Do I need 16gb ram or are games badly optimized?

[Χάρης]

Title. Basically I am thinking of upgrading. I currently have an 8gb stick and thinking if I should get another one or even a 16gb stick (so 24gb in total). I only have 2 games which caused me problems and I think it's because of ram ( I monitored ram usage and it goes up to 100% ). Those are deus ex : mankind divided ( which in my opinion has really poor optimization, I talked about it in the forums ) and Night of the Dead ( it is a big open world game, but even cp2077 does not require 16 gigs ... ). Thoughts?

[Carlsberg]

In todays gaming world 16Gb is i think ideal, I personally have 32Gb. I would say if the rest of your system is up to playing current games then go for it but i would not spend the money on DDR3 because any system still using it is finished and that would just be a waste of money.

[xSOSxHawkens]

8gb is bare minimum now days. Its like gaming on a 4GB system a few year back, it *can* be done but there *will* be issues.

Time to get some more ram, assuming you have a good enough system. Look at what you have and decide, being a single 8GB stick, if you want to match up to it for a second stick or jump to a whole new kit of potentially faster ram, depending on what you have now.

[Ogami]

8GB is bare minimum, 16 GB is the standard and 32GB is for higher tier systems.
Even 64GB getting more popular.

There is really no downside to having more RAM, while the negatives of having not enough are much bigger.
Especially at the moment when RAM prices are down and you get a 32GB kit for under 100 bucks.
Why not?

Only thing you need to consider when you upgrade, ALWAYS get a 2 stick kit so you can run the RAM in dual channel mode which gives a big performance boot.
I seen so many people buying 1 stick or 3 sticks or mixing dfferent speed and brands and they are wasting so much potential performance with that.

[AbedsBrother]

Plenty of games need more than 8 GB of ram, not just Mankind Divided. Haven't encountered a game that pushed total system ram usage beyond 12GB (Arkham Knight came close), so until that happens 16Gb is pretty much ideal.

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Do I need 16gb ram or are games badly optimized?

You should get 16gb ram and no games aren't badly optimized. You want developers to keep pushing the boundaries of hardware. If a particular piece of hardware is maxed out, that's when you fine-tune the settings or upgrade.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Basically I am thinking of upgrading. I currently have an 8gb stick

That's probably holding back fps. RAM should be running in multi-channel on a gaming PC.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

and thinking if I should get another one or even a 16gb stick (so 24gb in total). I only have 2 games which caused me problems and I think it's because of ram ( I monitored ram usage and it goes up to 100% ).

You want to go by your cpu memory controller specs. If it's a dual-channel controller then 24gb won't be ideal. Ideal for dual-channel is 16gb or 32gb not 24gb. If you have a triple-channel controller then yeah, 24gb (8gb x3 dimm). We need to know your cpu really for accurate advice.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

deus ex : mankind divided ( which in my opinion has really poor optimization, I talked about it in the forums ) and Night of the Dead ( it is a big open world game, but even cp2077 does not require 16 gigs ... ).

I play cyberpunk and deus ex and they easily consume 16gb ram. The most cost-effective option would be to get the part number of the dimm that's in there and buy the same exact one.
Or you could get a 32gb ram kit. I wouldn't really actively buy 16 right now I would go 32.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Thoughts?

What are your specs?

[Chimp Factory [M04]]

8gb RAM is functional, but quickly hitting the wall.
16gb I would say is reasonable for modern intensive games or simulations.
32gb is quite unoptimized or unless you are running EXTREME simulations. I would give it 5 years to be the norm.
64gb is just silly unless you are running every program on your computer at the same time.

[Bing Chilling]

most newer titles from like 2018 and after will use more then 8gb if you have more then 8gb
but that said, they will still play just fine on 8gb, game devs know that the most common configuration is still 2x4gb=8gb,also side note, but just because in a system with 16gb or more
reads over 8gb usage when a certain game is running, doesn't mean you NEED 16gb to play it
gta 5 will cause system usage to go above 8gb if you have 16gb (2015 game)
when more ram is available most games will save data to ram so that its faster to load next time you go there and has a far less chance of stuttering

. i have no experience with the two games you've mentioned, but i don't really think upgrading your ram is going to fix any major issues.

with all that said you should still get onto the 16gb train, since how cheap ram is
but as others have said around here, just make sure you use dual channel
you want 2 sticks of the same size and speed, ideally from the same maker too

a quick question, do you have a single 8gb stick currently? or 2x4gb=8gb sticks
if you are running a single 8gb stick you are on a channel set up,
and that will cause fps and stutter issues
in lots of games. could honestly explain the issue

