For those looking for a short answer, it’s 16 GB.
But if you’re a techie like me, and want to know the complete answer, keep reading.
Choosing how much RAM memory we need to put into our gaming PC, is one of the first questions that comes across our minds.
Usually this question comes once we’ve selected our motherboard, installed CPU in that motherboard, and connected the newly-bought graphics card with that motherboard.
Unlike the components that I mentioned above, having a faster and large RAM won’t have a drastic effect on your gaming.
Why? Let me explain.
A motherboard is important because it enables you to connect a lot of peripherals/components through it. Same is the case with CPU and graphics card. High end CPU and graphics card will have immediate affect on CPU-bound and Heavy-graphics games respectively. Even an SSD can help your games load faster.
On the other hand, a RAM is a bit different when it comes to gaming. It just loads your game assets, your OS, and other programs, while they’re running. That’s why, even though DDR4 RAMs are faster than their DDR3 siblings, you won’t feel any difference if both of them have same storage capacity.
Apart from that, having a faster RAM won’t have any effect on the in-game graphics.
But that doesn’t mean you should bother having a good RAM.
What I am saying is that you should care more about the storage capacity of your RAM, rather than how fast it is.
OK, now with this confusion cleared, let’s come back to our original question:
How Much RAM memory Do You Need for Gaming.
Well it actually depends on the types of games you’re playing.
If you just play very light games, such as Chess 3D, then even a 4GB RAM is sufficient. Heavier games like Watch Dogs 2, on the other hand, require 8GB RAM or more.
Other than this, you also need to look at the other programs that run while you play games, such as Google Chrome. If you run more programs in the background, less RAM space will be available to a game. Consequently, RAM will have put some programs on hold to make the space required by the game. All of this can result in the slow-down of your PC.
So, as you can see, there’s no size fit all when it comes to perfect RAM memory for PC games.
But to give you guys some sort of estimate, we analysed some of the most popular games to be released in recent games. In total, we checked the minimum and the recommended RAM memory of 80+ games.
And here are our results for the 20 of those games.
- Injustice 2: 8 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- The Evil Within 2: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- FIFA 18: 8 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Forza Motorsport 7: 8 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Divinity: Original Sin 2: 4GB minimum, 8GB recommended
- The Long Dark: 2 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Final Fantasy 14: Stormblood: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Prey: 8GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- Scanner Sombre: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds: 4 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- A Way Out: 8GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- Far Cry 5: 8GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- NFS payback: 6 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- The Witcher 3: 6 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Battlefield 1: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB recommended
- Tom Clancy’s The Division: 8 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Batman Arkham Knight: 6 GB minimum, 8 GB recommended
- Grand Theft Auto V: 4GB minimum, 8GB recommended
- Grand Theft Auto V: 4GB minimum, 8GB recommended
As you can see, almost all these games require at least 4/6 Gigs of RAM, with many others (such as Far Cry 5 developers) have recommended 16 GB RAM. Yes, this data is pretty small but gives a good picture about where things are going right now, in terms of RAM memory.
Since this trend is only going to increase over the period of times, it’s better to put a 16 GB into your gaming PC. This way you can future-proof your gaming rig.
Final Words
OK, for those who’re skimming this post, let me say it once again. You Need 16 GB RAM for Gaming in 2018. keep that in mind though, that we have only done research for the games that require discrete graphics.
For the games that rely on CPU and use integrated graphics, that size may vary due to the fact that graphics cards come with a separate RAM (called VRAM). Since this RAM isn’t available in integrated graphics, they use some part of your main RAM as VRAM.