Is 8GB RAM enough?

[BeMu]

I'm looking at a getting a gaming PC for roughly £700-£750 and 16GB of RAM is pushing up the price so I was wondering whether 8GB is still enough.

 

[Dunlop0078]

Someone will be laughing for sure, remember when X58 came out? There were hundreds saying no one would ever even have a need for 6GB, let alone the 24GB it could carry, or 1155 2x2GB was the most common purchase because 'you'll never need to use more than 4GB of RAM in a computer', many still have those same rigs and have doubled or even tripled, quadrupled the DRAM in it. Think I mentioned earlier even prebuilts normally come with 6-8GB these days. Same with decent laptops.....for anyone to think 8GB will suffice even for gaming (unless you stick with old games) for years to come is a little ludicrous.

Thats a different scenario im am saying you will not need more than 8gb for gaming in the next 3-5 years. Of course systems that do other ram heavy tasks need more than 8gb but for a gaming computer you do not, yet. And i did not say the word "never" like you keep implying of course games will use more than 8gb eventually but I think that is a ways down the road. The battlefront beta got my system using a total of 4.4gb of system ram and about 1.8 to 1.9gb of VRAM on high settings 1080p btw.

 

[Tradesman1]

So you think games are just going to go stagnant and not follow past trends, or advances in GPUs/CPUs or anything else, sort of like saying 1600 DRAM is fine for 3-5 years, yet new systems, (DDR4), now start at 2133 DRAM...everybody is entitled to their opinion

 

[Dunlop0078]

So you think games are just going to go stagnant and not follow past trends, or advances in GPUs/CPUs or anything else, sort of like saying 1600 DRAM is fine for 3-5 years, yet new systems, (DDR4), now start at 2133 DRAM...everybody is entitled to their opinion

No I think most modern games barely use more 4gb on their own, so it is going to be a while before they start using 6 or 8gb by themselves never mind more than that. The time will come when we need more than 8gb of ram for games I just think thats going to be while considering how little system ram is consumed now. Just because system ram usage seems to be staying the same does not mean game development is stagnant, like i said VRAM usages is what is increasing for example when you turn up texture quality, turn on some anti aliasing, play at high resolutions, in every game I have seen vram usage goes up system ram stays the same.

 

[Tradesman1]

VRAM huh, like with cards running 8 and 12 of VRAM (which runs faster than system DRAM). So if you want to use that 8 or 12 GB of VRAM in the card to run all these higher textures and all that - how do you propose they feed the card and it's VRAM? The feed comes from the DRAM in the rig - good example the newer nVidia cards (the Titan Z) w/ 12 GB of DRAM for at least 12/16GB of system memory to be able to feed it. And you in part summed it up saying - "I think MOST modern games", so you are defining things down to your experiences and a percentage of the games...not everyone want's to play 'those' games, many want the newest, the more complex, etc that do require more DRAM....And once again just looking back, things have evolved and will continue to, and developers will and are, depending more and more on DRAM. It's evident as you pointed out where VRAM continues to rise. Thes old 'all you'll ever need/use" statement have been being made for over a decade and every couple or three years or so, the people making them are proven wrong - I even know of a few who were saying 2GB then when 4GB sort of became the standard, they said you'd never use more than 4GB, and yet again with 8GB (a couple of them have already moved to 16GB, but they were vehement each time, that no one would ever need more

 

[Dunlop0078]

VRAM huh, like with cards running 8 and 12 of VRAM (which runs faster than system DRAM). So if you want to use that 8 or 12 GB of VRAM in the card to run all these higher textures and all that - how do you propose they feed the card and it's VRAM? The feed comes from the DRAM in the rig - good example the newer nVidia cards (the Titan Z) w/ 12 GB of DRAM for at least 12/16GB of system memory to be able to feed it. And you in part summed it up saying - "I think MOST modern games", so you are defining things down to your experiences and a percentage of the games...not everyone want's to play 'those' games, many want the newest, the more complex, etc that do require more DRAM....And once again just looking back, things have evolved and will continue to, and developers will and are, depending more and more on DRAM. It's evident as you pointed out where VRAM continues to rise. Thes old 'all you'll ever need/use" statement have been being made for over a decade and every couple or three years or so, the people making them are proven wrong - I even know of a few who were saying 2GB then when 4GB sort of became the standard, they said you'd never use more than 4GB, and yet again with 8GB (a couple of them have already moved to 16GB, but they were vehement each time, that no one would ever need more

