# How much RAM does a PC need for games?



## markim55 (May 5, 2018)

I want to play games on my personal computer, if I want to speed up the execution of video games, do I need to add more RAM?


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## Zyll Goliat (May 5, 2018)

At this point I believe that 16gb should be plenty for gaming of course its always better to have more if you like to do heavy multitasking .....If you want to speed up "execution" of video games it´s more important to have SSD and game need to be installed on it.....


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## Toothless (May 5, 2018)

16GB and an SSD of your choice per size. Honestly a good HDD is fast enough.


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## Tsukiyomi91 (May 5, 2018)

16GB is optimal for such task. Like what @Zyll Goliath said, it's a good thing to get an SSD if you want actual speed gains. Installing programs, drivers, OS & games you frequently played onto the SSD will improve responsiveness & loading times a lot. You can also opt a SSHD for your large library as it helps reduce loading times a little bit better than 7200rpm HDDs.


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## FordGT90Concept (May 5, 2018)

8 GiB minimum, 16 GiB recommended.


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## Caring1 (May 5, 2018)

Depends what components are in your current computer, and the games you wish to play.


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## jboydgolfer (May 5, 2018)

If you have a modern DDR4 based system. 8Gb will suffice, 16Gb would be nice.


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## John Naylor (May 5, 2018)

In 2010, the recommended minimum was 2 x 4GB if you wanted to be able to lay AAA games ... since 2016, it's been 2 x 16GB.  Can get away witjh yes, of course, but expect the bigger and better games to be negatively impacted.  And please never stick single sticks ina   diual channel board thinking yu can "get a 2nd one later".... it rarely ends well.


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## jboydgolfer (May 5, 2018)

John Naylor said:


> 2 x 16GB


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## Caring1 (May 5, 2018)

No point offering advice until we find out the O.P's system specs.


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## jboydgolfer (May 5, 2018)

Caring1 said:


> No point offering advice until we find out the O.P's system specs.



if he buys the "recommended amount" by the Guild of Ram manufacturers , he likely wont have enough money to build a PC to list.

"its recommended you have $650 worth of Ram to play your $60 Game"


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## trog100 (May 5, 2018)

ram is funny stuff.. having more than you need wont speed up anything but having less will surely slow things down.. 

to simply play games 8 gb would be enough.. 

trog


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## jboydgolfer (May 5, 2018)

The fact of the matter is ,ram prices are absurd ,and  purchasing more than 16GB of RAM out of the gate "blindly" for gaming because it is the "accepted amount" ,is just looking for something to throw money at it, which is fine, its only money. But sensibility tells us (if money matters) to buy what you KNOW you need, then if you can see your hitting 100% usage, order some more (dont worry, they'll be selling ram tomorrow too).  This practice will show ram manufacturers it's not OK to increase price/Gb by 3x.  If everybody bought only the ram they absolutely needed, consumer ram sales would drop 50%, & maybe then prices would decrease, im not sure, but this "buy more" mentality isnt working, as anyone can see.  In recent years, i too have ordered 16GB right out of the gate , but this most recent build, i decided it was enough, as i refuse to pay suckers prices.  I ordered 8Gb's, & its been plenty.  Obviously I'm not saying 8 GB is sufficient for everybody, but I am advocating that it is sufficient for many people who have twice as much or more. Making a change w/ our wallets is our best weapon. im not posting this in reply to anyone here, but instead, in reply to the absurd Ram prices, so save your angry defense replies, as im not attacking anyone's purchasing habits, & im not interested.


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

I have 4 x 8GB, 



markim55 said:


> I want to play games on my personal computer, if I want to speed up the execution of video games, do I need to add more RAM?



As @Toothless said 



Toothless said:


> 16GB and an SSD of your choice per size. Honestly a good HDD is fast enough.



If considering a HDD Western Digital Black wouldn't be a bad choice.


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## Countryside (May 5, 2018)

The thing is alot of customers come to me whit a problem that my games are slowing down i need more RAM but the thing is

that most of the time they run out of VRAM and if you run out of vram the system starts using system ram witch is many times slower and causes significant fps drops.

So with the current idiotic ram prices 8gb will suffice but then it depends if you use Mods on games and so on.

If you have a gpu with 3 or 4gb of vram and 8gb of dram and you play @1080p then your good to go keep on gaming.


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## Anarchy0110 (May 5, 2018)

You should watch out for the graphics card as well, not just system RAM.


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## Easy Rhino (May 5, 2018)

trog100 said:


> ram is funny stuff.. having more than you need wont speed up anything but having less will surely slow things down..
> 
> to simply play games 8 gb would be enough..
> 
> trog



While you are technically correct it should be noted that a well optimized OS and software will not slow down when it starts swapping. Of course, even in 2018 Windows is the worst offender for memory utilization. 8 gigs is plenty in every other operating system.


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## ASOT (May 5, 2018)

8Gb or 16Gb for more room ,but never 2x16 ))))) on gaming


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## trog100 (May 5, 2018)

Easy Rhino said:


> While you are technically correct it should be noted that a well optimized OS and software will not slow down when it starts swapping. Of course, even in 2018 Windows is the worst offender for memory utilization. 8 gigs is plenty in every other operating system.



i think you are well wrong on that statement.. when windows has to start "swapping" its reading and writing to whatever storage system a machine is using.. in a worse case scenario it would be a spinning disk.. but even in a best case scenario.. nothing will come close to the speed of ram..

trog


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## cucker tarlson (May 5, 2018)

I've seen a few of the games I play reach ~10.5GB, that's going to be a serious problem on a 8GB system. And that was just the system and the game. If you have a X79/X99/X299 system, get 4x4GB for quad channel, cpu intensive games will get a nice boost.

https://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_ram/t...bach_single_vs_dual_vs_quad_channel?page=0,22
https://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_ram/t...bach_single_vs_dual_vs_quad_channel?page=0,21
https://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_ram/t...bach_single_vs_dual_vs_quad_channel?page=0,20
https://www.purepc.pl/pamieci_ram/t...bach_single_vs_dual_vs_quad_channel?page=0,13


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## kastriot (May 5, 2018)

At the moment with win 10 and ssd as boot drive 16GB is minimum for 2-3 another years


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## coonbro (May 5, 2018)

Zyll Goliath said:


> At this point I believe that 16gb should be plenty for gaming of course its always better to have more if you like to do heavy multitasking .....If you want to speed up "execution" of video games it´s more important to have SSD and game need to be installed on it.....



ya,  I ran hwinfo64 logging for a month of all day use   and  its like never used over  3 gb.  on a 64 bit system     only time I come close to using the 16 gb is programs I can select how much of my system memory to be used   or all and swap  .  

you could run task manager and monitor the proformance tab and see how much your using on the fly  through out the days work and see  [2,78gb] is about it  peak .   not to say you could use more but only one oprogram I got could use well over 16  and its a bench test called Y-cruncher   .   
common everyday normal stuff  you'll never use it or come close to 16   .

2x 8 for 16  is fine 

https://www.quora.com/Does-a-game-really-exist-that-requires-4GB-graphic-memory

https://www.gamingscan.com/how-much-ram-for-gaming/

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

https://www.techspot.com/article/1043-8gb-vs-16gb-ram/

not to say some kinda of professional programs or benches / tests  can use all you got  or allot to it .   only you know what you run and its needs on that part .

the guy using that 10 gb above may need to look at something  like his memory is not refreshing  itself or that windows SuperFetch  is at issue  or something


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## ASOT (May 5, 2018)

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 )))


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## xkm1948 (May 5, 2018)

16GB RAM and a MX500 or WD SATA SSD would last for a long time.


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## coonbro (May 5, 2018)

xkm1948 said:


> 16GB RAM and a MX500 or WD SATA SSD would last for a long time.


I know I would be comfortable with that


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

ASOT said:


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



There was a time when 4GB was enough but i used 8GB, 8GB was enough but i used 16GB and today 16GB is more than enough but i use 32GB


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## mroofie (May 5, 2018)

Toothless said:


> 16GB and an SSD of your choice per size. *Honestly a good HDD is fast enough*.



