What is the recommended amount of RAM these days?

hwfkwr

Weaksauce
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Apr 9, 2007
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So, I have not built/upgraded in a while. I am in the process of upgrading from i5-2500 to Ryzen 5 1600. I got the processor, Motherboard and 16Gb RAM (2x8Gb) and it's all good.

But wondering - my old PC (that I did over 5 years ago) also had 16Gb RAM. What's the RAM recommendation these days. I do light gaming (currently have 1 1050Ti but was inspired by another thread here on [H] to look into an upgrade) and browing etc.. But my question is just more general - what's the amount of ram that is in line with current specs of processor, graphic etc?
 
I do lots of two things - CAD and programming - in my circumstance, especially with lots of browser tabs, 16gig isn't sufficient - 32 is generally ample
 
Hundreds of browser tabs is what is usually my sin. But I have two more slots available if I should feel the need for an upgrade later.
 
16gb sticks are so cheap I'd buy them. A couple years back I bought a 4x4 kit & now that seems quaint.
 
64GB or higher is great for heavy users. The more the better. I had 32GB for years and i was always maxing it out with tons of browser tabs open. If you have adblockers and addons those eat a lot of memory also. Really the more memory you can get the better in the long run and the short term ;)
 
So, I have not built/upgraded in a while. I am in the process of upgrading from i5-2500 to Ryzen 5 1600. I got the processor, Motherboard and 16Gb RAM (2x8Gb) and it's all good.

But wondering - my old PC (that I did over 5 years ago) also had 16Gb RAM. What's the RAM recommendation these days. I do light gaming (currently have 1 1050Ti but was inspired by another thread here on [H] to look into an upgrade) and browing etc.. But my question is just more general - what's the amount of ram that is in line with current specs of processor, graphic etc?
I made the same upgrade and went with 16GB as well. Based on my research if you are just gaming with light productivity 16GB is just fine.
 
I agree with 16GB being the sweet spot. I upgraded to 32GB recently due to the prices coming down and it fit more to my needs.
 
I'm not video editing or doing massive CAD simulations so 16GB is more than enough for my needs. I rarely see more than 6GB being used and I regularly fill my entire browser with tabs so small they are hard to click on. Two windows on dual displays to boot. I'm often amazed at how little RAM is being used considering there is 16GB available. Despite that, the hardware nut in me keeps thinking about adding another 16GB since prices have dropped so much...
 
8 GB is OK for light duty office-type use or super tight budget builds. I'm on the 16 GB bandwagon for most general and gaming builds. IMO 32GB is still in the category of "if you don't know why you need 32, you don't."
 
6cores x2 for smt = 12 logical cores
7zip uses 15gb per 2 logical cores for maximum compression

12/2*15 = 90 GB so i would advise 96 GB for this CPU
 
32gb on my workstation, but also spin up a bunch of test environments with VMWare Workstation / other local services. But really you should know if you need more that 16GB. Also helps if you have a shared workstation / lock vs logoff.
 
Yea, I've been using it with 16 for a few days now, and things seem fine. I can always add another two 8G sticks if the need arises - I don't think it will be soon though.
 
Yea, I've been using it with 16 for a few days now, and things seem fine. I can always add another two 8G sticks if the need arises - I don't think it will be soon though.

I've never gone over like 12gb at home. At work I have a 32GB machine, and I hit around 17-18GB peak typically. I don't really run VMs, or anything fancy, but I do have 4 different browsers due to different environment logins for the same system, many tabs in each, several remote desktops and often several office-suite apps. Somehow this adds up to around that much, but often I'm still below this. I could probably manage with 16GB..
 
The question is a bit silly. What you really need is all on you and your exact activities. Today 16GB seems to be the sweet spot for say 80-90% of home systems, but depending on software used and usage patterns you *could* benefit from having 32GB.
But it's not always "the more the better". Ryzen (and not only) doesn't play well with 4 sticks of RAM, everything else being the same. You would have to balance between more ram sticks and faster ram. Some MBs and BIOSes could worsen the matter by not allowing (easily) to pass 2133MHz with 4 sticks.
Almost the same with 2x8 vs. 2x16 although much less of an issue.
With my activity I can use up to 6-7-8 GB of RAM peak, and can run 2 VMs simultaneously for tests which happens rarely. I could "want" to run 4-5-6 VMs sometimes (once in 4 years) but is this a reason to put 4x8 sticks which I'll eventually use in 0.001% of the lifetime of the PC..
I have my server where I can offload some VMs (or anything) for such rare occasions.
 
