16gb vs 8

[brebis123]

Hi, will 16 gb help me over 8 gb in gaming ( arma 3 ) thanks

[iRileyx]

Not really, no.
I would recommend 16gb though as games/programs are using more and more RAM, so if you get 16gb now, you won't have to upgrade for a while.

[The Belgian Waffle]

I have an underpowered laptop (no, not a mac ) and I installed 16 gigs on it, and even tho I don't do anything big on it, I'm always near the 8, so the 16 is the sweet spot for everything you need to to imo

[brebis123]

if I take 3000 over 2400 ? will that help?

[iRileyx]

Just now, brebis123 said:

if I take 3000 over 2400 ? will that help?

the ram speed will make minimal difference when youre gaming.

[Spookshow]

8 is "enough" to get the job done. I personally prefer 16 because I use multiple monitors and multitasking often so I use more then 8 on a regular basis. Be it streaming music in background, having multiple (too many often times lol)  web pages open, messaging platforms open  etc

[Mira Yurizaki]

Keep in mind Windows will scale RAM usage to whatever RAM you have available. I idle at like 3GB of usage on 16GB but I also managed to get Windows to idle to 350MB with 2GB of RAM. Windows will happily use RAM if you have it, because that's what it's there for.

 

Otherwise 8GB is fine. Then again I'm someone who doesn't have dozens of Chrome tabs up and kills programs if they're not being actively used. :B

[XenosTech]

4 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Keep in mind Windows will scale RAM usage to whatever RAM you have available. I idle at like 3GB of usage on 16GB but I also managed to get Windows to idle to 350MB with 2GB of RAM. Windows will happily use RAM if you have it, because that's what it's there for.

 

Otherwise 8GB is fine. Then again I'm someone who doesn't have dozens of Chrome tabs up and kills programs if they're not being actively used. :B

Those 20+ chrome tabs

 

Side note : Depending on the game you're playing you'll be just over 8 gb of RAM, for instance when I play r6 siege I peaked at 9 GB of ram while playing and it was there for like a solid 15 mins in multiple runs of the game at different settings.

[SnowyMus]

I can't think of any games that'll benefit from having more than 8 GB of RAM, although there are a few games that  do claim to recommend 12+ GB of RAM. If you have many background processes that you like to leave open as you're gaming, you may also benefit, too. What you could do is buy one 8 GB stick of RAM and test it out. If you find you need more, buy a second one (try to get the same one for compatibility, plus it just looks better).

 

RAM speed can have some effect on CPU performance, and may affect gaming performance if you're CPU-bound to begin with, but it won't usually be nearly as effective as having a better CPU. If you can get it without downgrading another part, then sure, get some faster RAM, but be sensible with how much extra you pay.

[iRileyx]

2 minutes ago, XenosTech said:

Those 20+ chrome tabs

 

Side note : Depending on the game you're playing you'll be just over 8 gb of RAM, for instance when I play r6 siege I peaked at 9 GB of ram while playing and it was there for like a solid 15 mins in multiple runs of the game at different settings.

GTA V can be another, i've had times where if i've been playing for several hours, it's been using as much as 10Gb ram.

[XenosTech]

1 minute ago, RKRiley said:

GTA V can be another, i've had times where if i've been playing for several hours, it's been using as much as 10Gb ram.

Yup... GTA is a memory hog though... Stuck my 470 in my friend's rig and cranked up every setting to max and it topped out at roughly 7 gigs

[Mira Yurizaki]

Well I recall this as well: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/does-more-ram-improve-gaming-performance/

 

I'm also not going to immediately assume that games will use up all that memory just because or they start thrashing horribly once they fill up system memory.

[That Norwegian Guy]

RAM amount above 8GB has to my knowledge only helped in Dying Light right after it launched, but then they unfortunately dumbed down the AI in a patch to accomodate 8GB systems better.

It may matter for Star Citizen in highly populated instances.

 

Some games will run similarly between 8GB and 16GB systems, but have more aggressive optimizations that may or may not be a dealbreaker for some. Such as the pop-in of geometry in GTA V, as seen here: (if the CPU hasn't mapped a wireframe and turned it over to RAM, the GPU can't render the object)

 

 

Other than that no.