Have we fully moved on from 16GB RAM to 32GB RAM?

[ZedClampet]

In my opinion we have. I have a laptop with 16 GB that has a better GPU and CPU than my other laptop, which has 32 GB of RAM, and the older laptop with 32 GB does so much better with so many things.

For instance, I can play games while downloading (from Steam) another one on my 32 GB system, but when I'm downloading on the 16 GB system, I have to just leave the PC alone. The download is all it can handle, and it seems to be slower despite having a faster NVMe.

And you can forget doing anything else if you are running AI on the 16 system. It is constantly freezing up. And Photoshop works much better on the 32 GB system.

If I'm doing nothing else, then it's fine to play games with 16 GB, but I've clearly reached a point where I won't buy another system, or build one, with just 16 GB of RAM, and I'm going to add RAM to my laptop this January to take it up to 64 GB.

 

[Colif]

Steam caches the file into ram as it downloads it so yes, more ram can help with downloads.

AI might be a special case. I don't know how much of the slow down is on the CPU compared to amount of ram you have.

I don't know if we up to 32gb being necessary for most people. (as I have had it for 4 years now, so I can't really tell. Windows will expand to fit the ram space you have, so its not possible to directly compare)

DDR5 ram stick size is one reason more people may have more ram now. DDR4 was restricted to to max size of 64gb on a stick, whereas I don't know what max is currently on DDR5, I have seen 48gb sticks... the max is 512gb on a stick but I don't know if sticks that size exist now.

Massive 1TB RAM coming soon as Samsung debuts largest memory module ever – but it won’t be cheap

The largest Samsung RAM units we’ve ever seen could cost as much as $15,000 a pop

www.techradar.com

So it might not be out of need but its likely my next PC will have more than 64gb of ram. Somewhere between it and 1tb lol.

 

[ZedClampet]

Steam caches the file into ram as it downloads it so yes, more ram can help with downloads.

AI might be a special case. I don't know how much of the slow down is on the CPU compared to amount of ram you have.

I don't know if we up to 32gb being necessary for most people. (as I have had it for 4 years now, so I can't really tell. Windows will expand to fit the ram space you have, so its not possible to directly compare)

DDR5 ram stick size is one reason more people may have more ram now. DDR4 was restricted to to max size of 64gb on a stick, whereas I don't know what max is currently on DDR5, I have seen 48gb sticks... the max is 512gb on a stick but I don't know if sticks that size exist now.

Massive 1TB RAM coming soon as Samsung debuts largest memory module ever – but it won’t be cheap

The largest Samsung RAM units we’ve ever seen could cost as much as $15,000 a pop

www.techradar.com

So it might not be out of need but its likely my next PC will have more than 64gb of ram. Somewhere between it and 1tb lol.

AI is much more about the GPU and VRAM, but I'm finding regular RAM is definitely in play. CPU hardly matters but it depends on the particular program.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Id say 16GB is still OK for 95% of games out there still, I only went to 32GB earlier this year and havent noticed a big difference.

If I was building now I'd use 32, but if the budget was very limited I'd rather get a faster GPU or bigger SSD if possible and upgrade the RAM down the line as its easier to do.

Thats general gaming only though, other stuff can use a lot more RAM.

 

[Colif]

Thats general gaming only though, other stuff can use a lot more RAM.

i must miss those things as most days I idle on 10gb used, only times I hit 20 are running a VM. I don't mind having 20 gb free, as it sure beats only having 4gb free.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

i must miss those things as most days I idle on 10gb used, only times I hit 20 are running a VM. I don't mind having 20 gb free, as it sure beats only having 4gb free.

I think stuff like Blender and Photoshop can use a lot, professional stuff, video editing etc. Theres the odd game like Flight Sim, I think Cities Skylines and some others too.

 

[Atekk920]

I would say yes.... 16GB is the absolute bare minimum really. You cant run Win 11 well on 8GB, at this point I would call it a budget option to build with 16GB. Windows has always been really bad at memory management and has always required more and more ram with each iteration. After my system boots up and i jump into a game for an hour or so I can easily have 16GB in use. Each system is different, and a lot will depend on what you actually have running in the background, but in general 16GB is the budget starting point for anything you would call a gaming rig and 32 has become the new midrange with "a little room to grow" where 64GB is now the high end "RAM isn't a problem for me".

