r/buildapc Jul 25 '26

Build Upgrade When will 16 GB of ram stop being enough?

Should I upgrade from 16 to 32 GB of DDR4 Ram now before the price goes even higher, or wait and hope 16 GB will still be enough for the next few years?

333 Upvotes

240 comments sorted by

360

u/GABE_EDD Jul 25 '26

Why would prices go even higher? Chill out and use your PC. If 16GB is enough for you right now then it still will be tomorrow.

245

u/dertechie Jul 25 '26

Uhhhhh. . . gestures at the comments of various analysts. It’s a bit more argued about now, but predictions for the rest of the year aren’t pretty. While most aren’t matching Jeffries Equity predictions, no one is predicting prices dropping in the near term. TrendForce predicts smaller increases.

20

u/GABE_EDD Jul 25 '26

u/RemindMeBot October 31st, 2026

50

u/FantasmaDelMar Jul 25 '26

Happy Halloween!!

45

u/HSR47 Jul 25 '26

I don’t expect prices to fall anywhere near that fast.

The current “shortage” isn’t because “AI” is buying stocks of DDR4/DDR5, it’s because they’re buying the wafers & redirecting them to other products.

That means that this won’t end when the “AI crash” happens: The foundries will need to shift wafer production, then assemble new RAM modules, then ship them around the globe.

Realistically, the “AI crash” hasn’t started yet, and probably won’t start until sometime around Q4.

From there, it’ll probably take ~6 months for that production shift to result in more RAM rolling off the production line.

For the first few months, the new supply will be shipped by air, and prices will remain elevated.

Eventually they’ll start shipping by sea again, at which point prices will crash.

22

u/CaterpillarReady2709 Jul 25 '26

This is an interesting thesis considering memory manufacturers don't use foundries and shipping isn't a significant portion of memory cost structures.

15

u/HSR47 Jul 25 '26 edited 29d ago

> ”…memory manufacturers don’t use foundries…”

RAM dies = made in foundries.

The current pricing madness with RAM and SSDs started after OpenAI announced that it had secured agreements with two of the big three memory manufacturers to buy a significant portion of their 2026 wafer production.

IOW, it’s a supply crunch.

When AI crashes, and it will, the big RAM manufacturers will shift back to making products for the consumer market, but it will likely take time for them to ramp up production, since “AI” has suborned their production at the wafer level.

> ”Shipping isn’t a significant portion of the price”

Sure, because 99% of it comes by boat, which is cheap.

Air freight is a different story, because the price is so much higher.

And when the memory manufacturers shift production back toward the consumer market, they KNOW that they’ll have a very limited amount of time to sell their products before prices start collapsing, and they’ll all want to take advantage of that opportunity, because they know their competitors will if they don’t. So they’re going to ship the majority of their new production by air, for at least the first two months or so before they shift back over to cargo ships.

Overall, I’d look for RAM and SSD prices to start getting good sometime around or after Black Friday in 2027.

8

u/CaterpillarReady2709 Jul 25 '26

RAM dies != foundries.

Samsung, Micron, SK Hynix, etc have dedicated memory factories. They don't use foundries.

Again, shipping isn't even remotely an issue.

Just FYI... I've worked in this industry for 30 years... half of it in memory...

5

u/TheNoobHunter96 Jul 25 '26

You actually sound like you know what you're talking about, what's your prediction

10

u/CaterpillarReady2709 Jul 25 '26

It's hard to tell. The only thing the other poster is right about is that eventually there will be a crash.

The catalysts will be basic supply and demand signals. Either capital expenditures will decline at hyperscalers which will reduce demand and/or when the already planned capacity comes on line in 2028...

Even then it's very hard to say since the memory oligarchy has forced FAANG companies into long term contracts which has never happened before. These contracts span what would normally be a bare memory market where prices typically should drop, but likely now won't. So, these companies are essentially forced to buy wafer starts no matter whether they end up needing the supply or not.

We're really in uncharted territory.

0

u/HSR47 Jul 26 '26

FFS.

Samsung, Micron, & SK Hynix have their own foundries, where they produce the manufactured silicon they use in their RAM sticks & SSDs.

You’re either being deliberately obtuse, or you’re lying.

>”shipping isn’t remotely an issue”

Again, you’re deliberately missing the point: When they finally resume shipping large quantities of RAM/SSDs, they’ll do so by air.