I see somebody doesn't play indie games 



jboydgolfer said:


> if he buys the "recommended amount" by the Guild of Ram manufacturers , he likely wont have enough money to build a PC to list.
> 
> "its recommended you have $650 worth of Ram to play your $60 Game"


￼ 
Potato Pc requirements: 32GB


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

mroofie said:


> Potato Pc requirements: 32GB



Dont make me start.

According to your System Specs now i understand your post.


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## theFOoL (May 5, 2018)

As most* User's say 8GB but 16GB if you have alot of programs in background while gaming. 8GB is more than enough for Most* games


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## coonbro (May 5, 2018)

even with boo coo's of background you should not be using that much   unless it something like google chrome the well knowncan be a  resource hog  type thing 

all you got to do is watch the memory use in task manager or use hwinfo64   and lod you use everyday for a few weeks and see  . you will find 3gb  at the top most  just like the old 32bit days   nothing really changed    I only got one program I can set to use any amount of memory   that in my system   .

now unless windows is not letting the memory refresh or superfetch is borked  and can force swap or you got bad memory leaks  [which all needs to be addressed and fixed ]    16 is plenty for normal everyday users and gamers  

professional  use   is different  story depending on what you do  [editing,  photo , autocad  , ect.. ]

https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/high-memory-usage-windows-10-solved/

it does work well  but it can bugg out    for me when it bugged it was as easy as disable it  a day or 2 shut down and restart and re-enable it   then it worked well and as intended 

'' *SuperFetch* is part of *Windows*' memory manager; a less capable version, called PreFetcher, is included in *Windows* XP. *SuperFetch* tries to make sure often-accessed data can be read from the fast RAM instead of the slow hard drive..   it just can forget to refersh the banks it uses  [its a easy resolve ]   most pops up with a fresh install of the OS    onece you kick its butt on line its never a issue after / so far . 


best thing to do is get something to log your daily  memory use and see what your  max and average is and buy accordingly     you may find even 16gb is overkill for your needs  and 8 would do all you want and ever need    [I'd still go 2x8for 16 if the prices are right  to be insured your well covered if you did need it for something over the top ]


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## mroofie (May 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Dont make me start.
> 
> According to your System Specs now i understand your post.


Joke..



markim55 said:


> I want to play games on my personal computer, if I want to speed up the execution of video games, do I need to add more RAM?



12GB would be the best

8 for gaming
4 for Windows and third party apps

For "Real" results get a SSD like *Toothless* suggested. More RAM only helps with bottlenecks.

Conclusion:

12GB + low capacity (150-250GB) *high quality ssd.*


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## coonbro (May 5, 2018)

sdd don't speed up your games at all   may load faster by a slight tad that's about it  


''
*The Bottom Line*




We can definitively state that our gaming performance as shown prior on our HDDs is exactly the same under the SSDs; there is no difference in gameplay performance. All the feedback and suggestions that we should upgrade to SSDs because our HDDs were holding back gameplay performance and consistency were misplaced. We were not being held back. The actual consistency and smoothness under the SSD is the same as we experienced under our previous HDD; and that HDD was not exactly "new."



Consistency, framerate, gameplay performance, is exactly the same under our new SSDs. That said, the load times of actually getting into the games is greatly improved, and that alone helps us since we are loading in and out of games all day while testing. That's just a time saver. As stated, we are now running SSDs on our video card review systems, but as tested there are no gameplay performance differences because of it. The load time improvements though are very welcomed.

and you know my WD blacks aint much if any at times slower then my buddies ssd   at least real noticeable   that it really even matters   or a OH my gosh moment

see here again folks fall for hype and gimmicks and led lighting  ..lol....      you see some on how it can and will but how do you know they did not test the hd at stock and the ssd with a overclock to prove there points ? you don't  

kinda like the gpu reviews here how they show the aftermarket card reviewed better in the charts and use the last  models  reference  results not say the gtx 980 ti classy  and this has no 4xAA and that did ?

ya,  with that I'm sure the reviewed card would show better results  / sales hype .  .   in the end you got to take all this stuff with a grain of salt  and can help keep your money in your pocket not in there  cart . 

all you can do is go with what you think is best  for you  and your billfold


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

mroofie said:


> 12GB would be the best
> 8 for gaming and 4 for Windows and third party apps





rk3066 said:


> As most* User's say 8GB but 16GB if you have alot of programs in background while gaming. 8GB is more than enough for Most* games





rk3066 said:


> 8GB is more than enough for Most* games





coonbro said:


> you may find even 16gb is overkill for your needs and 8 would do all you want and ever need









Playing DOOM, Real temp and CPU-Z opened max memory usage was 10GB


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## Atomic77 (May 5, 2018)

My computer has 12gb ram and a 2tb hard drive. It’s 2 years old.


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## Vayra86 (May 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> View attachment 100628
> 
> Playing DOOM, Real temp and CPU-Z opened max memory usage was 10GB



Correct but that does not say a whole lot about the performance of the game or your rig with 8 GB in  the same situation 

Don't get me wrong though, 8 GB is minimum and definitely not for a long term / performance oriented rig.


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> Correct but that does not say a whole lot about the performance of the game or your rig with 8 GB in the same situation



And what would happened if i had 8GB instead 32GB, would everything works/performance smoothly?


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## mroofie (May 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> And what would happened if i had 8GB instead 32GB, would everything works/performance smoothly?


Trust me 8 is not enough, some games start stuttering due to shitty memory management or data "piling" due to long game time (Big games)


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

mroofie said:


> Trust me 8 is not enough,



I know that, but i would like to hear @Vayra86 opinion


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## newtekie1 (May 5, 2018)

I would say 8GB is the minimum to get into PC gaming, but 16GB is preferred.  There is definitely no need for more than 16GB, and won't be for a good few years to come.

But really, to pick the right amount, the rest of the specs of the computer have to be taken into consideration, specifically the graphics card.  If you are only going to be putting a GTX1050 or GTX1050Ti, or maybe even a GTX1060, in the computer, I wouldn't worry about having more than 8GB of RAM.  Because you are going to be dropping the setting of the game down to the point that the 8GB is not going to really be a noticeable limit.  But at the same time, I'm not going to be pairing 8GB with a GTX1080Ti either.

There is much more too answering the question than just a definitely amount that applies to every situation.



John Naylor said:


> And please never stick single sticks ina diual channel board thinking yu can "get a 2nd one later".... it rarely ends well.



Single channel is not as big of a hindrance as it use to be, not with RAM speeds what they currently are.  All dual-channel does in increase the memory bandwidth, and a single stick of DDR4 running at 3000MHz is providing over 90% of the bandwidth as two sticks of DDR3 running at 1600MHz.  And I know plenty of people playing games just fine on 4790K systems running DDR3-1600 in dual channel.

If I was in the situation of only getting 8GB, I would definitely just get a single stick.


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## Jetster (May 5, 2018)

If you would have posted your specs it would be helpful to see is there is anything holding you up. But the first answer is accurate. 8 min, 16 is the preferred. Any more than that at today's prices is a waste. 
SSDs help in load times


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

Jetster said:


> Any more than that at todays prices is a waste



Agree with you.

I have 32GB because when i bought it DDR4 was cheap.


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## Jetster (May 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Agree with you.
> 
> I have 32GB because when i bought it DDR4 was cheap.


Same here, I got the DDR4 3000 for $89 a set of 16


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## newtekie1 (May 5, 2018)

Jetster said:


> Same here, I got the DDR4 3000 for $89 a set of 16



Yep, I only have 32GB right now because I got the RAM stupid cheap.  If it wasn't for that, I'd have 16GB.  And honestly, 32GB is still a waste, because I don't think I've even come close to 16GB used.


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## FireFox (May 5, 2018)

Jetster said:


> DDR4 3000



Running at stock or OC'ed?


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## newtekie1 (May 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Running at stock or OC'ed?



Stock.  If you overclocked it to 3200MHz it would give the same bandwidth as DDR3-1600 in dual-channel.


