Is 16gb good enough for gaming in the next 5 years or so?

[IAEInferno]

Just wanted to know if I want to add more ram before ram gets expensive.

[Fasauceome]

Time to bust out the crystal ball again...

 

We're in a weird place with ram where a couple games can use a ton of ram, and we're also on the cusp of a DDR5 release. There's gonna be a ton of used memory in the future so don't stress about buying ram right this second.

[Dedayog]

1 minute ago, IAEInferno said:

Just wanted to know if I want to add more ram before ram gets expensive.

It's cheap now, I would buy more.

 

Tho if you can tell me the month and year that RAM will get expensive, I will have a talk with my own crystal ball about how it's failing me.

[IAEInferno]

Sorry guys my crystal ball isn't updated to the latest bios which is why I asked.

[HanZie82]

3 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

It's cheap now, I would buy more.

 

Tho if you can tell me the month and year that RAM will get expensive, I will have a talk with my own crystal ball about how it's failing me.

 

5 minutes ago, IAEInferno said:

Just wanted to know if I want to add more ram before ram gets expensive.

Buy enough, it will become lots cheaper once DDR5 gets mainstream. (at least according to my crystal ball ).

If you have 4 slots get 2x8GB then later you can upgrade by putting 4x8GB total in.

 

 

_{ps my crystal ball is still 8 bit.}

[BrinkGG]

Heh... This seems relevant: 

[jeanluckpiccard]

12 minutes ago, IAEInferno said:

Just wanted to know if I want to add more ram before ram gets expensive.

I don't know about the next 5 years, but if you mainly use it for gaming, web surfing or general office tasks, I'd say you're in pretty good shape with 16gb for at least the next year or so.

 

If I'm not mistaken, DDR5 will be coming out very soon, so DDR4 prices should drop. If you can afford it and plan on keeping your PC for awhile, then go for 32gb and you are set for quite awhile.

[Dedayog]

Honestly, what games do you play and what's your current RAM usage now?

 

I do not bother to close applications when I play, and I routinely play another game while raiding WOW, so extra RAM is nice.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

Eh, 8gb is being saturated by games now, and 16gb can be filled on heaver games (think ms flight sim 2020). next 5, it might be saturated by most. Im not 100% sure on this, but if you can do 32 gb, and you dont want to upgrade in the next 2 years to desktop ddr5, I would go for 32gb of ddr4.

[MewMew]

Everyone chastises me for having 32gb, at first it was a flex, now it's unironic proofing.

17 minutes ago, Dedayog said:

I routinely play another game while raiding WOW, so extra RAM is nice.

Yesss haha

[Falkentyne]

58 minutes ago, IAEInferno said:

Just wanted to know if I want to add more ram before ram gets expensive.

People were asking this question 8 years ago, when half the people on this forum said 16 GB Is overkill and get 8 GB, while the smart people got 16 GB of DDR3 and enjoyed never dealing with running out of RAM.

 

There are far too many people everywhere who want to live on the bare edge of the cliff and getting barely enough PSU they need for their system, barely enough RAM, and the only thing they care about is lots of storage.  Then they wonder why their PSU's shut off when they put in their RTX 3090's's, and they run around asking if they can put an 8 pin into 2x8pin split into a RTX 3080 because their PSU is too old.  Yikes.

 

Get the 32 GB of RAM.  Get it while the getting's good.  DDR4 has never been this cheap and you can get some really good deals (like 32 GB of 3200 for $90), provided you aren't trying to find kits that will overclock to 4400 mhz.

[BlackManINC]

1 hour ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Eh, 8gb is being saturated by games now, and 16gb can be filled on heaver games (think ms flight sim 2020). next 5, it might be saturated by most. Im not 100% sure on this, but if you can do 32 gb, and you dont want to upgrade in the next 2 years to desktop ddr5, I would go for 32gb of ddr4.

The usage goes high even for games like Squad. The game alone uses 8gbs on average, with total usage being 14-16 gbs on average. I can't imagine it not using virtual memory at 16 gbs, especially with only 8gbs. I'm glad I have 32 gbs of ram. 

[-rascal-]

1 hour ago, MewMew said:

Everyone chastises me for having 32gb, at first it was a flex, now it's unironic proofing.

Yesss haha

 

I just didn't want to leave some of the DIMM slots empty  ._.

 

On topic, 16GB should be enough for a couple more years.

5 years? That's projecting a little too far to say.

 

Just like in 2010 ~ 2013 when 8GB DDR3 "was plenty" ... yet 2018 ~ 2020 comes around.

[MewMew]

6 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

5 years? That's projecting a little too far to say.

 

Thank you for saying the thing i was afraid to say.

[Kurnn]

Yep. Hardware RAM is only needed for the system really. V-RAM using M.2 is actually better.

[HanZie82]

40 minutes ago, Kurnn said:

Yep. Hardware RAM is only needed for the system really. V-RAM using M.2 is actually better.

WTF?

[Mick Naughty]

Well playing my one game now on 1080p not completely maxed out used 11. So in 5 years and many options for games out there I doubt 16 would be preferred. But it will be “enough”, that goes without saying.

[IAEInferno]

On 10/27/2020 at 12:11 AM, Dedayog said:

Honestly, what games do you play and what's your current RAM usage now?

 

I do not bother to close applications when I play, and I routinely play another game while raiding WOW, so extra RAM is nice.

I am an aspiring streamer/youtuber. Content is scuffed tough KEK. I use OBS when I record or stream and I somehow experience micro stutters all the time when I play. I check the cpu usage and GPU usage and cpu usage doesn't go up to 90% and gpu usage goes up to 98% at most. I don't know what's causing the micro stutters. 

 

I'm using a ryzen 5 2600 at stock with 3000mhz 2x8gb cl16 ram XMP and an RTX 2070 Super on a 32"3440x1440p monitor 100hz. Fps is around 60-80 at ultra settings on battlefield V.

[whm1974]

On 10/26/2020 at 12:09 PM, Falkentyne said:

People were asking this question 8 years ago, when half the people on this forum said 16 GB Is overkill and get 8 GB, while the smart people got 16 GB of DDR3 and enjoyed never dealing with running out of RAM.

 

There are far too many people everywhere who want to live on the bare edge of the cliff and getting barely enough PSU they need for their system, barely enough RAM, and the only thing they care about is lots of storage.  Then they wonder why their PSU's shut off when they put in their RTX 3090's's, and they run around asking if they can put an 8 pin into 2x8pin split into a RTX 3080 because their PSU is too old.  Yikes.

 

Get the 32 GB of RAM.  Get it while the getting's good.  DDR4 has never been this cheap and you can get some really good deals (like 32 GB of 3200 for $90), provided you aren't trying to find kits that will overclock to 4400 mhz.

Actually back in 2012 Geeks were telling people who DIY Computers to get 16GB because it gotten cheap... Then in 2013, a year later RAM went up and HDDs become scarce due to some flood in Thailand...

 

Getting 32GB for a new build seems high to me. Unless doing Content Creation or Video Editing.

[Mister Woof]

Rams cheap. If you're building now and aren't on a tight budget, just get 32 and forget about it.

 

Bonus points: get 4x8 RGB and populate all your DIMMs for those sweet, sweet aesthetics, and never worry about it again.