32GB Isn’t Enough - 32 vs 64 vs 96GB DDR5 RAM 

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Windows caching will always try to fill up your RAM, filling up the RAM with cached data is a good thing. Everything that is read off a storage device is read into RAM before it goes to the CPU or GPU (until DirectStorage becomes the norm), what the cache does is leave all that data in RAM after it's been used so that you don't need to read it from storage the next time you access it. Windows can also load things into cache things that it expects you to use at some point. The thing to remember is that the cache is flexible, it takes up whatever slack there is in your RAM but it's also given the lowest priority so Windows will start dumping things out of the cache to make space for programs (e.g. games) that are running. If you look at the memory stats in Win10 (presumably 11 as well) Task Manager, you can see that the amount of data that's cached is counted as part of the 'available' stat and not the 'in use' stat. As for 0.1% lows; the amount of RAM you have limits how much the game can precache (load things into cache well before they're needed) textures, models etc. If there isn't enough free RAM for it to precache things and it has to load them from storage at the time they're needed, you could see a stutter while that process happens. If you have a shitload of RAM the game engine can, for example, precache stuff that's further away from you in the game environment so you never reach a point where the game engine is like *hol' up 0.2s while I load something* cos that load already happened in the background or during a loading screen. That's why RAM affects 0.1% lows greatly but barely affects average and 1% lows.

My first PC I bought when I was a kid had 4MB RAM. Not GB. Ran at 16 megahertz. Had an EGA graphics card that could display 16 colors all at the same time. I love how far tech has come over the years. I've basically never stopped upgrading since then. My next upgrade is to 64GB.

I am playing games at 4k with a 7800x3d and RTX4090 on windows 11, and no issue 32GB...no stutter, nothing...smooth game play 100% of the time.

32GB is enough

They went to the effort of sending you 3 kits of RAM and all you did was test 2 games? Is this some kind of joke?

😂 I remember being a kid at PC world when my family bought our first computer back in 98 and the PC had 32mb of Ram, guy was raving about how much memory 6GBs is and that we would never fill it up.

It would also be nice to see how the 48GB kits compare between the 32 and 64 kits. There are a lot of these for DDR5 now that are dual rank so it's more relevant.

Windows uses almost ALL of your (leftover memory after allocations) as a cache. All you have to do is run programs and open data files. There is really no performance downside to it, the cache never gets swapped out to disk, the read cache can be discarded instantly to satisfy a memory allocation, and the write cache generally hides how slow your storage really is. It's really no surprise that with more memory you have somewhat better performance since its less likely to discard something that's about to be used. The problem is, memory isn't free and at some point you need to draw the line on how much money you want to spend vs what that memory gets you.

Not only is 32GB enough for literally everyone that doesn’t specifically know why they need more, but smaller capacity chips can generally clock tighter and faster - all other things being equal. A-Die vs M-Die, single rank vs dual rank, prioritizing frequency OR choosing tighter timings latency. You know, things that would’ve made a good video.

My last build had 32. This time I went with 64 and regret nothing! I've literally seen 40+ being used while gaming with just a Twitch stream up (I wasn't streaming that time) in the background and Discord for our voice chat. I do video editing and stream as well so that was a big driver for me getting 64 in the first place. I'd say 32 is still really solid especially if all you're really doing is gaming, but personally I think if you're building new from here forward just get a 64 GB kit and not worry about it from there forward. Games and programs are getting bigger and more complex so I'm sure we'll see more benefits from more RAM soon (outside of having ALL the Chrome tabs open at once).

Here's the thing about Windows, the more RAM it sees the more it uses.

If you're just gaming, a good 32gb or maybe 48gb kit is more than enough. If you're doing a load of stuff in the background or have huge workloads then maybe more could help. For an average user, 32gb is still more than enough.

For the past 10 years I've ran 32GB in all my systems, but going forward the minimum I will use is 64, but I am really interested in the 96GB kits.

I actually just went from 32GB to 64GB just a week ago. Crazy that you posted this today!

I have 64Gb Ddr 4, because I don't upgrade my computer often. I did notice a difference in alot of things. Alot of programs almost seemed like they didn't have to load at all. And they may have been sitting in ram. I have considered getting another 64gb considering ram is still pretty cheap for Ddr4

How many slots did you use with the 32, 64, 96 kits? In other words, how many sticks of RAM in each kit? Because there are performance upgrades there... single vs dual vs quad channel memory. 😅😅😅

I think unless you're streaming, 32gb is plenty. If you can afford more, have at it.

