Is 16GB really necessary?

Ezyryder

Ezyryder

Ezyryder

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Joined
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Posts
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Cambridge, UK
I am currently undergoing a small upgrade to my 2500k system which has 8GB of GSkill RipjawsX F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL.

I was thinking of upgrading the memory to 16GB. Is there any need to do so when the majority of the things I do are?

Gaming
Look at family photographs and create albums
Internet - lots of open tabs
Streaming
Word, Publisher, Excel...

If so, would the easiest way to upgrade to 16GB to buy another pair of 8GB of RipjawsX?
 
For that usage, 8GB is absolutely fine.

At your peak, why don't you check to see how much you're using? In windows just click Ctrl+Alt+Del and goto task manager, RAM/Memory and it'll tell you.

if you still wanted to go 16GB, yes it would be easiest to get another pair of 4x4GB (So 8GB) but it depends on your motherboard and the available slots.
 
8GB okey, but more is not bad, you play a game, leave open few websites...

I like mine with 16GB, much smooth everything.
 
Can you handle knowing your motherboard's potential isn't being maxed?

If the answer is yes, stick with 8.
If no, buy 32 or w/e and cackle madly.
 
He hehe, got 32GB at work but I work with VMs and such so I get to actually use it there. Not sure it has got much uses for what I do. It is cheap enough but I am also getting a new SSD. I suppose I will wait to see if Windows 10 is a gas guzzler or not. With memory prices going down like a ton of rocks it might be worthwhile to wait.
 
Ezyryder said:
I am currently undergoing a small upgrade to my 2500k system which has 8GB of GSkill RipjawsX F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL.

I was thinking of upgrading the memory to 16GB. Is there any need to do so when the majority of the things I do are?

Gaming
Look at family photographs and create albums
Internet - lots of open tabs
Streaming
Word, Publisher, Excel...

If so, would the easiest way to upgrade to 16GB to buy another pair of 8GB of RipjawsX?
Click to expand...

Pretty much what I use my PC for, sans the streaming, and I ran with 6GB for a few years until recently, and it never exceeded it, but I did use to shut down Firefox if I was gaming.

Now I've got the luxury of 12GB (due to a bundle I bought), and don't bother to shut FF down, but again, not seeing anything over 6ish GB in normal use.
 
Depends how extravagant your memory use is.

A browser with dozens of tabs open, multiple media heavy applications like visually complex modern games, media editing applications.

If you go in for combinations of those at the same time you can easily be heading over 16GB.

Professional media editing can easily use more than that but you'd know about that if you did.


Frankly, open task manager when you reckon you are really making your computer use a lot of memory and see what it really is using.

If you're bouncing off the memory limit then you probably do need more.
 
If you use Chrome as your browser and have 50+ tabs open you'll enjoy the extra 8GB of ram.

If you don't then 8GB will be fine for you.
 
8gb should be fine but it just gives you more headroom I've had mine over 7gb before just playing bf4 and having a few apps open. If you just want games 8gb should be fine. I do some rendering and editing, game servers etc and then the 16gb is handy.
 
12gb is plenty. 8gb isn't quite enough for me with everything open at once. My old motherboard was triple channel and with 3 sticks 12gb was possible and plenty for my use. My new board is dual channel and 8 or 16 seem to be the only options
 
I have 16GB because running 3dsmax, Photoshop and a game editor along with iTunes and a couple webpages was too much for my 8GB. Now I peak about 12~ish.

Hopefully that gives a sense of what type of usuage warrants an upgrade :) I had 8Gb Ripjaw as well (2×4) and simply put in another 2 of the same RAM to use all 4 slots.
 
Ezyryder said:
I am currently undergoing a small upgrade to my 2500k system which has 8GB of GSkill RipjawsX F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL.

I was thinking of upgrading the memory to 16GB. Is there any need to do so when the majority of the things I do are?

Gaming
Look at family photographs and create albums
Internet - lots of open tabs
Streaming
Word, Publisher, Excel...

If so, would the easiest way to upgrade to 16GB to buy another pair of 8GB of RipjawsX?
Click to expand...

For your usage, no. No harm in it, but you probably won't see much benefit.
 
I'll be upgrading to 16GB at some point this year as I have seen some games on ultra settings get near 8GB of memory at peak.
 
Yep, 16GB is useful for VMs in fact, I would say you need more if you are running multiple VMs and you still want to work with your machine.
 
On 16GB, never reached that much usage and probably won't a for a while yet but Samsung Green was really cheap back then so silly not to.
 
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