Should my Memory be 16Gb or 32Gb for Gaming PC

[OledAndy]

When would you need 32Gb? I keep hearing about future proofing as in the next several years the recommended for games would be 32Gb.

 

[Ataxion]

Watch ltt videos on how much ram you actually need i don't have the link sorry

[SFFDesigns]

Depends on what you play.

 

interested in MSFS? Get 32gb!

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

3 minutes ago, OledAndy said:

When would you need 32Gb? I keep hearing about future proofing as in the next several years the recommended for games would be 32Gb.

 

I don't see RAM requirements jumping up to 32GB in the near future. 16GB just became the sweet spot right now. It was 8GB for the longest time. I would say the next step would be 24GB rather than 32 and even that would take a long while. 

 

Disclaimer: Oh right, Microsoft Flight Sim is the outlier... 

[SFFDesigns]

1 minute ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Microsoft Flight Sim is the outlier

Yeah it sure is. Tbh all flight sims are. My XP11 used also takes 16gb frequently 

[Red_Fox_1293]

16 gb is more than enough for most games, and it is a good sweet spot for multitasking. 

[Mateyyy]

If going with 32GB of memory means you need to sacrifice on something else in your build (CPU, GPU, motherboard, storage, etc.), then just get 16GB.

 

16GB is still plenty for a gaming PC nowadays, outside of a few odd cases like if you're playing MSFS2020 or other RAM hogs. 

It's also one of the easier upgrades to do - if you get a 2x8GB kit now, you can just drop in another similar 2x8GB kit later on.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

1 minute ago, Hymenopus_Coronatus said:

Yeah it sure is. Tbh all flight sims are. My XP11 used also takes 16gb frequently 

Then you have Tycoon games without limits on how many objects can be placed on the map. I've seen mad lads push the limit and have Planet Coaster take up like 38 GB of RAM. 

[porina]

4 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

I don't see RAM requirements jumping up to 32GB in the near future. 16GB just became the sweet spot right now. It was 8GB for the longest time. I would say the next step would be 24GB rather than 32 and even that would take a long while. 

16GB has been the typical amount for anything except the most budget gaming build for a long time now, several years at least. I do think we're on the edge of more people looking beyond 16GB.

 

24GB is generally not workable for a performance system, and wont take off unless CPU manufacturers go tri-channel in future generations. 

[Guest]

Want bandwidth and low latency, 16GB high end memory modules.

 

Doing work need redundancy and capacity, 32GB for some productivity/multi-tasking.

 

 

[Moonzy]

13 minutes ago, porina said:

24GB is generally not workable for a performance system, and wont take off unless CPU manufacturers go tri-channel in future generations. 

it's an okay in-between, cheaper than 32gb, better than pagefiling, not the end of the world if you hit single channel bandwidth

 

that said i can see 32gb being useful if you cache shadowplay on RAM like i do

caching on HDD/SSD just wears them out

 

edit:

2x8 and 2x4 can make 24gb into dual channel :thonk:

we all literally forgot about 4gb dimms

[Subsonicq]

16GB for gaming is 95% of the time more than enough, if you youtube some benchmark videos between 32 and 16 GB there is really no difference, 8 to 16GB there is a difference. Sometime for a reason i cannot explain is that i noticed in the benchmark videos 32gb ram situations slightly reduced CPU load. But as mentioned above if you need to sacrifice something for 32 i wouldn't. Personally i would choose better cooling or an NVME SSD over the 32 GB upgrade. however 32GB is heaps better if you are doing any photomanipulation, design work or video editing / rendering as i have noticed the programs park alot of what you are doing in the RAM until your done.

[porina]

53 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

it's an okay in-between, cheaper than 32gb, better than pagefiling, not the end of the world if you hit single channel bandwidth

While I agree you could do that, that's in part why I used the words "performance system" to suggest it is not optimal.

 

53 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

2x8 and 2x4 can make 24gb into dual channel :thonk:

we all literally forgot about 4gb dimms

I didn't, I have some older systems running 4x4GB for example (quad channel). I just can't see someone choosing to buy 2x8+2x4 to get 24GB in a new system. The price difference to go to say 2x16 isn't that big. Someone upgrading from 16GB would likely end up as 4x8GB.

[Mister Woof]

RAMs cheap now.

 

May as well just get 32 and don't worry about it ever again.

[whm1974]

4 hours ago, Mister Woof said:

RAMs cheap now.

 

May as well just get 32 and don't worry about it ever again.

Well depends on giving up on something else like a larger SSD or a better dGPU. If not, then go ahead by all means and get 32GB.