How much RAM does a PC need for games?

[jboydgolfer]

On steam people are using 2gb to 4gb and u guys say 16 to 32 gb ))))

Better rec is 8 Gb or 16 if available money,now

Edit: Even AAAAAAAA titles )))

Been running win10 on 8Gb's for some time, no issue ( I had the intention of purchasing another 8GB when more funding became available , but i dont need another 8Gb, or any for that matter). Games, multitasking, browser tab's , the whole 9 yards, runs like butter.

It's funny ,because on my old PC I was also running windows 10 ,but an older chipset (1150), I had 16 GB of RAM in that system ,and it seems like if it has more ram to "stretch out", it will, but if it doesn't have it to stretch out, it doesn't. Either way I haven't noticed a change in performance other than the lack of ram usage.

 

[ASOT]

+

 

[Athlonite]

So whats the rest of your PC made up of and what games are you wanting to play and at what resolution

so far you've made two comments and had plenty of answers and a couple asking for the rest of the specs for your PC of which you've not made any attempt to provide so really until we see that we're only going to be able to give you best guesses at best

 

[Tonim89]

I do agree that 16GB is the optimal scenario for playing games in 2018, but 8GB is far from being a bad choice, specially if you look at the current RAM prices.

I actually have 8GB rig, and it does pretty fine, with zero issues while gaming. I play PUBG almost every day, with Chrome, Discord and A LOT of lesser programs running in the task tray running in the background and the total RAM consumption never made through the 7GB barrier. The only thing that sometimes take my 8GB to the limit is CEMU running Zelda BOTW, but it's obviously due to poor optimization.

To be honest, if just want to play games at 1080p with console quality, you don't need nothing more than a Pentium / i3, 8GB and a GTX 1050 Ti.

 

[Vya Domus]

if just want to play games at 1080p with console quality, you don't need nothing more than a Pentium / i3, 8GB and a GTX 1050 Ti.

That's a fairly low standard though.

 

[Tonim89]

That's a fairly low standard though.

That's exactly the point, if you just want to play games in the literal sense, you really don't need more than that. Since the OP never stated what kind of quality he wants, anything from this point and on should be enough.

 

[Vayra86]

That's exactly the point, if you just want to play games in the literal sense, you really don't need more than that. Since the OP never stated what kind of quality he wants, anything from this point and on should be enough.

You're quite right to be honest. Enthusiasts are all too eager to recommend overkill

 

[phanbuey]

That's exactly the point, if you just want to play games in the literal sense, you really don't need more than that. Since the OP never stated what kind of quality he wants, anything from this point and on should be enough.

This is true... I have a friend that still plays on a a dual core and a 750ti... so... definitely doable.

 

[Filip Georgievski]

Ill give a simple guide on how i look at RAM ammount needed for games and productivity:
8GB or less - 1080p gaming and light work
8GB - 16GB - 1440p and moderate work
16GB - 32GB - 4K gaming and heavy work
32GB+ - Server workloads

 

[monim1]

I think to speed up the execution VRAM is the best option. VRAM means video RAM. It doesn’t differ fundamentally from the regular RAM that your PC uses, at least not functionality-wise. It is built directly into your graphics card, and it uses faster types of RAM such as GDDR5, GDDR5X, HBM2, and (soon) GDDR6. If you want to increase RAM, I suggest you to go for VRAM. You can get more info on how much VRAM is required from here https://www.gamingscan.com/how-much-vram-do-i-need/

 

[FireFox]

Wow, i am amazed, your explanation is something i didn't know till now, thanks a lot

 

[delshay]

I'm a classic PC (939 platform), so i'm stuck with 4GB. I don't like modern PC as their are very fast & gives me nothing to modify in hardware.

 

[FireFox]

I'm a classic PC (939 platform), so i'm stuck with 4GB. I don't like modern PC as their are very fast & gives me nothing to modify in hardware.

I don't know if i should take your words seriously.

 

[delshay]

I don't know if i should take your words seriously.

The most modern thing I have is a ACER Ferrari 1200 Laptop which I am posting with. It has very rare Kingston DDR2 SODIMM 4-4-4-12, the fastest DDR2 SODIMM ever made, but my 939 computer is faster for games.

EDIT: I have a full infrared BGA workstation, so I like to get the most out of it by doing hardware modifications.

 

[27MaD]

From 8 GB (4X2) to 16 GB (8X2).