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## eidairaman1 (May 5, 2018)

markim55 said:


> I want to play games on my personal computer, if I want to speed up the execution of video games, do I need to add more RAM?



It is game dependent, they have minimum specs required on each game website.

8GB is the supposed minimum.



newtekie1 said:


> Stock.  If you overclocked it to 3200MHz it would give the same bandwidth as DDR3-1600 in dual-channel.



Considering those are theoretical numbers anyway...


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## newtekie1 (May 5, 2018)

eidairaman1 said:


> Considering those are theoretical numbers anyway...



Not really, bandwidth is bandwidth.  There are going to be latency difference, but dual-channel won't affect those.  And while the CL of DDR4 is higher, the actual latency time is lower.  DDR3-1600 CL9 is the same latency time as DDR4-3200 CL18.  And yes, there is other factors involved, like memory controller performance, but all of that is outside of the fact that dual-channel only amounts to increasing bandwidth and DDR4 in single channel has similar bandwidth to DDR3 in dual.


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## Bones (May 5, 2018)

jboydgolfer said:


> The fact of the matter is ,ram prices are absurd ,and  purchasing more than 16GB of RAM out of the gate "blindly" for gaming because it is the "accepted amount" ,is just looking for something to throw money at it, which is fine, its only money. But sensibility tells us (if money matters) to buy what you KNOW you need, then if you can see your hitting 100% usage, order some more (dont worry, they'll be selling ram tomorrow too).  This practice will show ram manufacturers it's not OK to increase price/Gb by 3x.  If everybody bought only the ram they absolutely needed, consumer ram sales would drop 50%, & maybe then prices would decrease, im not sure, but this "buy more" mentality isnt working, as anyone can see.  In recent years, i too have ordered 16GB right out of the gate , but this most recent build, i decided it was enough, as i refuse to pay suckers prices.  I ordered 8Gb's, & its been plenty.  Obviously I'm not saying 8 GB is sufficient for everybody, but I am advocating that it is sufficient for many people who have twice as much or more. Making a change w/ our wallets is our best weapon. im not posting this in reply to anyone here, but instead, in reply to the absurd Ram prices, so save your angry defense replies, as im not attacking anyone's purchasing habits, & im not interested.



Been running 8GB's with this build and I've yet to have a problem.
Personally I'd like to pop in 32GB's and be done with it since I'm expecting this build to be around for sometime.

If you're setting it up for the potential long haul as I'm having to do then grabbing 32GB's_ if you can_ makes sense, today's standards won't be the norm of tomorrow and we know how quickly things advance.
If you're a user that tends to upgrade their machine every other year or even with each new arch release then it doesn't make sense, 8 or 16GB's will do and not have you wasting $$ on something you'll do away with in short order.

An SSD does make things snappy vs a traditional HDD but even with that the exact SSD vs the exact HHD makes a difference to that end. I recently swapped out an SSD for an older HDD for reliability reasons for this system and I can tell a clear difference in how fast it is to open programs and execute in general.

Since an SSD can die without any warning I decided to go with an HDD, at least these typically will give a warning sign before actually falling over and allow time to backup things you woudn't want to lose. It's true anything CAN die without warning including an HDD but from what I've seen and experienced with both the HDD's will give some kind of hint, SSD's just "Stop" and that's it - Game over.

You'll find as many have already mentioned, upgrading to a faster drive is of more benefit than just increasing the amount of RAM itself. If wanting something you'd expect to be around for some time instead of following a frequent upograde cycle, then it would make sense to get more RAM and may as well get as fast of a PC rating as possible while you're at it - Your wallet being the ultimate factor here.

That's my 2 pennies worth if it's worth anything at all.


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## Toothless (May 6, 2018)

mroofie said:


> I see somebody doesn't play indie games
> 
> 
> ￼
> Potato Pc requirements: 32GB


I play indie games and they work just fine. I use two WD Blacks as my game drives and have never had an issue.


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## Vayra86 (May 6, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> I know that, but i would like to hear @Vayra86 opinion



Well its not a given that 'everything is a stutterfest' for example. 8GB can 'get by' in most situations and more so with some careful tweaking to reduce memory usage of applications (running as lightweight as possible, ie stock Windows with as much disabled as you can). On a 16 GB rig I also see usage at or around the region of 10 GB. On my 8 GB (also Windows 10) rig before this I would see 6,9 GB in use most of the time, almost never would I have it 'capped' and there are other factors that harm performance/smoothness.

Main point being, with _a tight budget_ the first savings I would look at for a build is holding on to 8 GB and waiting with the second stick of 8GB RAM until budget allows. Its a nice thing of RAM, you can postpone half the purchase and not lose a single bit of performance on it, while a slower GPU would be noticeable all the time. 8GB is not yet in the realm of 'impossible to run well' for the majority of games.


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## FreedomEclipse (May 6, 2018)

Final Fantasy XV uses a hell of a lot of ram


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## coonbro (May 6, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> View attachment 100628
> 
> Playing DOOM, Real temp and CPU-Z opened max memory usage was 10GB




ya, I said above about memory leaks   and you show doom  and win-10 .

https://steamcommunity.com/app/379720/discussions/0/357286663676517404/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/379720/discussions/0/351660338692661445/

like the guy said here   ''this game uses almost 6GB of ram so as mentioned background apps will impact the performance of 8GB of ram quite a bit.really you need 16GB in todays gaming''

ya, these crap poorly optimized games  that released for quick sale to the needy markets   that they mite fix later  if at all and there you go ..

https://steamcommunity.com/app/379720/discussions/0/357286532028171141/



so ya, I guess if poorly optimized  software you would run in to this and need lot of memory to support there junk

or like chrome can as well

https://lifehacker.com/why-chrome-uses-so-much-freaking-ram-1702537477

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tu...e-why-chrome-is-using-a-lot-of-memory-or-cpu/

then you never know if them steam, origin , uplay clients are buffering your pre info and  data for upload ..lol...

you see here like ffxv  is not letting the memory refresh and can be forced to do so  and things get right ? poorly optimized software.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/637650/discussions/0/1692662484257445076/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/637650/discussions/0/1692662484259117154/?ctp=2

I like this statement   ''The memory use measurements yield expected results: nothing really changes, regardless of whether you have an AMD or Nvidia card installed. With nearly 7GB tied up, Square Enix's 8GB minimum specification makes sense'

I guess so  

one thing I can comment on is if using high resolution  / 4k   adds to this   but so far if you invest in a 2x8gb kit you should be covered  even with these issues  

I don't recall if windows 10 has any memory limits  on the releases  like home  pro ect....   most time windows home  will only take up to / utilize 16 gb  max  . 

you see with 10 how this is directly answered   [what ever it decides whats best for you  it seems ]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e/b1078908-1932-4c12-b5fd-bdcd58984333?auth=1

I mean in the comments you put 16 gb in and only 8 is useable ??     what the heck is using the other 8  ?   is 10 that bloated   it needs 8 gb to run 

with all this crap i got open and running  this win- 7 64 is at 2.22gb   used  of the 16 installed ?    windows 10 what a joke   I guess what you get from going from a OS to a service  . never a straight answere with any of it , so trustworthy 


all I can say is go with a 16gb kit  and be done with it


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## spectatorx (May 6, 2018)

16GB of ram is good for 99,(9)% games nowadays. Personally with next upgrade soon i will go with 32GB as i prefer to have too much ram than not enough of ram. 8GB is not sufficient for many modern games and i do not recommend this value. Go with as high frequency ram as you can, also use dual channel provides 15-40% extra fps. So concluding: 16GB in form of 2x8GB with highest clock you can get.


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## EntropyZ (May 6, 2018)

I'm running 16GB of ram, but before that I had 8GB which worked fine until I started playing some games and mods which loaded 6GB of assets, which became a bottleneck and I started having stutters, I upgraded out of necessity for future proofing and reducing Windows virtual page size, I'm staying on DDR4 compatible rigs until at least 2020-2022, when there is a significant upgrade from my current CPU, maybe then games will require even more high-speed DRAM.

