Who is a 32GB ram actually meant for?

[Gadhoke]

Hey everybody, I'm in the process of shopping for my new (and first) build. I can get 4x8GB Gskill Ripjaws DDR4 ram(32GB) but am getting mixed opinions from people. Some say that it is too much and I won't be using it while others go on to tell me to get 64 gigs.. 

I'll be gaming, compiling code, creating animations, editing videos and modelling some 3D graphics as well. Help me out a little!
One more thing, my motherboard has 4 ram slots with two channels. What will happen if I plug in 3 8GB sticks? I mean will it affect performance in any way? Because I haven't really heard about 24GB ram a lot...
Thanks beforehand

[Zenedge]

for bragging rights (Y)

[Electronics Wizardy]

You can run it with 3 stick or 1. They don't even have to be matched these days. For your uses it seems like you should get 32gb as those programs use lots of ram and running out of ram sucks.

[Dredgy]

For animation, 3D modelling and editing video, 32 is an awkward number. If you are doing it professionally, 32GB probably won't be enough. If you're just playing around, 32 is probably too much and 8-16GB will be fine, and 24GB would be ample.

[Dr_Pleeper]

4k video editing, 3d modeling, and server hosting.

[WhiteManito]

Someone who edits a lot with premiere or Sony Vegas or does Photo Editing or drawing with Photoshop will need that extra ram, that consumes a lot.

 

Spoiler

Or for having all those porn tabs open simultaneously 

 

[Orblivion]

1 minute ago, Zenedge said:

for bragging rights (Y)

No, its for people who are doing more than just gaming on their computers.

 

@OP:  For gaming, even 16GB (2x8) is more than enough.

[Sack]

I hear RAM is really nice for people who do video editing/rendering so I think you could use it honestly, now for channel uses, depending if your board has dual- or quad channel memory it will affect performance, if it's quad channel I would recommend populating all channels, if it's dual channel you could use 3 sticks it just means you're not gonna get "best performance" out of the 3rd stick.

[TrigrH]

get 16gb, if you find you are using it all (i doubt it), get more later.

[Moonzy]

5 minutes ago, Gadhoke said:

What will happen if I plug in 3 8GB sticks?

yes, it will make your ram run in single channel

so your speed would be slower

 

how many ram you use will depend on what softwares do you use

if your 3D animation thingy uses lots of ram, then 32gb, or even 64gb, is required

 

only you can answer the question of how many rams your need

if in doubt, you can always grab 2x16gb sticks and add another 2x16gb if you really dont have enough ram

 

the downside to having more ram is just having it being left aside,

or you can use them as ram disk/cache for super fast storage to speed up your work

[Zenedge]

6 minutes ago, Orblivion said:

No, its for people who are doing more than just gaming on their computers.

 

@OP:  For gaming, even 16GB (2x8) is more than enough.

did you take that seriously? i was joking. lol

 

 

[Zeinone]

Although I consider for your usage that 32 gigs is the way to go, would you mind sharing your other specs ?

[blnswamy]

imo...64 gigs might be a overkill if you are not doing the stuff professionally. 

[MageTank]

I use 32GB of ram for Primocache, and it's still never enough for me. If my ITX board supported 64GB, best believe I would have it. Once you go primocache, you never go primoback.

 

Man, I am funny.

[ArkTheYO]

hey ,i can suggest to not to go with 3 sticks option as that will actually result in drop down in perofrmance and the ram sticks will operate at the frequency of the ram with the lowest frequency ! so yes dual channel is the best option ! Ask the ppl who do 3-d modelling and animation or check up the ram usage on their(IF u have any friend who is into the stuff u do) computer by getting task manager(with their permission) and accordingly go for it! You can google it too! But yes nbest option is go for dual channel 32 gb kit thats the best!

