Why I Won’t Use Less than 32GB of RAM

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I feel old. "Will it run Crysis" was actually happening at a time when computers couldn't actually have more than 3GB installed at a time
🙄

Actually on that note... can we all just marvel for a second at the fact that Windows XP came out on 300mhz processors with 64MB of RAM and it still flew more than a stock system without an SSD today. Theres a PC in my seniors' with 64MB and a Cyrix CPU running SP1 (offline). Even after you say it you don't quite realise that you should be able to fit 500 instances of 64MB XP on 32GB. Five Hundred. Linux was around back then too... what bloated everything so much??

Someone call VMWare and ask them where their tech showcase of 100 VMs on a standard system are. I see all this potential and nobody using it.
 
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Yep, in the present ram market - have to agree and it bears moere attention.
Some related issues I dont think u touched on are:

its not just about adding up usage numbers - i suspect windows loves having it, & will find uses for it if available, & increasingly so over time. Just because an app uses x amount of memory on 16GB, doesnt mean it will not profitably use more on a 32GB rig.

disk cache? gpu cache extension via 32GB/s pcie 4?

re budget allocation, pc prospects can face a choice between fast 16GB kits vs "slow" 2x16GB 32GB kits for similar money - I see 2x16GB hynix 3200 cl16 kits for $121 on newegg - not a big stretch above many 16GB kits. Which would serve the user better during its life - speed? or quantity?
 
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msroadkill612 said:
Yep, in the present ram market - have to agree and it bears moere attention.
Some related issues I dont think u touched on are:

its not just about adding up usage numbers - i suspect windows loves having it, & will find uses for it if available, & increasingly so over time. Just because an app uses x amount of memory on 16GB, doesnt mean it will not profitably use more on a 32GB rig.

disk cache? gpu cache extension via 32GB/s pcie 4?

re budget allocation, pc prospects can face a choice between fast 16GB kits vs "slow" 2x16GB 32GB kits for similar money - I see 2x16GB hynix 3200 cl16 kits for $121 on newegg - not a big stretch above many 16GB kits. Which would serve the user better during its life - speed? or quantity?
Click to expand...

that will depend on the user. if the average user is just looking for speed all they need to do is buy a cheap 250GB-500GB SSD drive while staying with 16GB of ram
 
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genz said:
I feel old. "Will it run Crysis" was actually happening at a time when computers couldn't actually have more than 3GB installed at a time
🙄

Actually on that note... can we all just marvel for a second at the fact that Windows XP came out on 300mhz processors with 64MB of RAM and it still flew more than a stock system without an SSD today. Theres a PC in my seniors' with 64MB and a Cyrix CPU running SP1 (offline). Even after you say it you don't quite realise that you should be able to fit 500 instances of 64MB XP on 32GB. Five Hundred. Linux was around back then too... what bloated everything so much??

Someone call VMWare and ask them where their tech showcase of 100 VMs on a standard system are. I see all this potential and nobody using it.
Click to expand...


from the looks of it crysis will run on a ryzen 3 or core i3 ( 10th gen) CPU now
 
It depends on your build and what you're running on it in my opinion. A primary gaming and general-use/Office 2016 workstation with 16GB of the fastest RAM a motherboard will accept on a fast Intel or AMD build is the sweet spot. On the other hand I know a engineer that runs CAD software and has lots open at the same time and they use 64 GB of RAM.
 
Buy a dedicated 16/32GB low latency Optane module and just set your Pagefile to it as Windows managed.

Those that are getting 'ram warnings' I bat have their pagefile set manually way too small. Back pre Windows 8 that was fine, I used to set just a 256MB one, no problem. But 10 pushes so much more around to cache nowadays. So put your Pagefile on a dedicated fast drive and let Windows manage it.

Windows can then throw as much 'Commit Size' (yep that's what pushes things now) and not break a sweat.

Cheaper! It's what I did with my other halfs machine. It's got 16GB but the Optane was just £18! Not heard a peep about Ram issues.
 
Like everything, it depends on what you use it for. I don't game at all, but I do compose music. My rig is an i7 that came with 16 GB, but I upgraded to 32 and that has made a big difference. I would imagine that video-related stuff would also benefit from that much. Music creation definitely does. Although people get by on less. There again, it depends on the user. I do orchestral stuff, but if you're doing band stuff, 16 is probably fine.
 
With the prices at what they are then 32GB makes a lot of sense....Just a while back we had absurd prices for RAM and now 2 x 8GB can be had for as little as $65 so if you have the money the extra RAM is more than welcome....might as well buy now as you never know when it will sky rocket again...
 
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How much RAM you need largely depends on what you do on your computer. The 16GB sweetspot is mainly due to gaming. 8GB comes up short when running triple A titles. So 16GB is better. However, it doesn't mean 16GB is enough for everything and it may also be overkill for some.

For those running VMs, 16GB is definitely not enough, even 32GB may not be enough. For someone who just watch youtube videos...... even 8GB is more than adequate.

My own PC has 16GB. Its more than enough for me. Because all I did is to play games...1 game running at a time. So having 32GB doesn't really benefit me. However, my friend is a content creater and he needs 32GB for his PC. So yea, different needs.
 
bignastyid said:
Mixing ram is not a suggested practice. Best to buy in a kit/set and there hasn't been 24gb kits since triple channel made it's short appearance.
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It may not be suggested but it is working for me. I had a system with a Corsair Vengeance 2x4 kit already installed and two slots open. I bought a Corsair Vengeance 2x8 kit (I ensured it was the same model #) and installed in empty slots and it runs well for my needs. Now, if I were building a new computer (something I'm considering) I would go with the 32GB kit with all modules at the same capacity.
 
It doesn't really sound like you thought your response through.

8GB is the minimum for gaming and it actually is enough. 16GB is plenty for gaming and you don't need more.

However!

As soon as we are talking about day to day things change.

I have several computers. My 2011 based Xeon has 64GB of memory because Registered ECC ram is essentially free. When it isn't free it certainly is cheap. I usually fill any DDR3 RDIMM capable computer to the brim with 8GB dimms.

My day to day computer is a 4.8GHz i5-7600k and it's running 2 16Gb ripjaws and I can tell you that amount of ram is a must! Because when I use my wife's computer which has 16GB of ram it becomes a nightmare if I am running a ton of tabs which is how research and learning usually goes. I'll have 2-3 browsers running with tons of tabs open. I have to actually run a plug in that suspends tabs after 10 min so I can go back to them and they will still be there but if I have been away too long they won't take up resources.

Telling a content creator they are wrong and don't know what they are doing is silly especially when they explain that the time it saves them is worth the $60. They are just explaining why some people may want to use 32GB. They give a performance reason too.

Personally when I do research on what to buy I just want to make sure I'm not wasting money. If you tell me 32GB isn't faster and will work your controller harder then I'll run 16GB but I already saw for myself that this time around I needed 32GB. It's nice to know that it's faster for gaming too but gaming really has taken a back seat lately!
 
NightHawkRMX said:
Quite frankly, I upgraded to 16gb ram from 8gb. Really havent noticed a difference in my tasks including gaming.
Click to expand...
It makes a considerable difference in games where you periodically have to zoom between different locations like RPGs and other open-world games - keeps the last couple of locations cached in RAM for almost instantaneous reload times when teleporting, same with level reload times, though not as useful in real-time multi-player strategy games where your load screen ends when the slowest player's computer is ready.
 
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