I mean 12GB world be perfect, but in our world almost nobody sells 12GB kits, so might as well get the 16GB kit whenever you can.


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## Vayra86 (May 6, 2018)

coonbro said:


> ya, I said above about memory leaks   and you show doom  and win-10 .
> 
> https://steamcommunity.com/app/379720/discussions/0/357286663676517404/
> 
> ...



The issues in DOOM stem from people who manually set their page file size or limited it entirely. Read up  Its a real trend with all these people who think they are smarter than Microsoft with this OS. Somehow people think disabling page file improves performance... completely moronic

Also Windows 10 has no influence on this really and no its not a reason to stay on 7. Stop spreading FUD


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## coonbro (May 6, 2018)

Also Windows 10 has no influence on this really and no its not a reason to stay on 7. maybe maybe not   I'm not trusting it  how can you ?

that's a matter of opinion  on if you want a OS or a malware service pretending its a OS ? ..lol...    like I say I'd have to hate your guts to recommend you use 10  .   with 10 your at microsoftsd mercy more then ever before   internet connection required  ..lol...

first clue was how they tried to force , strong arm and trick folks in to using it and offered it for free ??  Microsoft and free in the same line  told me ''STAY AWAY ''  somethings up with that right off the bat . so far I seem to been right  from all you see and read about 10  .   ya, good luck with it   . if it was not for PC gaming  you would never need Microsoft anyway that there only hold on folks . 

out side gaming what cant Linux do for free and your not forced in to anything  as with 10 you are ?

to each his own on that  , its not my personal info ior data running on it . or forced updating  or  ect......   it will never be used here . heck I don't even trust then with 7 anymore  starting with that 10 strong arming and trickery  , and rollover updating they applied to that now .  [ you roll over and butt raised ]    your personal computer is now there public computer  with 10  [all a opinion , we all have one so don't hate ]


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## FireFox (May 6, 2018)

coonbro said:


> out side gaming what cant Linux do for free and your not forced in to anything as with 10 you are ?



I couldn't agree more with you, Gaming is the only reason i use W10, on my second Machine i am running Ubuntu.


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## coonbro (May 6, 2018)

ya another point is notice how all this new hardware is  just about win -10 only ??   ya,  you could use 7 or 8  on your rig  but then it may not fully work if at all doing so  .

sad thing is   all that DX 12  hyped up over 10 as a lure  to trick you in to it  ?   with out me useuing 10 I cant get out my front door with al the dx 12 stuff piled up  ... lol,,,,  ya, you got / or getting  scammed   and played ..   computer building is pretty much a dead deal here anymore  .  and no such thing a s you own personal computer .  now its do it there way or no way [and thanks for all your data ]  then add there  clients thats all ways required + that mandatory  internet connection that you got to download there content first off the bat  that all ways seeming needed ??? hmmmmm......   think hard on what your doing to your self  with this stuff today  .    I can find thing outside of this to take up my time  and neo need to stoop to it  .. 

anyway I hope the OP makes a right choice on the memory  and buy the "KIT''  you need and never mix  or just add to down the road  . even the same brand part numbers and all match they may not have the same IC's used and may cause instability  / don't play together well ..   memory kits are factory matched and paired  for that batch production run only  and can change with out notice


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## Vayra86 (May 6, 2018)

coonbro said:


> Also Windows 10 has no influence on this really and no its not a reason to stay on 7. maybe maybe not   I'm not trusting it  how can you ?
> 
> that's a matter of opinion  on if you want a OS or a malware service pretending its a OS ? ..lol...    like I say I'd have to hate your guts to recommend you use 10  .   with 10 your at microsoftsd mercy more then ever before   internet connection required  ..lol...
> 
> ...



Its fine if you want to stay on 7, by all means. Just make sure its for the right reasons, that is all. You saw my RAM usage on a Windows 10 rig with Chrome open - which is the topic of this thread...necessity of RAM size, not some personal crusade supported by false arguments.


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## coonbro (May 6, 2018)

''supported by false arguments'' ???? .  its all over the net in articles form most all pc sites  ..   seems all you look at is the hype sheets and none of the facts  . then you got its eula you agreed to did you even read in to it  first ?

you got off on that and like chrome is a known resource  hog    as with the rest   as in poorly optimized software   .   like I say for me I don't use 10 and I'm not seeing it .    I'm running them final fantasy  benches  and so far after 3 loops of each  I yet to see over 3.25 gb used   not 10 gb as said above   ?  like 10 I know better then to use chrome as well . see you do it to your selves  . or your memory management in your  ''service'' is borked .   when the truth hurts hate and attacks follow , right ?   I just call it like it is

well, well FFXV  with 7  used up to 6.66 gb  [the devil's number ]  with 3 loops worth   now why and what for seeing it don't look anymore demanding then the FFXIV 's   really not as spectacular with the  big fancy fight scenes   .

I'd say maybe poor optimization  .   . any way I see it here  but can tell it don't seem as fluid  as the older FF benches ran     just glad it a free bench not something I paid for 

good luck and enjoy


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## Vayra86 (May 7, 2018)

FFXV is also fine with 8 GB - fun fact, on Windows 10 it seems I can get away with 6.3 GB instead of 6.66 on 7? Gosh... Again, not sure what you're on about, of course you will find individuals on the internet that show you something else, I've already shown you how in DOOM most of the supposed 'memory leaks' are in fact people who manually disable page file and how people who do use it and/or have 16 GB have no problems whatsoever.

So, I'm just going to repeat myself since it seems the plank is thick with you.

*Do whatever you like, just do it for the right reasons*. Not some fantasy argument that many people are creating for themselves with their special 'OS tweaks'. You can whine about the state of applications all day but the bottom line doesn't change for a user that DOES use them, does it? We're not in this topic to spout our personal feelings about all those apps...


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## Jetster (May 7, 2018)

Also you do realize when you have more ram, the system will allocate/save more information too it.


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## coonbro (May 7, 2018)

ya, I ran it some more and it was  as low as 2,50  up to 6.75gb   running the same ffxv bench at the same settings    so why one run so low and as should be normal [opinion]  the next 6 gb ?  and ffxv looked suckie  and  not as fluid as the 2 ffxiv 's    they ran and looked far better  .   that ffxv just came off poor looking / running  overall to me  [opinion]   poorly optimized / bad code use  from over the last one ?

I feel the OP just grab a solid 16 gb kit and be happy .


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## ASOT (May 7, 2018)

Hope we could help him out,in the end


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## Vya Domus (May 7, 2018)

I definitely noticed a reduction in stutter in a few games when I upgraded to 16 GB. So in a nutshell : 16 GB , not a critical upgrade but not undesirable either.


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## Brokenarrow (May 7, 2018)

I game a lot my Mac has 16 gb and 1 tb ssd


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## Prince Valiant (May 7, 2018)

I agree with the others saying 16GB, if your budget allows, being a good spot for games. If you're on a tight budget 8GB will be livable.


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## Komshija (May 8, 2018)

Generally 8 GB will be enough for gaming, while 16 GB is much more future proof. When I played Far Cry 4, Far Cry Primal, Battlefield 1 (1920x1080, highest possible settings) with HW info and web pages opened in the background, the memory utilization wasn't even near 8 GB. Some games with certain mods and several programs running in the background will require more than 8 GB of RAM, but realistically current games by itself without unnecessary apps/programs running in the background will not need more than that.
Anything more than 16 GB purely for gaming is utter nonsense.


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## markim55 (May 11, 2018)

The following article says that more RAM does not necessarily mean higher performance, is it just real? This conflicts with my ideas and I feel very confused. 
https://www.pcsuggest.com/how-much-ram-pc-need-for-games/


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## Jetster (May 11, 2018)

markim55 said:


> The following article says that more RAM does not necessarily mean higher performance, is it just real? This conflicts with my ideas and I feel very confused.
> https://www.pcsuggest.com/how-much-ram-pc-need-for-games/



WHy would you think more ram then what the game required would speed up performance?


