Do I Need More RAM?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

Not sure I know how to read Task Manager these days.

At the top right hand corner, it says "memory usage 15.8GB but below it says 9.4GB is available?

How much RAM am I currently using?

[Rigby]

It's not using 15.8 GB, it says 6.7 of 15.8 are in use. 16GB is plenty in my opinion, you're fine.

[eddman]

That 15.8 isn't the usage; it's the max value of the Y axis. You have 16 GB of memory installed but 15.8 is available to windows.

If you look in the left column, it says 6.7/15.8 GB.

[spikey_richie]

On 18/11/2022 at 13:09, eddman said:

That 15.8 isn't the usage; it's the max value of the Y axis. You have 16 GB of memory installed but 15.8 is available to windows.

If you look in the left column, it says 6.7/15.8 GB.

This!

What's also confusing is the Committed, because that's your physical RAM + your page file.

[adrynalyne]

Task Mangler is also notoriously unreliable in accuracy.

 

These days, unless I run out of memory and a VM whines about it, I don't even worry anymore.

[ThaCrip]

In short, 16GB of RAM is plenty unless you are a really heavy user.

but I would say RAM can be pretty much summed up with the following...

4GB of RAM = I would avoid going any lower than this unless your a very light user as I would say nowadays 4GB of RAM is sort of a minimum for a usable computer.

8GB of RAM = this is probably good enough for most users and would likely be the sweet spot for a lot of people since beyond this the gains would be minimal if your mostly browsing the web and the like type of tasks.

16GB of RAM = like 8GB, but leaves plenty of room to breathe and this is a good idea if your a gamer or want to be safe for years, if not many years, to come. probably the best bang-for-the-buck today if you want to be on the side of caution and not cut yourself short, but I think one could make a good argument for 8GB of RAM as the sweet-spot for many users.

32GB of RAM = any higher than this is almost certainly a waste of money for the vast majority of people and even this is mostly overkill since once a person goes beyond 16GB of RAM, the gains tend to drop off a cliff for most users. or put it this way... even if I was building a pretty good computer I would not put more than 32GB of RAM in it for sure and would seriously be considering just 16GB of RAM since the saved $ could be put towards other components as it would be a more efficient use of ones money.

 

bottom line... for most people reading this, use 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM and forget about it.

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 18/11/2022 at 08:47, ThaCrip said:

In short, 16GB of RAM is plenty unless you are a really heavy user.

but I would say RAM can be pretty much summed up with the following...

4GB of RAM = I would avoid going any lower than this unless your a very light user as I would say nowadays 4GB of RAM is sort of a minimum for a usable computer.

8GB of RAM = this is probably good enough for most users and would likely be the sweet spot for a lot of people since beyond this the gains would be minimal if your mostly browsing the web and the like type of tasks.

I tell people when buying a new computer, avoid 4GB of ram. by the time you start your computer 50% to 60% is already being used up. Unless you wipe and clean install, then it will probably be less. Then open up a web browser and you are already using 70% to 80% SSD's help reduce the feeling of slowness with 4GB, but if you have a sh*t-spinner oh god.

I recommend a minimum of 8GB.

Personally, my current couch computer and any future builds would probably go with 32, only because I have a lot of stuff open and I do, VM's and some video editing.

Update: As it would have it I worked on a customer's computer today who had 4GB of ram and an SSD. While I was working on it I noticed the ram usage was at 89 -94%. The computer was running #### slow. installed an additional 4GB of ram for a total of 8GB and the computer is running great.

[adrynalyne]

On 18/11/2022 at 07:47, ThaCrip said:

In short, 16GB of RAM is plenty unless you are a really heavy user.

but I would say RAM can be pretty much summed up with the following...

4GB of RAM = I would avoid going any lower than this unless your a very light user as I would say nowadays 4GB of RAM is sort of a minimum for a usable computer.

8GB of RAM = this is probably good enough for most users and would likely be the sweet spot for a lot of people since beyond this the gains would be minimal if your mostly browsing the web and the like type of tasks.

16GB of RAM = like 8GB, but leaves plenty of room to breathe and this is a good idea if your a gamer or want to be safe for years, if not many years, to come. probably the best bang-for-the-buck today if you want to be on the side of caution and not cut yourself short, but I think one could make a good argument for 8GB of RAM as the sweet-spot for many users.

