[SOLVED] Does 8GB RAM actually hold you back?

[Ziadul87]

Every comparison video I've looked up either has the 16 gb on dual channel vs 8gb on single channel. Or they don't mention if both are on same number of channels at all.

Like most people, I'm interested to see whether the extra memory can actually make a noticeable difference if both run on single channel.

My question is "Does 8GB Memory actually hold you back while gaming?"

So, comparisons/experience like these are appreciated:

2×4gb vs 2×8gb
Or,
1×8gb vs 1×16gb

 

[Ziadul87]

Just to comment on a couple of games. For Warzone, you really would want 16gb. FC6 not sure but would suspect it'll be quite memory intensive as well.

Would be worth taking a risk pairing single bought sticks of same specs for dual channel to give your hyperthreaded dual core processor the best chance it can because it's going to be thread challenged extensively. Can you return ram in case mixing doesn't work?

Gonna give the shops a visit tomorrow. Let's see how much freedom i can get.

 

[Jason H.]

Nah, what I'm saying is, are there any games which actually benefit from just the extra memory?
From what I've heard, we are still able to play most games on 8gb Ram.

8gb is not enough when looking at big world games.

Rust, Apex Legengs, RDR2, GTA V... as a few examples.

These big world games stores A LOT of textures on the memory for fast access while your traveling around the world.

Small arena shooters like Doom, older Call of Duty titles.. etc, could do fine with 8gb of ram.

Keep in mind though the operating system uses some of the memory at all times. I believe its around 3 gigs. So if you only have 8gb of ram, and your game wants to use 8gb, it cant. The game will only have access to 5 of the gigs. Which can cause stutters, fps drops, freezes, crashes... you name it.

This is what makes 16gb of ram a new standard for gaming. Plenty of headroom for the os to run, while gaming. Plus, we all use discord sometimes while playing a game. Or have a youtube video open in a web browser. All that stuff uses memory as well, so while gaming, it will allow you to do those things without negatively impacting the performance of the game. Unless you get lag from watching videos, then thats a network thing not a pc performance thing lol.

SPEED of the ram, and dual channel mode is a whole different story and highly effects the performance of not only gaming, but the overall performance of the PC. 3200mhz speed in dual channel is the standard for gaming pcs today.

 

[mamasan2000]

When I'm playing Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, I start at having 12gigs of RAM used. Just the game and Windows 10.

 

[Ziadul87]

8gb is not enough when looking at big world games.

Rust, Apex Legengs, RDR2, GTA V... as a few examples.

These big world games stores A LOT of textures on the memory for fast access while your traveling around the world.

Small arena shooters like Doom, older Call of Duty titles.. etc, could do fine with 8gb of ram.

Keep in mind though the operating system uses some of the memory at all times. I believe its around 3 gigs. So if you only have 8gb of ram, and your game wants to use 8gb, it cant. The game will only have access to 5 of the gigs. Which can cause stutters, fps drops, freezes, crashes... you name it.

This is what makes 16gb of ram a new standard for gaming. Plenty of headroom for the os to run, while gaming. Plus, we all use discord sometimes while playing a game. Or have a youtube video open in a web browser. All that stuff uses memory as well, so while gaming, it will allow you to do those things without negatively impacting the performance of the game. Unless you get lag from watching videos, then thats a network thing not a pc performance thing lol.

SPEED of the ram, and dual channel mode is a whole different story and highly effects the performance of not only gaming, but the overall performance of the PC. 3200mhz speed in dual channel is the standard for gaming pcs today.

Well. In countries like mine your choice a lot limited. Such as:

1. Intel: Average motherboards won't allow more than 2133mhz (like my GA-H110-S2PV)
2. Ryzen: Performance requires dual kit 3200CL16 or better. But i am yet to find a store selling paired kits.
3. Corsair/Gskill are priced a bit high as they don't locally provide RAMs here.
4. As there're no dual kits available, if I buy two 8gigs and try to pair, the shops most probably won't let me return it (as far as my experience goes, these shops have a "once sold, no returns, only warranty" policy.

So, my only bet at getting 16GB where it'll surely work, is getting a single kit.

I hope Amazon/others soon opens up in Bangladesh too. Or pc building is gonna be as troublesome as it is now.

 

[alceryes]

here it says, difference in CL is only noticeable through certain synthetic benchmarks but users can't even feel them.

I'm not referring to latency difference, I'm talking about the two sticks being able to run in dual-channel mode. If you aren't running in dual-channel you are loosing a good amount of performance.

 

[Ziadul87]

I'm not referring to latency difference, I'm talking about the two sticks being able to run in dual-channel mode. If you aren't running in dual-channel you are loosing a good amount of performance.