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## Vayra86 (May 11, 2018)

markim55 said:


> The following article says that more RAM does not necessarily mean higher performance, is it just real? This conflicts with my ideas and I feel very confused.
> https://www.pcsuggest.com/how-much-ram-pc-need-for-games/



Its very real. RAM is something you need enough of, and beyond 'enough' there is only 'too much'


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## Bones (May 11, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> Its very real. RAM is something you need enough of, and beyond 'enough' there is only 'too much'



I guess that depends on the user, situation and the ultimate factor.... Their wallet. 

As said earlier I'm having to look at getting 32GB's for mine because I'm expecting to run this setup for soemtime to come and things will only demand more of everything in the future. Speed, cores, HDD space, memory.... At least I'll have enough of that once done this build should carry me for the next 5 years at least.


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## Hotobu (May 16, 2018)

The op says he's gaming. I see people saying 16GB us good for "most" games, and some are recommending 32 GB... can anyone provide an example of a game that takes >16 GB? Hell, how many examples can you give that take over 8?


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## Toothless (May 16, 2018)

Hotobu said:


> The op says he's gaming. I see people saying 16GB us good for "most" games, and some are recommending 32 GB... can anyone provide an example of a game that takes >16 GB? Hell, how many examples can you give that take over 8?


Only ONE person said 32GB is needed and we saw how fast that got downvoted, and then there are people who got 32GB for a good deal are just pointing out their good deal. I have my 32GB for other reasons than gaming and pretty sure that's related to why other people got 32GB.


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## Flyordie (May 16, 2018)

My next upgrade will follow the base principle...  GPU VRAM+OS at Idle system RAM usage.  For most that puts it at 10-11GB for most games.  So the logical choice is 16GB.  My system uses 2.1GB at the desktop on a fresh start.


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## jboydgolfer (May 16, 2018)

ASOT said:


> 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.


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## ASOT (May 16, 2018)

+


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## Athlonite (May 16, 2018)

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


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## Tonim89 (May 16, 2018)

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.


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## Vya Domus (May 16, 2018)

Tonim89 said:


> 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.


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## Tonim89 (May 16, 2018)

Vya Domus said:


> 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.


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## Vayra86 (May 16, 2018)

Tonim89 said:


> 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


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## phanbuey (May 16, 2018)

Tonim89 said:


> 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.


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## Filip Georgievski (May 16, 2018)

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


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## monim1 (Sep 2, 2018)

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/


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## FireFox (Sep 2, 2018)

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


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## delshay (Sep 2, 2018)

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.


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## FireFox (Sep 2, 2018)

delshay said:


> 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.


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## delshay (Sep 2, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> 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.


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## 27MaD (Sep 2, 2018)

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


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## coonbro (Sep 2, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> 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 .


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## cucker tarlson (Sep 2, 2018)

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.


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## coonbro (Sep 2, 2018)

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


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## AlwaysHope (Sep 3, 2018)

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!!


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 3, 2018)

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


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## Flyordie (Sep 3, 2018)

16GB or 32GB. 

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


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## AlwaysHope (Sep 3, 2018)

eidairaman1 said:


> 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.


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## coonbro (Sep 3, 2018)

Flyordie said:


> 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


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## qubit (Sep 3, 2018)

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


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## FireFox (Sep 3, 2018)

qubit said:


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



32GB even better


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## kastriot (Sep 3, 2018)

Lol this thread is still going?


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## spectatorx (Sep 3, 2018)

coonbro said:


> 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 ]
> 
> .....




Athlon II/Phenom II were phenomenal cpus, i and my friends owned in total few of them. 6 core Thuban cpus (6 core by default or by unlocking) in some use-cases were better than most FX-series cpus, they aged not because of lack of performance but because of lack of newer instructions sets. I bet these cpus would be able to compete with low-end latest cpus. If anyone owns thuban cpu and latest i3 or ryzen 3/ryzen apu i would love to see such comparison, could be interesting. Also in favor of latest cpus would be much higher ram frequencies as thuban supported only ddr2 and, i'm not sure about this, maybe ddr3, would need to check this one.


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## coonbro (Sep 3, 2018)

I dot recall   look at the first black socket  boards that made that cross over back when 
https://www.techpowerup.com/143395/gigabyte-first-to-market-with-am3-black-socket-motherboards

I thought only intel mad a combo platform that could use ddr2 with supporting cpu's and  ddr3 with that supporting cpu's   in the same board socket [just not at the same time]

I don't think this ever came to life or market

AM3 board 790GX-8D
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/MSi-Eight-Memory-Slots,7214.html

but I think off the cuff those old amd cpu's did have ddr2 and ddr3 memory controllers  ''  AM3 processors, which support both DDR2 & DDR3 memory''

a combo board with one of the cpu's would easy do the comparison test


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## Flyordie (Sep 3, 2018)

coonbro said:


> 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
> 
> ...



I meant that as more of a Threadripper vs Ryzen 7 platform. lol.  Samsung B-Die to maintain all memory channels needs at least 32GB on TR4 or 16GB on AM4.


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## AlwaysHope (Sep 4, 2018)

kastriot said:


> Lol this thread is still going?



Lol... it's a never ending question cause' game system requirements keep changing every new release.


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## StrayKAT (Sep 4, 2018)

I would recommend 16gb, but it's really more than enough for a gamer. I haven't needed more in a long time. It's sort of strange. RAM used to always be the thing you'd never want "enough" of back in the day.

The only reason I want more now is stupid: To fill out all of my mobo's slots.


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## GoldenX (Sep 4, 2018)

I think the sweet spot is near 12gb, too bad dual channel can't work with asymmetric RAM now day. My Phenom II could use a 4gb and a 2gb module and still have dual channel.


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## spectatorx (Sep 4, 2018)

GoldenX said:


> I think the sweet spot is near 12gb, too bad dual channel can't work with asymmetric RAM now day. My Phenom II could use a 4gb and a 2gb module and still have dual channel.


One of games which i know to be able to utilize more than 12GB of ram is rise of the tomb raider, with shadow of tomb raider this number may be higher. For a gamer i do not recommend less than 16GB unless said gamer has limited budget and needs to do some cuts then i would go with 8GB which in many cases is insufficient and will require to lower settings in order to avoid hitching caused by overfilled ram.


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## coonbro (Sep 4, 2018)

StrayKAT said:


> I would recommend 16gb, but it's really more than enough for a gamer. I haven't needed more in a long time. It's sort of strange. RAM used to always be the thing you'd never want "enough" of back in the day.
> 
> The only reason I want more now is stupid: To fill out all of my mobo's slots.




lol...  with todays LED light craze   maybe come out with dumb memory sticks that just give off the led lighting affects  ?   you filled the slots and you got high performance led lighting ..lol,,, [that's 20 way user programmable ]


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## jboydgolfer (Sep 4, 2018)

still running my 8Gb's from the start of this new PC, and have not had ANY issue regarding RAM quantity. i play some games, like....

GTAV
DarkSouls3
sim3/4
minecrap
& whatever else i cant recall. no prob.


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## Laurijan (Sep 4, 2018)

For a budged gamer buy 2x8gb when it is on sale for like 200$ max and later when you have money to spare buy 2x4gb ram ontop. I did it the other way first 2x4gb to get the system running and later when i had the money the 2x8gb ontop.


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## coonbro (Sep 4, 2018)

Laurijan said:


> For a budged gamer buy 2x8gb when it is on sale for like 200$ max and later when you have money to spare buy 2x4gb ram ontop. I did it the other way first 2x4gb to get the system running and later when i had the money the 2x8gb ontop.



rule of thumb is never mix memory   all ways buy a factory tested and matched kit    

even the same brand part numbers and all may of had a ic change  [that's always subject to change with out notice  ]   and just may be with in spec for and given run of the batch   / better safe then sorry when you fight stability


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## CrAsHnBuRnXp (Sep 4, 2018)

John Naylor said:


> In 2010, the recommended minimum was 2 x 4GB if you wanted to be able to lay AAA games ... since 2016, it's been 2 x 16GB.  Can get away witjh yes, of course, but expect the bigger and better games to be negatively impacted.  And please never stick single sticks ina   diual channel board thinking yu can "get a 2nd one later".... it rarely ends well.