32GB of RAM = any higher than this is almost certainly a waste of money for the vast majority of people and even this is mostly overkill since once a person goes beyond 16GB of RAM, the gains tend to drop off a cliff for most users. or put it this way... even if I was building a pretty good computer I would not put more than 32GB of RAM in it for sure and would seriously be considering just 16GB of RAM since the saved $ could be put towards other components as it would be a more efficient use of ones money.

 

bottom line... for most people reading this, use 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM and forget about it.

Define a really heavy user. 

[LaP]

On 18/11/2022 at 09:47, ThaCrip said:

In short, 16GB of RAM is plenty unless you are a really heavy user.

but I would say RAM can be pretty much summed up with the following...

4GB of RAM = I would avoid going any lower than this unless your a very light user as I would say nowadays 4GB of RAM is sort of a minimum for a usable computer.

8GB of RAM = this is probably good enough for most users and would likely be the sweet spot for a lot of people since beyond this the gains would be minimal if your mostly browsing the web and the like type of tasks.

16GB of RAM = like 8GB, but leaves plenty of room to breathe and this is a good idea if your a gamer or want to be safe for years, if not many years, to come. probably the best bang-for-the-buck today if you want to be on the side of caution and not cut yourself short, but I think one could make a good argument for 8GB of RAM as the sweet-spot for many users.

32GB of RAM = any higher than this is almost certainly a waste of money for the vast majority of people and even this is mostly overkill since once a person goes beyond 16GB of RAM, the gains tend to drop off a cliff for most users. or put it this way... even if I was building a pretty good computer I would not put more than 32GB of RAM in it for sure and would seriously be considering just 16GB of RAM since the saved $ could be put towards other components as it would be a more efficient use of ones money.

 

bottom line... for most people reading this, use 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM and forget about it.

I would personally not call a 4GB RAM computer usable these days if you don't have a fast SSD/NVME unless you like constant hangs up. There really is no reason to go with 4GB in 2022 the money you could potentially save is not enough to justify it.

16GB is required if you are a developer. I would rather quit my job than work on a 8 GB ram computer. If you are a dev 16GB of ram and a good pci-e nvme is the way to go imo.

Edited November 18, 2022 by LaP

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 18/11/2022 at 10:06, LaP said:

I would personally not call a 4GB RAM computer usable these days if you don't have a fast SSD/NVME unless you like constant hangs up.

16GB is required if you are a developer. I would rather quit my job than work on a 8 GB ram computer.

Yep at 4GB of ram your page file is getting hammered.

[adrynalyne]

On 18/11/2022 at 09:06, LaP said:

I would personally not call a 4GB RAM computer usable these days if you don't have a fast SSD/NVME unless you like constant hangs up. There really is no reason to go with 4GB in 2022 the money you could potentially save is not enough to justify it.

16GB is required if you are a developer. I would rather quit my job than work on a 8 GB ram computer. If you are a dev 16GB of ram and a good pci-e nvme is the way to go imo.

I probably have different needs, but 16GB is barely passable for me as a developer.

[LaP]

On 18/11/2022 at 11:19, adrynalyne said:

I probably have different needs, but 16GB is barely passable for me as a developer.

I have 32GB an a pci-e 4 nvme  i was referring to the bare minimum for a dev.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

 

[LaP]

On 18/11/2022 at 12:07, Mindovermaster said:

 

It's because you doubled your RAM by downloading 32GB of RAM. It might show up in the UI but it's not there physically. /s

[spikey_richie]

On 18/11/2022 at 16:19, adrynalyne said:

I probably have different needs, but 16GB is barely passable for me as a developer.

Same, we get issued with 32GB of RAM on our company machines. Mine's sat here running at 14GB with no solution open.

[neufuse Veteran]

On 18/11/2022 at 13:27, LaP said:

It's because you doubled your RAM by downloading 32GB of RAM. It might show up in the UI but it's not there physically. /s

RAM Doubler still exists? 

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 18/11/2022 at 15:46, neufuse said:

RAM Doubler still exists? 

(Just copied my Facebook post, hence the explanation) 

 

When I was a stupid young teen around the year 1995-1996, I installed an application on our families Gateway p5-60 computer called “Memturbo”.

