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?

[Lord Flashheart]

Miss Ann Thrope eredeti hozzászólása:

Lord of Misrule eredeti hozzászólása:

Ideally for games, 32GB.

Only for the sake of futureproofing.

I'm still using 16GB DDR4. So far, I haven't encountered a game that needs more.

32GB goiing from 2 x 8GB to 4 x 8GB can provide a performance boost now and so called future proofing.

A 2 x 4GB setup going to a 4 x 4Gb setup will apparently improve performance, but you are stuck at 16GB unless you want to replace all sticks which is expensive.


It is a up to everyone to decide if it is a good investment or not.

This is why
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhMYmEu8gks

[Lord Flashheart]

Miss Ann Thrope eredeti hozzászólása:

Lord of Misrule eredeti hozzászólása:

32GB goiing from 2 x 8GB to 4 x 8GB can provide a performance boost now and so called future proofing.

A 2 x 4GB setup going to a 4 x 4Gb setup will apparently improve performance, but you are stuck at 16GB unless you want to replace all sticks which is expensive.


It is a up to everyone to decide if it is a good investment or not.

This is why
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhMYmEu8gks

I don't understand how 32GB would provide a performance boost when games aren't fully using my 16GB to begin with. I don't tend to have many programs running in the background while gaming.

It is 4 sticks a s opposed to 2 that can improve the performance.

As for how much memory there is , the performance is game dependent.

[Nomad]

I don't think you can mix 8+16. Also my last system was 8gb ddr3 and had no issues playing mankind divided unless maybe the vram was helping with that idk.

[Illusion of Progress]

Something isn't inherently badly optimized if it has more RAM use. I'm no coder, so I can't speak to what is good or not regarding that, but RAM use does trend up over time, partly because average RAM capacity trends up. So, yes, some of that might be a case of "it is there so it can be used", but software has also grown to become less rudimentary over time as well, so it's also a case of progress.

So, no, something isn't badly optimized if it needs X amount of RAM. In 2021, 16 GB isn't an incredible amount of RAM anymore; it's more become the standard for new PC purchases within the last few years, but it's also still a lot of RAM for most things for the time being. Outside of edge cases, it's enough for most games, and probably won't be commonly saturated for a few years (meaning, 32 GB is far from being justified for games alone). That said, 32 GB is cheap, and it might allow your for a higher workflow (more multitasking) if that is your thing, or if you play one of the games that will push 16 GB. On the other end, 8 GB is becoming more and more of a limiting amount, but largely still works.

But the focus should be about your own needs rather than outside trends; if 8 GB worked for you personally until now, then it was fine. If you now need more, get more. You should always upgrade when what you have isn't doing what you want it to anymore. If your current setup is 1x 8 GB, adding more will get you (even it's only partial/flex depending on how much you add) dual channel support as well.

TRASH eredeti hozzászólása:

I don't think you can mix 8+16.

There's nothing preventing the mixing of 16 GB and 8 GB. Any incompatibility that could arise wouldn't be due to capacity difference.

I remember mixing quantities of 256 MB and 128 MB of SDRAM. I also mixed speeds, using 256 MB of PC100 and 256 MB of PC133 (ah, the days of "is 384 MB of faster RAM better or is 512 MB of slower RAM better?"). Also remember mixing 128 MB (can't remember if this was 2x 64 MB or just 1x 128 MB) and 32 MB on a motherboard with 3 RAM slots for 160 MB total on an early Windows XP era PC; couldn't tell you if the speeds of brands even matched but it worked without issue on a board limited to 100 MHz FSB.

[Chevy HHR SS]

I ran into some issues with 8gb of ram. 16gb is the minimum needed these days. And that's just for GTAV...

[plat]

16 GB is the nice standard nowadays, not only for some game but to keep things moving in the background without hindrance or interruption. I don't want some software to optimize my game and background processes, I'd rather have the hardware to do this comfortably.

If you want to run virtual machines, 16 GB and greater is nice to have. If you want to have 32 GB for the sake of showing off, well that's fine too. It's your money, honey.

