How Much RAM Do Gamers Need? 8GB vs. 16GB vs. 32GB

Today we're looking into how much RAM you lot need to play the latest and greatest gaming titles released this yr. Virtually this time each year nosotros assault a memory chapters quest and last year's expedition lead the states to conclude that for gamers 4GB is out, 8GB was the bare minimum, 16GB is the sweet spot and 32GB is overkill. With that, for the 2018 version we're dropping the 4GB configuration and focusing on eight, sixteen and 32GB capacities.

Every bit the championship suggests the accent is on gaming. For general computing, it will really depend on the applications and even then, what you're doing with said awarding. Premiere Pro using 4K footage eats a lot of RAM, and this is where having 64GB or more than volition get you tangible benefits. So it'south best to research the requirements for the particular applications and workloads you intend on using.

When information technology comes to game testing, properly measuring the impact of RAM chapters is no piece of cake task as there are many factors at play. We like to briefly discuss some of things for amend understanding of our methodology and the challenges faced when testing system memory. Challenge #1: picking the right hardware. The graphics card yous use can influence how much memory y'all'll need for shine gameplay, and in worst case scenarios the speed of your storage tin as well impact operation.

For example, last year we found using the GTX 1060 3GB would often result in higher organization memory usage compared to the 6GB model. This is considering at times you'll run out of VRAM, forcing the operating organization to tap into system memory. If you lot run out of arrangement memory, some game avails are moved to your local storage device, though at this indicate the performance hit will exist and so significant that the game will almost certainly become unplayable.

In other words, testing with an RTX 2080 Ti and its 11GB VRAM buffer along with a super snappy NVMe SSD, probably isn't the all-time way to make up one's mind how much organisation memory the average gamer requires. Nosotros'd also assume if you lot take a $1,000+ graphics carte on your organisation, buying 16 GB of RAM or more is not an issue. Although even then, the assay is part of the fun hither.

Simply at that place are still more factors to consider. The quality settings used on games tin can also have a big touch. For example, if you employ a GTX 1060 3GB and are happy turning textures downwards to a medium quality setting, then that will reduce how much data is offloaded to the system memory.

Rendering 4K video on Premiere eats RAM, no doubt. But that'south a completely different kind of test.

Taking all this into account, we've tested a number of dissimilar hardware configurations and nosotros'll be showing the touch this has on functioning. Also, during our testing last year we discovered some other issue with trying to show the fps divergence between the various hardware configurations. Typically our benchmark passes run for threescore seconds and are run multiple times, and so written report a iii-run average. This ways the system has a take chances to cache the pass. So while the results from the beginning run might see a shockingly low 0.1% or ane% frame time figure, this can exist improved dramatically on the second run, and then once more on the third. And so displaying the three run average can be misleading.

The best solution for this was to run each criterion in one case, then reset the entire system, load the game from zero and run the next laissez passer. The criterion pass is actually 90 seconds in total just I only written report the frame rates for the concluding lx seconds. This mimics more than what you lot'd see when playing the game, for the initial 5-10 seconds the game can still exist loading assets every bit you play, and this can cause frame drops, fifty-fifty on computers with sufficient organisation memory.

Finally, benchmarks aside, a good indicator for working out how much retentiveness you'll need to play the latest games is to only monitor memory resource allotment. It'south not foolproof just it gives us a pretty skilful idea of how much system retentiveness a game requires to avoid any slowdowns.

Taking a Look at Memory Allocation

With that explanation out of our way, we're first going to bear witness you memory allocation in a few popular titles. All these gameplay tests were conducted with a Cadre i9-9900K, 32GB of DDR4-3400 memory and a GeForce GTX 2080 Ti. The test organization has a number of applications running in the background such as Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battle Net, Epic Games Launcher, Discord, Chrome with a few tabs open, MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner and Fraps.

We should too note that all testing has been conducted at 4K using the highest possible quality preset with the RTX 2080 Ti.

Starting with Assassinator'south Creed Odyssey, we see around 29% of the 32GB allocated. Throughout our testing in this title RAM usage hovered between 9.three - ix.5 GB with VRAM usage at around 8.1 - 8.two GB. This suggests that systems with just 8GB of RAM could see some performance problems related to system memory.

