When should you need more than 8GB of ram?

[baydude]

The most cpu intensive thing I do is probably some moderate gaming. BF4, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, CS: GO.

Will having more than 8GB make a difference in multitasking in Windows and gaming?

 

[rchunter]

8 would probably work fine. 16 would be better.
32 would be a complete waste of money.
That new carmageddon reincarnation game eats ram for breakfast. If you plan on running that you're probably definitely going to want 16gb.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Have you taken a reading on how much memory you are using when doing your most intensive tasks? No use having the 9th GB and above RAM just sitting in the slots looking cool.

 

[w0ss]

I had a 8gb stick fail and was down to only 8gb and I did have windows pop-up complaining about low memory. It was always the because I have a bad habit of having 30-40 tabs open in chrome. For gaming I didn't notice any issues with only 8gb.

 

[_Rick_]

The answer is: While web-browsing with more than, say, three tabs.

Current Chrome memory consumption for me is around 8GB.

 

[CoPhotoGuy]

I have 32GB right now and want to upgrade to 64GB. But then that's because I want to be able to run more VM's at once and they are memory hogs.

 

[Coup27]

The answer is: While web-browsing with more than, say, three tabs.

Current Chrome memory consumption for me is around 8GB.

What??? 3 tabs?

At work I can have open Word, Excel, Outlook, Chrome with 3 tabs and AutoCAD with a 100MB drawing and still only use 4.28GB.

Right now with Chrome and 3 tabs open I am using 2.22GB.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Chrome with 6 tabs and I'm using 2.46GB.

I don't know how anyone could be using 8GB for Chrome utilization.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It depends what the web content is.

Recently, I started getting "running out of memory" alerts from Windows if/when I have Firefox (Ghostery/Flashblock/Adblock) with a bunch of tabs open (strategy guides, mostly) with iTunes and SWTOR running. It's only happened a couple times (I have all that open now, no problem.)

I wonder if a recent version of Firefox has a memory leak, or if it only happens with certain web sites... *scowl*

Anyway, 16GB would probably hide the real problem. It's also cheap enough that I don't think a semi-serious gamer has an excuse not to put 16GB in a new build. I'll probably hobble along with 8GB for a while longer.

Chrome and Firefox are both firmly in the "will take as much RAM as you have" category of applications.

 

[MongGrel]

I usually have at least 5 or 6 tabs open most the time and run some things in the background with no problem on Firefox using 12 triple channel.

I do not use Chrome though I guess, and wasn't even for that reason.

Not intending to either.

 

[BTRY B 529th FA BN]

Are you talking 2x4GB sticks for dual channel or a single 8GB stick for single channel?

 

[StrangerGuy]

Are you talking 2x4GB sticks for dual channel or a single 8GB stick for single channel?

There is really no point getting 4GB these days even if you just need 8GB since the penalty for single channel mode is so low it's virtually non-existent and allows you to easily add in another 8GB stick later.

 

[Red Squirrel]

8GB is a sweet spot for general usage. 4GB is generally too tight, and anything over 8GB is possibly a waste. For VM usage or heavy browsing 16GB is nice though. I've seen Firefox use 8GB on it's own after a few days. I recently switched to Chromium and while I like the idea of 1 process per tab, it seems each one uses a couple 100 MB so it could add up fast.

Way I see it, for a new build, 8GB minimum, but try to go for 16 if it's not that much more expensive. Does not hurt.

 

[MongGrel]

Still just running this old stuff on my X5680 I guess, newer builds probably will scoff at it.

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 12GB (3 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7T-12GBRH

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231405

Still OCing em a bit, but it's not a new build thing these days.

 

[XavierMace]

For the record I've been playing Ark recently (survival game) and it's using around 8.5Gb of RAM. It's only a matter of time before 8Gb isn't enough, it's really not worth the tiny amount of savings to skimp on RAM.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I increased my ram when I found that I was almost using all of my available ram with multiple open browsers doing research papers along with multiple instances of word plus outlook. At almost 8gb my system was choking down and stuttering as I switched between programs. Doubling it to 16gb took care of that problem and allowed my system to run normally. If I ever run into that again I'll double it plus when I build my next machine I'll automatically start with 32gb of ram.

 

[Data-Medics]

I don't think web browsing is likely to ever require more than 4-6Gb of RAM. However there is a time when you'll need more than that, it's called virtualization. I had a machine running 5 VM's concurrently, so I had to load it up with 32Gb of RAM to be able to allocate enough to each virtual machine. But for normal desktop applications 8Gb is more than enough these days.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I don't think web browsing is likely to ever require more than 4-6Gb of RAM. However there is a time when you'll need more than that, it's called virtualization. I had a machine running 5 VM's concurrently, so I had to load it up with 32Gb of RAM to be able to allocate enough to each virtual machine. But for normal desktop applications 8Gb is more than enough these days.

This depends a lot on the applications you are virtualizing. A lot of people out there with eyes bigger than their stomachs. I get requests at work to provision VMs with 4, 8, or more GBs of RAM, and when I go back to monitor use, they're running a single Java application with xmx set to, like 1GB, and the VM never noses above 2 or 2.5GB of memory usage.

At home, I have several VMs running with 256MB of RAM. For a CLI-only OS and a twitter chatbot or a DNS server, it's adequate.