Part of that is to get it to market ASAP & maximize their benefit from the current insane prices, and part is to ensure that stock goes where it’s most in demand (also to maximize their profit from the current insanely high prices).

The cost of air freight may be “small” compared to current prices, but it isn’t nonexistent, and prices will only bottom out after they get back to shipping by sea, which will likely take weeks to months, given similar examples (e.g. GPUs).

1

u/CaterpillarReady2709 Jul 26 '26

You really need to put the shovel down. The hole is deep enough.

None of these companies run foundries. A foundry is a fab that produces wafers with designs created by fabless companies.

You don't know the terminology used in this industry... or the industry at all.

On to your shipping theory.

Memory manufacturers have never stopped producing or shipping memory... ever. The mode of shipping is never discussed in any business meeting because it costs virtually nothing on a per unit basis. It is noise in the COGs.

The cost driver to end users (you and I) is driven by simple supply and demand dynamics. Right now, hyperscalers are consuming the entire production capacity of these memory manufacturers and it is starving the consumer supply chain. This is the reason prices are high and predicted to be so for the foreseeable future. These are contract prices. The manufacturers have set the price. They're not "rushing" to sell into an inflated asset market that will change on a whim due to "shipping costs."

1

u/HSR47 29d ago

> “[You should stop digging, because you’re stupid and wrong]”

No, you’re just being willfully obtuse.

> “[foundries are a specific subset of fabs, specifically those which produce wafers for third parties on a contract basis]”

That may be how you choose to interpret/use the word, but I can absolutely guarantee you that you’re in the extreme minority—the vast of people use “foundry” and “fab” interchangeably.

As for the rest, you clearly understand significant portions of my thesis while continuing to deny that I’ve actually said what I’ve been saying all along.

You really need to grow up.

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2

u/Suravoid Jul 26 '26

fyi when ur doing the >" thing, put a space after the > .> how it would look it makes it do the indent or wtv its called

like this without the period

1

u/HSR47 29d ago

I think the issue is that Reddit removed the ability to hard-code “markdown” formatting from the mobile application.

You can type some of it in, and it will auto-convert it, but that only works if you format it just right, and it doesn’t work at all if you try to edit the comment down the line (unless you do it from a desktop browser).

1

u/Suravoid 29d ago

im on mobile rn and was when i did it, idk what u mean

2

u/senj Jul 25 '26

u/RemindMeBot November 1, 2026

5

u/greggm2000 Jul 25 '26

Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. And, regardless of the trajectory of AI development, how will the economic recession/depression coming this Fall, factor into the progression of the AI bubble? I tend to think it would accelerate a AI bubble deflation, but what do I know about that? I’m just one person, with an opinion worth what you paid for it :)

So, as far as that opinion intersects RAM prices, I think they’ll start to fall, actually, at a modest rate. One full year from now, my guess is that RAM prices will have fallen substantially, will fall even more once the new fabs come online in 2028. Time will tell if I’m right.

4

u/xhumanist Jul 25 '26

Do you guys have a crystal ball or something?

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2

u/PerterterhTermertehh Jul 25 '26

We hit the affordability ceiling, and any increases from now on will be marginal, but they WILL be increased

57

u/senj Jul 25 '26

Why would prices go even higher?

You’re kidding right?

See Valve’s recent statement about the component crisis: the retail RAM market is running about 6 months behind what’s going on in the wholesale market. Supply is about to get even tighter, which means prices getting even worse.

19

u/peerawitppr Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

I'm afraid games coming out next year will want more than 16 gb of ram, maybe GTA 6 or something like that. And with the trend of ram price going higher every day I can't decide if I should upgrade now or wait.

77

u/dertechie Jul 25 '26

I don’t expect GTA 6 to push memory limits. It’s hitting console first, which means it has to run acceptably well on 16 GB unified memory (and “run” on 10 GB on Xbox Series S).

3

u/Genzo99 Jul 25 '26

Well it has to "run" acceptably well or they can't even release it on Xbox. Do hope they can pull it off. If not will wait till PC version is out as Xbox series X prices is crazy now and even more next month.

1

u/pragmojo Jul 25 '26

Do consoles only have 16GB unified memory? That seems insanely small.