Next we tested Battlefield V multiplayer using the 64-thespian mode. Here RAM usage got upwardly to around 33% hitting 10.8GB and basically never dropped below 10.4GB. VRAM allocation was likewise very high, holding steady at 9.7GB on the Narvik map. So we accept another title that will probable meet stuttering issues with 8GB of memory.

Call of Duty Black Ops 4 turns out is a serious memory pig. At least based on the small amount of testing nosotros've done, RAM allocation held steady at 12GB, while VRAM usage was high at ~10.5GB making this the well-nigh retentiveness enervating title tested still.

F1 2018 is a title that you'll get away using 8GB of memory as we saw system retention usage peak at 8.5 GB. It'due south right on the border but y'all'll probably become away with that. At 4K VRAM usage was hitting 7.5 GB only any GPU that can handle this resolution will have at least 8GB of VRAM anyway.

On Far Cry 5 we saw RAM usage hitting 9.8GB, though VRAM was reasonably low at five.8GB. At almost 10GB of system memory you're starting to get a fleck far beyond what 8GB of system memory volition let you get abroad with.

Hitman 2 pushed full system retentiveness allocation over 10GB for the entirety of our test and peaked at effectually ten.3GB. VRAM usage was similar to what we saw in Far Cry 5 at around 5.6GB.

Just Cause 4 was very light on memory though Avalanche'southward Apex game engine is seriously showing its historic period in 2018. Less than 7 GB of RAM was allocated in total and less than 5 GB of VRAM was consumed.

Monster Hunter Earth is a title that should work but fine with 8GB of RAM, hither we saw allocation peak at 8.3 GB. VRAM usage was besides depression at under 5GB.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is certainly ane of the best looking games released this twelvemonth and while it uses a reasonable amount of system retention, it's certainly not extreme at effectually 9 GB. VRAM usage was comparably college over 8GB consistently.

Star Wars Battlefront II is a memory intensive title equally we saw RAM allocation pushed to ~ten.5GB. VRAM usage was also quite high at effectually 8.3GB.

Foreign Brigade is a well optimised title that runs very well on a broad range of hardware. Therefore it wasn't surprising to notice that the memory requirements aren't high. 7.5GB of RAM was allocated though at the 4K resolution VRAM usage did hit half-dozen.5GB, certainly nothing extreme at that place.

Last in line we have Vermintide 2 which consumed most 9GB of RAM, while VRAM usage was relatively low at 5.5 GB. This is probably a title y'all could play with 8 GB of RAM only you would exist right on the edge.

That'due south our await at retentiveness allocation using loftier-end hardware in a dozen titles released this year. Let's at present have a closer await at the functioning numbers when testing with Battlefield V, Hitman 2 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

Benchmarks

We've split this in 2 parts: offset with high-end GPUs at 1440p and 4K, and then with mid-range GPUs at 1080p and 1440p. For this part of the testing we're using a Core i9-9900K and the only hardware alter other than the graphics card is manifestly the retention.

We're using Squad's T-Forcefulness Dark: for the 8GB configuration we have a kit with two 4GB sticks using CL15 timings. Then basically the same kit just with 8GB sticks for a 16GB capacity. For the 32GB testing we're populating four slots with 8GB sticks. Team Group does offer a 32GB kit with two 16GB modules, just they utilise looser timings then nosotros opted against using that retentiveness.

Using a RTX 2080 Ti, Vega 64 Liquid and GTX 1070, we see about no difference in performance betwixt the 16GB and 32GB configurations on Battlefield V at 1440p. Given what we just saw when looking at the on-screen statistics this shouldn't surprise anyone.

However, when nosotros reduce memory to 8GB we start to run into a reduction in operation when looking at frame time performance. The average frame rates come across no more a ii fps change, but if we look at the 1% depression and in detail the 0.1% low results, we see that frame rates have become less consistent.

For the RTX 2080 Ti we see upward to a 7% drop in frame fourth dimension functioning, viii% for Vega 64 and seven% for the GTX 1070.

Moving to 4K, the RTX 2080 Ti's frame time outcome suffers by 5%, merely more than interestingly there is some reduction when going from 32GB to 16GB which was unexpected. Furthermore, the 0.one% low result is reduced by 10% when going from 32GB downwardly to 8GB. However, for the more heavily GPU spring configurations using Vega 64 and the GTX 1070 we see that the divergence in RAM has little impact even at 4K.

