Question i've been afraid to ask cos of how "noob" it seems. What exactly does putting more RAM in a PC do for gaming?

[Tomsta]

I've worked in IT for 10 years and i to this day am still not 100% sure what adding more RAM actually accomplishes for gaming, isn't all the shaders etc. all done via the GPU?

 

Edit: I have just put 32GB more RAM in my PC in prep for Oblivion Remastered (I only had 16GB before 20 minutes ago)

[Tetras]

VRAM only works with stuff that the GPU works on (i.e. visual), the RAM has to store all the stuff that the CPU works on.

[Tomsta]

1 minute ago, Tetras said:

VRAM only works with stuff that the GPU works on (i.e. visual), the RAM has to store all the stuff that the CPU works on.

So things like compiling shaders, that'll be handled by VRAM?

[Haswellx86]

Yeah you shouldn't have asked that question. At least AI doesn't embarrass you. "10 years of IT".

 

You only really need more memory if you are running out of it. Check your task manager if you are running out of it.

 

Just now, Tomsta said:

So things like compiling shaders, that'll be handled by VRAM?

It's obviously handled by your PC case how do you not know?

 

It depends. Shader compilation can have code that has to be interpreted by the CPU so it does require memory.

 

_{Is this what programmers feel about IT guys?}

[strange13930]

9 minutes ago, Tomsta said:

I've worked in IT for 10 years and i to this day am still not 100% sure what adding more RAM actually accomplishes for gaming, isn't all the shaders etc. all done via the GPU?

 

Edit: I have just put 32GB more RAM in my PC in prep for Oblivion Remastered (I only had 16GB before 20 minutes ago)

adding more ram doesn't really do anything unless you're using all of it before you add more. I have 64gb for unreal engine but for gaming it offered no performance upgrade from my 16gb I had before.

[Tomsta]

Just now, strange13930 said:

adding more ram doesn't really do anything unless your using all of it before you add more.

In fairness i did look at my task manager this morning and with BG3, Firefox and Discord running i was at like 70% RAM usage so yeah i think an upgrade was needed at the time. I was starting to notice hitches in games every now and then, i believe that's the PC swapping to page file

[Millios]

To oversimplify it

 

Vram= Video/Visual ram ie mianly your GPUs Vram is concerned with anything VISUAL like shaders and the such

 

RAM is concerned with ANYTHING else going on software wise like the apps you have open in the background and the such

 

If you run a game with a bunch of shaders and visual elements ie GPU demanding= more VRAM (not always but again oversimplifying it)

If you run multiple apps at the same time= more "ACTUAL" ram

[Haswellx86]

System RAM usually contains data that the CPU needs. Video RAM contains data that only the GPU can use.

 

int main(){
  int x = 10; //sets variable x to 10
  int y = 20; //sets variable y to 20
  int z = x + y; //sets z to be the addition of x and y
}

Above is some very simple C code. The compiled version of this code is stored in your storage drive. Your operating system that is loaded into your system memory first copies the whole executable binary into the memory, and than starts executing it instruction by instruction. Here, the variables and the values of x and y are loaded into the memory, and the value of the variable z is calculated as the sum of x and y at runtime by your CPU and is stored back into the memory (we won't talk about cache for simplicity).

 

This is what memory is used for. For firstly, copying the whole executable which contains the instructions as reading the instructions line by line from the storage drive would be extremely slow. Then the values of variables and instructions of functions are also stored in the memory, and the computation is done by the CPU by following the instructions in the memory.

 

The GPU is a very external device. Your CPU gives commands to the GPU. Your CPU is what programs the GPU to compute stuff in parallel. The CPU sends all the data regarding the shaders, textures, vectors, geometry, and all the rest of the code which the GPU will execute. The GPU will set this all up in its VRAM.

 

When you say "compiling shaders", that is code that requires a lot of logic and math. GPUs do simple calculations in parallel whereas CPUs do complicated calculations but with way less threads. So shader compilation is mostly done on the CPU, and the result is dispatched to the GPU to be able to render graphics.

