Is 8GB ram enough?

[wasiq614]

Hello, so I am planning on buying the new Dell xps 13 that just came out. If I get (i5-8250U with 8GB LPDDR3 1866MHz RAM) it costs about 1200 dollars but if I get (i7-8550U with 16GB LPDDR3 2133MHz RAM and 4k display) it costs about 2100. I am a college student and I am not a heavy gamer, I play pubg, cod, dying light and games like that sometimes. So my question is is paying 1000 for better screen, processor and more RAM worth it?

Thanks in advance for the suggestions 

[DarkEnergy]

I think 8gb is the new minimum. It would definitly work fine but isn't that running on intel graphics? At 4k? Good luck playing any games with that. Even at 2k good luck with that. If it's intel graphics, you won't be gaming much on it. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

8GB is probably the bare minimum for what you want, but the GPU in the XPS 13 is kind of lacking for those games.

[wasiq614]

1 minute ago, DarkEnergy said:

I think 8gb is the new minimum. It would definitly work fine but isn't that running on intel graphics? At 4k? Good luck playing any games with that. Even at 2k good luck with that. If it's intel graphics, you won't be gaming much on it. 

 

Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

8GB is probably the bare minimum for what you want, but the GPU in the XPS 13 is kind of lacking for those games.

It has thunderbolt 3 with 4 lane support, I plane on using an external GPU for gaming on it.

[Looting]

You will probably be "OK" but I usually do 16gb that way it gives me enough overhead to do high taxing things.

[DarkEnergy]

Just now, wasiq614 said:

 

It has thunderbolt 3 with 4 lane support, I plane on using an external GPU for gaming on it.

Ah, then it would be fine. What sort of stuff would you do on the computer? I've got 8gb in my laptop and it uses 4gb with just a couple of chrome tabs. I'm sure intel graphics is using some of it but 8gb is definitely a minimum. If you're able to upgrade the RAM in the future, then yeah, go for the 8gb. If not and you plan on having the laptop for a long time, go for the upgrade. One thing to note about displays larger than 1080, Windows and older programs don't like them (although with each update it's getting better). 

[m0k]

Yes 8gb is more than enough 

for multiple chrome tabs + ms office + spotify etc

you wont run into any issues

ive been running 8gb ram on all my systems so far and the only time i have an issue is running higher settings on GTA5 (which you most likely wont be doing on a xps 13)

 

edit: and i run a large Adobe Lightroom catalogue with xmp edits with no issues, 

 

edit 2: dont bother with a 4k panel on your laptop, the only thing wou will notice is poor scaling  and lower battery life

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by mok

[wasiq614]

14 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

Ah, then it would be fine. What sort of stuff would you do on the computer? I've got 8gb in my laptop and it uses 4gb with just a couple of chrome tabs. I'm sure intel graphics is using some of it but 8gb is definitely a minimum. If you're able to upgrade the RAM in the future, then yeah, go for the 8gb. If not and you plan on having the laptop for a long time, go for the upgrade. One thing to note about displays larger than 1080, Windows and older programs don't like them (although with each update it's getting better). 

 

13 minutes ago, RandomGuy13 said:

I am starting to find a laptop with 4GB of ram to be unusable for even the smallest of tasks, web browsing, youtube videos. Even when paired with high end hardware, it becomes sluggish and slow.

 

8gb removes this in most cases, I never feel limited by 8GB, but certainly can identify that as a source that would limit frame rates, or slow down the computer with intense multitasking, or useing programs like photoshop. 16GB for me seems to be enough, I rarely exceed 14 GBs. Now I have 32GBs and don't feel as I am getting anything more than with 16GBs.

 

You can always buy 8Gbs now and then upgrade later, when paid with reasonable hardware, the ram will start to be the bottleneck for a lot of new games and some demanding programs. But even then the performance difference would be minimal.

