how much RAM is really enough for gaming?

[DefyTheFallen]

I've been told by alot of people 4GB of RAM is perfectly enough to play any game, allthough some people opt for 8GB just to be sure. But my friend has 6GB worth with an i7 quad core and he can't play things like crysis 2 without lagging alot?

 

[Fear]

You could have asked this on your other thread, 4GB of ram is perfectly ok you don't say what GPU your friend is using because an i7 and 6GB of ram will fly through crysis 2 so either your friends GPU is not too good or he has problems.

 

[Teaz]

I dont belive its lack of ram as im runnin crysis 2 on this old desktop with 3gb ram without problems. If its playing online then it could possibly be his net connections or settings for him to lag. Thats usually the cause unless offline then its perhaps his gpu or a times his pc could use a good de-fragment and cleaning.

 

[Gishank]

4GB is the minimum for any machine these days, 6GB is mid-range, 8GB is high-end. As for your friend, as has already been stated it is most likely his graphics card that is letting him down if he is getting framerate issues more than anything else.

 

[BAD SANTA]

It depends what your doing if your running 64bit and just playing games and want it to be enough for the future I would get 8gb but if your doing more intensive video and music editing and want it to be future proof I would go with 16gb.
4gb is a bit low these days, I have 6gb and that does me although I might get another 6 soon.
Hope this helps.

 

[Gorman]

between 4 and 6 is the norm for your average gaming rig at the moment.

 

[Evil Tactician]

It depends what your doing if your running 64bit and just playing games and want it to be enough for the future I would get 8gb but if your doing more intensive video and music editing and want it to be future proof I would go with 16gb.
4gb is a bit low these days, I have 6gb and that does me although I might get another 6 soon.
Hope this helps.

I do a lot of intensive video editing and my machine has NEVER utilised the full amount of ram. 16gb is complete overkill and should only be considered if one is looking to go for complete overkill

 

[Studentguyct]

Complete overkill is fun, it boosts your ego and it is very satisfying. go crazy with your RAM, futureproof it to last till the year 3000! Nothing wrong with that.

 

[vanthus]

Any more than 8gb of ram for gaming would just be a waste of money.
By the the time you need 16gb you will probably need a new gpu,cpu,psu,well,new computer really.

 

[Randomthom]

Core components of a computer: CPU, GPU, RAM, HDD
Gaming requires fast CPU, GPU, & HDD + large amount of RAM
Video Editing requires fast CPU, HDD & Medium GPU & RAM
Photo Editing requires fast CPU, RAM & Medium GPU

Also... something that REALLY gets my goat...

LAG does not mean the same thing as low FPS!!!!! (please excuse me for a moment of unadulterated nerdrage).

LAG is the delay caused by sending data across a network/the internet. It is most frequently a complaint of gamers who see opponents hopping across their screens because the opponents' internet connection is not fast enough to respond to server requests.

Low FPS is the result of over-stretched hardware not being able to output graphical images to the monitor at a higher rate than the visual threshold (approximately 30 fps).

[/RANT]

 

[kriwad]

8GB is currently the most you should go for unless you wouldn't notice paying for 16GB.
Depends how hard you drive your machine, when you run a game is that all you're running?
Even if you only run one screen for a game, do run a multiple monitor setup? Assumes you're busy doing other things while also running a game.
If I'm running Total War on one screen, multi-tabling PKR in 3D mode on another, MediaMonkey on another, Chrome with anywhere from 3-20 tabs open on another etc... 4GB starts to look a bit close to the edge, especially if you like to VM anything that uses the internet.
In my opinion, unless you're running your PC like a console, I would say 8GB is required for a decent gaming PC.