8GB DDR3 in my system from 2012 - should I add more RAM?

peanutismint · 13 Feb 2020 at 16:02

I built my main machine in 2012 with the hardware in my sig so it's not exactly 'cutting edge'. I recently updated my GPU to an RX 580 8GB and don't really plan on updating anything else anytime soon (will probably just buy/build an entirely new machine in a few years), BUT I'm wondering whether I would see much (if any) major performance boost if I upgraded my 8GB DDR3 RAM to, say, 16GB? Seems like it'd be a fairly cheap upgrade that might keep my system running with some of today's more memory-hungry activities (I mostly use it for editing videos and playing games).

Is it worth doing this or will the 'bottleneck' for speed at this point more likely be my ageing CPU??

Joxeon · 14 Feb 2020 at 13:59

peanutismint said:
I built my main machine in 2012 with the hardware in my sig so it's not exactly 'cutting edge'. I recently updated my GPU to an RX 580 8GB and don't really plan on updating anything else anytime soon (will probably just buy/build an entirely new machine in a few years), BUT I'm wondering whether I would see much (if any) major performance boost if I upgraded my 8GB DDR3 RAM to, say, 16GB? Seems like it'd be a fairly cheap upgrade that might keep my system running with some of today's more memory-hungry activities (I mostly use it for editing videos and playing games).

Is it worth doing this or will the 'bottleneck' for speed at this point more likely be my ageing CPU??

It is worth it if you planning to keep it for a while as 16gb is the standard for gaming these days and some games are already using over 8gb just by themselves.

Though new ram is cheap right now you might be able to snag some deals on used stuff if you shop around.

peanutismint · 14 Feb 2020 at 16:01

Okay thanks, so do you think 16GB is about the right amount for me then? Or should I add another 16GB to the 8GB I have already for 24 total?

wellibob · 14 Feb 2020 at 17:56

Unless your doing lots of video editing or running more than 16 TB of hard drive space for say a plex server (rule of thumb is 1gig of ram per TB of storage) 16 gig will be fine.

peanutismint · 14 Feb 2020 at 18:13

I do a bit of 4K video editing, as it happens.... At this point for DDR3 it also looks like there might not be that much price difference between adding another 8 or another 16GB. I just can't remember whether there's any drawbacks to adding an 'uneven' amount of RAM. I think I remember it's better to add sticks in pairs, so like 2 x 4GB sticks instead of just 1 x 8GB stick, right? I think I only have 2 spare slots on my mobo so it might make sense to add 2 more 8GB sticks.