Do you mean 2x8gb?


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## coonbro (Sep 4, 2018)

nothing wrong wit 2x16 as long as your cpu's memory controller is rock solid to handle the high density modules  and run it stable at speed   in turn it is easyer  on it over 4  8gb sticks  due to voltages use   2 sticks are 2 sticks worth  .

its a fine line to what works great and just works out  or not so well

look up your boards support of that and forums of your board on any memory issues to see if something common in line of what you want to do


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## RealNeil (Sep 4, 2018)

RAM prices are outrageous these days. But they're slowly getting better as time goes by.

I have to have at least two 8GB sticks, (16GB) in my systems. (making sure that they're properly installed to utilize dual channel capabilities)
Over time, I usually add two more 8GB sticks (32GB) because I can.

Both of my i7-8700K boxes have four 8GB sticks (32GB) in them. (one has 3200MHz. and the other has 3466MHz.)

My 10 core i9-7900X box has 64GB of GSKill DDR4-3200MHz. RAM in it. (eight 8GB sticks)
My 8-core Ryzen 1700X has 64GB of HyperX DDR4-2400MHz. RAM in it. (four 16GB sticks)


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## coonbro (Sep 4, 2018)

kastriot said:


> Lol this thread is still going?




thanks lol.. did not see it was  may 5th   .lol..   but still good for a slow rain day to post .   all opinions are still good opinions  on a subject


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## er557 (Sep 4, 2018)

The more ram you have, the better the games load times will be, as it is already in memory and not having to read from disc every reload. So even what seems excessive will still be of benefit, not to mention when multi-tasking. As to the game performance itself, an 8gb video card may still need to offload frame buffer and use shared system memory, so the more of that available and the faster it's performance, preferably quad channel, the more smooth the experience will be and with less stuttering. One should also look out for other system bottlenecks, aside from ram alone.


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## coonbro (Sep 4, 2018)

so far monitoring memory use I used  from 7 am today  2.6gb of my 16gb  is all   . maybe I need 16 more ?


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 5, 2018)

er557 said:


> The more ram you have, the better the games load times will be, as it is already in memory and not having to read from disc every reload.


You're talking about Windows SuperFetch and...well...a picture is worth a thousand words:






It's using over 1/4 of my memory to cache a file for a game that hasn't been played in five months.

You can check yourself using RamMap.

Installing more memory to keep more data cached, therefore, is nonsensical.




coonbro said:


> so far monitoring memory use I used  from 7 am today  2.6gb of my 16gb  is all   . maybe I need 16 more ?


Nay, sir!  You should never settle for less than 1 TiB of RAM, sir![/sarcasm]


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## Caring1 (Sep 5, 2018)

I love open ended, vague questions such as the title, it leaves so much room for various answers and no one is wrong.


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## StrayKAT (Sep 5, 2018)

coonbro said:


> lol...  with todays LED light craze   maybe come out with dumb memory sticks that just give off the led lighting affects  ?   you filled the slots and you got high performance led lighting ..lol,,, [that's 20 way user programmable ]



This was funny at first, but I honestly would do that if I could. lol

My board holds 128GB.. it'd cost at least $1500-1600 to fill these slots out.


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## er557 (Sep 5, 2018)

@FordGT90Concept :
No, I was not talking about pre-fetching, I was talking about in-game RE-loading, and when you launch the game again in the near future. i.e. when you load a new level, or re-start a saved game, I specifically saw vast improvements in consecutive load times and after launching the game again, because the data never leaves the ram after it was loaded, due to plenty ram available.


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## robot zombie (Sep 5, 2018)

coonbro said:


> lol...  with todays LED light craze   maybe come out with dumb memory sticks that just give off the led lighting affects  ?   you filled the slots and you got high performance led lighting ..lol,,, [that's 20 way user programmable ]





StrayKAT said:


> This was funny at first, but I honestly would do that if I could. lol
> 
> My board holds 128GB.. it'd cost at least $1500-1600 to fill these slots out.


Pretty sure Gigabyte makes 2x8 kits that include two dummy sticks. All RGB.

https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GP-AR32C16S8K2SU416R-AORUS-Memory-3200MHz/dp/B07FFBWPWT


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## StrayKAT (Sep 5, 2018)

robot zombie said:


> Pretty sure Gigabyte makes 2x8 kits that include two dummy sticks. All RGB.
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GP-AR32C16S8K2SU416R-AORUS-Memory-3200MHz/dp/B07FFBWPWT



How funny.. 

Too bad I don't have a Gigabyte. I'd probably use it. lol


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## bonehead123 (Sep 5, 2018)

ram, bam, thank ya ma'am.....

feed da pig and keep it full...

buy as much as YOU think you need/afford, plus a bit more, and be happy 

at least until the next upgrade cycle rolls around....


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

StrayKAT said:


> How funny..
> 
> Too bad I don't have a Gigabyte. I'd probably use it. lol




dang I should of got that patent pending   on that  soon as I said it giga has it . dang


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## FordGT90Concept (Sep 5, 2018)

er557 said:


> @FordGT90Concept :
> No, I was not talking about pre-fetching, I was talking about in-game RE-loading, and when you launch the game again in the near future. i.e. when you load a new level, or re-start a saved game, I specifically saw vast improvements in consecutive load times and after launching the game again, because the data never leaves the ram after it was loaded, due to plenty ram available.


I have not.  That's something the game itself needs to deal with.  Some games reload everything (slow), some only reload dynamic objects (much faster).  The amount of memory installed will not change this behavior because it's pre-programmed into the game.


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

some sorry programs could just not release / refresh the memory it uses and that builds up till your out and  crash it / memory leak  

and today there's a lot of poorly optimized games  that are and I feel is why they system require them high memory specs    so you foot the bill for there poor programing  
you take that gay cheesey  finial fantasy bench mark   you can get here and it will eat up to 6gb on mine  then maybe 3  then maybe 8   then 5  ???   hate to think what you get under the full game running , 10+ ?? i'll pass and not just over that  [gay]


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## RealNeil (Sep 5, 2018)

I just ran that FFXV Bench on my 10 core 7900X box with 64GB of RAM in it.
The most RAM usage it got to was 10GB and hovered around 9.6GB for most of the run.

Running it again at higher resolution used 2-tenths of a Gigabyte more RAM during the run.


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

win-7 -z87 - 4670[nonk] - 16gb 1600 -  gtx 980ti   - 55'' 4k 

2 quick runs to compare to your post  today
at 1080 --- 6.1gb  

4k --7.1gb

one thing I just noticed  was like under the 1080p run when the guy at the dock and catches the fish and holds it up  the camera view was on his right side 

in the 4k run the camera view was on his left side  ???  so its not running the same  bench per settings     also I thought where there doing the fight  part the guy turns cold and the girl frost thing  was not the same like different views of that  ...  sure was not the same runs of the bench   and maybe why the memory use changes  up high for one run then lower on the next  / all over the place ? if so then each bench run is never the same and not good for solid comparison or scoring results=  just good enough to let you know  ''ya , your rig can run it ''

I guess I did not notice all that before cause I start the runs and go do something else till its done ??


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## RealNeil (Sep 5, 2018)

There are different scenarios when they 'rent' the birds that they ride too.


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

hmmmmm........    lol them guys over in the score brag threads   aint even getting the same runs  to do any kind of true comparisons  ..lol..   

also maybe now why I get low memory use this time and high the next  all I now can say on that deal.  I checked this before a few months back and recalled  one run only used like 3.5 then each run was up and down in memory use  that  7 gb so far been the most  I've gotten   1080 or at 4k


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## FireFox (Sep 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Playing DOOM, Real temp and CPU-Z opened max memory usage was 10GB



Quoting my own post

Post #33

Having more Ram than what you need does not hurt and it is not like your PC will tell you please dont add MORE RAM because i don't need it.