I plan on keeping this laptop for 2-3 years and unfortunately xps 13 isn't upgradeable so I get what I get when I buy it, if I get 8GB I'll be stuck with it lol 

[DarkEnergy]

Just now, wasiq614 said:

 

I plan on keeping this laptop for 2-3 years and unfortunately xps 13 isn't upgradeable so I get what I get when I buy it, if I get 8GB I'll be stuck with it lol 

2-3 years isn't long at all. 8gb would be fine then. 

[wasiq614]

16 minutes ago, mok said:

Yes 8gb is more than enough 

for multiple chrome tabs + ms office + spotify etc

you wont run into any issues

ive been running 8gb ram on all my systems so far and the only time i have an issue is running higher settings on GTA5 (which you most likely wont be doing on a xps 13)

 

edit: and i run a large Adobe Lightroom catalogue with xmp edits with no issues, 

so gaming at mid to high settings shouldn't be a problem with 8GB? The thing is if I get 8GB I'll be stuck with it since xps 13 laptops are not upgradeable but then again idk if 1000 dollars is worth 8 more gigs of ram lol

[dizmo]

16GB would be nice, but there's no way in hell I'd pay $1,000 for it.

 

25 minutes ago, DarkEnergy said:

Ah, then it would be fine. What sort of stuff would you do on the computer? I've got 8gb in my laptop and it uses 4gb with just a couple of chrome tabs. I'm sure intel graphics is using some of it but 8gb is definitely a minimum. If you're able to upgrade the RAM in the future, then yeah, go for the 8gb. If not and you plan on having the laptop for a long time, go for the upgrade. One thing to note about displays larger than 1080, Windows and older programs don't like them (although with each update it's getting better). 

To be fair, it'll use it if it's there, but it doesn't mean that it's a requirement. I can open tons of tabs and I only have 4GB of RAM.

That said, I'd still recommend at least 8GB of RAM.

24 minutes ago, RandomGuy13 said:

I am starting to find a laptop with 4GB of ram to be unusable for even the smallest of tasks, web browsing, youtube videos. Even when paired with high end hardware, it becomes sluggish and slow.

 

8gb removes this in most cases, I never feel limited by 8GB, but certainly can identify that as a source that would limit frame rates, or slow down the computer with intense multitasking, or useing programs like photoshop. 16GB for me seems to be enough, I rarely exceed 14 GBs. Now I have 32GBs and don't feel as I am getting anything more than with 16GBs.

 

You can always buy 8Gbs now and then upgrade later, when paid with reasonable hardware, the ram will start to be the bottleneck for a lot of new games and some demanding programs. But even then the performance difference would be minimal.

4GB is still more than usable for the tasks you listed.

Not every machine is upgradable, something you should look into before saying that something can be upgraded later.

3 minutes ago, wasiq614 said:

so gaming at mid to high settings shouldn't be a problem with 8GB? The thing is if I get 8GB I'll be stuck with it since xps 13 laptops are not upgradeable but then again idk if 1000 dollars is worth 8 more gigs of ram lol

RAM doesn't really have anything to do with gaming in the machine you're looking at, you're going to be limited by the fact you don't have a dedicated graphics card. The XPS13 isn't really meant for the kind of games you're looking at playing.

[wasiq614]

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

To be fair, it'll use it if it's there, but it doesn't mean that it's a requirement. I can open tons of tabs and I only have 4GB of RAM.

That said, I'd still recommend at least 8GB of RAM.

4GB is still more than usable for the tasks you listed.

Not every machine is upgradable, something you should look into before saying that something can be upgraded later.

RAM doesn't really have anything to do with gaming in the machine you're looking at, you're going to be limited by the fact you don't have a dedicated graphics card. The XPS13 isn't really meant for the kind of games you're looking at playing.

but as I said earlier I am going to be using an external GPU for gaming 

[dizmo]

4 minutes ago, wasiq614 said:

but as I said earlier I am going to be using an external GPU for gaming 

Are you getting it pretty cheap? If you're spending much on it it's probably cheaper just to build a small system.

[wasiq614]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

Are you getting it pretty cheap? If you're spending much on it it's probably cheaper just to build a small system.

I already have the external gpu and I have a pc too, but I am selling the pc and buying this laptop because I need something portable for college and stuff