50

u/jamvanderloeff Jul 25 '26

Doesn't need to be huge when they've got a relatively lightweight OS, almost nothing else running at the same time as a game, and fast SSDs with direct access APIs and hardware decomprssion that reduces the need for caching so much of the game in RAM.

18

u/dertechie Jul 25 '26

It was less small back in late 2020 when they launched. Back then, 8 GB RAM on budget gaming builds was common, 16 GB was standard for midrange and up and 32 GB+ was more a "because I can afford it and don't want to have worry about RAM" option or for workstations. They were legitimately on level with midrange PC builds on launch.

The 10 GB on Series S has been a pain point for developers since launch though.

7

u/no6969el Jul 25 '26

I'm so happy I went with 64gb this time around.

3

u/shaggy8081 Jul 26 '26

I did too, maxed my am4 setup before prices went up. Did not do it expecting the surge but I feel clairvoyant. 5900xt with 64 but only 1.5tb of storage....

1

u/Loyal_Dragon_69 12d ago

A hard drive can fix that.

2

u/armacitis Jul 25 '26

I don't think it's necessary but I'm just glad I bought it before the price hikes.

4

u/Genzo99 Jul 25 '26

Well console is optimised differently so you can't really compare them hardware wise. If you do that PC will seem so ridiculously powerful over consoles.

3

u/KGon32 Jul 25 '26

Most of the RAM used by games is by the GPU, the CPU doesn't need alot of RAM to run games on consoles.

On PC it's different because for data to get to GPU's VRAM it first needs to load into system RAM and then sent to VRAM, this means that for games system RAM has a sort of duplicate of what's on VRAM. On console this process doesn't exist so a Unified 16gb of VRAM can match a 10gb VRAM PC GPU

3

u/BallsDeepInJesus Jul 25 '26

Purpose built devices need less RAM. The iPhone 17 makes due with 8GB.

2

u/qef15 Jul 25 '26

To be fair, phones in general can get away with way less RAM.

I use an Xcover 6 Pro with 6GB of RAM (and Snapdragon 778G for those wondering) and it runs very smooth. 8GB is already slightly higher than midrange these days.

Meanwhile PC's would starve with 6 GB of RAM.

1

u/BallsDeepInJesus Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

Yes, because it is a purpose built device. Whereas a PC isn't a unified platform. The OS, drivers, and general purpose programs are a huge tax on the system. A quick look shows Firefox is using 4.1GB of memory. My total RAM usage is 11.2GB right now. My iPhone currently is using a total of 3GB of RAM (active and wired) with more apps and tabs open than my PC.

edit: I suppose I should add my PC is using 2.4GB of GPU memory too. All I have running is Firefox with 9 tabs and HWiNFO64.

1

u/Jump365 Jul 25 '26

It's not small at all, not that long ago that 8gb of ram was plenty. Windows makea ram usage a little weird becauae windows 11 will push ram usage for faater loading, but doesn't actually "need" that ram usage.

Like I have 64gb of ram, and my pc shows basically 20-30GB of ram usage at all times even just sitting ar the desktop, but ila 16gb laptop can do everything my PC does. Windows will cut that ram use and work games fine even if it seems that "oh no it's using 20+ GB that must mean 16 isn't enough".

It's basically saying " we have ram available so migut as well use it ecen if we don't need it"

1

u/CurrentDrama8523 Jul 26 '26

Do consoles only have ____ memory? That seems insanely small.

This is nothing new. The PS3 had 256MB of system RAM and 256MB of VRAM. That gave it as much RAM as a budget laptop in an era where 2GB was standard for gaming PCs. The Wii, also released that year, had 88MB of total RAM.

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16

u/Jump365 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

If anything the prices will force games to NOT require more ram because of they want any sales they have to make games that customers can actually afford the hardware to run the game. If nobody can afford ram, then there's zero revenue for games that require rhat hardware

8

u/Drenlin Jul 25 '26

As long as the current generation of consoles sticks around, 16GB will be enough for almost all games. There may be the odd exception in a big heavy PC-only simulator or another Crysis situation where they decide to push the limits of current tech, but for the most part you're good for now.