This is just in the context of gaming mind you, content creation will have a different set of rules as its a much different workload...

don't get bogged down in Mt rates and all that stuff - just look for a low CL value at the CPU spec, or a little above. Unless you are working for hours every day on super memory intensive stuff you wont even notice the difference between 5000Mt's vs 8000Mt's let alone during actual gameplay

 

[Colif]

Windows has always been really bad at memory management and has always required more and more ram with each iteration.

That depends... I like this video, not sure if 11 changed it a lot AI probably ruined it actually, but he is just looking at what minimum is it needs to boot, running would be painful on these systems,
TLDNR version: Windows 10 uses less memory to start up than all previous versions until you hit XP.

It also depends on what games you play. If you have to play all the latest games, then you might need 64gb to play it safe soon... if not more if you play Star Citizen.
But if you play old games, ram really isn't a problem.

 

[BeardyHat]

Seems to me that the more RAM you have, the more you'll use. My Desktop is running 32Gb and I'm currently using about half of that with about 12 tabs open in Firefox; that said, when I had 16Gb in this system, usage was about the same with no change in my behavior.

My laptop I use the most has 16Gb and it works well enough for what I want to use it for and the games I want to play.

If I was building a new machine, I would probably shoot for 32Gb, but mostly just for future proofing.

 

[Frindis]

With later games, I believe VRAM matters the most. I'm just guessing the new Unreal Engine sucks VRAM. I am running on 16 GB myself, and 99,99% of the games not called VRAM Dragon's Dogma 2 or God of War, run on either ultra or medium.

I thought the Adobe products had a focus on GPU rendering, maybe they changed that?

My personal opinion on laptops is that they all suck kakapo. Overhyped bunch of flatties that either slow down after minimal use or are so stupidly made you can't run games/programs properly on them. I owned a couple over my lifespan and I wanted to put a bullet into each screen.

 

[Colif]

Seems to me that the more RAM you have, the more you'll use. My Desktop is running 32Gb and I'm currently using about half of that with about 12 tabs open in Firefox; that said, when I had 16Gb in this system, usage was about the same with no change in my behavior.

Windows will use as much as you give it, so it does increase its usage if you have more. Its also capable of shrinking down as well, but don't expect a PC with 16gb to load windows as fast as a 32gb system. Our usage expands too, I realised this when I went from a 32bit system with 4gb of ram to a 64bit PC with 16gb of ram, and realised I probably been running off page file a lot until then.
With 32gb of ram you rarely use the page file (still helps to have one in case you play a game with a memory leak which chews all your virtual memory). Better to have a page file than Out of Memory Errors. I leave mine managed by windows and its currently.... 2gb. It grew a lot when I played Diablo 4 as it had a memory leak.

 

[ZedClampet]

With later games, I believe VRAM matters the most. I'm just guessing the new Unreal Engine sucks VRAM. I am running on 16 GB myself, and 99,99% of the games not called VRAM Dragon's Dogma 2 or God of War, run on either ultra or medium.

I thought the Adobe products had a focus on GPU rendering, maybe they changed that?

My personal opinion on laptops is that they all suck kakapo. Overhyped bunch of flatties that either slow down after minimal use or are so stupidly made you can't run games/programs properly on them. I owned a couple over my lifespan and I wanted to put a bullet into each screen.

I can run anything including difficult AI, which is much harder to run than games, on both of my laptops. Laptops started improving significantly with the 20XX series of graphics cards. My HP doesn't even get hot at all.

 

[Frindis]

I can run anything including difficult AI, which is much harder to run than games, on both of my laptops. Laptops started improving significantly with the 20XX series of graphics cards. My HP doesn't even get hot at all.

It didn't help that I bought the cheapest one I could find I still don't like them, but I guess some blame is mine.

@Colif How do you use Memmaker on Windows 11?

 

[Colif]

i need to buy one for mum next year but I know not to buy a potato or a chromebook - I don't want to have to show her how to do everything again, so windows 11 makes more sense - need to anyway as her 10 year old PC is too slow now, and isn't win 11 compatible. Easier than dealing with win 10 repeatedly telling her to upgrade.
Can get cheap laptops but I have standards. She doesn't need a gaming laptop so somewhere between pointless and overpowered. At least even cheap ones now have ssd in them. I will go halves with my brother as he might have some idea what to buy, since he uses laptops.

this, for instance, would be overkill

Gaming laptop leaks with RTX 50 GPU, 192GB RAM, and Arrow Lake-HX CPU

The laptop will also sport a 4k screen, dual Ethernet ports, four M.2 slots, and support for up to 192GB of DDR5 memory.

www.tomshardware.com

I don't want one myself. I prefer desktop for a number of reasons. Only days I wish I had one are when its storming all day.