Im just going by the facts, I am yet to see a game use more than say 5gb to 5.5gb of ram on its own and I dont know of any near future games that will use more, if you have I would love to know what that game or games are. Even at 4k all games I have ever seen never use more than 4 to 4.5gb of VRAM so the requirement of 8gb or more of VRAM is also still a ways out and yes I used the statement "i have ever seen" because that's all I can really draw from, if you have information that isn't speculation about new games that will be using enough DRAM to require a pc gamer to have 16gb of ram to play at max settings I would love to hear because I know of nothing . Im not using the "'all you'll ever need/use" statement I know it will be necessary eventually but from the trend in games i have seen it wont be this year, not next year, and probably not the year after that. Thats just my theory from what I have seen im not claiming its fact.

 

[Tradesman1]

Trends? That's been covered, for gaming 2GB to 4 to 8 in about 6/7 years. 8GB has now been the norm for well over a year now, so doubling 3 times times or about every 2.5 years or so, yet you've stated 8GB is good for the next 5 years.... It's fine to look at today, but you can't simply judge what will happen by what you 'see' today, as I've said numerous times, you need to look ahead, you can expect things to continue to grow use-wise which the mobo, DRAM, GPU, CPU makers are all expecting, or can can sit and say nothing is going to change. Just looking at the strides that have been made with electronics in the last couple years makes it a no-brainer that everything is going to go up.... including game requirements

 

[Dunlop0078]

Trends? That's been covered, for gaming 2GB to 4 to 8 in about 6/7 years. 8GB has now been the norm for well over a year now, so doubling 3 times times or about every 2.5 years or so, yet you've stated 8GB is good for the next 5 years.... It's fine to look at today, but you can't simply judge what will happen by what you 'see' today, as I've said numerous times, you need to look ahead, you can expect things to continue to grow use-wise which the mobo, DRAM, GPU, CPU makers are all expecting, or can can sit and say nothing is going to change. Just looking at the strides that have been made with electronics in the last couple years makes it a no-brainer that everything is going to go up.... including game requirements

I just dont see it, I have tried to look ahead and still dont see it obviously you cant either or you would have given an example I think we are going to hit a slow patch at 8gb, since 6gb of ram is still enough for every game I play why would I need 16gb? Maybe some gamers do but neither you or me can come up with game present or near future that does, not even close in fact. You also have to take into consideration the existence of consoles meaning its unlikely any PC ports will use more than 8gb since consoles only have 8gb, or course they can add slightly better textures and effects to the port but it still is just a port dont expect it to use a whole lot more ram. Pc exclusive games might, but again I know of none present or near future. I said 3-5 years meaning in 3 years a gamer could probably make use of 16gb and about 5 years before it is necessary. Again I do not think "nothing is going to change" but if were talking strictly DRAM usage in games I think its going to be slower than you think.

 

[Tradesman1]

Once again, you are looking at today and games you play, people have reported running out of memory at 8GB w/ Dying lIght and how much smoother it runs with 12/16GB. Since the statement was 8GB will be fine for 3-5, I'll stick with yes, at lower settings, even though most want to be able to utilize all the eye candy that higher settings can provide, as is also indicated by the increases in multi monitor use, higher MHz monitors, higher resolutions etc.

 

[Dunlop0078]

People reported high memory usage in dying light before a recent patch because of a memory leak. It has since been fixed. It now uses about 5gb total in my system on high, I was playing it last month. Again turning up in game settings or playing at higher resolutions does not use more DRAM it uses more VRAM and before we go in a circle again I know DRAM requirements are tied to VRAM but if im not mistaking an 8gb VRAM gpu can run with 8gb of DRAM and I dont know of a single game that will use more than 5gb of VRAM at 4k totally maxed out so truly needing 8gb of VRAM is still a ways down the road, and I feel the same way about 16gb of DRAM. I guess we will see, I dont mean to sound like broken record but I truly believe the requirement of 16gb to play games at max settings is a few years away and unless you can show me a current game or future game that contradicts that your not going to change my mind.