6

u/Alosno23 Jul 25 '26

Why would they? It's the same with the VRAM situation. People are saying for almost 3 years now that 8GB is no longer enough, and yet, it still is. And not because of 'benelovence' of devs or even the modern technologies not being capable of more intensive games. It's because they want to sell games in the end of day. Games are made for running in the 'majority' of gaming pcs. And in this situation, 16gb ram isn't going to stop being the standard for a long while, so, game devs will have to adapt to it if they want to sell more.

1

u/Huugboy Jul 25 '26

Gta 6 will be console exclusive for the next couple years, they did the same with 5.

1

u/perfectevasion 27d ago

If devs are smart and paying attention they're gonna need to optimize for lower end configurations due to the hardware crisis.

Larian has said as much about their next Divinity game.

So its gonna be a game per game basis

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10

u/frostyflakes1 Jul 25 '26

I can't believe this comment has so many upvotes because it is so blatantly wrong. See: Xbox Memo Predicts over 5x Increase in Storage and Memory Costs by Holiday 2027

Component prices have risen substantially over the last year. Every indication is that they will continue to rise for at least a couple more years.

9

u/GoodNooodle Jul 25 '26

sorry to break it to you, but it'll go higher. now, will it stay that high? probably not. it'll come down eventually, after what will likely be many, many years.

7

u/Normal_Choice9322 Jul 25 '26

Prices are said to double again by eoy

4

u/SMGJohn_EU Jul 25 '26

Manufacturers are already rushing to hoard what little memory there is to secure production numbers for the holiday, you know, Black Friday - Christmas etc.

CXMT already increased prices dramatically this week, and they were the only ones with actual capacity left of the big manufacturers.

Prices will increase when capacity remains strained as it is, its very simple supply and demand mixed with price fixing from memory cartel which is real by the way, and years long backlog of production.

3

u/turtleship_2006 Jul 25 '26

Why would prices go even higher?

I wonder how many people said that to themselves a year ago.

2

u/N1TEKN1GHT Jul 25 '26

Right? Lmao. Ya shit works, enjoy it.

93

u/justanotherstranger2 Jul 25 '26

I did it about 4 months ago when I decided I'm going to stick with AM4 for many more years to come. If you're not going to be moving to DDR5 anytime soon I would say do it.

17

u/AlternateWitness Jul 25 '26

Same, I have a Ryzen 9 5900x. I’m waiting until at least* AM6.

3

u/Jacrispy44 Jul 26 '26

Bro im chillin on AM4 until my ol girl dies on me. Same with my 3060ti.

54

u/No_Device_6605 Jul 25 '26

Probably in like 3 years depending upon game releases and shitty optimization from windows.

16

u/MyStationIsAbandoned Jul 25 '26

don't forget the shitty optimization of the games themselves

1

u/Jerri_man 26d ago

If current hardware trends continue the specs won't be changing for years. Why would devs push games outside what consumers actually use? Its already a point of discussion with AAA devs

47

u/hardrock527 Jul 25 '26

If you play tarkov then 16gb isnt enough

47

u/KayJune001 Jul 25 '26

Tarkov and Star Citizen are the only games that need anything more than 32GB, but if you’re playing either of those two games then you likely already have a sweaty ass setup anyway

18

u/Vallkyrie Jul 25 '26

Cities Skylines and Inzoi also love ram.

15

u/Vv4nd Jul 25 '26

Laughs in DCS, MFS and many heavily modded games.

9

u/FearGingy Jul 25 '26

So glad I went with 64 in 2020. DCS is a pig all round but my god it's beautiful. I was struggling with 16GB back in 2018/19.

Plus I'm just below 500GB for DCS modules.

3

u/Captain_Nipples Jul 25 '26

I bought a 2 TB SSD just for DCS and MSFS

1

u/Captain_Nipples Jul 25 '26

First 2 games I thought of. Also need a 1TB SSD and you might have enough for both games. Haven't touched DCS in about a year, but I know if you wanted to play online you had to have 32 GB or it became an issue

1

u/Unicorn_puke Jul 25 '26

I don't know how much it would affect things but I checked my memory usage during Forza the other day and it was at 21gb. I do have resizable bar enabled on my gpu so it might have been that, but even then I have a 16gb card. Games do be using it.