YouTube™ Video: Single Channel vs Dual Channel RAM Test in New Games 

Views: 347,098

2x8Gb vs 1x16Gb RAM Test in 8 New Games Games : Battlefield 5 HITMAN 2 - 01:12 Shadow of the Tomb Raider -02:17 Assassin's Creed Odyssey - 04:00 Just Cause 4 - 05:12 Forza Horizon 4 - 06:17 Far Cry 5...

depending on what ram configuration you have

2x4gb=8gb sticks (probably gonna want a new 2x8gb=16gb kit)
you don't really wanna reuse the older sticks if they aren't all the same size
you wont get the benefit of running dual channel
i would keep them around just in case, or sell them, but i wouldn't reuse them
in your build, you want dual channel support, it's a huge game changer.

or

1x8gb stick
(you should just buy another 8gb stick of the same speed, and same maker if possible)

[Χάρης]

Originally posted by Who's Your Daddy?:

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Do I need 16gb ram or are games badly optimized?

You should get 16gb ram and no games aren't badly optimized. You want developers to keep pushing the boundaries of hardware. If a particular piece of hardware is maxed out, that's when you fine-tune the settings or upgrade.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Basically I am thinking of upgrading. I currently have an 8gb stick

That's probably holding back fps. RAM should be running in multi-channel on a gaming PC.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

and thinking if I should get another one or even a 16gb stick (so 24gb in total). I only have 2 games which caused me problems and I think it's because of ram ( I monitored ram usage and it goes up to 100% ).

You want to go by your cpu memory controller specs. If it's a dual-channel controller then 24gb won't be ideal. Ideal for dual-channel is 16gb or 32gb not 24gb. If you have a triple-channel controller then yeah, 24gb (8gb x3 dimm). We need to know your cpu really for accurate advice.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

deus ex : mankind divided ( which in my opinion has really poor optimization, I talked about it in the forums ) and Night of the Dead ( it is a big open world game, but even cp2077 does not require 16 gigs ... ).

I play cyberpunk and deus ex and they easily consume 16gb ram. The most cost-effective option would be to get the part number of the dimm that's in there and buy the same exact one.
Or you could get a 32gb ram kit. I wouldn't really actively buy 16 right now I would go 32.

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Thoughts?

What are your specs?

Yeah I was thinking about going for 32gb since 15 has become the new minimum, but I think 16 will get the job done for the games I wanna play.

I got an i7-8750H and rtx 2060. Those are my specs.

Originally posted by StoneYoda:

most newer titles from like 2018 and after will use more then 8gb if you have more then 8gb
but that said, they will still play just fine on 8gb, game devs know that the most common configuration is still 2x4gb=8gb,also side note, but just because in a system with 16gb or more
reads over 8gb usage when a certain game is running, doesn't mean you NEED 16gb to play it
gta 5 will cause system usage to go above 8gb if you have 16gb (2015 game)
when more ram is available most games will save data to ram so that its faster to load next time you go there and has a far less chance of stuttering

. i have no experience with the two games you've mentioned, but i don't really think upgrading your ram is going to fix any major issues.

with all that said you should still get onto the 16gb train, since how cheap ram is
but as others have said around here, just make sure you use dual channel
you want 2 sticks of the same size and speed, ideally from the same maker too

a quick question, do you have a single 8gb stick currently? or 2x4gb=8gb sticks
if you are running a single 8gb stick you are on a channel set up,
and that will cause fps and stutter issues
in lots of games. could honestly explain the issue

YouTube™ Video: Single Channel vs Dual Channel RAM Test in New Games 

Views: 347,098

2x8Gb vs 1x16Gb RAM Test in 8 New Games Games : Battlefield 5 HITMAN 2 - 01:12 Shadow of the Tomb Raider -02:17 Assassin's Creed Odyssey - 04:00 Just Cause 4 - 05:12 Forza Horizon 4 - 06:17 Far Cry 5...

depending on what ram configuration you have

2x4gb=8gb sticks (probably gonna want a new 2x8gb=16gb kit)
you don't really wanna reuse the older sticks if they aren't all the same size
you wont get the benefit of running dual channel
i would keep them around just in case, or sell them, but i wouldn't reuse them
in your build, you want dual channel support, it's a huge game changer.

or

1x8gb stick
(you should just buy another 8gb stick of the same speed, and same maker if possible)

That video is really useful, thanks.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Modern Games WANT to be able to have access to anywhere from 6GB - 16GB of free available RAM. So yea for demanding games, 16GB is the minimum. 8GB only is ok if playing less demanding games and you are not multi-tasking. 8GB basically means > Load up Windows, launch your game client, launch your game... don't expect to launch much of anything else beyond this all at the same time on 8GB though.