 

It was one of those applications which claimed to give you more memory and make your computer run faster, when all it did was increase the size of the page file on the hard drive.

 

After installing it, the computer would no longer bootup and would just give a bluescreen of death (BSOD).

 

So, my mom had to call the local computer guy. He made a house call and fixed it.

 

Knowing what I know now, the program had installed a driver to the windows driver directory, which was being loaded on startup, thus blue screening the computer. Once that file was deleted the computer booted up without issue.

 

While in high school I did an internship with him and his brother at his shop in Remsen. I answered the phones, went on repair calls, and helped him fix some things. Those were great times.

 

A few years later he closed his shop, and I opened my computer repair business and to this day service the same area he did all those years ago.

 

[aioraito]

4GB RAM and 64bit Windows is not a good combination and pretty much new computers have 64bit Windows installed... Once it is booted to the desktop you'll have at the most 1GB RAM available for other programs...

For regular/casual internet browsing, 8GB RAM would be a good starting point but if you open multiple browser tabs and other programs, 16GB RAM will do...

If you use the computer for video editing/CAD and other demanding tasks, go with at least 32GB RAM...

[bikeman25]

I was using 16GB up til i purchased Battlefield 2042 Game, then Memory was up to 15.8 in use of 15.8gb,  upgraded to 32GB, and game is performing alot better in Windows 11 since i did that,  previously was stuttering on first load into missions on 21H2 ,  running even smooth in 22H2 thus far.     

 

Typically PC Game, light video editing at times--basically game video captures of like American Truck Simulator or Euro Truck Simulator at times,  music listening, cd/dvd burning with portable drive at times,  all kinds of varying activities.   Have left Pagefile as Default system controlled,  didn't think was wise to mess with that 

Heck i'm debating if even trying The Free Splinter Cell game on my secondary gaming Laptop is a good idea tomorrow or not, with only 8gb of ram in that machine til i get it upgraded if i can ever get the HP Omen open lol

 

[Alph]

On 18/11/2022 at 09:47, ThaCrip said:

In short, 16GB of RAM is plenty unless you are a really heavy user.

but I would say RAM can be pretty much summed up with the following...

4GB of RAM = I would avoid going any lower than this unless your a very light user as I would say nowadays 4GB of RAM is sort of a minimum for a usable computer.

8GB of RAM = this is probably good enough for most users and would likely be the sweet spot for a lot of people since beyond this the gains would be minimal if your mostly browsing the web and the like type of tasks.

16GB of RAM = like 8GB, but leaves plenty of room to breathe and this is a good idea if your a gamer or want to be safe for years, if not many years, to come. probably the best bang-for-the-buck today if you want to be on the side of caution and not cut yourself short, but I think one could make a good argument for 8GB of RAM as the sweet-spot for many users.

32GB of RAM = any higher than this is almost certainly a waste of money for the vast majority of people and even this is mostly overkill since once a person goes beyond 16GB of RAM, the gains tend to drop off a cliff for most users. or put it this way... even if I was building a pretty good computer I would not put more than 32GB of RAM in it for sure and would seriously be considering just 16GB of RAM since the saved $ could be put towards other components as it would be a more efficient use of ones money.

 

bottom line... for most people reading this, use 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM and forget about it.

8 GB is almost certainly not enough for an office worker (especially if you use something like MS Teams) or a gamer. 8GB is enough for grandma to do her surfing.
 

[tsupersonic]

On 18/11/2022 at 21:27, Alph said:

8 GB is almost certainly not enough for an office worker (especially if you use something like MS Teams) or a gamer. 8GB is enough for grandma to do her surfing.
 

Teams is really poorly optimized, and I personally haven't seen it run well on any my work provided hardware (despite 8, 16, or 32 GB of RAM). I'm sure it would fare better on a personal device without all the corporate security measures we have in place, but even then, I doubt it would be a huge improvement. 

My advice for RAM is dependent if you can upgrade it or not. On laptops, you typically can't upgrade RAM these days, so I say get 16 GB as a minimum, and go for more RAM to future proof/if you're a more power user (video/audio editing, running VM's, games, developer, etc.). For devices where you can upgrade RAM, I'd still go with 16 GB minimum, but at least now you potentially can upgrade (depending on motherboard/chipset limitations). 