As i said earlier. Dual channel kits are not available so I'm a bit reluctant to mix RAMs. This whole thread initially was about "8gb memory vs 16gb memory with the same number of channels"

 

[rgd1101]

buy local with a good return policy

 

[ClapTrapper]

I don't care what any benchmark or video says,it was the difference between barely useable with many games/applications to runnung pretty good. The difference was like night and day.
Here is specifically the system I am talking about:

a prebuilt HP Desktop M01-F1024 with a Ryzen 7 4700g
(prebuilts tend to have only a single dimm)
With one single channel 8 gig (and some of that RAM went to the APU) the system was overall slow and games were just about unplayable. Some even refused to run. And I'm talking about older games like GTA4,GTA5,Wicher,etc.

After adding another matching 8 Gig stick (making it 16 total Gigs of dual channel), I don't have any complaints. RDR2,GTA 4,5,Rome 2 remake,etc. all play decently!
It was a more dramatic upgrade then when I replaced a 7200 spinng hdd with an ssd.
I bought this to hold me over until prices and availability became reasonable. Now with 2 RAM sticks I may just wait even longer until prices fall to at least MSRP.

So in conclusion you asked:

"My question is "Does 8GB Memory actually hold you back while gaming?"
So, comparisons/experience like these are appreciated:

2×4gb vs 2×8gb
Or,
1×8gb vs 1×16gb"

My advice is DEFINATELY go with the 2x8gb

 

[Ziadul87]

I don't care what any benchmark or video says,it was the difference between barely useable with many games/applications to runnung pretty good. The difference was like night and day.
Here is specifically the system I am talking about:

a prebuilt HP Desktop M01-F1024 with a Ryzen 7 4700g
(prebuilts tend to have only a single dimm)
With one single channel 8 gig (and some of that RAM went to the APU) the system was overall slow and games were just about unplayable. Some even refused to run. And I'm talking about older games like GTA4,GTA5,Wicher,etc.

After adding another matching 8 Gig stick (making it 16 total Gigs of dual channel), I don't have any complaints. RDR2,GTA 4,5,Rome 2 remake,etc. all play decently!
It was a more dramatic upgrade then when I replaced a 7200 spinng hdd with an ssd.
I bought this to hold me over until prices and availability became reasonable. Now with 2 RAM sticks I may just wait even longer until prices fall to at least MSRP.

So in conclusion you asked:

"My question is "Does 8GB Memory actually hold you back while gaming?"
So, comparisons/experience like these are appreciated:

2×4gb vs 2×8gb
Or,
1×8gb vs 1×16gb"

My advice is DEFINATELY go with the 2x8gb

Your experience was pretty good but the fact that you used APU just makes the whole point of comparing 8gb vs 16gb pointless. As APUs take up RAM as VRAM(as in GPU).
But I'll keep that in mind and look for 16gigs

 

[boju]

Well he was comparing performance between single and dual channel.

Single 16gb is going to be better vs single 8gb of course. The OS already consumes an easy 3gb for itself so that doesn't leave much and it'll only influence more paging.

More than likely 2x 8gb sticks bought separately will work together. There's always a chance they might not but the chances of them working is also equally in favour.

The number one reason to go dual channel is to improve your cpu's ability. It's going to need it.

 

[Ziadul87]

Well he was comparing performance between single and dual channel.

Single 16gb is going to be better vs single 8gb of course. The OS already consumes an easy 3gb for itself so that doesn't leave much and it'll only influence more paging.

More than likely 2x 8gb sticks bought separately will work together. There's always a chance they might not but the chances of them working is also equally in favour.

The number one reason to go dual channel is to improve your cpu's ability. It's going to need it.

But the problem is, if i can't return it and it doesn't pair, what am i gonna do with it? :/
I don't think anyone these days has less than 8gb so that i can sell them and it'll be am upgrade.
As i said, I'll try my best to get paired kits.

 

[ClapTrapper]

Your experience was pretty good but the fact that you used APU just makes the whole point of comparing 8gb vs 16gb pointless. As APUs take up RAM as VRAM(as in GPU).
But I'll keep that in mind and look for 16gigs

Oh,I forgot to mention at first I replaced the single stick of 8 Gig with a single stick of 16 Gig that I had laying around. It was still slow and everything I wrote applies.
Going from single channel to dual channel made the most difference but the extra RAM certainly helped.
I have the benchmarks somewhere. If I find them I'll upload them,but I didn't need benchmarks to tell me the difference!

 

[rgd1101]

Oh,I forgot to mention at first I replaced the single stick of 8 Gig with a single stick of 16 Gig that I had laying around. It was still slow and everything I wrote applies.
Going from single channel to dual channel made the most difference but the extra RAM certainly helped.
I have the benchmarks somewhere. If I find them I'll upload them,but I didn't need benchmarks to tell me the difference!

depend on if you are running out of ram or not with just 8 GB.

 

[ClapTrapper]

depend on if you are running out of ram or not with just 8 GB.

No,I wasn't running out of RAM.

 

[rgd1101]

No,I wasn't running out of RAM.

so then in your case, 1 stick of 16 gb not going to make any different

 

[boju]

But the problem is, if i can't return it and it doesn't pair, what am i gonna do with it? :/
I don't think anyone these days has less than 8gb so that i can sell them and it'll be am upgrade.
As i said, I'll try my best to get paired kits.

