• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
  • We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.

Is 2x16GB DDR4 a meaningful boost over 2x8GB DDR4 for gaming or for other applications? If not, when will it be?

ItWasMeantToBe19

ItWasMeantToBe19

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
20,440
I'm doing some brief research about current gaming PC tech as I plan to build a machine learning and gaming computer late this year after Ampere is out. However, I saw some recommendations to go with 2x8GB DDR4 over a same speed 2x16GB DDR4 right now. The cost is apparently a lot more so the recommendation makes some sense, but I was surprised to read some people arguing that there aren't many performance gains for 32GB of RAM over 16GB of RAM. Is it a meaningful boost as of now and if not, do you see games of the near future starting to require 32GB of RAM for high end performance?
 

Deleted member 16908

Oct 27, 2017
9,377
For gaming, the speed and timings of your RAM are far more important than how much of it you have. 16 is the sweet spot right now. I don't think you need more than that unless you're also doing RAM-intensive tasks like video editing.
 
Theswweet

Theswweet

RPG Site
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
6,415
California
There's some slight difference in performance based off memory ranking and the like. 4x8GB will run similarly to 2x16GB. This is offset by double-rank memory being harder to overclock as high.

 
Pop-O-Matic

Pop-O-Matic

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
12,896
Only reason to have more than 8GB of RAM on a gaming PC is if you don't feel like closing Chrome before launching your game.
 

Deleted member 4970

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,240
16GB might become the standard for games with the next-gen consoles having as much. That being said, they split the RAM between the system and GPU so in reality, the PC side might require more like 10 or 12GB. 16GB is cheap enough these days and does provide a meaningful boost to multi-tasking besides gaming.

Anything more is meant for video editing, rendering, and other productivity-related tasks.
 
Lobster Roll

Lobster Roll

signature-less, now and forever
Member
Sep 24, 2019
34,380
If it makes you feel any better, the price for 2x16 is similar to what 2x8 was a few years back. RAM prices were VERY inflated, and browsing buildapcsales makes me wish I was building again.
 
Tomo815

Tomo815

Banned
Jul 19, 2019
1,534
I just bought 32 as well. People recommended 16GB but I have money now and maybe I wont have them again later so I thought 'what the hell' and got 32. I mean, a new gen is just around the corner and maybe in 2-3 years the recommended amount is going to be 20 or 24, might just as well buy 32 and stop worrying.
 
PHOENIXZERO

PHOENIXZERO

Member
Oct 29, 2017
12,093
16GB will become the minimum once games are designed around next gen consoles, get some fast, low latency RAM with good timings if you don't plan on replacing your PC in like 2022 or 2023, you might as well go with more DDR4 now than wait a couple years when production is ramping down as DDR5 continues to ramp up.
 
Elfforkusu

Elfforkusu

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,098
If the disk speed advancements PS5 is pushing actually become a gating factor on performance (as the Sony fanboys believe), caching as much as possible in RAM will be the "workaround" on PC. More RAM == the more the OS can cache. So... there is that to consider?
 
JEH

JEH

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,224
You'll be fine with 16 for foreseeable future but I would do 32 now to future proof.
 

Deleted member 16908

Oct 27, 2017
9,377
JEH said:
You'll be fine with 16 for foreseeable future but I would do 32 now to future proof.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Nah. Stick with 16 for now. By the time 32 becomes necessary, DDR5 will be available and anyone who invested so heavily into DDR4 will regret it.
 
DarkStream

DarkStream

Member
Oct 27, 2017
623
I mean, I have 32GB DDR-4 3600 in my new rig. 16 would have been perfectly fine. I'm future proofing as I want to keep the machine for 6-7 years.
 
Previously on Lost

Previously on Lost

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,665
More RAM doesn't give you better performance if whatever you are running doesn't require more.

16GB is the minimum anyone building a gaming PC right now should buy. Get 32GB if you like keeping lot's of things open in the background and want to future proof your build.
 
OmegaDL50

OmegaDL50

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,689
Philadelphia, PA
5taquitos said:
The new MS Flight Simulator recommends 32 GB so there you go.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I have 9900K and RTX 2080. Interestingly enough Cities Skyline you'd think wouldn't that particularly demanding. It's a City Builder game, that even got a port to the Switch, although obviously some concessions were made with that port. However it seems Cities Skylines was my systems kryptonite. Ram usage exceeded 16GB once my City got large enough and had huge population. The game started to get real stuttery, so had to increase my ram by buying the same kit. Now mind you this is probably an outlier case because I have all of the expansions to the game so it loads a TON of assets.

It was one of the very few games I had to literally throw more ram at it to resolve the issue. The last time I had a problem was when I had an 8GB ram system build trying to run a heavily modded Skyrim (Not the LE with the 64-Bit executable, the original 32-Bit release of Skyrim mind you)

Generally in my experience ram frequency speed is more important capacity.
 
TaySan

TaySan

SayTan
Member
Dec 10, 2018
31,451
Tulsa, Oklahoma
For right now 16 gb is fine, but i can imagine next gen games are going the raise the bar over 16 so i went with 32 gb for my system.
 
JigglesBunny

JigglesBunny

Prophet of Truth
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
31,130
Chicago
16 GB is perfectly fine for gaming, you won't run into any issues whatsoever. If you're looking into things like rendering video files, more RAM is always preferred but for gaming, yeah, you're set.
 