My rule of thumb since the early 90s, go double the standard of the day. 4mb get 8mb (1993) 8gb get 16gb etc. My last build the standard was 16gb so I got 32gb. My next build will be 64gb if the standard is still 32gb.

For now 32gb is enough for gaming only purpose with no multitask or background apps open. Some people has some many unnecessary installed apps working in the background and have no clue that's why they have high ram usage.

Most games I do consumes around 2 to 3 GB memory.32 is enough if you're not going to do anything else at the same time. More things you open, the more RAM you'll need. 64 makes everything smooth and less laggy.

Would you rather that your memory be completely unused or used to cache stuff? I see this a lot with people running Linux - they complain that the kernel uses a bunch of memory so there's not much free - what they fail to understand is that unused/free memory is basically wasted, but cached stuff speeds up your system and if applications need that memory it can be made available at a split seconds notice. I am pretty sure it's the same for Windows.

Currently in the process of building a PC to gut my old one that's been running the same hardware for going on 8 years now. Friend suggested double 24gb sticks which I didn't even realize was a thing. Old setup had quad 8's which was fine, but I found between running some games on ultra 4k settings with webpages open my memory would sometimes spike and stutter the game or crash altogether on rare occasions. Now going from 32 to 48 I'm sure would solve this, but another double set of 24's is only 90 bucks. I figured why not just go with 96 and literally never have to even worry about it again? Use the slots if you got em, since RAM is prob going to be the cheapest part of your PC build anyway if you're going for a performance build.

It also depends on what you are running in the background. As a web designer, blogger, and gamer, and a technical contractor for a P.I., I usually game while having all sorts of software running. I also do not run my machine with virtual memory. You would not believe what data you can extract from that, plus, although I have not tested it, I am sure the computer will run a bit better without a virtual disk. If you do need to run a virtual disk, I suggest you encrypt it and have it delete itself on shutdown. I find 64 gigs serves my purpose, plus, memory is inexpensive today, why would anyone be against having a ton of memory. I remember when 128k cost me $400.

wtf is with the into????

this video is really good and hella important.. also its 9months old If I can suggest something content wise I would appreciate this video re done with maybe also a 2x 24GB DDR5 sticks (if corsair has these also) and see if this results are still there with that 48GB ddr5 kit so you also can do more games as you mentioned and would fill a content video also! :) would love to hear from you on this, thanks for this amazing video.. playing fortnite on an apex encore on 32GB DDR5 and thinking of switching to 64GB because of your results (I also was able to see similiar results from other youtube channels which had also same findings as you, which surprised me a lot that 32GB is still not enough!)

As someone who runs soundboards, noise suppression software, voice modulators, headset EQ software, AND streaming the highest possible quality image to my VR headset along with running 3 extra programs for that alone... 32 is nowhere near enough... Call me insane, but I went with 128gbs DDR5 6000mhz (of course lower speed clock due to stability issues even after 3 years of DDR5) and I'm using A TON of ram. But for those who arent doing what I'm doing, 32gbs is great, 64gbs is more than enough and anything high is overkill. But, in the end, it comes down to what the user intends on doing with their system.

Meh, with this inflation and RAM prices, I went with 64, just in case prices go up. Anyway, the governament is robbing me of money left and right through inflation, might as well be spent in something I use.

paying more for 64gb ram just for that 0.1% lows is crazy. imagine spending 50-100 bucks more just to get better fps in 1 out of 1000 seconds

32 is enough. Hell, right now 16 is enough for games. But usage only goes up. I wouldn’t upgrade, but if building a new rig I would toss in 64

The gaming benefit you are seeing is not from the capacity increase. Its because All 16GB sticks of DDR5 are single rank. Moving up to 32GB sticks, you get dual rank sticks. Which performs better. Just like with DDR4 RAM. You would also get the same benefit, with four 8GB sticks. As that physically introduces more than 2 ranks. Or four 16GB sticks, for that matter.

Need to run a test when streaming and playing games to put a good load on the system.