If you install more RAM, be sure to wipe your PageFile out completely, reboot and then set a new Min & Max that matches your installed RAM. As this helps avoid any further disk fragmentation then usual, and avoid issues with the PageFile not expanding out on the disk fast enough should Windows or various apps/games need to make heavy use of that.

[Mad Scientist]

Keep in mind Windows uses up to 4GB of ram as well, so that will heavily affect how something performs if it needs over 4GB or ram.

People often neglect to mention the OS' ram consumption

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Right; and has always been the point I've tried to set-forth to folks.

That leaves you 4GB for a game, so yes it's not enough.

16GB leaves you approx 12GB for a game. Some games do rather well with actually using 8GB, which means that leaves you 4GB for multi-tasking, running web browser and maybe a few other apps at the same time. If you really want breathing room for both multi-tasking and a very demanding game, go with 32GB

[Χάρης]

Originally posted by Mr. Gentlebot:

Keep in mind Windows uses up to 4GB of ram as well, so that will heavily affect how something performs if it needs over 4GB or ram.

People often neglect to mention the OS' ram consumption

That is the main reason I want to upgrade. I only have steam opened right now and 3.8gb of ram is being used which is half already. When I opened deus ex earlier it ate all my ram. Explains why the game crashed a few times.

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Modern Games WANT to be able to have access to anywhere from 6GB - 16GB of free available RAM. So yea for demanding games, 16GB is the minimum. 8GB only is ok if playing less demanding games and you are not multi-tasking. 8GB basically means > Load up Windows, launch your game client, launch your game... don't expect to launch much of anything else beyond this all at the same time on 8GB though.

If you install more RAM, be sure to wipe your PageFile out completely, reboot and then set a new Min & Max that matches your installed RAM. As this helps avoid any further disk fragmentation then usual, and avoid issues with the PageFile not expanding out on the disk fast enough should Windows or various apps/games need to make heavy use of that.

I have been looking for solutions and this pagefile thingy came up. Why should I do it after the upgrade? I don't understand what the min and max values do, should I just choose " no paging file " ? Can I also do it before the upgrade to save up some ram? Linus says it helps

btw I don't do any multi tasking except if browsing youtube through the steam overlay counts. But I rarely do that, I usually just open steam and launch my games. I do the rest outside of gaming.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Selecting No Page File and then clicking Set and rebooting, is ONLY to wipe the file off your drive. This can be helpful so that when its re-created again it won't be fragmented, which is the whole point of locking in the same Min and Max size for it, instead of allowing the OS to control it and allowing the file to dynamically change size as Windows sees fit.

No, never turn the page file off and leave it this way, it's a 100% must to have it. Due to Windows design it will complain about low memory if it's off. And some apps or games will refuse to run right or may crash at random at any time due to this being off.

[Tristan]

Originally posted by Χάρης:

Title. Basically I am thinking of upgrading. I currently have an 8gb stick and thinking if I should get another one or even a 16gb stick (so 24gb in total). I only have 2 games which caused me problems and I think it's because of ram ( I monitored ram usage and it goes up to 100% ). Those are deus ex : mankind divided ( which in my opinion has really poor optimization, I talked about it in the forums ) and Night of the Dead ( it is a big open world game, but even cp2077 does not require 16 gigs ... ). Thoughts?

A few things to mention here

1 you really cant judge anything when using only 2 games example you could have one game and this games sucks memory like crazy ( so its not your hardware its the stupid game)

2 yes upgrade memory regardless of gaming or not you wont regret it

3 I dont know what you mean by 24gb ( there is no such thing )

4 after upgrading to what ever you choose ( 16 OR 32 ) Play a new game not the one you always play

Good Luck Hop this helps

[Lord Flashheart]

Ideally for games, 32GB.

4 sticks of 8GB with high speed & low latency is best.

Apparently having 4 stick as opposed to 2 on a dual channel system does have a benefit.

I have 32GB in a 4 x 8GB sticks 3200 cl14 setup.

It seems fairly optimum for games as I understand it.