Lkr

Lkr

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,525
Tomo815 said:
I just bought 32 as well. People recommended 16GB but I have money now and maybe I wont have them again later so I thought 'what the hell' and got 32. I mean, a new gen is just around the corner and maybe in 2-3 years the recommended amount is going to be 20 or 24, might just as well buy 32 and stop worrying.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
By the time 32gb is needed your ram will be too slow anyway
Even with 16gb most of it is just reserved by windows and not doing anything.
 
RCSI

RCSI

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,839
Tomo815 said:
I just bought 32 as well. People recommended 16GB but I have money now and maybe I wont have them again later so I thought 'what the hell' and got 32. I mean, a new gen is just around the corner and maybe in 2-3 years the recommended amount is going to be 20 or 24, might just as well buy 32 and stop worrying.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

My train of thought as well. Though I doubt we will see games reach 32GB of usage, but creep on by to 17 or 18 GB total (aside from MFS).
 

Hark

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,163
I've just upgraded from 16gb (2x8gb) 2400mhz to 32gb (2x16gb) 3600mhz for my i7 gaming/video editing machine.

Rendering is noticeably faster now, the only thing bottlenecking me is my graphics card.

Games still run great though I don't necessarily think there's been as great a performance increase for games than video editing.
 
big_z

big_z

Member
Nov 2, 2017
7,797
What's the update on when ddr5 is supposed to hit consumers? Last I heard it was going to be this year but it feels like everything is being delayed from covid.

Personally I'm trying to wait for ddr5 as the bandwidth increase is far more useful than a mass amount of ddr4.
 
Spoit

Spoit

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,988
You might also want to look at how much RAM you need to do your machine learning stuff, if you're going to be running some stuff locally instead of in the cloud. That could definitely benefit from a bit more heft. And for that matter, you might want to consider a Titan/whatever the 3090 rumors are for more video RAM
 
ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

DF Deet Master
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
61,987
big_z said:
What's the update on when ddr5 is supposed to hit consumers? Last I heard it was going to be this year but it feels like everything is being delayed from covid.

Personally I'm trying to wait for ddr5 as the bandwidth increase is far more useful than a mass amount of ddr4.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Late next year. But it'll probably be expensive as shit
 
TaterTots

TaterTots

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,965
It took a good while to go from 2GB-4GB-8GB. Now we're starting to see 12GB pop up as recommended for some games. It will be several years before 16GB is actually needed. Very very far off from 32 unless you do video editing or something.
 
Shadow

Shadow

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,124
Finaika said:
Next gen consoles will have 16GB DDR6 so 32 is overkill.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Windows itself though will use more than what the consoles use. And if you want anything open at all in the background you're going to need more ram than the consoles. Most games probably would be fine, but I bet there will be a few that actually needs more than 16 GB if you want to run it on or near max settings.
 
NPVinny

NPVinny

Member
Dec 13, 2017
792
I'd personally say it's absolutely worth it if you can afford it. Moreso with non-gaming applications but still needed, I feel.

I have 32 in my home desktop but my work computer only has 16 and I routinely run into RAM issues with the number of programs I have to keep open/switch back & forth between.
 
low-G

low-G

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,144
You're going to want it for MS Flight Simulator. That will use more than 16GB.

I could see games leaning more heavily into 32GB in the months and years ahead, especially if it helps mitigate, or even improve upon, load times in next gen console games ported to PC.
 
Chief Malik

Chief Malik

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,737
Land of the free, Home of the slave
Shadow said:
Windows itself though will use more than what the consoles use. And if you want anything open at all in the background you're going to need more ram than the consoles. Most games probably would be fine, but I bet there will be a few that actually needs more than 16 GB if you want to run it on or near max settings.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Consoles have to use that for vram too.
 
Cup O' Tea?

Cup O' Tea?

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,603
I don't know about you but I generally try to make my PC builds last around 5 years or a similar amount of time to a console generation. With this in mind I would strongly advise you ignore people who say 8gb is fine. Future proofing is mostly a fools errand but you don't build a brand new PC with components that are on the edge of relevance like 8Gb of RAM is in 2020. 32Gb RAM is overkill too. Pretty sure 16gb of DDR 3200 CL16 is the sweet point for price/performance in a gaming build atm.
 

Deleted member 17092

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
20,360
Yeah I'm sticking with 16gb ddr4 until a full rebuild and then maybe I'll do 32gb ddr5 depending on the landscape/pricing. I think I'm set with my 8700k and 16gb for another 5 years or so lol.
 
Inugami

Inugami

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,995
Currently there isn't much benefit, but I could easily see next gen PC games making much better use of RAM as a cache especially cross gen since most PCs don't have access to PCI-E 4.0 and SSDs that can use it yet, while next gen consoles will use them standard.
 
Arex

Arex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,508
Indonesia
If you can afford it then go for it.
You won't typically use 16 GB even if you multitask, but you can still easily max out 16 GB depending on your use case. (Mine : Zbrush, Firefox browser, Maya, Photoshop all open, already using 15 GB. I'd imagine if I play a game I'll go over 16, luckily I have 32 so I don't need to worry :P ). I'd imagine for your other use, machine learning, having more RAM would be beneficial
 
You must log in or register to reply here.