Are we likely to ever need more than 16 GB RAM on this generation of PCs?

[Vexr]

This is for gaming of course. I'm still using 12 GB of DDR3 and seem to have plenty of head room. I've even had an intermittent problem where 1 stick goes missing (showing as 4 GB hardware reserved), so only 8 GB of RAM was available, and I didn't notice any difference.

I'm wondering about upgrading and going for 2x4 GB DDR4 sticks, and then buying another matching pair as funds allow.

By the time we need 32 GB of RAM as the new standard, will we all be crossing over on to DDR5 / much faster clocked DDR4 RAM systems, and the current generation of DDR4-using processors and RAM being old hat like DDR3 now is? Or are we likely to be seeing the benefits of 32 GB any time soon, making it advisable to go with 2x8 GB sticks now with that upgrade in mind?

 

[Vexr]

When I made this thread I wasn't clued up on the fact DDR4 effectively has to be in a 1x matched pair dual-channel configuration, and not realising the other two slots were basically redundant. This wasn't so in the DDR3 system I was used to where you could sling in odd job bits of RAM without too much thought and still get stable dual channel in flex mode.

I've now got 16 GB of DDR4 (2 x 8 GB), and to be honest I'm often seeing higher VRAM usage than I am of the system RAM. I think I can safely conclude it'll be a very brave games developer that requires anyone to have more than 16 GB of RAM before about 2023, as adding more RAM to existing DDR4 systems in their spare slots means huge losses of speed/stability.

 

[Vexr]

Why do you lose speed/stability from running unmatched sticks.

you can buy the same type of ram and it will be fine.
i have a system with 4 x 8gb crucial single channel sticks in, i got them months apart. 2 are 2400mhz cl16 and 2 are 2133mhz cl17 and all run fine. i overclocked them to 2800mhz and fixed timing to a lower cl16
system show dual channel too.

I was largely going by the memory compatibility tables I've seen for AM4 motherboards, where it'll say some sticks are only supported for 2 slots rather than 4, or show that the supported speed will be 3200 MHz in 2 slots or 2400 MHz if using 4 with X brand RAM. That and some anecdotal evidence I've heard. Maybe that's relevant to Ryzen only and not Intel.

 

[Vexr]

Although it is funny that Samsung ram is supported on a cpu made with a compony owned by samsung.... And none Samsung b die ram struggls to run.

Are you saying AMD are owned by Samsung? This would be news to me...

 

[Vexr]

16GB is a bit tight for Cities:Skylines. It'll use 12GB+ no problems.

I have to admit this is true. I've just checked loading my 90k pop city with only the 25 tile mode, and system RAM usage is 12.5 GB with some junk running in the background. Though I did come from 12 GB on my old system and on loading the same city, it never occurred to me RAM might be a factor in performance.

City Skylines is monstrously inefficient anyway though. I have total CPU use of 24% with it running (with other junk going on elsewhere) and a GPU usage of about 45% with all eye candy turned on at 3440x1440, and I'm getting about 25 fps. Apparently it's not much better on Threadripper/2080 Ti systems; the engine is simply not capable of utilising the hardware thrown at it and always performs like garbage.

 

[Vexr]

Think it's worth necoring this thread as I see a lot of folks now running 32 GB of RAM, and the scope was "would we ever need more than 16 GB before DDR5" with talk of 2023-2025 considerations.

In Cyberpunk 2077, my RAM usage hovers around 10 GB of my 16 GB.

My VRAM usage (or should I say, 'allocation' as I've now discovered), is usually ~7 GB (on highest texture settings at 3440x1440) on my 8 GB RX 5700 XT.

What does throw a spanner into the works is that the old idea of the 'can't handle more than 2 sticks of DRAM properly' Ryzen memory controller, has been replaced by 'can get up to ~5-7% performance average uplift running 4x sticks due to a pseudo-quad channel effect on the latest Ryzen processors.

Is this the only good reason to upgrade RAM size amount for those of us on 2 x 8 GB sticks? Or is 32 GB seen as actually being useful anytime still before 2023-2025 / DDR5?

I honestly considered just going with 2 x 4 GB sticks and upgrading with another 2 x 4 GB later back when RAM prices were overly inflated to cut costs. Starting to think that might have been the smart thing to do afterall.

Also, eyeing up the latest video card upgrades, I can't help but find it strange that I may end up with more VRAM than my system RAM.

 

[Vexr]

Just an idea. You could setup a 16GB RAM drive if you have 32GB and install some stuff on there which would improve loading speeds significantly.

With a 500 GB SATA SSD and a 1 TB NVME m.2 drive , I personally find loading speeds negligible, or even frustratingly too fast if it means I totally miss a 'loading screen tip / lore' that developers never envisioned could fly by too quickly to be read.