6d ago

32 GB of RAM Could Become the New Standard for Gamers, According to Steam Survey

www.techpowerup.com

Hardware @lemmy.world

Alphane Moon @lemmy.world

6d ago

32 GB of RAM Could Become the New Standard for Gamers, According to Steam Survey

www.techpowerup.com /340590/32-gb-of-ram-could-become-the-new-standard-for-gamers-according-to-steam-survey

25 comments

Slow news day huh?
I guess we should celebrate that RAM is the only component not being scalped by its manufacturers, just not too loudly
- Everyone needs ram and cpus and other general things so it's in their interest to reduce cost and produce a lot. Stuff like enthusiast gaming GPUs have a relatively niche audience with niche buying habits which is why companies tend to get away with exploiting that.
  
  It’s in our interest. It’s in direct conflict with their interests. Enthusiast GPUs aren’t the only product selling for the highest price they can get away with, almost every component is, including even non-enthusiast GPUs
  
  It's nothing to do with gamers and everything to do with AI data centers at this point. But if you can hold out a little longer the used market will be absolutely flooded with them when the AI bubble pops. Even the king of AI Sam Altman has acknowledged it at this point.
  
  Nvidia has a monopoly on good gaming GPUs, there is no competition, so the prices are high.
So I gather this is just about people who are building PC's and not about developers actually needing or actually utilizing more than 16 GB of ram.
Of course that doesn't account for Windows 11 bloat out the ass and why if you ask me, now's the best time to start the migration to Linux gaming.
- I've got 64gb RAM on my machine but the highest I've seen it was 36gb on arch. (City-sim game running + 20 YouTube tabs.
  
  I was able to stick to 16GB on my Windows 11 gaming VM for ages. Only recently cracked because I was using the OBS replay buffer that was using 2-4GB so I upped to 24GB.
  I would never recommend somebody build a new gaming system with less than 32GB now though since you will need an upgrade at some point. If you’re already running 16GB then it’s probably fine to just wait until you do a full re-build.
  That said, 16GB is probably the new standard for normal PCs if you’re hoping to get 5 years out of them.
I fucking ran out of memory yesterday playing Oblivion Remastered with 5 Firefox tabs open.
32GB ddr4 3600 kit!
I'm fucking upgrading next week!
- Linux.
  
  My Comrade in Lenin, I was on Bazzite
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/ddr4-costs-soar-as-manufacturers-pull-the-plug
I'm already considering switching to 64, I hate having to close everything to fire up games.
- How much shit do you have open??
  I have multiple chrome windows open with a shitload of fans, excel, word, even other games, and I still haven't run out of memory for any game with 32gb.
  
  About a dozen docker containers and two vms... I really need a dedicated server.
- I have an utterly insane number of browser tabs and windows open constantly with several virtual desktops set up with programs, multiple instances of some, and I don't come close to 32 even when I'm running the most demanding games in my library.
  What programs are you running that starve you for so much RAM?
  There's only a couple games that even recommend 32GB as recc spec as far as I know. Hogwarts legacy is one. Games with a ton of mods and texture packs can eat up a ton of RAM, is that your challenge? Outrageously modded Skyrim and Minecraft?
  Trying to figure it out and maybe help you diagnose if it's actually something else. I don't think any normal setup will be helped with more RAM than 32GB for gaming at this point, at least not that I know of.
  
  Chrome is using 12GB right now, and I've got 8GB allocated between two VMs, and another 3GB to Docker. So of my 32, I'm currently at 9GB before I launch a game. Plenty of games want more than that.
Pretty much the system ram : vram ratio should be about 2x to have some wiggle room(both for OS and other things running in background). most of previous gen GPU have 6_{8G vram thus 16G is kinda standard. But now with GPU heading toward 12}16G as standard(for non-flagship), 32G would be better so game can hold more things in system ram before they stream upload to GPU.

25 comments