Like others here, I moved on from 16 GB to 32 GB in order to run virtual machine. It's nice but admittedly doesn't do much for my benchmark scores. As long as your best clock speeds stay stable, it's all good!

Edit: RAM runs in dual channel on here, that's it. If games are poorly optimized, all the more reason to get more RAM. It's that or wait until someone gets around to optimizing the game better and that may never happen soon enugh.

[Lord Flashheart]

So lots of curious opinions about what memory does what.

I initially bought 16GB in 2 x 8 sticks thinking it would be enough for gaming and maybe upgrade later if needed.
It has been proven that 4 sticks as opposed to 2 has greater gaming performance, even though it is a dual channel setup.
When i found that out I bought 2 more stick of the exact same type the performance improvement obvious to me in some games I like to play.

Also I use primocache which I have had the licence for years and is very useful.
8GB of memory is used to cache games as well as NVme storage caching my games that are on sata SSDs. This also helps with minimising stutter.

I think 32GB is a very good long term investment for gaming in a 4 stick setup.

[upcoast]

I've seen no real fps benefit for me but smoothness is great running 24GB/32GB or even 64GB, I would expect more than 16GB in gaming PCs in 2021.

[Kumoko]

upcoast eredeti hozzászólása:

I've seen no real fps benefit for me but smoothness is great running 24GB/32GB or even 64GB, I would expect more than 16GB in gaming PCs in 2021.

i second this having a 32 ideally is the most safest spot which can last long time i ran cyberpunk 2077 n some other apps n i have already used 12-13 gigs im fairly certain by the time we get to 2025 the requirements will increase another 4 gigs n so forth but for now if u dont have a budget for that 32 gigs 16 is good for now of course i think ull also geta bit fps from just having to use those 4 ram slots

[rezo]

16gb is the minimum.

I often hit 14-15GB of usage on the daily with OBS replay buffer + a game running with discord and maybe a few chrome tabs open. More demanding games like Warzone, Tarkov and Star Citizen will most definitely use a TON of ram. It usually limits it depending on your ram capacity thats why to you it doesnt seem to exceed 8GB total but I usually average 13GB+ usage on the daily.

I currently have microsoft teams open with a youtube video open and im using 7GB of ram atm. I dont know how you can live with 8gb lol.

[rezo]

rezo eredeti hozzászólása:

16gb is the minimum.

I often hit 14-15GB of usage on the daily with OBS replay buffer + a game running with discord and maybe a few chrome tabs open. More demanding games like Warzone, Tarkov and Star Citizen will most definitely use a TON of ram. It usually limits it depending on your ram capacity thats why to you it doesnt seem to exceed 8GB total but I usually average 13GB+ usage on the daily.

I currently have microsoft teams open with a youtube video open and im using 7GB of ram atm. I dont know how you can live with 8gb lol.

Warzone uses around 12GB of ram

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLyUKJ9I_oo&ab_channel=JansnBenchmarks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUPREuHY4Sc&ab_channel=GamingBenchmarks

Star citizen uses 15-20+GB depending on location and system (Higher spec tend to use higher ram idk why)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMmeKlRG9JA&ab_channel=JansnBenchmarks

[Nomad]

8 is still currently fine but getting quite close to obsolescence so 16 is what you should be looking at now.

[vadim]

If someone starts talking about "optimizing" a game without seeing its source code, then he absolutely do not understand what he is trying to reason about...

[Bad 💀 Motha]

TRASH eredeti hozzászólása:

I don't think you can mix 8+16. Also my last system was 8gb ddr3 and had no issues playing mankind divided unless maybe the vram was helping with that idk.

But thats not even a remotely demanding game; an i3 + GTX 1060 + 8GB RAM can max out that game just fine.

16GB total worth of either DDR3 or DDR4 are all very cheap, so IDK why in anyones mind you would just stay on 8GB of RAM. It won't cut it on a work PC or a gaming PC.