Yeah man i understand. I think you'll be fine, or should be if the store is any half decent. Just explain you're worried about mixing ram and see what they say.

My experience mixing ram has been positive, though not intentional. Bought another set for troubleshooting reasons which lead me to use them all anyways because my issue wasn't ram related so why not. Mixed a set of DDR3 Gskill Snipers and Ripjaws, set of 2x8gb each total 32gb, bought 10 years apart and working just fine.

 

[Ziadul87]

Yeah man i understand. I think you'll be fine, or should be if the store is any half decent. Just explain you're worried about mixing ram and see what they say.

My experience mixing ram has been positive, though not intentional. Bought another set for troubleshooting reasons which lead me to use them all anyways because my issue wasn't ram related so why not. Mixed a set of DDR3 Gskill Snipers and Ripjaws, set of 2x8gb each total 32gb, bought 10 years apart and working just fine.

Planning on doing just that.
Anyway, you've good luck on your side. So many successful pairings. And here i am running a single stick and it turns out to be defective. -_-
And no way to claim warranty whatsoever.

 

[Ziadul87]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySnX5Iccq9M

guys, found one. 28gb vs 2 4gb comparison.

 

[boju]

In scenes where there's more activity, physics, ai, particle effects, transitions, sound, multiplayer, the more cpu oriented tasks shows dual channel as being the clear winner. There isn't a lot of difference in areas just having a stroll, it's when stuff happens that'll be the difference.

Warzone, when capacity makes a difference.

View: https://youtu.be/4rKYv01oetE

 

[boju]

I've hinted at this earlier, trying to advise the most out of your situation in the meantime, in an attempt to improve, 16gb and in dual channel will, somewhat. Just that, two core / four thread cpu isn't going to be doing you any favours in these games tbh.

 

[Ziadul87]

In scenes where there's more activity, physics, ai, particle effects, transitions, sound, multiplayer, the more cpu oriented tasks shows dual channel as being the clear winner. There isn't a lot of difference in areas just having a stroll, it's when stuff happens that'll be the difference.

Warzone, when capacity makes a difference.

View: https://youtu.be/4rKYv01oetE

Yes, that's why I'm apparently looking to buy two 8gb from this local company. Gskills are 1.5 times more expensive and I heard when it comes to RAM, the company doesn't matter much.
https://eplaza.waltonbd.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=240_508_499&product_id=4246

 

[Ziadul87]

I've hinted at this earlier, trying to advise the most out of your situation in the meantime, in an attempt to improve, 16gb and in dual channel will, somewhat. Just that, two core / four thread cpu isn't going to be doing you any favours in these games tbh.

that's another thing i hate about intel. Ryzen 1st gen mobos support a lot of the later gens. but intel mobos change socket too quickly and doesn't provide much support for later gens

 

[Endre]

Every comparison video I've looked up either has the 16 gb on dual channel vs 8gb on single channel. Or they don't mention if both are on same number of channels at all.

Like most people, I'm interested to see whether the extra memory can actually make a noticeable difference if both run on single channel.

My question is "Does 8GB Memory actually hold you back while gaming?"

So, comparisons/experience like these are appreciated:

2×4gb vs 2×8gb
Or,
1×8gb vs 1×16gb

For gaming:
8GB is a bit less than what most gamers need.
16GB is the “sweet spot”.
32GB is “overkill”.
64GB is for professionals.

Dual channel is better than single channel because of the doubling of memory bandwidth.
(2x 8GB is better than 1x 16GB).

 

[Ziadul87]

So, I paid a visit to the shop and this time around they accepted my faulty ram for RMA. But it'll take up to a month for it to return. In the meantime i am thinking of buying another 8gb kit which I'll pair with the other ram when it comes back.

Ram i sent for RMA:
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR2400mhz Cl16
16-16-16-39
https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK8GX4M1A2400C16

Ram I'm thinking of buying:
Walton Antique DDR4 2400Mhz CL16
16-16-16-43
https://waltonbd.com/ram/wdr4l0826nn3

What are the odds they'll work together?

Linus said in one of his videos,"RAM compatibility with DDR4 has come a long way to the point where basically it just freaking works"

View: https://youtu.be/bTS0ybQ3lCI


So, i guess it's worth trying?

 

[Jacob 51]

Nah, what I'm saying is, are there any games which actually benefit from just the extra memory?
From what I've heard, we are still able to play most games on 8gb Ram.

COD Warzone, COD WW2, Battlefield 5, RDR 2, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. will lag a lot on 8 GB RAM, but they will still be very playable. It depends on which settings you want to play. 8 GB Can't handle ultra or very high graphics.
12 GB RAM is sort of enough for these titles, as I benchmarked them, the only game that used more than 11 GB is COD Warzone.

If you want to keep multiple apps open at the same time, I'd suggest you get 32 GB or 16 GB.

If you cannot get more than that right now, get an 8GB module and put in another 8 GB module in the other slot in the future, to get 16 GB.