Are you really testing RAM on video games? When you play a video game, your computer uses RAM to store parts of the game that are being actively used, such as the current level, characters, and music. This helps the game run smoothly. However, once you have enough RAM to meet the game’s requirements and support the OS, adding more RAM generally won't significantly improve how well the game performs. At that point, the game's performance is more likely to be limited by the graphics card or the processor, not the amount of RAM. For heavy applications like rendering complex 3D scenes, having more RAM does make a big difference. For instance, trying to render a very detailed scene with only 8GB of RAM might cause problems, but with 32GB, it should run smoothly. The more complex the scene, the more RAM you'll need to handle everything efficiently. The more data you need to handle or process at once, the more RAM you need. So, if you mainly play video games, browse the internet, and use basic applications, 16 to 32GB of RAM should be enough. But if you're a 3D artist, developer, or someone who uses their computer for intense tasks like working on game engine 5 days a week or other professional software, then having more RAM can be crucial to handle those demanding applications effectively. i hope it's clear :) I personally use 64gb for work application but will upgrade to 96gb in few days, because sometimes even with instances 64gb is not enough.

I've got 64GB 2x32 G.SKILL Z5 6000MHz with Ryzen 7950X3D and RX 7900 XTX And i am tempted to get a 192GB RAM kit for the lulz 😂

if we're talking specifically about gaming, 32gb is a decent target to take advantage of caching and light multitasking (like watching a video while playing a game, maybe a web browser and a couple tabs.), 64gb is a good futureproofing ammount for gaming specific workloads, this satisfies any streaming sofware like obs, a browser with a bunch of tabs open, caching more data from larger games, having lots of open background applications (teams, discord, icue, etc.). I'm personally a pretty heavy multitasker, I usually have about 1000 firefox tabs open (most of them asleep), obs, icue, teams, steam, and my game and I've used 128gb of ram for the past 5 or so years over 2 different platforms 3700x/x470 and 5950x/x570 and given how incredibly cheap ddr4 is these days, if you already have a top tier cpu and a top tier gpu (spend your money there first), going to 128gb of memory makes sense imo. ddr5, being very much more expensive right now, I'd probably be a bit more frugal, for gaming specific workloads 64gb is still a premium setup, but given I also do video production and heavy web multitasking and streaming, etc. I'd probably still go with 128gb of ddr5 if financially feasible.

I can't be the only one that's bothered by 96GB Right?

This seems like clickbait on the level of "8Gb of vram isn't enough!" You have almost 50% of users on the Steam hardware survey using 16Gb! 32Gb is barely 20%, and 64Gb at 2%. I feel this video's demographic is, "if you're bleeding edge and have tons of money to spend on the best of the best, 8Gb of vram ain't enough and 32Gb of system ram ain't enough!"

I'm waiting until 64gb DDR5 sticks are available and then I'll get a G Skill Trident Z5 2x64 7200mhz kit.

Interesting video - thanks for posting. I would love to see you test Baldur’s Gate 3 (I don’t know if there’s an easy benchmark yet, though) or Forspoken (since that is supposed to be pretty memory hungry.)

Did mans just twerk 😂😂😂

It would be awesome to see ddr4 testing also 32 vs 64

I suspect lows differences are because of the memory structure. At the dawn of SSD those with larger volume would also have significantly faster speeds. Because of parallelization. Maybe this is something about memory controllers, which are now on sticks iirc or the way memory chips are connected or their particular type.

I went to go with 64gbs of DDR5 Ram and took a while to keep retraining the memory everytime it loads so 32 is enough right now until after DDR5 has been around a bit.

ByteSizeTech: See? I told you! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ 64GB is the current recommended amount.

Huh, first of April again? How long have I slept?

Safe to say if you need to look at 0.1% lows to show a difference, then the difference doesn't matter. Get 2x16=32. If at some point in the future you want more, then you can easily add 32 more. For gaming, you're better off spending the money on lower latency memory rather than larger capacity or even higher speed.

I'm using 64GB RAM on my Windows PC but I do feel 32GB RAM should be more than enough for regular use case and gaming on a Windows PC. The only reason to go above is if you can actually utilize that higher amount of RAM. On my Linux mini-PC which is my daily driver, 32GB RAM is almost overkill. I maintain both my Windows & Linux systems well and getting a higher amount of RAM just for gaming and the almost insignificant boost it may provide is simply not worth it. Save that money and get a better GPU instead. 😗

It seems like the transition from 32gb to 64gb is going faster than from 16gb to 32gb was

Are the .1% low even worst on 16gb?

