i5 8400 - How much ram would be best for gaming?

[bbta223]

I currently have a MSI Z390 A-Pro Motherboard with i5 8400 with 32 GB Optane. Graphics card is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. However, I currently have 8GB for memory (HyperX FURY DDR4-2666 (2x4GB)). This is my first gaming PC and I will use it to stream online, I'm pretty new and don't have much knowledge in building PC's so if you'd like to explain, I would not mind at all. I've looked around on forums and some say that 8400 can hold up to 64 GB RAM but it also depends on your processor. I just wanted to know what would be best in my case. I was leaning for 32 GB.

 

[ARAN_108]

16GB for gaming these days.
The RAM dual channeling(Using both RAM simultaneously, increases RAM bandwidth and better performance) depends on your mobo. Some MOBOs just straight away reject mixing different sized RAMs, and some support dual channeling both RAM to a restricted amount e.g. if you have one 16GB and one 8GB stick the mobo will organize 16GB from both sticks as dual channel and use the rest as single channel.

You have to go through the data sheet of mobo to get a clear idea. It's ideal to get both RAM with equal capacity and model.

 

[Captaingadget]

You would be ok with 8GB but 16GB would be better and be ok for several years, whereas you might be struggling in the future with just 8GB RAM

 

[bbta223]

16GB for gaming these days.
The RAM dual channeling(Using both RAM simultaneously, increases RAM bandwidth and better performance) depends on your mobo. Some MOBOs just straight away reject mixing different sized RAMs, and some support dual channeling both RAM to a restricted amount e.g. if you have one 16GB and one 8GB stick the mobo will organize 16GB from both sticks as dual channel and use the rest as single channel.

You have to go through the data sheet of mobo to get a clear idea. It's ideal to get both RAM with equal capacity and model.

Thank you for the answer! The MSI Z390 A-Pro apparently supports dual channeling, I will go for 16 GB if i am on a tighter budget when upgrading. If I wanted to do 2 of the 16 GB RAM sticks for 32 GB (because I also will do video editing with adobe and photoshop next to gaming/streaming) is that possible? If so, what sticks would be compatible with this motherboard and processor?

 

[Captaingadget]

16GB for gaming these days.
The RAM dual channeling(Using both RAM simultaneously, increases RAM bandwidth and better performance) depends on your mobo. Some MOBOs just straight away reject mixing different sized RAMs, and some support dual channeling both RAM to a restricted amount e.g. if you have one 16GB and one 8GB stick the mobo will organize 16GB from both sticks as dual channel and use the rest as single channel.

You have to go through the data sheet of mobo to get a clear idea. It's ideal to get both RAM with equal capacity and model.

Thank you for the answer! The MSI Z390 A-Pro apparently supports dual channeling, I will go for 16 GB if i am on a tighter budget when upgrading. If I wanted to do 2 of the 16 GB RAM sticks for 32 GB (because I also will do video editing with adobe and photoshop next to gaming/streaming) is that possible? If so, what sticks would be compatible with this motherboard and processor?

Here's the full list:
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z390-A-PRO#support-mem-3

 

[bbta223]

16GB for gaming these days.
The RAM dual channeling(Using both RAM simultaneously, increases RAM bandwidth and better performance) depends on your mobo. Some MOBOs just straight away reject mixing different sized RAMs, and some support dual channeling both RAM to a restricted amount e.g. if you have one 16GB and one 8GB stick the mobo will organize 16GB from both sticks as dual channel and use the rest as single channel.

You have to go through the data sheet of mobo to get a clear idea. It's ideal to get both RAM with equal capacity and model.

Thank you for the answer! The MSI Z390 A-Pro apparently supports dual channeling, I will go for 16 GB if i am on a tighter budget when upgrading. If I wanted to do 2 of the 16 GB RAM sticks for 32 GB (because I also will do video editing with adobe and photoshop next to gaming/streaming) is that possible? If so, what sticks would be compatible with this motherboard and processor?

Here's the full list:
https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/support/Z390-A-PRO#support-mem-3

Thank you so much for the help!! 😀

 

[ARAN_108]

Get 2x16GB RAM, your motherboard is good. You might have to just upgrade the CPU in future if you need and put a i7 9700K or so.