[neufuse Veteran]

On 18/11/2022 at 22:11, tsupersonic said:

Teams is really poorly optimized, and I personally haven't seen it run well on any my work provided hardware (despite 8, 16, or 32 GB of RAM). I'm sure it would fare better on a personal device without all the corporate security measures we have in place, but even then, I doubt it would be a huge improvement. 

My advice for RAM is dependent if you can upgrade it or not. On laptops, you typically can't upgrade RAM these days, so I say get 16 GB as a minimum, and go for more RAM to future proof/if you're a more power user (video/audio editing, running VM's, games, developer, etc.). For devices where you can upgrade RAM, I'd still go with 16 GB minimum, but at least now you potentially can upgrade (depending on motherboard/chipset limitations). 

odd Teams runs fine on my workstation, use it all day for PTSN dialing calls, video calls, sharing screens, tons of stuff... never had an issue with it yet

[theefool]

Was looking at an old post from a forum I use to post to, and I had a build from 2013.  I was running 64GB ram.  New computer after that I had 128 GB and new current computer with 128 GB.

Mostly need it for VM's, using vmware workstation pro running esxi and vcenter on top of that.  Or trying out games installed on a ram disk.

But, now I rarely run VMs on my local computer, since I bought a Threadripper server with 256 GB ram running esxi 7, with vcenter 7.  Currently upgrading to esxi 8 and vcenter 8.

If I were to build a new computer now, it probably would have 32 or 64 GB.

 

 

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

On 18/11/2022 at 22:36, theefool said:

Was looking at an old post from a forum I use to post to, and I had a build from 2013.  I was running 64GB ram.  New computer after that I had 128 GB and new current computer with 128 GB.

Mostly need it for VM's, using vmware workstation pro running esxi and vcenter on top of that.  Or trying out games installed on a ram disk.

But, now I rarely run VMs on my local computer, since I bought a Threadripper server with 256 GB ram running esxi 7, with vcenter 7.  Currently upgrading to esxi 8 and vcenter 8.

If I were to build a new computer now, it probably would have 32 or 64 GB.

 

 

Well, he doesn't have a server..

[ThaCrip]

On 18/11/2022 at 10:45, Warwagon said:

I tell people when buying a new computer, avoid 4GB of ram. by the time you start your computer 50% to 60% is already being used up. Unless you wipe and clean install, then it will probably be less. Then open up a web browser and you are already using 70% to 80% SSD's help reduce the feeling of slowness with 4GB, but if you have a sh*t-spinner oh god.

Yeah, this is rock solid advice that I agree with 100%. but... I do think 4GB of RAM is not outright horrible though even though it does not give you much room left once you load up web browser and it runs for any length of time etc as it will pretty much use that fairly quickly, but at least it's not outright bad.

my backup computer maxes out at 4GB of RAM and I still got a 250GB HDD in it and it's okay on my very light use of it. but if I had to use this even somewhat regularly/moderately I would definitely be putting a SSD in it as then I could more thoroughly test this. because if my main PC ever dies out of no where, that computer would, at least temporarily, become my main PC. I would expect to see a noticeably slower computer than my main PC but if the performance is passable for a while that's the main thing.

because I could probably say this in relation to what I was saying if I wanted a bit more details... while I basically mentioned 4GB is a minimum for a usable computer, I think in terms of a absolute minimum one could go as low as 2GB of RAM (at least on Linux) but with this your running on fumes right off the start as after the OS boots up, it will seem okay, but after loading any web browser that 2GB of RAM will basically become a problem very quickly where as with 4GB of RAM is a more realistic minimum since you can at least use the browser for a bit before RAM will start to become a issue etc and even when it does, I suspect at least with a SSD, while apparently you can see a noticeable decline in performance vs 8GB of RAM, as long as it's not really annoyingly slow, it's probably still offering passable performance for a basic internet machine with 4GB of RAM and a SSD for light, maybe a low moderate range level of use etc.

 

On 18/11/2022 at 10:45, Warwagon said:

I recommend a minimum of 8GB.

 

Ill naturally agree here 100% as this is very good simple advice to the typical person that we don't know their usage patterns since this will probably cover many (maybe even majority(?)) of more casual users use situations.