The 96GB set is almost as expensive as my motherboard 😂😂

That's interesting, I'd definitely be curious to see more games tested and also Intel

My 4+ year old 1080p 32GB DDR4 system is still running great today, but I'm building a new 1440p system currently just for the heck of it. I'm installing 64GB DDR5 in the new system, even if it may be a bit of overkill currently.

i think using a "dirty" windows is proper as most every day people dont do a fresh install until they get a new version of windows.... or like every 2-3 years.

I remember playing Doom 3 on my brothers sony vaio back in the day and i think it had like a little over 500 mb of ram and just thinking wow thats impressive. Crazy how far we've come. Finally building my own computer all these years later... excited to finally experience modern PC gaming. Ryzen 7 5700G, 32 gb of RAM, Rtx 2080 TI. Eee im so excited. Ill probably wait at least a few months before going up to 64 gb. Seems like most ppl are ok with 32.

As somebody who has worked in game dev, people are getting lazier and lazier with optimization. I’d never get less than 64gb for “futureproofing”. But I’m also a composer so I never have less than 96gb😂

For everyone confused, refer to the bar graph 32gb has the best average fps, however its also the most inconsistent, itll have more noticeable fps drops when they do happen (but you will never notice fps drops until they get below 60fps ) Higher ram has a few frames lower average, but muuuuch more consistent. Now, lets say your other specs are crap Unlike this guys pc, with nice parts, A ram upgrade on a crappy computer could be more beneficial to a user who experiences a lot of fps spikes, It could pick up some of the work that your other components need to handle I would like to see this test done on a very low end pc

0.1% is 10x less often than 1%. I wouldn't worry about 0.1%

I run 64gb with no caching. I was running 32gb with no caching but I would sometimes get out of memory errors on some games such as Arma 3 with mods. I have had no memory errors running 64g.

I feel like for games, 16 is enough for like 99% of stuff. It's really only a problem when you wanna have a bunch of other stuff running. Streaming, for sure. For me, specifically, I like to have as little running as possible. Regardless of system resources, I'm always afraid that too many things running might cause a conflict, so I try to just have my game running and select utilities in the background.

An additional question id have is would there be a benefit from have 4 sticks or just 2 sticks of ram if i went with ether 64 or 96gb set ups?

I only have 16 gigs but considering ordering another 2 sticks to make it 32 while the prices are good. I think more of us probably have 16 gigs than have 32 or more, so it would have been nice to include that in your testing as well.

Windows is probably working with the ram manufacturers to try to get consumers to buy bigger, faster and of course, more expensive ram.

W video - 96GB/2x48GB DDR5-6800 CL34 runs like butter on my Z790 Extreme/i9-13900KS/4090 OC rig and it's a great sweet spot between pure gaming performance and someone with legitimate workstation needs who doesn't want to dish out $15k CAD for an ADA RTX 6000 GPU alone or have the space for two rigs.

I love how insane you seem in your intros lmao

those hip thrusts and dorky moves bro... Got my knees weak god dangggg

this isn't news to me. I've known for years now that people really need more ram than they think they do. they just don't know how to properly read the info in the task manager so they think they have enough.

Stop trying to scare consumers into clicking and buying through your affiliate link. It’s scummy.

32GB is more than enough for general gamers. That said, I have 48 myself and kinda wanna upgrade to 64. ;)

idk chasing 0.1 % low is like chasing a ghost, only appear in graph, but you gonna barely notice

32g is enough. The skeptical remarks deserve more thumbs up than this video.

Just enough memory is never enough.

I have been thinking that my next system should have 64GB just because things are getting more memory intensive.

32GB is still enough for gaming + multitasking. Im sure we will hit the point where 64GB is the recommended in 5 years

I'd love to see memory utilization when you load up a game, Discord, web browser, and other apps/utilities, all at the same time. I think this is where memory will start to matter more.

32gb is still plenty for gaming. How are you caching so much memory? I’m running a 5800x3d, 32gb of ram, and a 4080. I’m not seeing any performance hits. Also tested with 64gb, also seen 0 difference in the 0.1% lows. Maybe do some testing from a clean build?