The question is a bit silly. What you really need is all on you and your exact activities. Today 16GB seems to be the sweet spot for say 80-90% of home systems, but depending on software used and usage patterns you *could* benefit from having 32GB.
But it's not always "the more the better". Ryzen (and not only) doesn't play well with 4 sticks of RAM, everything else being the same. You would have to balance between more ram sticks and faster ram. Some MBs and BIOSes could worsen the matter by not allowing (easily) to pass 2133MHz with 4 sticks.
Almost the same with 2x8 vs. 2x16 although much less of an issue.
With my activity I can use up to 6-7-8 GB of RAM peak, and can run 2 VMs simultaneously for tests which happens rarely. I could "want" to run 4-5-6 VMs sometimes (once in 4 years) but is this a reason to put 4x8 sticks which I'll eventually use in 0.001% of the lifetime of the PC..
I have my server where I can offload some VMs (or anything) for such rare occasions.

I have heard that some people have had problems getting 4 dimms to work on early bios but on boards as Crosshair Hero VI got to 3000+ speed (Ryzen 1xxx). Supposedly the newer Ryzen (Zen+ Zen 2) there are less problems regarding this.
 
I have 48GB, 64GB was a bit too much but I was hitting the limit of 32GB when using my RAMcache. Then I found a crazy good deal, and my secondary computer also needed more ram...... so....

Not gonna lie, it was kind of a pain to get working, and I can't get it to be stable over 2800mhz, but it works fine now.

I have a few games that will utilize over 16GB just by themselves (Hello my beautiful City Skylines.) so with background stuff going on it can pretty easily be filled. (Such as watching a 4K video simultaneously.)
 
I have heard that some people have had problems getting 4 dimms to work on early bios but on boards as Crosshair Hero VI got to 3000+ speed (Ryzen 1xxx). Supposedly the newer Ryzen (Zen+ Zen 2) there are less problems regarding this.

Things have changed with current bios releases and amd chipset drivers.
I don’t think there’s much difference btw the 1st and 2nd gen chipsets.

Samsung e die 16gb 3200 dimms will absolutely work in quads at xmp on x470 and b450.
I hang out with a bunch of guys using Intel hedt gaming builds.
We all grabbed a current mobo and a 1st gen ryzen placeholder cpu.

The ram we use in x99 and x299 works fine.
My one buddy that’s really into Anthem is out of luck bc the game is more dead than BO4, but my 64gb kit worked fine on his x470/1700x build.
He just has no reason to stream or edit game clips now ;)
 
8 GB is OK for light duty office-type use or super tight budget builds. I'm on the 16 GB bandwagon for most general and gaming builds. IMO 32GB is still in the category of "if you don't know why you need 32, you don't."

I kinda miss the days of single cores and 1GB of RAM. Windows didnt watch you, youtube was just starting, and the internet wasn't a commercially run steaming pile yet.

Oh and social media wasn't a thing.
 
8gig will get you web browsing and office stuff

16gig will get you gaming, light programming and light rendering, light video editing, medium databases

32gig will get you 4K video editing, heavy duty programming, medium duty cad, and most things

64+ for heavy cad/rendering or 8k video.

If you need more, you would know why.

Considering I dabble with medium duty video, and programming 32 is what I have, and typically I don’t use all of it. On 16 I “felt” the difference from time to time
 
I run 64GB in my work desktop because I work a heavy virtualization load, otherwise 16-32 is enough for just about anything else I do. 99% of our users have 8-16.
 
The real answer is as it always has been - as much as what is supported by the system & that you can afford. Personally unless it is a laptop, I will always go for a minimum of 32GB as that gives me plenty of immediately usable RAM and I don't have to upgrade for a number of years, if at all in the life of the system (they usually last me the best part of 10 years before I really consider upgrading it completely). I would have put 64GB in my latest build but thecost of 4 x 16GB modules was too much for m pocket currently so plumped for 32GB. I don't think the store I used had many people build high end systems from what they sell as the guy asked if I was building two machines. Even a basi web browsing/light office work machine, I wouldn't drop below 16GB.

I ahve always been in the region of users that will always go for too much rather than just enough. I have always tended to install double what tends to be the general standard amount seen in OEM builds from the likes of Dell. HP. etc.

That's just my 2 cents worth and if you are happy with the amount of RAM your system contains, then who is to tell you that you need more?
 
I went from 32 to 64 on an x79 cause ddr3 is cheap, and editing a few minutes of 4k video chews through 32gb pretty quick. Next threadripper build will probably go with 64 again using 4 slots and upgrade to 128 if/when memory gets cheaper.
 
i was just getting ready to post this q.. glad I saw it...

I was just given a machine from a friend as we were talking and I told him I want to beef up my esxi box. Instead he gives me a dual xeon e5 with 256gb ram...

I was sitting here thinking that I have 48gb ram... I play games (division, siege, etc)... and edit photos in LightRoom and someday will get into video editing..

I thought... well I could put 128gb ram in my machine... cuz I can!!! LOL... then was like.. meh whats the norm for today?

so should I just keep the ram in the esxi box as I have an esxi box with dual e5 xeons and 128gb ram and it is sufficient... so

thoughts? I don't want to just put the ram in and be like.. well I have it.. but never use it..

like having a 800hp z06 and sitting in traffic!!!!
 
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