 

CPUs can also do everything that GPUs can do, but GPUs can't do everything that CPUs can do. That is why the CPU is what sets up the GPU. It does the other required things and sends the GPU the required data to function.

[OhYou_]

when you install the game, you click download on steam and it downloads like 60+GB yes?

The game needed all of the files on your pc to play it, do you want those 60GB of files to stay on your slow ass ssd?

no you want some of them to go into VRAM and most of the rest of them to go into RAM.
this is the very overly simplified version of why you need more ram these days, because games got bigger.

[porina]

Basic level: ram is used for general stuff but includes game code and assets where the CPU has to work out what the GPU has to do later. Pretty much enough or not enough

Over-thinking it level: There's enough, but different levels of "goodness" of enough. Assuming the same speed and timings, you can get rank playing a role in performance. In short, lower capacity modules tend to be 1R. This gives your baseline performance. If you either use 2R modules, or put two 1R modules on the same channel, you can see much improved ram performance. If that translates to improved game performance depends on many variables. It could be nothing, it could be something. 2R modules tend to be found at higher capacities. Obviously if you are using two 1R modules per channel, that also increases capacity. You're not doing it for the capacity, that's just a side effect of going for it.

[Mark Kaine]

Typical scenario:  

You add more RAM and don't notice anything different - except you really were running very little RAM before.

 

Bonus "feature":  your PC will now use far more RAM on average because "unused ram is wasted ram" ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[Mark Kaine]

19 hours ago, OhYou_ said:

when you install the game, you click download on steam and it downloads like 60+GB yes?

The game needed all of the files on your pc to play it, do you want those 60GB of files to stay on your slow ass ssd?

no you want some of them to go into VRAM and most of the rest of them to go into RAM.
this is the very overly simplified version of why you need more ram these days, because games got bigger.

That's a big miscommunication though, it's entirely possible and common half of those 60GB are just videos that never get used unless you access them.

Or the game has several modes (online, story, time attack, etc) but you only play half of those modes and some maps or other features are simply not used...

 

Back in the day you could actually see this on a CD or DVD, many games would only access a very small portion of those "3.5GB" regularly  -  the laser would actually leave a visible mark on the disc on most accessed regions (after a few years)

 

Also RAM doesn't really work that way, it's pre hashing small chunks it thinks it needs soon, if what you said were true you'd need 60, or 100 or 200GB of RAM to play certain games, but typically 16 or 32GB is perfectly fine and there's no difference if you have more in most games.

[xAcid9]

On 4/24/2025 at 10:18 PM, Tomsta said:

I've worked in IT for 10 years and i to this day am still not 100% sure what adding more RAM actually accomplishes for gaming, isn't all the shaders etc. all done via the GPU?

Depend, if your RAM running on single channel before and you added another stick to make it dual channel then you will see some uplift in gaming performance. 

 

On 4/24/2025 at 10:23 PM, Tomsta said:

So things like compiling shaders, that'll be handled by VRAM?

Compiling shaders depend on CPU iinm. 

[LogicalDrm]

On 4/24/2025 at 5:29 PM, Tomsta said:

In fairness i did look at my task manager this morning and with BG3, Firefox and Discord running i was at like 70% RAM usage so yeah i think an upgrade was needed at the time. I was starting to notice hitches in games every now and then, i believe that's the PC swapping to page file

Hypothesis is ok, but without actual data its impossible to say whether it was RAM or not. Software uses pagefile constantly, some software are coded to always use some pagefile, mainly for things that aren't used as frequently as others so they don't faster read speeds. Only way for saying for sure hiccups are RAM related is to observe RAM and pagefile usage graphs during these types of issues.

 

Did you look at actual numbers on those software? Browsers eat RAM fast. Like at the moment, just few tabs open on 2 browsers, both use about 1Gb of RAM. Personally I've never upgraded more RAM because of games. The usage has always been at 60-80%. The reason for upgrading more RAM has always been for productivity softwares. Either video editing or GIS. Which both eat RAM way more than any PC game I've seen. Well, maybe simulations like Cities: Skylines.