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> Quoting my own post
> 
> Post #33
> 
> Having more Ram than what you need does not hurt and it is not like your PC will tell you please dont add MORE RAM because i don't need it.




I guess that's like why spend 400$ on 32 when  150$ for 2x8  [16]?

see thing is I know what I need for what I do   16 is plenty  now you may run stuff that needs 18, 26 ,32 gb   and that's what you get  

this is the only program that I can use as much as I got  or any amount installed to keep out of swap  

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

you set that in each run   if I set a run foir over my amount then the bench runs in swap off the hard drive  [painful slow ]

now if something more pops up and I need more i'll go buy a new kit of a greater amount like 4x8 [32] or something  not just add to the one I got


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## FireFox (Sep 5, 2018)

coonbro said:


> I guess that's like why spend 400$ on 32 when 150$ for 2x8 [16]?



Sorry but i like big numbers



coonbro said:


> now if something more pops up and I need more i'll go buy a new kit of a greater amount like 4x8 [32] or something not just add to the one I got



That is correct.

I always buy 32GB Ram kits because as you i dont like to add Ram later.


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

its your money to do as you feel  best for YOU and your needs    I don't need it in any way today so I'm not paying for something i'll not use . i'll go buy beer and ribs with the saved money   and never see over 16 gb  used

enjoy


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## RealNeil (Sep 5, 2018)

Knoxx29 said:


> I always buy 32GB Ram kits because as you i dont like to add Ram later.



Me neither. I buy at least 32GB kits now. (but I buy them used from some of my wealthy friends for steep discounts)


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

RealNeil said:


> Me neither. I buy at least 32GB kits now. (but I buy them used from some of my wealthy friends for steep discounts)



lol... I got one of them as well    and even better I get new unused stuff off him  deep discount cause he just decided he did not want to use it and bought more new stuff   [ must be nice ]

its rained here everyday but 5 days since may  - its become a wet joke around here . I'm so sick of it

this memory was a 4x8  I used in a 990fx and that cpu could not handle it all  , this intel can but I just put 8 in it and 8 in this  , but still yet to see that 32 use need between the 2   16 been covering it all well
 matter of fact that 990fx  spit and sputtered on 1 8gb stick    that 990fx was the worse platform I ever dealt with


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## FireFox (Sep 5, 2018)

If it is for my Main Rig i couldn't buy a hardware that has been used.


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

I can trust from that friend  we built for ever and  if it was bad  between us we just make it right   so if a part don't work out heres your money back  but try this out kinda thing. then if its still not good then its back to newegg..


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## RealNeil (Sep 5, 2018)

coonbro said:


> I can trust from that friend  we built for ever and  if it was bad  between us we just make it right   so if a part don't work out heres your money back  but try this out kinda thing. then if its still not good then its back to newegg..



Same with myself and my friends. We trust one another and make it right every time. I get fantastic deals most of the time. 
I'm on a retirement income and don't have a lot to spend.


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## er557 (Sep 5, 2018)

Started out with 4gb x 4 ddr4 in the 5820x system, bought pretty much same family of Gskill of 4x 8gb, same speeds, slightly different timings, the x99 system would not handle 8 dims properly so I was left with 44gb. Than on the dual socket board all the dims were accepted and distributed evenly across the sockets, so I didn't have to splurge for more ram at least. Mixing the two kits works fine as the speed is less than the rated 2400mhz. Now humming along @48gb ddr4 @2133mhz


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## RealNeil (Sep 5, 2018)

er557 said:


> Now humming along @48gb ddr4 @2133mhz



Good for you. If it works, don't fix it, yeah?


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## coonbro (Sep 5, 2018)

ya, a mixed kits or singles  can work great or may need to toy in the bios  to get it to like I guess you had to or may not at all  ..   shrug shoulders and move on

I do it with hand me down builds , but new builds I just figure what amount I want to use / need and just buy a new factory tested and matched kit  [ that's all like say g skill will guarantee to work  ]   that's just a rule of thumb I follow  .


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## StrayKAT (Sep 6, 2018)

I was actually looking over RAM deals lately myself..

But here's something I'm tired of hearing:

"You have to buy exactly the RAM you want all in one kit".

Else you're doomed or something. This sounds like a scam to me.. but why computer nerds propagate it (who aren't selling you the RAM) is beyond me.

I can understand not populating the slots with different speeds (but even that works).. but the idea that you can't even use RAM of the same type, brand, and speed if it was not all purchased at once.. is ridiculous. As if being manufactured on different days makes a difference.

edit: Ahem.. that said, I wonder if I should wait and save for a larger kit.


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## Devil1950 (Sep 6, 2018)

Bare minimum, without background software 8gb's. With opened tabs, discord (note:diss can eat up half gig), steam etc. 16GB recommended.



StrayKAT said:


> I was actually looking over RAM deals lately myself..
> 
> But here's something I'm tired of hearing:
> 
> ...



I never had issues mixing different ram kits, same timings, and same size, and I would also look for chip brand (hynix, samsung), and as a wonder my 2x2 1333 and 1600 worked well over the span of 6-7 years.


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## Vayra86 (Sep 6, 2018)

StrayKAT said:


> I was actually looking over RAM deals lately myself..
> 
> But here's something I'm tired of hearing:
> 
> ...



The thing is, if you know enough to know that you can use different RAM kits and tweak them to match, you won't fall for that statement anyway.

So its a very good statement to make towards anyone else. It probably saves us a few dozen topics over here about incompatible sticks.

As for the 'consumers' here recommending 32 GB, get yourself checked out fast. Don't mix your OCD with sensible purchases mkay


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## FireFox (Sep 6, 2018)

Vayra86 said:


> The thing is, if you know enough to know that you can use different RAM kits and tweak them to match, you won't fall for that statement anyway.
> 
> So its a very good statement to make towards anyone else. It probably saves us a few dozen topics over here about incompatible sticks.



In every past Threads and future ones correlated to RAM topic the users will most of the time mention the incompatible sticks theme, you can't avoid that.


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

its just better to have guaranteed to work at there full advertised rated and speced speeds , don't you think?   in my new build I like that feature .

mixing you just hoping and winging it for the best  when alls said and done   and guaranteed nothing but it may work out

don't get me wrong I do it  [hand me down,  game server , backup builds ]


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

I use matched sets of RAM when I can. If I add more RAM to a system, I go for the same model, brand, speeds, and latencies. 
I could care less about colors or lights.
These two 32GB kits were bought a few months apart.


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## er557 (Sep 6, 2018)

Is that the two 1070 ti's? you'ld be better off with the proper sli HB bridge, it's not expensive and does increase performance, specifically so in graphic intensive scenarios


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

er557 said:


> you'ld be better off with the proper sli HB bridge



You noticed!
I just bought the board (ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme) second hand. He didn't include the HB Bridge in the box, but he's sending it to me tomorrow.
This board has one inch wider X16 PCI-E card spacing than all of my other Mainboards do, so I couldn't use one of the bridges I already have.

These two SLI fingers are just temporary.


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## er557 (Sep 6, 2018)

Ah ok, so they run @16  16, which is good by itself


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

my understanding is like he used 2  standard sli bridges  so its the same as one hb bridge anyway  . so why buy just unless you got money to burn  on nothing else in life .  you gain nothing but looks  funky led lighting maybe not any better off [opinion]

sli = S-udden L-oss of  I- ncome


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

Yes, 16X16 and it's pretty good so far.
If I can find another 1080Ti like the one that I have already, I can put them on this board without worrying about the distance between them. (triple-slot cards)



coonbro said:


> my understanding is like he used 2 standard sli bridges so its the same as one hb bridge anyway



Not so. The HB bridge has higher throughput.


