Question Memory load, how much is too much?

[Stormscurse]

How much %percentage of RAM usage considered too much and necessary to upgrade? 70%?

I have 16gb Vengence 3000 (4x4) and my RAM usage can get up to 70% when I play a game and have a browser open with many tabs. I would prefer to be able to switch back and forth without having to close the browser, and I do. But is this too much? hurting anything? Should I add more RAM?
And if I upgrade more RAM, is it better or worse to get different GB sizes? I would prefer to buy 8x2 next time to add to my 4x4. If I do this, Should the 8x2 go to the primary slots? (which are- D1-B1?) or would 4x8 work better?

I'm about to upgrade my mobo and cpu also- to AMD (cuz my X99 mobo died twice and killed my i7 and gtx970) I'm probably getting the AMD Ryzen 2600x, and Asus ROG x470F.

Thanks for any help

 

[Gam3r01]

99%.
RAM is only an issue when you dont have enough, not when you almost dont have enough.
Mixing kits is hit or miss, only kits sold together are guaranteed to work.

 

[CountMike]

Unused AM is wasted RAM, unless you regularly hit 100%, no extra RAM would help.

 

[InvalidError]

Unused AM is wasted RAM, unless you regularly hit 100%, no extra RAM would help.

Very little RAM goes unused in Windows, most of what isn't being explicitly used by software gets used for caching the file system to reduce disk IO. The closer you get to 100% memory allocation to software, the more time Windows will spend preemptively writing stuff to swap so it can reclaim memory on short order and you also lose caching. Gets miserable really quick.

When you are used to no swapping and having plenty of spare RAM to keep most frequently used stuff cached like I am with 32GB RAM (15GB currently in-use, another 15GB cached), getting to 100% memory allocation to applications sounds like an unfathomable proposition - I've been there before with my Core2 and 8GB RAM, 32GB on my i5 was to make sure I never go there again.

 

[mtracy1991]

Hi Stormscurse,

I'd roll with the 2x8 GB sticks. I have to improve my RAM from 16GB to 32GB. I run heavily modded Fallout games and memory leakage costs my PC to go from 70% to max, my PC LAGS with its processes; whether its opening a new webpage, closing an excel sheet.

 

[ElectrO_90]

My Firefox sits about 6GB right now, and I always play games with it open.
Plus if you are using too much ram it will go to a swap file.
Easiest way to know is to disable the swap file - that way everything stays in RAM and you will know if you need more or not.

 

[CountMike]

Windows 10 uses part of memory as stand by and partly compresses it so it may not be seen as free. Beside obvious message "Out of memory" (which is rarely seen in W10), best indication is to look at swap file and it's size if left on auto. Windows XP used to recommend 2.5 times the size of installed RAM, W7 same as installed RAM and w10 defaults to 2.5GB.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Easiest way to know is to disable the swap file - that way everything stays in RAM and you will know if you need more or not.

You should never disable swap file. It is necessary for normal operation virtual memory subsystem.

 

[ElectrO_90]

You should never disable swap file. It is necessary for normal operation virtual memory subsystem.

You didn't read what I said. He wants to know if he is using too much RAM - so therefore, if the SWAP File is disabled he would know how much ram is really being used on his system.

If the system still runs on no swap file, then the ram is more then enough and generally 16GB is more than enough for most people. If he starts to run into problems.

So please READ the post before replying

 

[SkyNetRising]

You didn't read what I said. He wants to know if he is using too much RAM - so therefore, if the SWAP File is disabled he would know how much ram is really being used on his system.

Ok, I didn't explain it properly. Sorry about that.

Without pagefile system will run into memory errors long before ram is exhausted.
So disabling pagefile serves no purpose (other than introducing those errors and paralyzing system because of this).