How much RAM do you really need to run powerful games?


RAM is one of the core components of any good PC setup and it becomes even more important if you want to run the latest games.

The age old question that most gamers want to know: How much RAM is actually needed to run games? And the answer isn’t as simple as it looks.

There was a time when having 4GB of RAM seemed enough, but many new (and powerful) games demand a lot more than that. Take Mass Effect: Andromeda as an example, it clearly lists 8GB RAM as the bare minimum. Anything less than that and it’s likely the game won’t run at all on your system.

However, having 8GB ram is becoming more and more common these days, with most assembled setups also shipping with that amount. But this begs another question to be asked. Would upgrading the RAM to 16GB or even 32GB help your gaming cause?

To be fair, having 16GB RAM is ideal if you’re a hardcore gamer. It’s double the amount most high-end games require as bare minimum and also gives you ample memory if you want to multitask while playing games, such as doing a livestream or recording gameplay.

This brings us to the final question: What about 32GB, is it needed at all for gaming purposes?

The short answer would be no, unless you’re concerned about future-proofing your setup.

It is interesting that having even 16GB RAM won’t make much of an improvement over having 8GB as far as gaming performance goes. There won’t be any noticeable amount of increase in frame rates or other boosts in performance. Although, the extra bit of RAM (16GB) does help causes in case you’re multi-tasking.

The same cannot be said about 32GB as it simply doesn’t add anything at all. Rather than spending the extra money on that, you’re far better off investing in a more powerful graphics card.

Read this nice little comparison to get more of an insight about how little RAM has to do with gaming (as long as you have a minimum 8GB of it).