Upgrading ram.

[Nerocosm]

I just upgraded my cpu from a ryzen 5 2600 to a ryzen 5 5600x after a bios update on a b450 m motherboard. This might be a stupid question but I was wondering about upgrading my current ram 16 Gb (2x8) at 3000MHz to 32 Gb (2x16) 3600MHz. I understand that I have to enable the xmp profile. Would this upgrade be doable or even worth it?

[Queen Chrysalis]

Yeah but why?  I mean, you'd have to buy new RAM...

[Nerocosm]

1 minute ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Yeah but why?  I mean, you'd have to buy new RAM...

Shiny things give my brain the serotonin.

[Queen Chrysalis]

4 minutes ago, Nerocosm said:

Shiny things give my brain the serotonin.

Then get a new outfit.  RAM over 16GB is literally just a waste for 99% of users, and if you actually needed 32GB you wouldn't be asking here.  Hell, if you never touch grass get some new peripherals or a better chair for your back, ya know, something that will actually do something or at least look nice.

[Hybris5112]

Of course it would be worth the upgrade. You are doubling your RAM which is one of the most common things people tend to skimp on I have noticed.

The general advice is that 16 GB is enough but does that advice take into account for all the background programs that will collect naturally over time? (RGB software, game launchers, hardware monitors, audio/video related background decoders, etc...) and that doesn't cover even basic multitasking like having a web browser open. 

 

You could be very vigilant in controlling, finding, and killing things that chip away at your memory or you could have enough memory for your computer to work naturally.

 

Open up Task Manager and look under the Performance tab and keep an eye on your memory usage over a day or even week and see where you can probably use more for a faster more responsive system.

 

 

[Hybris5112]

3 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Then get a new outfit.  RAM over 16GB is literally just a waste for 99% of users, and if you actually needed 32GB you wouldn't be asking here.  Hell, if you never touch grass get some new peripherals or a better chair for your back, ya know, something that will actually do something or at least look nice.

They said the same thing about 1GB hard drives, 2GB of VRAM, and whole Megabytes of RAM once. If nothing else getting more RAM now is one less thing to have to plan/budget/locate in the future.

[Queen Chrysalis]

2 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

Of course it would be worth the upgrade. You are doubling your RAM which is one of the most common things people tend to skimp on I have noticed.

The general advice is that 16 GB is enough but does that advice take into account for all the background programs that will collect naturally over time? (RGB software, game launchers, hardware monitors, audio/video related background decoders, etc...) and that doesn't cover even basic multitasking like having a web browser open. 

 

You could be very vigilant in controlling, finding, and killing things that chip away at your memory or you could have enough memory for your computer to work naturally.

 

Open up Task Manager and look under the Performance tab and keep an eye on your memory usage over a day or even week and see where you can probably use more for a faster more responsive system.  

 

That's such outdated advice.  Windows 11 and later builds of 10 are DESIGNED to use as much memory as they can when your primary applications arent using it.  Unused memory does absolutely nothing so the system will cache recent or commonly used files in unsused RAM and dump them the instant a primary application request the RAM.  Windows is WAY better at memory optimization than a user

1 minute ago, Hybris5112 said:

They said the same thing about 1GB hard drives, 2GB of VRAM, and whole Megabytes of RAM once. If nothing else getting more RAM now is one less thing to have to plan/budget/locate in the future.

Future proofing such a modular component makes 0 sense when you can literally just pop 2 more dimms into almost any motherboard.  And the demand/time curve has slowed way down as newer programs aren't accelerating RAM demand the way they used to with the advent of such large memory kits becoming commonplace.  Why buy it now when it will not be used at all when you could just wait for when (if ever) its needed.  Imagine if you told this to someone when they had a 2600k, they never used it, and now they need a new kit anyway for DDR4/DDR5.

[Nerocosm]

Just now, Queen Chrysalis said:

That's such outdated advice.  Windows 11 and later builds of 10 are DESIGNED to use as much memory as they can when your primary applications arent using it.  Unused memory does absolutely nothing so the system will cache recent or commonly used files in unsused RAM and dump them the instant a primary application request the RAM.  Windows is WAY better at memory optimization than a user

Future proofing such a modular component makes 0 sense when you can literally just pop 2 more dimms into almost any motherboard.  And the demand/time curve has slowed way down as newer programs aren't accelerating RAM demand the way they used to with the advent of such large memory kits becoming commonplace.  Why buy it now when it will not be used at all when you could just wait for when (if ever) its needed.  Imagine if you told this to someone when they had a 2600k, they never used it, and now they need a new kit anyway for DDR4/DDR5.