[Gadhoke]

@Zeinone, I've yet to finalize a graphics card, I was about to add a thread in the graphics card section but here's the config:
The processor is an Intel i7 6700k unlocked 4gHz.
An Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. (does any one of you use one?)
A WD 2TB blue HDD and a Samsung 250GB SSD.

 

[danomicar]

It's like having a full tank of gas when you only need to drive to the grocery store.

[Zeinone]

3 minutes ago, Gadhoke said:

@Zeinone, I've yet to finalize a graphics card, I was about to add a thread in the graphics card section but here's the config:
The processor is an Intel i7 6700k unlocked 4gHz.
An Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. (does any one of you use one?)
A WD 2TB blue HDD and a Samsung 250GB SSD.

 

what is your budget? Because for modelling, animation creation and similar stuff I'd rather go for an x99 platform (the i7-5820k), unless you mainly game and do modelling for fun or whatnot

 

Edit: If this is your current build which i didn't think of then maybe 16 gigs is enough

[blnswamy]

4 minutes ago, Gadhoke said:

@Zeinone, I've yet to finalize a graphics card, I was about to add a thread in the graphics card section but here's the config:
The processor is an Intel i7 6700k unlocked 4gHz.
An Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. (does any one of you use one?)
A WD 2TB blue HDD and a Samsung 250GB SSD.

 

i have the same exact stuff with me.. 

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/xn2Vt6

 

 

1 minute ago, Zeinone said:

what is your budget? Because for modelling, animation creation and similar stuff I'd rather go for an x99 platform (the i7-5820k), unless you mainly game and do modelling for fun or whatnot

 

Edit: If this is your current build which i didn't think of then maybe 16 gigs is enough

the 5820k might be a better option if you want a hex core cpu. 

[Moonzy]

7 minutes ago, Gadhoke said:

Asus Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard. (does any one of you use one?)

using the b150 chipset of the motherboard here

[blnswamy]

5 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

using the b150 chipset of the motherboard here

If you dont overclock, the z170 and b170 are pretty much the same.  

 

b170 vs z170

[Zeinone]

1 minute ago, blnswamy said:

If you dont overclock, the z170 and b170 are pretty much the same. 

well if you don't overclock then the z170 is a waste of money, not the same

[CommandMan7]

I'd say 2 years ago, 8GB was good enough, 16GB would hold 99% of people, and 32GB is overkill.

 

Now, especially with the newer games, RAM usage can easily surpass 8GB to the point where I'd say 16GB is the new minimum. It doesn't help that Windows 10 slowly eats RAM over time (for performance reasons, not a memory leak) - on Windows 7 I had months of uptime, now I need daily system restarts on Windows 10 with 8GB. When I was running 16GB for a short time, I did reach close to using it all in my very limited editing while gaming + 10 chrome tabs. 

 

So yeah, 32GB is a good sweet spot to guarantee you'll never run into capacity problems in everything but professional editing. I also believe that's what they use in the editing PC's in LTT, so it might even work for that.

[typographie]

34 minutes ago, Gadhoke said:

One more thing, my motherboard has 4 ram slots with two channels. What will happen if I plug in 3 8GB sticks? I mean will it affect performance in any way? Because I haven't really heard about 24GB ram a lot...

RAM can run fine in single-channel mode, but at half the bandwidth of dual-channel mode.

 

Dual-channel requires that DIMMs are installed in matching, usually alternating pairs. If you were to install 3x8 GB, you'd have 24 GB of RAM in single-channel mode. If, instead, you used 2x4 GB and 2x8 GB, you'd end up with 24 GB in dual-channel mode. And of course 4x8 GB is fine too.

 

For your purposes, I think it's important to keep your memory configuration valid for dual-channel. Especially since you kind of have to go out of your way to avoid it these days. And I really don't think 32 GB is overboard for that sort of workload, personally. You may actually benefit from more than 16 GB once in awhile.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, blnswamy said:

If you dont overclock, the z170 and b170 are pretty much the same. 

there's no b170 chipset as far as im concerned

i know, thats why i got the b150 chipset