The Hitman 2 results are interesting for a few reasons. The RTX 2080 Ti consistently saw a performance reduction as nosotros lowered the amount of available system retentivity, and it wasn't just frame fourth dimension performance that suffered. We saw previously that this game was retention hungry, simply 16GB of RAM should more than cover it, and then information technology's interesting to see the 32GB configuration offering 4-v% more than performance.

This performance proceeds with the 32GB configuration wasn't seen with either Vega 64 or the GTX 1070.

Vega 64 delivered the same performance beyond the board, while the GTX 1070 saw the same performance with 16 and 32GB, and frame time functioning starts to suffer with 8GB. Here we saw an 11% drib off for the 0.1% low operation.

Moving to 4K, we meet better performance for the RTX 2080 Ti when paired with 32 GB RAM again, with frame time performance additional by equally much every bit vii%.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider showed the states that with the RTX 2080 Ti results using either 16 or 32GB or RAM were much the same. However, with just 8GB the performance hit was massive, though you wouldn't know it solely by looking at the average frame charge per unit. The hit to frame time performance was substantial and at times the stuttering in-game was very noticeable. Here we saw upward to a 32% drop for the 0.i% low event.

As before, the hit for Vega 64 isn't equally farthermost where we saw an 11% functioning reduction, while the striking to the GTX 1070 was equally much as 23%.

Benchmarks Part 2

Previously nosotros establish that lower-end graphics cards featuring less VRAM tend to endure the nigh when running with limited system memory. And then I went dorsum and re-tested with the Radeon RX 580 8GB, RX 570 4GB and GTX 1060 3GB at 1080p and 1440p.

Battlefield V shows petty to no difference betwixt 16 and 32GB every bit expected. However, with 8GB nosotros see a noticeable operation striking to the RX 570 and GTX 1060, and so much then that fifty-fifty the average frame rates dipped. We saw this in last yr's test. The 3GB GTX 1060 struggles with frame time performance in mod titles when using less than 16GB of system memory.

Naturally the situation isn't improved at 1440p, though it's really interesting only how much the RX 570 suffers with 8GB of RAM in this championship. The hit for the 3GB GTX 1060 is pretty significant likewise, but damn does the Radeon GPU get hitting hard. Basically you don't want to be playing Battlefield Five multiplayer with just 8GB of RAM, peculiarly if you have a lower-end GPU with 4GB or less VRAM.

For titles such as Hitman 2 the functioning hit is basically not-existent. We're not seeing much outside of the margin of error hither.

As seen previously with high-end GPUs, Shadow of the Tomb Raider runs into issues when using but 8GB of RAM and nosotros're seeing that here with all mid-range graphics cards we tested. The hit to frame time operation, in particular the 0.1% lows, was farthermost for all three configurations.

Naturally this was likewise seen at 1440p and here the 3GB GTX 1060 tanked with frequent and noticeable stuttering. The 1440p resolution also proved to be a bit much for the RX 570.

Wrap Upwards

If you want to play the latest and greatest, the most demanding titles, you want 16GB of RAM. This time last year nosotros found that 8GB was the minimum and today that's truer than ever.

Of grade, if you play less demanding titles such every bit Fortnite, Overwatch and Rocket League, for instance, or erstwhile but notwithstanding very pop titles such as DOTA 2 and CSGO, then 8GB of system retention will be plenty. But if y'all want to get amongst it in Battlefield V or bask the breathtaking visuals of Shadow of the Tomb Raider without the constant reminder that your system isn't quite upwards to par, then we recommend at to the lowest degree 16GB.

For mid-range to lower-end rigs where pocket-sized stuttering can be caused by bereft VRAM, boring storage, or not having enough CPU cores, being on the border of the optimal memory capacity probably isn't going to make much departure. For case, a Cadre i3-8350K organisation with a basic TLC SSD and a graphics carte with a 2-3GB VRAM capacity, y'all're going to see some stuttering in titles such every bit Battlefield V. Then while upgrading from 8GB to 16GB of RAM will assistance, it's non going to completely solve stuttering issues.

Alternatively, those rocking new high-stop hardware like the flagship RTX 2080 Ti... all this talk about memory chapters is kind of redundant anyway, only get 32GB and forget virtually it. If you're spending over $g on a graphics menu, are you honestly going to think twice virtually spending $400 of DDR4 memory? Probably not.

For most of you, 16GB is going to exist the sweet spot and this is what we recommend. For today'due south latest games 8GB is out, 16GB is the sweet spot and 32GB remains overkill.