16GB or 32GB?

BaronVonDuncs · 28 Aug 2015 at 07:12

OK so I got an i7 6700K CPU and I am wondering about the DDR4. I was thinking about going for 2666 corsair 32gb dual kit but my understanding is that the Skylake sweet spot is the 3000-3200 kits. These faster kits only seem to come in 16gb capacity though.

So which is better 32GB of RAM at 2666 or 16GB at 3200? Quality or quantity?

Cyanide · 28 Aug 2015 at 08:56

Unless you're doing some hardcore video editing or rendering there's no need for 32Gb. Games don't even use 8Gb at the minute so 16 is more than enough

Confused Stu · 28 Aug 2015 at 08:58

I think it largely depends on what you use the PC for, or more specifically how much RAM you use. If you never use more than 16GB of RAM, then having 32GB will be of absolutely no benefit so you're better off going for the faster 16GB. Equally, if you run loads of virtual machines and other intensive software and regularly use 20+GB of RAM, then the 16GB will be LOADS slower as the machine is having to store stuff on your SSD/HDD instead so the speed improvement will be gone.

I would say have a look at your RAM usage, work out how much you need, then go for the fastest kit of the amount you need. I am not sure you'll see any difference between 2666 and 3200 speeds without benchmarking each side by side, but I'm still on 1600MHz DDR3 so I may well be wrong on that!

Just an aside, also worth making sure the version of Windows you're running supports 32GB of RAM. Vista and Windows 7 Home Premium had a 16GB limit (with Home Basic limited to 8GB, Win7 Starter to 2GB, and Vista Starter to 1GB!). Windows 8 and 10 upped that limit to 128GB and 512GB on Pro, so you're almost certainly OK but just wanted to mention as I'd hate for you to buy the 64GB and then find your Win 7 HP doesn't support it!

BaronVonDuncs · 28 Aug 2015 at 09:53

Very helpful guys. I don't really use more than the current 16GB I have, in fact not even close, so I guess 32gb would be overkill.

I use windows 10 right now so I should be ok with more RAM but if 16gb is enough then its not really an issue.

Deathjester · 28 Aug 2015 at 09:54

I remember when I first had 32GB of RAM I was playing BF4 and noticed my PC was getting hotter than usual.
I only realised afterwards that when my PC had booted it had started the 6 Hypervisors I'd setup the day before and given 4GB of ram each...so it was using 24GB on Hypervisors + BF4 and I didn't even notice in terms of performance.

TheMorningStar · 28 Aug 2015 at 18:45

8gb is fine if you close everything before you start gaming, it's very annoying to me personally so getting at least 16gb on 2 sticks with the option of upgrading further if needed. Doesn't seem to be any point in getting anything over 2400mhz ram from the gaming charts I've looked over either, it's literally just 1 or 2 FPS difference all the way up to 3200, unless of course integrated graphics are being used. Encoding is a different matter but not something I ever do.

traveyb · 29 Aug 2015 at 10:41

Deathjester said:
I remember when I first had 32GB of RAM I was playing BF4 and noticed my PC was getting hotter than usual.
I only realised afterwards that when my PC had booted it had started the 6 Hypervisors I'd setup the day before and given 4GB of ram each...so it was using 24GB on Hypervisors + BF4 and I didn't even notice in terms of performance.

That hilarious!

FredFlint · 6 Sep 2015 at 15:34

If you leave your pc on and use lots of different things, Windows cashes things so having more RAM make things smoother. I have used 32GB of RAM for about two years now on my main PC and laptop and i notice the difference when I use my Second PC that has 16GB. It not a big difference but its there.