32GB DDR4 - overkill now but what about in 5 years time?

PooKer · 22 Mar 2016 at 16:18

£115 for 32gb HyperX Fury Black 32GB (4x8GB Kit) 2400MHz DDR4 was a no brainier for me personally. All it takes is a lack of demand and the price rockets.

theMilitant · 23 Mar 2016 at 23:30

For 5 years usage I'd guess 32GB isn't unreasonable, but I'd be worried about other components holding you back long before that amount of RAM becomes an issue - the graphics card primarily.

Telecaster · 25 Mar 2016 at 12:22

Snypa said:
4 GB is fine for gaming. Using the verb 'need' is very misleading. Maybe 'want' would have been better.

@OP I have 16 GB, I don't run as many heavy programs as you but my system tends to have a good 4GB in use and 6-8 GB in reserve allocation. If I want to run a game that's another 2-3 GB. Personally I prefer to have as much RAM as I can afford after I've hit my goals on the CPU/GPU. I also run opensource OS's though which appreciate a lot of ram (caching all those libraries ftw)

I regularly see over 8GB usage when playing things like GTAV or Just Cause 3, I'd say 8 is a bare minimum, 4 would be useless now.

somewhatdamaged · 26 Mar 2016 at 10:42

I agree with the above

I've regularly seen 10GB+ RAM usage when playing certain games

Anyone building a "gaming" PC with 8GB of ram is crazy.

Personally, i would get 32GB every time.

ollyz_a_ninja · 4 Apr 2016 at 15:42

Also agree

I regularly see over 12gb or ram usage with a 980ti sli setup and I wouldn't mind betting in a gpu generation or two more that 16gb usage will start to become the norm.

I'd go 16gb for now and wait for the prices to drop if it was me.

w00dy85 · 8 Apr 2016 at 15:39

when I updated my PC late last year I wanted to go 32GB, due to my old setup having 16GB and I felt staying at 16GB even though it was faster. Did not feel like a real upgrade, I have 16GB of high speed ram 3733MHz. Though I only have it running at 3400GHz due to the motherboard not liking it running at any higher then that and only got it running at that due to the last bios update.

Now seeing 32GB at £109 makes me think about swapping my 16GB of faster ram, for 32GB of slower ram.

Think it's worth doing?

Legend · 10 Apr 2016 at 13:15

In real world terms, does this whole faster/slower RAM actually mean anything though? In benches sure, but I didn't think for 99% of users it made any real difference. 32GB 'slow' is still going to trump 16GB 'fast'.

egraphixstudios · 10 Apr 2016 at 13:19

Go for 32gb if you got the ££. otherwise stick with 16gb.

just remember windows tend to create a pagefile the size of your ram (which can be adjusted) so make sure you relocate or spread the page file across many ssd's.

kefan77 · 10 Apr 2016 at 13:24

I upgraded to 32GB few months ago. I don't put it to use all the time, but it was so cheap, I couldn't say no.

go 32GB while it's cheap and don't look back.

I can't see RAM being much cheaper than it is now.

Schizo · 10 Apr 2016 at 13:34

I have always had 32gb for as long as i can remember,it's a must really with the price of ram being so good,more is better so they say

Trifid · 10 Apr 2016 at 16:24

kefan77 said:
I can't see RAM being much cheaper than it is now.

Did someone say that in the 80's?

However, I would always go with the more option.

egraphixstudios · 10 Apr 2016 at 17:20

Well sometimes older ram get more expensive as its harder to find. not that anyone on these forums would have a system with DDR1 or DDR2 etc.

koolpc · 10 Apr 2016 at 20:47

I was wondering if i should go for 16gb. I have 8gb installed at the mo (2 x 4gb)

w00dy85 · 11 Apr 2016 at 20:35

Legend said:
In real world terms, does this whole faster/slower RAM actually mean anything though? In benches sure, but I didn't think for 99% of users it made any real difference. 32GB 'slow' is still going to trump 16GB 'fast'.

egraphixstudios said:
Go for 32gb if you got the ££. otherwise stick with 16gb.

just remember windows tend to create a pagefile the size of your ram (which can be adjusted) so make sure you relocate or spread the page file across many ssd's.

Well I ordered my 32gb last night, I'll just put my other ram on MM

kthula666 · 16 Apr 2016 at 11:44

In 5 years we should be at a whole new level.

IDF16 3d XPoint

goto 48 mins

http://intelstudios.edgesuite.net/idf/2016/sz/keynote/160413_iy/160413_iy_en.html

IT Troll · 25 Apr 2016 at 22:34

The new Mirror's Edge games has a recommended spec of 16GB RAM.

So 32GB for a bit of future proofing is perhaps a good idea whilst prices are good.

HaX · 25 Apr 2016 at 23:42

I'm not sure that 32 GB will become the norm or a requirement for end user computing/gaming during the lifetime of the computer you are building.

I say this as someone who owns a PC with 32 GB of RAM and SSDs, used primarily for labbing complex technical scenarios - cross-forest Exchange Migrations etc.

If you're not planning on running 8+ VMs simultaneously, I'd expect 16 GB RAM to be more than sufficient for most tasks

Silent_Scone · 27 Apr 2016 at 07:43

IT Troll said:
The new Mirror's Edge games has a recommended spec of 16GB RAM.

So 32GB for a bit of future proofing is perhaps a good idea whilst prices are good.

That appears to be a Frostbite thing evidently. I went from using 3200Mhz 4x8GB sticks tightened down to buggery on X99, to using a total of 8GB on an i5 6600K. Guess what, gaming doesn't seem to care.

16GB is becoming the norm now since Z170 is maturing

geraintl · 27 Apr 2016 at 22:07

i just finished building my new gaming machine and went for 32gb of the corsair dominator ram as i want this pc to last 5 years and think by that time it will be needed!

Stealthploit · 29 Apr 2016 at 23:30

Go for it mate. DDR4 is very cheap ATM so 32gb would be just perfect for your needs.