How much RAM Do you ACTUALLY Need For Gaming? (2023)

Today we are testing how much ram you really need for a budget gaming pc in 2021. Is it as much as you might think?

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[MrMunkyMeat]

You are so right. 32 gigs is a waste. That is why I run 64 gigs now.

[Gray.]

For all the ones who question what ram is, think of it like this. Let’s say you want to build a birdhouse, well in order to build one, you would need to a work bench. But let’s say you have a tiny workbench (8 gigs), then you would be limited to what you could put on the work bench, such as tools, materials and such, making the work bench more crowded and leaving you continuously having to take things off the bench in order to put the needed things on it, making the process in the build slower. But now, let’s say you have a bigger work bench (16 gigs), big enough to put every single thing needed to build the birdhouse, then you would be able to build the birdhouse much more “fluently” and much quicker, making everything in the process smoother and organized. Now, let’s say you have a really big work bench (32 gig), you would be able to have all the materials on the bench, but you would have a lot of unused and empty space, making that empty and unused space pointless.That’s basically how ram works.

[ftg]

I recently went from 16gb to 32gb on my 4820k/1070 combo and for 40 dollars I'm very happy with the upgrade. Everything runs smoother, stuttering went away. Rust will use 20gb+, DCS will use nearly 20, Star Citizen benefitted the most, though the RAM did not fix the broken missions.

[pokewtf]

For fortnite, if you want to benchmark with different specs, you can use the in game replay mode to view previous matches and you can do this to make the circumstances exactly the same between each hardware swap.

[swaewithme]

As soon as I added a second 16gb kit to my existing 16gb, I immediately felt a HUGE difference. WZ started using 16.2 gigs.

[Pete]

I just went for 32GB, because it's a new build and I intend to use it for the next 6-8 years (AM5 platform, so might upgrade the CPU in the future), plus I found a 2x16GB kit of DDR5 which was only about 30% more than the cheapest 2X8GB kits of same speed and latency.

[IcebergTech]

I did some testing recently, I found that if you don't have much physical RAM, Windows will use virtual RAM from the Page File. If your page file is allocated to an SSD, this has minimal impact; if your page file is on a hard drive, it can be painfully slow.

[squidgizzard]

32gb is a great purchase especially if you multitask and do video editing, lots of browser tabs. 8-16gb is enough for bare bones a game and maybe a couple background tasks.

[joerichards]

Makes me nostalgic for my first computer - a Timex-Sinclair ZX-81 with a whopping 16Kb (yes, kilobytes) of RAM. It was on an expansion module that plugged into the back and was held on with a velcro strip, that made it a processing monster compared to its onboard 3Kb of RAM.

[petedetraglia]

Remember CAS times and row times change (get slower) as more ram sticks are put into the motherboard...That's why if you are going to upgrade ram make sure to use to larger sticks not 4 if possible. You can also mostly forget T1 timing with 4 sticks of ram.

[Knightveil]

From years (decades) of experience, the simple answer is the fastest RAM your motherboard will support and as much as you can afford. If you can afford to max out your RAM, do it. Windows loves RAM, games love RAM, almost every other application loves RAM. You can never have too much.

[metalfreekz]

For gaming itself, 16gb to 32gb isn't a huge difference, but when you want to stream using stuff like OBS or Streamlabs, or screencap your games and do video editing, the extra ram definitely makes a difference.

[StgVirus]

When I play Cold War, I'm usually using about 12.5gb of ram. But since I stream Cold War sometimes and I have one window open of Edge, I'm using about 18gb of ram. Having 32gb of ram gives your PC more breathing room for multitasking and you never have a bottleneck with ram.

[intertwinedfate]

Your channel is extremely underrated. You give comprehensive information and reviews. As a beginner in the PC scene, I find every single content you put out very helpful.

[onyx]

so I know im late to this video but if you are curious from my experience...Back in my old PC in May of 2020 I had a Ryzen 7 1700/GTX 1060 6GB/8GB ram. It worked for a lot of different games until I hit CoD2019. I would get small stutters here and there when I would have Chrome/discord/spotify running while MW was running as well. Lots of packet loss as well (never really sure if that was internet based but theres more to the story). SO after buying just another 8GB ram stick for $30 I installed it and my frames were more consistent, No stuttering at all unless it came from my HDD (yes I had an SSD but only 120gb). Also the packet loss was eliminated. I eventually updated to 32 gigs because why not and the ram I had was DDR4 3000mhz so it was cheap. The FPS stayed about the same as well anywhere from 65-130 depending on the map. Just thought i'd share. I have 16GB in my current rig but most likely will be updated to full 32gb. I have a i7 8700k with a 2080. Works well, but eventually i'll upgrade. Not sure why I shared this but just thought it was cool and somewhat helpful for anyone who is budget building.

[myke]

Also the type of ram can affect your gaming experience. I recently upgraded from 3200mhz to 4000mhz ram and the difference for me has been just substantial.

[onezeee]

"mom can we get honey"
"no we have honey at home"
honey at home: *Karma*

[GamingINWakanda]

Thank you for this video, Im upgrading the ram in my pc from 8 to 32 and everything you’ve stated are the answers to my questions 💪🏿💯

[Luftbubblan]

For one of my old computers, upgrading to 16gb was the difference between playable and not playable. I ran out of ram in multiple games and it took me a while to figure out the what caused the crashes :D

[eldibs]

I remember playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided with 8GB of RAM. Load times longer than a full minute. Upgrading the RAM (and nothing else) dropped the load times by like 80%.