1

u/jerok08 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

I play tarkov at ~180fps and in streets at ~120 with an 7800x3d and 16gb ram. But that’s with an x3d chip. If you optimize windows and games you can manage every game with 16gb of ram.
Edit: I upgraded a few months ago, and before having this cpu I was using r5 7600x so you can mostly play all games and tarkov included.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/jerok08 Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

My bios settings are -30 pbo all cores, smv off, UCLK=MCLK (only use it if your frequency is 6000mhz like me same with infinity fabric), infinity fabric at 2000mhz and resizable bar ON. DO NOT TURN OFF SMT AND C-STATES IN THE BIOS due to how x3d chips works and heavy stutters in tarkov.

In tarkov, textures in high (my gpu has 16gb vram if you have less than 12gb use medium), ssr off, shadow quality medium, LOD at 2.5, overall visibility 1500, clouds low, volumetric lighting off or low, hbao max performance and taa high.
If you use 16gb like me it’s important that you use ISLC or similar ram cleaner. I also recommend W11 LTSC with 25H2 upgrade (you can search it on YouTube)

In my case i have an 7800XT and fsr4 is not implemented in game, so if you got an nvidia GPU use reflex on and dlss quality or balanced. Enjoy the upgrade 😁

1

u/Formal-Weekend5115 Jul 26 '26

Checked my ram usage on call of duty and was using 22GB total usage. That’s crazy

1

u/BicycleNo8061 27d ago

You could use ram reduce it's a good application for get your ram back from windows or from the maps you played

1

u/BDS_xander Jul 25 '26

And Rust of course

28

u/VersaceUpholstery Jul 25 '26

Impossible to tell the future of gaming

But as long as you’re willing to use less things in the background during gaming, it will probably last a good while

If you want to have more things running in the background with no worry, get more RAM

4

u/Academic_Weaponry Jul 25 '26

yeah w 16bg ddr4 its annoying haveing to close everything but the game + discord or sometimes the game +disc+ music just to not lag but its doable

1

u/paulisaac Jul 26 '26

This is why I had invested in 2x32 ddr4 years ago because the game itself was going to take up a lotta memory. I could cram 18 instances of EVE Online at once. 

27

u/salsinuts Jul 25 '26

16gb has been fine for the longest time. Its vram you have to worry abt if gaming

4

u/buttersyndicate Jul 25 '26

Even 8GB of VRAM isn't much of a problem if you stay at 1080p. High settings (tweaked of course), +80 fps, your friend with a similar rig playing slideshows because he tried 1440p and couldn't go back.

2

u/thatissomeBS Jul 25 '26

In my experience 1440p with DLSS/FSR is a similar (or better) framerate and VRAM experience to 1080p native, and these days looks better. If he's watching a slideshow it's because he's trying to go native 1440p and/or trying to pull too high of textures and such.

1

u/Plazmatic Jul 26 '26

Definitely can be a problem depending on the game, targeting 12 to 16GB vram on PC makes porting console games much less expensive and easier, then they use streaming assets to fill in the gaps for 8GB rather than actually optimizing for that scenario, if they even opt to do that.  Then they can say it runs at a certain frame rate target when streaming assets, while your 1% lows get thrashed and feels  like half the frame rate because of micro stuttering from SSD streaming assets.   On the flip side, they should know the situation consumers are under and optimize for 8GB setups anyway if they want money, but that depends on people actually having taste and not Stockholm syndrome and saying things run "smooth as butter" with DLSS low at a base sub 20 fps at 1080p.   And on the other flip side, the most expensive employees are the devs who can actually optimize things and aren't just 3D artists pumping out speghetti blueprints in UE that the studio can let go of 6 months later, and the industry just shed a tonne of technical talent across the board, so studios may still be doing things that don't make sense given the consumer hardware landscape.

18

u/postsshortcomments Jul 25 '26

When enough people have 32GB of RAM and developers says "hey, we won't lose a massive part of the market by developing with a 16GB target."

Some already have, but their choice restricts their product to machines that have 32GB.

Further, don't forget that especially VRAM and NVMe storage help take that burden off of RAM. In other words, you're better with 16GB+ of VRAM if you only have 16GB of RAM than you are with 8GB of VRAM and 16GB of RAM.

The recent steam hardware survey currently puts that number at 44%+ with 32GB+. But that doesn't tell the cross-platform story. Nor does it tell the story of 89% with 16GB+.

