2018 how much ram for gaming

In fact, the MHz G. Skill kits overclocking beyond their ratings of MHz and MHz. To test performance, I first ran SiSoft Sandra, which is a synthetic benchmark that tests for overall memory bandwidth. Finally, I did some game testing. The test was performed at p with High detail settings.

However, regardless of whether you're thinking of upgrading or just want to brush up on all things memory-related, I've put together this no-nonsense buying guide to help you make the right choice when you do eventually decide to take the plunge. However, most apps take up relatively little RAM and those that do take up a lot, such as games or web browsers, tend to be few and far between and are often only run one at a time.

For instance, as I write this, Firefox is taking up 3. As such, we can see from this example that 8GB is enough for any non-gaming machine, while 16GB is plenty even for high-end gaming machines. Where things change is when you start using specialist software for things like complex computations, running databases, CAD drawing, video editing and the like. These can sometimes benefit from as much memory as you can throw at them, but if you run any such software then it should specify how much memory is required for optimal performance.

As a general rule, going for MHz RAM is fine for most users — especially as it can be overclocked fairly easily anyway — while those looking to push the boat out may want to opt for MHz kits. A low latency and fast clock speed combined make for the fastest RAM.

Based on our tests, Intel chips tend to benefit a bit more from faster RAM in purely CPU-intensive tasks, while both platforms see some gains in gaming. This browser game is a post-apocalypse Glasto meets non-violent tech Wicker Man and it's rad as hell.

Letter From The Editor notes from our survey. PlanetSide 2's new continent is finally in the works. If price or availability forces you to buy a new PC with less RAM than you would prefer, there are still some things you can do to improve gaming performance:. Or visit our Accessories section if you just want to add more RAM to your existing set-up. How can we help you? Already know what you need? Shop Now. The perfect combination of features for an exceptional experience, anywhere. Learn More.

Business FAQs What accessories and devices are best for your business needs? Workstation FAQs Know your options before you buy, or learn more about the capabilities of your existing Lenovo workstation with our frequently asked questions. What is the Best 4K Monitor for Gaming? How much RAM do I need for gaming? Some manufacturers are already recommending 16 GB for their newest titles, including Just Cause 4, Quantum Break, and others. Such massive RAM amounts are mostly aimed at video editors and others with hyper-sized working files.

Two different system components — you can probably guess what they are -- will typically have a greater impact on game performance: Processor: When it comes to judging if your PC is up to playing your favorite games, the top determinant is the processor. You can hold lots of game data in memory, but the speed of the CPU will still determine how rapidly that data can generate visible on-screen action and responses. Graphics: Systems with integrated graphics built into the CPU must — by their nature -- use general system memory in generating game visuals, whereas a discrete graphics card GPU has its own dedicated VRAM to support many graphics tasks.

About this time each year we set on a memory capacity quest and last year's expedition lead us to conclude that for gamers 4GB is out, 8GB was the bare minimum, 16GB is the sweet spot and 32GB is overkill. With that, for the version we're dropping the 4GB configuration and focusing on 8, 16 and 32GB capacities. As the title suggests the emphasis is on gaming. When it comes to game testing, properly measuring the impact of RAM capacity is no easy task as there are many factors at play.

We like to briefly discuss some of things for better understanding of our methodology and the challenges faced when testing system memory. Challenge 1: picking the right hardware. If you run out of system memory, some game assets are moved to your local storage device, though at this point the performance hit will be so significant that the game will almost certainly become unplayable.

Although even then, the analysis is part of the fun here. But there are still more factors to consider. The quality settings used on games can also have a big impact. For example, if you use a GTX 3GB and are happy turning textures down to a medium quality setting, then that will reduce how much data is offloaded to the system memory. But that's a completely different kind of test.

Also, during our testing last year we discovered another issue with trying to show the fps difference between the various hardware configurations. Typically our benchmark passes run for 60 seconds and are run multiple times, then report a 3-run average. This means the system has a chance to cache the pass. So while the results from the first run might see a shockingly low 0. So displaying the three run average can be misleading.

The best solution for this was to run each benchmark once, then reset the entire system, load the game from zero and run the next pass. The benchmark pass is actually 90 seconds in total but I only report the frame rates for the last 60 seconds.