When it comes to PC gaming, one of the most important components is the RAM. RAM or memory is an essential component in any computer. When it comes to PC gaming, having a larger amount of RAM can mean more performance to a certain degree. If you were looking to buy or build your own gaming pc the minimum amount of RAM I would recommend is 8GB as games today are getting more demanding. Although 8GB is the minimum I would recommend, if money is at an issue then the ideal amount memory you want to shoot for is 16GB. 16GB of RAM seems to be the sweet spot right now for gaming. Going over 16GB or ram right now doesn’t necessarily give a boost in performance except in a very limited amount of games but that’s most likely due to poor optimization on those games. Asides from the RAM you want to make sure you have a decent balance of components as well.
Today we focus on a gaming PC and try to answer the question of how much memory we need because unlike a faster graphics card or to a lesser extent a better CPU or solid state drive, adding more RAM will generally not speed up the execution of video games. All this, it is understood, as long as we have a sufficient amount of memory to run.
Invest in RAM or other components?
Upgrading to a higher level graphics card will directly improve the performance of the entire graphics subsystem. In a game, it will allow us to select higher screen resolutions, activate filters that improve the image quality and in general, obtain higher frames per second, increasing the fluidity and stability in the execution.
A faster microprocessor will help in CPU-bound games that need to run a lot of background calculations instead of graphics rendering that is taken up by the GPU. Finally, using an SSD instead of a hard drive would cut load times in half and it is what I would recommend if your budget allows so, if you can’t afford an SSD as a game drive, try to at least get a budget SSD for your operating system.
RAM is different and in practice, we will only have to worry about having the minimum amount needed. Even in the platform jump from DDR4 to DDR5 the benefits are minimal until future applications and games take advantage of the new standard.
Always talking about running games, because the different needs of a PC open the range a lot. If 8GB of RAM is the minimum for the most basic computers and 16GB is recommended for gaming and streaming. A machine that stores massive databases, manages virtual machines and other memory-intensive applications, even 32 GB of RAM may not be enough.
How much RAM do we need for big games?
Many of the big games are multiplatform and are designed for consoles and PC. Considering that PS5 and Xbox Series X have 16 GB it is not strange that this is the recommended size for big games.
The numbers are clear. 8 GB would be the recommended minimum amount of RAM for a gaming PC looking for budget balance. (If you have money to spare from there on up, of course). The Batman case would correspond more to a trade-off for a disastrous game in optimization at launch, while I recommend 16GB for Warzone, especially if playing on “Ultra” graphics configurations is important to you.
What if we use integrated graphics?
The above advice applies to NVIDIA or AMD discrete (or dedicated) graphics cards. If your computer has integrated graphics on either Intel or AMD processors or chipsets, it’s a different matter.
Discrete graphics cards include their own video RAM (VRAM). They are useful for texture loading, for example, and are independent of RAM. On the other hand, integrated graphics cards, instead of including their own memory, use the general RAM of the system.
Integrated graphics were never really known for great performance but lately that has changed due to AMD now offering great integrated graphics performance with some of it’s Ryzen CPUs. When it comes to integrated graphics you want to have a decent amount of ram as the iGPU will share the RAM with the whole system. Besides the amount, you also want to have two ram sticks in order to run the ram in dual channel as games, especially on AMD systems can greatly benefit from dual channel ram. You also want to make sure you have fast ram, usually 3000 – 3200 MHz speed if your budget allows as faster ram can provide better gaming performance, especially on AMD Ryzen systems.