 

[coonbro]

I don't know if i should take your words seriously.

that amd 939 -was one of the last diamonds of amd

funny my buddy built a 990fx rig and still use his 939 over it swore it was a far better platform him and I never liked our 990fx build no matter what we spent or tried - I just junked it and weny to intell for my first time ever in 16 years .[and never looked back ]


I nad most I guess posted I yet to se where a 8X2 gb =16 gb kit of good solid memory as left me short . thing is some CPU's can take the 32 and sometime can be finikey with the if you use ''higher '' speeds then speced [like a intel 4670 is speced for 1600 speed ] then you have to maybe deal with a stable overclock to hold it all stable and so on .. [luck of that draw and in my opinion you have to use a ''K'' cpu ]

I 4k games on 16 without issue ?? must be some poorly optimized stuff if not [more opinion] or a online game with all there data collecting clients downloads and content and whatever running soaking it up .

 

[cucker tarlson]

I had problems with system hitting close to 16gb while gaming, but turns out that was some sort of memory leak. I got a new ssd for os recently,did a fresh win 10 install and probmes are gone.
I'd like 32gb and a faster cpu though, I could do a lot more with my dual monitor setup.

 

[coonbro]

nothing wrong if you can afford a 32 kit then hope your cpu will handle higher density / speeds stable . my last build could not this one seems so far can , but I only use 16 in it the outhe 2 sticks are in the one that cant at 16 just fine and dandy.

https://www.pcgamer.com/how-much-ram-do-you-really-need-for-gaming/

https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/games-with-16gb-system-requirements-fact-or-fiction.2498572/

all you can do is read up from stuff like that and here make YOUR own best decision on what YOU feel is best for YOU . then you got 3 out comes 1 - your glad you did 2 - see 16 at 1/2 the cost was going to be more then plenty 3 - you got the lemon no matter what way you went and nothing worked out as you expected ..

you buy , you try, and hope it don't make you cry [ AKA - dealing with computer building ] welcom

 

[AlwaysHope]

I had 16GB kit in my old AM3+ rig & I never used more than 7GB ever... for over 2yrs... with Win 10 Pro + with no customisation of that OS. My fav game didn't use more than 5GB anyway.. so why did I have 16GB in the 1st place?
Because of the availability of high end ram speed only in the 16GB kits. I find that's still the case today with DDR4.

If one wants high speed DDR4 & only 8GB kits... good luck trying to find that!. Popular retailer in my part of the world has 3000MHz 8GB kits for DDR4 as the highest speed for 8GB config. After that, it's 16GB kits if one wants higher ram bandwidth speeds.

If my retailer had 8GB kits of that high bandwidth DDR3 ram back then, I would have gone with that no doubt.

So for yrs, about 9GB of ram just sat in my gaming system... because I "thought" I might need it... problem is that never occurred!
But we have to go with the industry, so I'm guessing its' becuase it's not profitable for RAM manufactures to bin 3000MHz & higher bandwidth for 8GB kits of DDR4 for retail.

Weird industry computer enthusiasts must fathom!!

 

[eidairaman1]

Depends on the games minimum requirements, I'd say 4-8 minimum now.

 

[Flyordie]

16GB or 32GB.

8GB will get you by but I'd avoid using an SSD with a page file on the same drive.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Depends on the games minimum requirements, I'd say 4-8 minimum now.

Totally agree, but I would personally go with the devs recommended specs as opposed to minimum.

 

[coonbro]

16GB or 32GB.

8GB will get you by but I'd avoid using an SSD with a page file on the same drive.

I could see more today with say just 8 something could go in to swap easier windows goes swap / Virtual Memory on its own regardless of memory amount . unlike a program that exceeds your memory amount and goes in to swap you don't see the massive slowdowns caused by it .

so far this is the only program I can use up to or exceed the 16 I use

http://www.numberworld.org/y-cruncher/

everyday all day use games what ever run I guess I average about 3.5 max of the 16 used . you can monitor use easy and see your average memory usage .

for me anyway 8 is cutting it a tad short and 16 is peace of mind and hard pressed to exceed for normal pc use and gaming . something poorly optimized like that finale fantasy bench you can get here will eat up to 6gb some times and some times just to 4 [crazy] or maybe a memory leaking game like crisis was , but still never seen it go over 6 or 8 gb

 

[qubit]

8GB is good, but 16GB is better now.

 

[FireFox]

8GB is good, but 16GB is better now.

32GB even better