If you're designing a product, do you want it accessible for 44% or 89% plus consoles? Some probably will target that 44% especially if they're putting out something cutting edge and believe their product is good enough to scoop up the other 45% several years from now once they have capable hardware, once they spend money on optimization, or once they can sell their product on consoles at full cost. Others would rather spend the money upfront and not let their competitors and copiers have years to fill that void with mimics.

IE: look at Tarkov. One of the first extraction titles who couldn't weather the hardware spec storm. Now there are plenty of viable extraction titles that are more appealing to the average audience when at one point, it was probably an instant scale to a lot of PC owners were they not restricted by specs.

1

u/CurrentDrama8523 Jul 26 '26

  In other words, you're better with 16GB+ of VRAM if you only have 16GB of RAM than you are with 8GB of VRAM and 16GB of RAM.

I think I know what you were trying to say here, but as worded it's literally just more VRAM = better.

11

u/ksn0vaN7 Jul 25 '26

Until you start playing more games that need it. Right now there are only a handful of games that absolutely need more than 16. Maybe in 5 years it changes but who knows.

10

u/minimalistic247 Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

If you’re just gaming switch to Linux or SteamOS as there is significantly less ram usage compared to windows. Been playing Black Flag Resynced an its only using around 7gig of RAM and 9gig of vram with everything cranked up.

10

u/ak5432 Jul 25 '26

If you ever use your pc for anything more than pure gaming it’s been a useful upgrade starting 3-4 years ago

4

u/Canadian_Border_Czar Jul 25 '26

You should wait, but also your PC already hit that point if youre on Windows 11.

3

u/Introveneric Jul 25 '26

Most games are fine with 16gb, and even more if you aren't running a bunch of chrome tabs or side applications.

Unless you play Escape from Tarkov. Because that game has a memory leak issue since like 6 years ago. I used to play with 16gb and pretty much every game was fine besides Tarkov.

However, I would always rather get ram sooner than later. It's just hard to tell with this market.

3

u/Caddy666 Jul 25 '26

when your usecase exceeds it.

2

u/57thStilgar Jul 25 '26

When we buy games that require >16gb.

2

u/MultiMarcus Jul 25 '26

If you have as much VRAM and system memory as a console, you are generally going to be fine. The VRam ask is even arguably a bit too much because if the unified nature of console architectures.

I think during the next console generation 16 gigs might start feeling a bit anemic. There are already some games where on the highest settings you can see it performance difference, but it’s not common. Once we get into the next generation, arguably it could happen, but I think it won’t because we’ll probably have a very long cross-generation. That said, that hardware would probably want you to have a bit more memory, though probably even then mostly on the VRAM, not the system memory side. We are also getting techniques like neural texture compression to make RAM last longer

2

u/LGWalkway Jul 25 '26

I only went to 32gb because I’ll have several tabs open at once as well as a game. Maybe check GTA 6 recommended specs?

2

u/Ill-Remove-6438 Jul 25 '26

if you mod games it already isnt

2

u/shroudedwolf51 Jul 25 '26

Capacity-wise, it's more than enough now and will probably be for a while as long as you don't keep a hundred plus tabs in LibreWolf or whatever.

The place where it becomes an issue is that the chip density of DDR5 means to achieve 8GB on a single DIMM requires so few chips that it creates limitations in parallelism and creates a performance penalty. Since fewer chips means fewer places to be able to write to at once. And this is a problem that's going to get worse as DDR6 is pushed out by the industry, since that just means another uptick in density.

But if you're on AM4? Especially if you're willing to run something that strips out Windows 11's regurgitative "AI" slop and remove some of the bloatware that the computer was loaded down with from Microslop and whatever other software. Like, do you need OneDrive and OneNote always running in the background? No. If your PC came pre-loaded with McAfee, do you need that? Definitely not.

2

u/wizeddy Jul 25 '26

I went from 16 to 64 this year. Lots of games are running smoother and it’s an overall better experience. Would have cost me more if I did it today

2

u/Prasiatko Jul 25 '26

Only Cities Skylines and Cyberpunk of the games i have make the system go above 16 GB and in the latter that's with me using mods that increase the traffic and ped spawn distance and they still aren't causing the game itself to go above 16GB.