Ryzen gets an advantage with all 4 slots filled, fill those slots

showcasing games like planet coaster, zoo or citiskylines would be very helpful as they are a completely different beast in games. thank you,

Dude, what was that intro, lol😂😂😂

32 gigs is perfectly adequate, i even use half of it for my OBS lol.

Modded minecraft chews through as many gigs as you can serve it

32Gbs in 2023 is fine for gaming. Yes if you run lets of applications get more memory. As well if you have an 8GB GPU windows will use more Ram to compensate in certain games. So if you have on an SSD, 32gb ddr4 or ddr5 ,and a RTX or AMD with 16Gb you are in a much better position then if you have an 8gb graphics card. Even 12Gb cards are already suffering as games are spilling over 12Gb. Id rather have a system with 24Gb or 32 Gb memory and 16GB GPU then 64Gb or 96Gb of ram and an 8Gb GPU. For Gaming. If your doing other things you may want to reverse that.

Great video man, I guess it comes down to how deep your pocket goes and the care factor of your 1% lows.

64GB 3600 DDR4 16-19-19-39 Make your Radeon Smart Cache love you.

That was for sure the craziest and maybe the weirdest intro I have seen yet. 🤪

Sounds like you don't know how windows works. Cached memory means files on disk are in ram. For example double clicking a game for the 2nd time is much faster. It's a ram disk

What speed and primary timing's were those kits running? Without that this video as no value!

I would love to see more games tested at 4K

Well, for running a single application / game 32GB could be enough, but if I have dozens of application running and constantly switching between the application back and forth, like Solidworks, PS, vscode, blender, VMs I definitely need 64GB, 96GB, 128GB or even more. This is actually not the edge case but how I'm using my PC at the moment.

this guy's videos aree just annoying. This is the last time I would watch his videos. Something about his voice and the way he presents the contents.

This is complete bullshit. Fortnite absolutely doesn't have worse 0.1% lows with 32gb vs 64gb. No game does. Not one. Running applications in the background other than ones required for gaming, while gaming, is stupid as well. Who does that?

LMFAO man tried twerking at 0:08

It would depend on what you do on your PC. Streaming + Gaming has lots of apps running but that isn't taxing the ram to the point that the pc shows it needs ram. Video editing for work related projects, that "MAY" require more than 32gb depending on your project file.

honestly, i want to see how well stellaris, hearts of iron 4, and rimworld run with 32gb, 64gb and 96gb of ram

I like my cl 14 32GB DDR4. Lightning fast and runs everything I've thrown at it. 64gb and up is for video editors, simulations or large data sets.

3dsmax 2024 needs 128GB for best results. Gamer streamers who dont know the value of acomplishment have no idea what RAM is really for.

64GB is definitely more future proof than 32GB RAM. Especially since Windows 11 uses more RAM than Windows 10!! And since games made 2021 onwards require better hardware to run smoothly in 4k high/ultra settings, its particularly useful when you play games which exceed your VRAM amount on your GPU, the game will use but consume the DDR5 RAM on your system. Leaving you confident and happy you invested in more RAM. Demands keep on increasing. I'd rather see Task Manager utilizing on average 25% of your RAM rather than 50%-100% of your RAM. Especially when it comes to heavy 4k video editing, and playing games in 4k ultra settings. And remember videos by some RU-vidrs are in 8k, and GPU's like the RTX 4080 support 8k60fps HDR. Your DDR5 RAM (if you have enough) can help if you run out of vRAM (e.g playing Microsoft Flight Simulator on 4k ultra settings).

Ha ha... the intros never fail to make me chuckle! 😆 Anyway, my basic work laptop has so much network, company policy, and security software, running constantly, it sucks up all the basic 16gb ram, and draws several gb of SSD virtual memory. It needs to run 32gb just to cover company-installed software and still be able to use multiple large Excel spreadsheets without regular crashes...

I'm on 6GB of DDR2, thinking about upgrading. When I achieve about 30+ tabs open it starts to slow down.

honestly chrome and web browsing is the main thing that I notice eats up a lot of ram. theirs a lot of web pages where I notice that 32 is just no longer enough, especially if you have two monitors and multitask a lot, I plan on upgrading my ram from 32 to 64 soon, not to mention windows also runs a lot smoother. I also use other programs while doing other stuff like gaming, such as discord while web browsing so yes, more ram does make web browsing smoother and load faster.

My grandma has 128gb of ram for her sewing machine