8 vs 16 Gigs Of Ram?

[Bigrivriv]

So I am buying a custom PC for twitch live streaming games like Battle Field 4, COD BO II, CS.GO, and Minecraft. I also do a lot of Photoshop and video editing. So which would be better, 8 gigs of ram or 16?

 

[daveybrat]

For gaming there is no need for more than 8GB of ram. That said, since you will be doing video and photo editing it can easily exceed 8GB.

Go with 16GB, it shouldn't be much more expensive and will benefit what you do.

 

[Bigrivriv]

Thx!

 

[fstime]

Big mistake going 8 GB of ram if you do a lot of multitasking.

I get low memory popups if I have a few browser tabs open while playing a demanding game like The Witcher 3.

This is especially true if you run multiple displays and like to do stuff on the side.

And no, I do not have a million misc. background applications running; my task bar is made up of MSI afterburner, my mouse button software, NOD32, nvidia control panel, google drive, and cpu temp.

 

[Carfax83]

RAM demands for games are increasing a lot lately. I've seen Witcher 3 use as much as 7GB after long sessions of gaming, and just now I tested Batman Arkham Knight using over 8GB of RAM..

I can't recommend 8GB in good faith, even if you don't play the latest cutting edge games..

 

[Bock]

go for 16 at a minimum. You mentioned PS, Video editing, & gaming.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Some games (64bit) and specially the applications you use can use more. I wouldnt go below 16GB today. On the other hand 32GB is very hard to justify. 8GB today is really the absolute mininum you can get away with.

 

[Freddy1765]

I'd just get a couple of 8gig sticks, they're really quite cheap. Having 8gigs total has been recommended for years, and since RAM use is only going up with new games and stuff, it really is silly to make do with 8.

 

[SERPENTINE]

Hello Bigrivriv!

• In modern gaming, 8GB is plenty good enough. I've never played a game that exceeds 4GB as the minimum sys req. Games don't even use all 8GB of RAM, they just need the space to be allocated to them just in case the RAM usage expands due to a heavy load in the game.
• For video/photo editing, I would suggest 16GB ram. Programs suck up a lot of memory.

All-in-all, the type of hard drive is what matters the most. I would suggest 8GB RAM with an 128GB SSD over 16GB RAM with a 1TB HDD mainly because of the speed difference you'll see. :biggrin:

 

[soccerballtux]

go with 16, I have no problem using 8GB in just basic multitasking these days. Chrome takes so much memory...

 

[SSBrain]

I get low memory popups if I have a few browser tabs open while playing a demanding game like The Witcher 3.

You're getting them because you disabled or severely limited your pagefile.

 

[tweakboy]

You can go with 8GB then later on upgrade to 16gb ram, but you wont see a difference

 

[B-Riz]

16GB minimum, 32GB if you are serious for gaming + streaming.

 

[B-Riz]

So I am buying a custom PC for twitch live streaming games like Battle Field 4, COD BO II, CS.GO, and Minecraft. I also do a lot of Photoshop and video editing. So which would be better, 8 gigs of ram or 16?

You getting a platform that can go hold 16GB+?

 

[Puffnstuff]

I would get as much as you can afford if you run multiple programs which can really slow you down.

 

[larryccf]

this same question was posted over on tomshardware, and the answers seemed to go the other way - ie that it's rare to need above 8 gb. When i built my system (i7-4790 w/16 gb ddr3 1600 MHz) i assumed i'd need the 16 gbs -

i do a lot of video rendering - even on a heavy file, i have never seen my mem usage go above 6.98 GB, monitoring it in task manager - 90-95% of the time, it's in the 4 - 5.0 GB range

i'd love to justify the 16 GB i'm running, but if i had it to do over again, i'd go with 8 gb

 

[Puffnstuff]

When I conduct research for school I have multiple browsers open along with office programs and 8gb choked me down. Once I doubled to 16gb everything ran smooth again without any issues.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Heck, I put 16GB in "Mom boxes" these days.

 

[PhIlLy ChEeSe]

I've NEVER had an issue with 8GB of memory, dude must be down loading por@

 

[firewolfsm]

There's a solution to all this. Get 12GB.

 

[daveybrat]

There's a solution to all this. Get 12GB.

Lol, buying an 8GB kit of ram + a 4GB kit of ram to equal 12GB is not really a better solution than just buying a 16GB kit of ram.

You're only saving $10-$20 and have filled all 4 memory slots.

Go with the 16GB kit so you'll still have 2 slots open to upgrade to 32GB down the road if you need it.

 

[Blanky]

I still have an 8 GB but it's not a strong gaming machine due to cpu/vid.

Buy a single 8 GB stick; if you find you need more get a second stick. In the meantime you'll be very, very slightly slower running one stick vs two but not enough you'll ever notice; dual channel really doesn't benchmark a ton faster.

 

[StinkyPinky]

For what you are doing, definitely 16. Live streaming plus gaming is pushing 8 gigs. So is photoshop.

 

[StinkyPinky]

this same question was posted over on tomshardware, and the answers seemed to go the other way - ie that it's rare to need above 8 gb. When i built my system (i7-4790 w/16 gb ddr3 1600 MHz) i assumed i'd need the 16 gbs -

i do a lot of video rendering - even on a heavy file, i have never seen my mem usage go above 6.98 GB, monitoring it in task manager - 90-95% of the time, it's in the 4 - 5.0 GB range

i'd love to justify the 16 GB i'm running, but if i had it to do over again, i'd go with 8 gb

Witcher 3 will easily use 6 or so GB of ram.

 

[redhotiron2004]

8GB of dual channel ddr3 ram with 2-4GB GDDR5 of video card memory is more than sufficient to counter anything you might throw in there.
You need a powerfull i7 grade processor to do justice to more than 8GB ram.
Also, the latest windows 8 and above are much more efficient with ram usage. They even use ram in a hybrid manner, making use of video ram in many other tasks as well.

Either way, if you actually have more money then nothing really matters. You can go for anything you want. However, if you are looking at cost efficiency and optimization then 8GB coupled with 2+4GB video ram in win8 and above is completely sufficient. No matter what anyone says.