So while I am not recommending people use 4GB of RAM, I would still say it's on the low side of usable(especially if they can't upgrade any further), especially if they are a light-ish internet level of user (at least on Linux as I am not sure how Windows will handle 4GB of RAM nowadays as I would imagine it's worse which probably makes 8GB of RAM all that much more appealing) and a SSD is always a good option if the person even somewhat regularly uses it.

 

On 18/11/2022 at 10:45, Warwagon said:

Personally, my current couch computer and any future builds would probably go with 32, only because I have a lot of stuff open and I do, VM's and some video editing.

Yeah, I can see 32GB of RAM as a real choice for some users. but beyond this is likely overkill for a very high percentage of people besides fairly specialized use situations which I suspect boils down to more heavy video editing and the like(?).

 

On 18/11/2022 at 10:45, Warwagon said:

Update: As it would have it I worked on a customer's computer today who had 4GB of ram and an SSD. While I was working on it I noticed the ram usage was at 89 -94%. The computer was running #### slow. installed an additional 4GB of ram for a total of 8GB and the computer is running great.

Yeah, I totally believe you. it does not take much to use up 4GB of RAM like you say here, but at least you do have 'something' to use unlike 2GB where your running on fumes shortly after boot up.

basically the OS and it leaves you a bit for a web browser is about it with 4GB of RAM. I would naturally avoid 4GB if possible since one can get a rather big boost going from 4GB of RAM to 8GB of RAM and since it's quite cheap money wise to go from 4GB to 8GB of RAM (especially used RAM I suspect) it does not make much sense to regularly use a computer with only 4GB of RAM unless yo have no choice (my backup computer I have no choice either way since it tops out at 4GB of RAM which is what's in it). so any random person should default to 8GB of RAM (minimum) if possible. so no complains from me here.

 

On 18/11/2022 at 10:54, adrynalyne said:

Define a really heavy user. 

I see what you mean, but I think I can safely put it this way... if you need more than 32GB of RAM you are almost certainly a 'really heavy user' since the vast majority of common people variations (say general use and gaming and the like variations and other occasionally somewhat heavier RAM use programs) will almost certainly be good enough in the 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM range, maybe 32GB on the very high end. because 64GB of RAM is pretty much guaranteed to be overkill short of more specialized use situations.

but I am not surprised some around here question what I said because the users around here are probably not your more typical user variation, so what I said might not apply to them, but even in this regard I would imagine 16GB of RAM or 32GB of RAM will still more than cover the majority of the 'power user' variations since if someone needs 64GB of RAM or more it's pretty safe to say they are no where near common use level.

but I still think that's a pretty good guideline that any random person reads it one of those four options will almost surely be enough, with 8GB of RAM and 16GB of RAM being where the bulk of people should be since it offers best bang-for-the-buck. like if you took say 1,000,000 random people it's probably pretty safe for me to say that 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM will offer the best performance for $ spent.

hell, another way I could put this is (someone correct me if I am wrong) I suspect if someone goes and buys a pre-built computer I would assume anything semi-recent (call it the last 5, maybe 10, years or so) probably comes with 8GB of RAM or 16GB of RAM. I would guesstimate even somewhat older hardware still in use today supports at least 4GB of RAM as if a PC does not support at least 4GB of RAM it's likely very ancient technology today and probably not many are still using it etc.

p.s. even speaking for myself... I was on 8GB of RAM from May 2012 until sometime in the year 2020 when I upgraded to 16GB (you could see programs bloat up a fair amount in that time as when I first got 8GB you could tell it went further than it does in semi-recent memory). given my general day-to-day use there was little to no noticeable difference (I had a SSD since May 2015). but in some situations (like I can leave my browser running for quite some time(which I generally leave my PC on all of the time with the browser pretty much running all of the time to) and then say play a game or I got more RAM on occasional VM use situations now) it helps and I am sure helps cut back on swap usage etc though. I can't upgrade the RAM on my current main PC's motherboard (which I had since May 2012)  any further though as it's tops out at 16GB of RAM (2x 8GB).

 

p.s. Alph said, "8 GB is almost certainly not enough for an office worker (especially if you use something like MS Teams) or a gamer. 8GB is enough for grandma to do her surfing." ; in terms of gaming I would argue the bulk of games out there will work well enough with 8GB of RAM unless your playing really recent-ish games. you might have to close out of RAM hog programs like ones web browser etc before loading the game, but it will work well enough (at least at more typical resolutions like 1080p or so).