of RAM.

Of course because most games are console games that have been ported to PC, so of course they aren't going to ding 8GB a PC has. That's kind of obvious. Consoles are the ones 99% of games are being programmed for and they have limited memory. The PC has been way out in front since the xbox 1 era in terms of both raw speed and 3D GPU power.

 

[gipper53]

8 vs 16 vs 32...they are all relevant in 2019 just depends on the particular user's needs. IMHO machines with 4GB should be discontinued except for Chromebooks. No W10 machine should come with 4GB today, 8 is the bare minimum I would suggest to anyone if they expect the machine to be useful for several years.

 

[mohit9206]

8 vs 16 vs 32...they are all relevant in 2019 just depends on the particular user's needs. IMHO machines with 4GB should be discontinued except for Chromebooks. No W10 machine should come with 4GB today, 8 is the bare minimum I would suggest to anyone if they expect the machine to be useful for several years.

4GB is perfectly fine for Win10. An example, an old person who only uses their pc for checking their mails or watching YouTube or things like that, 4GB is plenty for that.

 

[beginner99]

4GB is perfectly fine for Win10. An example, an old person who only uses their pc for checking their mails or watching YouTube or things like that, 4GB is plenty for that.

Since I still have a windows 7 32-bit, yes 32-bit laptop at work, yes I can confirm stuff like that works just fine. I do have access to more powerful machines via remote desktop for the "real" work.

 

[Harry_Wild]

You cannot go wrong with 32GB of RAM on your PC! sure it cost now a few hundred to a hundred or less depending on your DRAM type and speed: DDR2,DDR3, DDR4!

 

[gipper53]

4GB is perfectly fine for Win10. An example, an old person who only uses their pc for checking their mails or watching YouTube or things like that, 4GB is plenty for that.

Yeah but that same old person will probably keep that machine practically forever. It's fine today, but how well will 4GB be doing five years from now? Might still hold up, but 8GB would certainly be better, especially if it's a machine that can't be upgraded.

 

[leexgx]

If you need more than 16GB you probably know why you need it in my case 32 GB is my requirement for the stuff I do