I tried to upgrade with another 16 gb of the same ram but since it didn't come as a 32 gb kit (I guess) it wouldn't allow me to enable the xmp profile any longer and locked at 2133MHz no matter what I did

[Queen Chrysalis]

2 minutes ago, Nerocosm said:

I tried to upgrade with another 16 gb of the same ram but since it didn't come as a 32 gb kit (I guess) it wouldn't allow me to enable the xmp profile any longer and locked at 2133MHz no matter what I did

Is it the same speed?  That would inhibit the ability to enable XMP.  It has to be the same rated speed, or you could do a custom profile.  I've done it one a video editor friend of mine's computer with 4x8GB 3200mhz, but they were all the EXACT same rated speed as sold.  But fr unless you're getting pinned to 15.7-16GB ram usage and seeing performance drops, there is no reason to get more RAM.

[OddOod]

15 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

just a waste for 99% of users

1000% false. Windows will start paging at 60% ram usage. if, while not gaming, you are using more than 70% of your memory you will see a manifest increase in responsiveness and fluidity by bumping ram. I'm close to bumping further

And honestly, given how absurdly cheap DDR4 is rn, why not go hard?

 

23 minutes ago, Nerocosm said:

Shiny things give my brain the serotonin.

I recommend Trident Z Royal because sparkols

[Queen Chrysalis]

4 minutes ago, OddOod said:

1000% false. Windows will start paging at 60% ram usage. if, while not gaming, you are using more than 70% of your memory you will see a manifest increase in responsiveness and fluidity by bumping ram. I'm close to bumping further

And honestly, given how absurdly cheap DDR4 is rn, why not go hard?

 

I recommend Trident Z Royal because sparkols

You're at 19.9 because Windows sees it there and is caching shit.  Paging background processes does not do anything to games.  And even with how far paging has come, it doesn't really do anything a human would notice to background processes.  This kinda thing borders on schizoposting, and even if it's cheap that $60 could get you a tank of gas, a night out or two with friends/date, literally anything other than PCB and silicon that will hide on a box on your desk.

 

As a reference I'm not in game rn and of the 9.4GB in use 6.6GB of it is shit that Windows just has cached.  In the most demanding games I play usage still only reaches 14.8GB usage with a couple browsers open and fluidity is perfect (if you can even quantify better fluidity outside of mind over matter).

[Nerocosm]

9 minutes ago, Hybris5112 said:

Of course it would be worth the upgrade. You are doubling your RAM which is one of the most common things people tend to skimp on I have noticed.

The general advice is that 16 GB is enough but does that advice take into account for all the background programs that will collect naturally over time? (RGB software, game launchers, hardware monitors, audio/video related background decoders, etc...) and that doesn't cover even basic multitasking like having a web browser open. 

 

You could be very vigilant in controlling, finding, and killing things that chip away at your memory or you could have enough memory for your computer to work naturally.

 

Open up Task Manager and look under the Performance tab and keep an eye on your memory usage over a day or even week and see where you can probably use more for a faster more responsive system.

 

 

I usually play "memory intensive" games like Elden Ring, warzone, halo Ect. a couple cam softwares for nzxt, discord, spotify and obs to stream on twitch while recording it at the same time or edit 4k videos from time to time and that's just the stuff I open not even naturally running in the background.

[Hybris5112]

17 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

You're at 19.9 because Windows sees it there and is caching shit.  Paging background processes does not do anything to games.  And even with how far paging has come, it doesn't really do anything a human would notice to background processes.  This kinda thing borders on schizoposting, and even if it's cheap that $60 could get you a tank of gas, a night out or two with friends/date, literally anything other than PCB and silicon that will hide on a box on your desk.

 

As a reference I'm not in game rn and of the 9.4GB in use 6.6GB of it is shit that Windows just has cached.  In the most demanding games I play usage still only reaches 14.8GB usage with a couple browsers open and fluidity is perfect (if you can even quantify better fluidity outside of mind over matter).

It's not often we see someone try so hard to justify why they got so little.

 

Unless you are willing to stay on top of Windows to keep it from caching shit which is a loosing battle given its your OS there is little excuse to not buy more RAM if available. Otherwise why 8GB? Maybe 4GB is enough or just 2GB? After all anything more than the absolute minimum is just a waste apparently.

Frankly calm down and let enthusiasts be enthusiasts.

[OddOod]

18 minutes ago, Queen Chrysalis said:

Paging background processes does not do anything to games

Games? Fuck games. I'm about using a computer for things. I used to go back to chrome tabs and they'd have to reload because the page file let it go stale. No longer with 32GB. You sound like my buddy who was absolutely adamant that 8GB was enough because when gaming he never went over 80% usage. Paged data might as well be stored on the moon. If you are a heavy computer user, I'll give you the same deal I gave him: upgrade and tell me I'm wrong, If I am, I'll buy the marginal sticks off you. But if I'm right, you gotta pick up the tab on my next night out.