Will a current PC gamer benefit from 16 GB instead of 8 GB RAM?


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I have heard that, for gamers, 8GB is the max recommended. After that invest in a better video card with more memory built into that. You will get more out of the video card than the additional 8GB of RAM.

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I went to 16gb because memory was cheap enough and I could at the time.

It's more future proof / running virtual machines I've seen the benefit.

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I have 32GB but most games won't benefit from it because they are 32-bit. (4GB max)

It's useful for VMs though... I often run up to 5 virtual machines at the same time simulating networks (for my work)

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most games won't benefit from it because they are 32-bit. (4GB max)

that should hopefully be changing now with future games now that the new consoles are out :)

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Why are most games 32-bit (going by the previous comment), given that Id wager a good proportion of gaming systems being sold now are 64-bit and have 4GB+ RAM. 

it was due to the memory limitations of the prev gen consoles. the devs didn't find it worth wile to make them 64bit for PC when the consoles didn't have that much ram to work with

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I have 32GB but most games won't benefit from it because they are 32-bit. (4GB max)

It's useful for VMs though... I often run up to 5 virtual machines at the same time simulating networks (for my work)

Actually Battlefield 4 has a 64bit version or at least there is an icon that BF4 created on my desktop that says its 64bit.

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Why are most games 32-bit (going by the previous comment), given that Id wager a good proportion of gaming systems being sold now are 64-bit and have 4GB+ RAM. 

I think the 2 big factors is that consoles were 32 bit, which has changed now with the Xbox One and PS4, and 32 bit is compatible with 64 bit but not the other way around. Now that most PC's have 64 bit OS's and at least 4Gb RAM and new consoles support it I think more and more games will start to be made 64 bit. 

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I built a new rig when the 4th gen Core's came out last year, got my first pay from a new job the same week they went on sale so I blew it all on my machine :P I went for 16gb just because I had money to burn.

 

There's something weird, ethereal even about having so much memory... nothing ever slows down... I can run three or four VMs at once and it's fine. I don't game much on my PC, but as a developer who has to run a mess of VMs to test code across different platforms it really is pretty awesome.

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the 4GB RAM is not enough for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Everquest 2, and other online video games. The 64-bit is best thing for gaming on the computer. I played Star Wars or Everquest on this laptop has 4GB, and it keep crash due to 99 percent of Physical Memory on the Windows Task Manager, that's why I am getting a new computer with 12GB RAM soon. I will  be very happy to play games on the new computer soon.

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Keep in mind that Windows will pre-load data as it analyzes your usage. Games will load faster over time with more memory due to prefetching.

It won't help with in-game framerates, but getting into the game from the desktop (or Start Screen) will be faster.

-Forjo

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FPS is unaffected by memory unless the game is having to load assets from I/O into memory and then send them off to the GPU... which is more commonly known as "A loading screen" and typically isn't done on the fly. This also assumes that the game doesn't have a dedicated gl thread which would be unaffected by I/O thread.

 

Having more memory is all about running more applications at the same time and those applications running more smoothly. This is because these applications can store more data into memory that the application will access and therefore avoids the "I/O trap". Even with SSDs and the increased speed they offer, RAM is still that much faster.

 

Even if it doesn't seem like having the extra RAM is beneficial, its always a good thing. Especially for developers like me.

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Assuming they run 1680x1050/1920x1080 games in maximum detail.

 

No current game will exceed 8GB at 1920x1080.  I doubt any in the current future will.

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I have 32GB but most games won't benefit from it because they are 32-bit. (4GB max)

It's useful for VMs though... I often run up to 5 virtual machines at the same time simulating networks (for my work)

Whilst this is true, I believe a game with a 32-bit engine can allocate 4 GB solely to itself, so 8 GB is still an advantage as Windows, background programs/processes etc. can freely use the other 4 GB.
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Actually Battlefield 4 has a 64bit version or at least there is an icon that BF4 created on my desktop that says its 64bit.

BF4 and NFS Rivals (both using Frostbite 3) have x64 executables - Titanfall (modified Source engine) is x64-only.  However, BF4 and NFS Rivals require only 4 GB of RAM, while Titanfall requires just half that.

The biggest reason to increase RAM is the rest of the operating system - not the game itself.

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just get 16gb of ram  cause when ya do multi-tasking while gaming   more ram helps   16gb is what i have had for couple of years now  why go 8 when 16 is just better  cause rember Windows itself uses  ram as well  

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Disable page file and 8GB is OK.

This is terrible advice. If your program ever needs more memory than is physically available, it will crash miserably, taking with it all your unsaved work.

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This is terrible advice. If your program ever needs more memory than is physically available, it will crash miserably, taking with it all your unsaved work.

With 8GB ram it almost never happens. There is a warning about low memory before app crash. I have 8GB and low memory occurs only when app has memory leak.

 

Also I lowered SSD I/O and prolong its life.

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No, you won't see a benefit in 99% of the games you play. People may say 'future proof' but really it's just unnecessary spending as later on if the requirement should present itself so too should the RAM be more affordable.

 

"Future proof", is just another way of saying buy it now (while it costs more) for no reason other than assuming you'll be too lazy to buy it later or it will no longer be accessible in the market. If you can no longer buy the requisite RAM for your motherboard in stores then the lack of RAM your computer has will not be your problem....

 

Stick with 8GB. Those who need more know why they need more and don't need to ask.

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With 8GB ram it almost never happens. There is a warning about low memory before app crash. I have 8GB and low memory occurs only when app has memory leak.

 

Also I lowered SSD I/O and prolong its life.

You do realize that disabling page file means less RAM is available for your game, since Windows has to keep everything inside physical RAM? How is this supposed to help for people who only have 8GB? If a game requires close to 8GB, it will likely crash without page file, and run beautifully with. If it requires significantly less, it will sit entirely in physical RAM in both cases.

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