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

hb being solid   and cost makes it to it may fit this board but not that board  as well  and your back buying  another   to me I'd just use the 2 ribbon bridges   one size can fit all  if there the longer of the bunch 

by the way nice looking rig


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

The HB bridge is usually supplied by the Mainboard manufacturer with a new board. 
Of course, you can buy fancy LED ones for beaucoup money



coonbro said:


> by the way nice looking rig


 Thank You


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

RealNeil said:


> Yes, 16X16 and it's pretty good so far.
> If I can find another 1080Ti like the one that I have already, I can put them on this board without worrying about the distance between them. (triple-slot cards)
> 
> 
> ...





RealNeil said:


> Yes, 16X16 and it's pretty good so far.
> If I can find another 1080Ti like the one that I have already, I can put them on this board without worrying about the distance between them. (triple-slot cards)
> 
> 
> ...



was tested and reviewed  unless something has changed since ?     then I did SLI ''once''  but not twice

all a guy can do is what he feels is best   in the end  .  I wonder if its just a logo led thing when alls said and done and its not like I said one bridge fits all   so if you change boards with a slot space narrow or wider  you buying again


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

*From PC World:*
"The HB Bridge is required, Nvidia claims, because the GeForce GTX 1080 cards pass so much data under heavy loads that older bridges just can’t keep up (the HB stands for “high bandwidth,” mind you). The company says the HB Bridge will transfer data at 650MHz on GeForce GTX 1080 cards compared to the 400MHz that older GeForce cards achieve with soft bridges, such as those that come bundled with a motherboard or GPU.

The older soft bridges will still work, but only up to a point. You can also use the aftermarket fancy SLI bridges that sold with the last gen of cards, but even those won’t achieve maximum potential, according to Nvidia."

*From NVIDIA:*
The GeForce GTX SLI HB bridge doubles the available transfer bandwidth of the last-generation NVIDIA Maxwell architecture. Count on silky-smooth gameplay for the best surround gaming—only with NVIDIA TITAN Xp and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, 1080, and 1070 graphics cards.

I haven't tested throughput (and don't really know how to measure such) But since _HB bridges come for free_ with motherboards these days, I can't see ~not~ using them. 
I have four systems and three are running (one, soon to be) SLI with HB bridges.


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## er557 (Sep 6, 2018)

free? well isn't that nice, I bought two of them for about 60 bucks each, every time I changed mobos, and they were not included. I reckon if you splurge for SLI already, it will be foolish not to have all the available bandwidth, which I need as I play strictly vsynced at ultra resolutions and settings.


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

thing is theres as much saying not really   if any gain it was slight   and then that could be due to anything in the margin of error 

I guess it another how you want to separate fact from fiction  or hype from gimmick  or you get all the bridges and test them all ouy  for a good months worth looping ...lol...

like I say its your rig to do as you like   and you buy, try and hope it don't make you cry  , but one thing for sure you will know better next time  good or bad
@er557
all sli capable motherboards come with a bridge  in its box


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

coonbro said:


> all sli capable motherboards come with a bridge in its box


And the new ones all have an HB bridge in them. 
My last seven motherboard purchases had them in the box. Z170, Z270, Z370, both ASUS Crosshair VI Hero, MSI X299Gaming M7 ACK, and the ASUS Rampage VI Extreme has one too. (being shipped tomorrow)


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

RealNeil said:


> And the new ones all have an HB bridge in them.
> My last seven motherboard purchases had them in the box. Z170, Z270, Z370, both ASUS Crosshair VI Hero, MSI X299Gaming M7 ACK, and the ASUS Rampage VI Extreme has one too. (being shipped tomorrow)


 

I hate to think there being cheap-o and just still send out a old std. sli bridge on a today modern motherboard ..lol  then nothing would surprise me with that as well


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

coonbro said:


> I hate to think there being cheap-o and just still send out a old std. sli bridge on a today modern motherboard ..lol  then nothing would surprise me with that as well


They're clearly marked as HB.


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## coonbro (Sep 6, 2018)

I know if I order a newer release board and it did not I'd be pissed    .  that now should be standard issue / default part

seems asus don't want to brag about it   nothing I seen covering them hb bridges  ?

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-RAMPAGE-VI-EXTREME/overview/

or What's in the Box


1 x Fan Extension card screw pack
1 x Fan Extension card cable
1 x 3-Way SLI bridge(s)
1 x 4-Way SLI bridge(s)
1 x SLI HB BRIDGE(2-WAY-L)
1 x ROG big sticker
so just one of the bunch only is a hb ? oh man ''big sticker'' that makes up for it all

looking at msi and like asrocks  seems just the one 2 way bridge is hb  as well ???  I guess something is better then nothing   could be easy as 0


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## RealNeil (Sep 6, 2018)

coonbro said:


> oh man ''big sticker'' that makes up for it all


Ha-Ha! You're having fun here!

LOL!


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## coonbro (Sep 7, 2018)

RealNeil said:


> Ha-Ha! You're having fun here!
> 
> LOL!




that almost in its self made me want to add to cart ..lol....


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## Caring1 (Sep 8, 2018)

coonbro said:


> my understanding is like he used 2  standard sli bridges  so its the same as one hb bridge anyway  . so why buy just unless you got money to burn  on nothing else in life .  you gain nothing but looks  funky led lighting maybe not any better off [opinion]


I'm pretty sure that I have read that in reviews.
Using two standard SLI bridges is the same as using one HB bridge, but I could be wrong, now I'll have to investigate.
edit: Wiki confirms our thoughts that 2 Legacy SLI bridges is basically the equivalent of one HB bridge.


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## er557 (Sep 8, 2018)

Hardly so, I'm afraid. simply try to launch gpu-z and it will detect HB bridge, not so when using two legacy ribbons. their design and stability is not up to par with the required bandwidth which has doubled. The HB bridge has better connectivity, and internal design, pretty sure I have read that somewhere in a review.


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## Readlight (Sep 8, 2018)

4 GB these games who require expensive 8, 16 is just not programmed well.


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## rtwjunkie (Sep 8, 2018)

Readlight said:


> 4 GB these games who require expensive 8, 16 is just not programmed well.


 Someone remembered the thread topic!!!


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## er557 (Sep 8, 2018)

No, he simply hijacked the thread and derailed it to talk about the OP main topic, not about unrelated subjects, 
which is outrageous...


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## StrayKAT (Sep 8, 2018)

I don't think I could live with 4GB. What am I running? A freaking console? 

But you're right.. they really are not programmed well.


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## er557 (Sep 8, 2018)

Programming isn't really related, if you want to run AC O on max textures and resolution, the sheer amount of graphics data that needs to be managed is very large, some vram will spill over to ram and shared memory, also when the game is cpu hungry with lots of AI and bots, ram is right there to support the cpu. It's a good direction pc games are going, when in the past games used to be 400mb and today are 100gb. It's simply another level of gaming, not bad programming.


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## Caring1 (Sep 9, 2018)

er557 said:


> Hardly so, I'm afraid.


I know you can do better than that reply, refuting a statement takes more than a no it doesn't na na na.
Yes HB bridges have double the bandwidth, but what improvements electrically do they have over using two standard hard bridges apart from a manufacturers logo lit up in lights!


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## er557 (Sep 9, 2018)

Sure, ok, here is a technical article specifying the electrical difference between all the bridges.
https://overclocking.guide/nvidia-hb-sli-bridge-technical-review/

 conclusion: albeit small, there IS a difference, mainly benefiting to reducing microstuttering. And I saw a reddit comment that the HB bridge eliminated microstuttering that was present with standard bridges.


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## Caring1 (Sep 10, 2018)

Nice article.
so if you have existing legacy bridges or LED bridge its not really cost effective to purchase a HB bridge unless you have cash to splash and absolutely must have those few extra frames as well as stuttering reduced.
2 x LED bridges then makes it unnecessary to throw money away as they operate at the higher frequency.


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## coonbro (Sep 10, 2018)

really the only thing I don't like with a hb is there solid    and one bridge don't fit all boards    like with the std, ribbon bridge   if its a longer one it will    so with that you may not have to keep buying one to fit as you rebuild or upgrade motherboards , ect.....   depending on the cards / boards slot spacing

if they came out with a ribbon hb   and you can get the one size that fits all    it would be far more worth it in the end   [opinion]


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