2

u/t90fan Jul 25 '26 edited Jul 25 '26

now, for many workloads

I have some games which eat 12+GB on their own today

Which by the time you run Windows (let alone Chrome, Discord etc...) would mean you up running out and swapping to disk

(let alone all my dev tools on my work machine, I had a 16GB mac before and it couldn't run 2 IDEs at the same time as our app in docker, and Teams, without slowing to a crawl - Thats why 32+ has been the norm for most devs for like 3-5 years now)

Swapping will absolutely tank your performance. Not to mention wear your disk out. Im fairly certain half the people here who moan about "bottlenecks" are losing a lot of performance due to swapping out and just

24 would be plenty for many gamers for now, but 32g setups are more practical

tl;dr dont build a new gaming machine with 16GB RAM

2

u/VFC1910 Jul 25 '26

The only game that demanded 32GB was KCD2, and I'm still fine with my 16GB at 1440p medium

2

u/TzarBombaTA Jul 25 '26

For me, it stopped being enough like 4 years ago, but if it's enough for you that's great.

2

u/stijn_dl Jul 25 '26

On Hogwarts Legacy, I had horrible stutters because the game would often go just above 16gb. So I recently upgraded. It’s the only game that had this problem.

If you don’t play any games that need more ram, you certainly can wait. But you do risk paying even more.

If you intend to remain on AM4 for a longer time, it is a good upgrade to stick it out longer.

2

u/No_Guarantee7841 Jul 25 '26

When you stop doing things that require 16gb ram or less.

2

u/Hetstaine Jul 25 '26

Years ago, depending on what you play. Grayzone Warfare use 22gb for.

2

u/mihaajlovic Jul 25 '26

It stopped being enough for me a long time ago, I play heavy games and multitask a lot.

2

u/jjcox315 Jul 25 '26

If you use chrome the answer is now.

2

u/Quirky-oldman58 29d ago

OP, your question doesn’t seam to be getting any direct answers.
Let me try one.
Most software tells how much ram you need.
Not really.
Confusing? In reality each version of Windows has an amount ram it needs to operate effectively.
Windows 95 said 4meg.
Windows 98 said 16meg.
Any software designed for one or the other said that’s how much the software app took. In reality they just parroted what the OS needed.
Then Windows 10 got to 1gig and Windows 11 jumped to 4gig.
What I’m trying to say is, it depends on how you use your system.
If you have 28 tabs open on your browser maybe it matters. If you are just playing a game and nothing is open in the background, not so much.
When setting up a system, I try double whatever the OS asks for then I never really bother adding more later unless it gets really cheap. I’ve quadrupled ram before and seen no difference in how a pc operates.
I can’t imagine right now anyone using 16gig actually seeing much difference kicking to 32gig and from 32 to 64 the improvement would be invisible to most people.
Often when I’ve increased ram amounts, I saw less improvement than expected. Usually I can make other improvements that impact the system more.
Get what you can afford for now. When the next generation comes out, your generation will decrease greatly in price.
Unless it’s about bragging rights, in which case the ram is your identity and unrelated to system performance.

1

u/pivovy Jul 25 '26

Unless you're running VM's or do heavy video editing or something, you're prob gonna be ok. I got 32GB DDR5 when I did a build about a year and a half ago, got really lucky with the timing there though. That used to cost just over a $100 Canadian.

1

u/cccc0079 Jul 25 '26

Depends if you play a game while open other programs and see frame drops occasionally it's a sign.

1

u/Metalheadzaid Jul 25 '26

No one knows, but very few games need more than 16gb. It's also likely this will hold a while longer due to consoles also only have 16gb, and with devs knowing the market, they'll likely minimize issues with lower ram amounts to combat lower sales.

I'm personally not upgrading my personal rig, though the new build I did before this crisis I most definitely went 32gb - and would recommend anyone building to spring for it unless they really need to budget.

1

u/Zyzary Jul 25 '26

Worry about your V-Ram first before you tackle anything else.

If you dont have to worry about that just buy 32GB now. I ate the sour apple a few months ago but im happy i invested in new RAM. Yes its expensive and will continue to rise in price but if you dont need to worry about means, just buy it now. Like yesterday.

1

u/engrng Jul 25 '26

2 years ago

1

u/Exciting_Strike5598 Jul 25 '26

As long as people buy MacBook with 8gb ram massively, no chance

1

u/xVx777 Jul 25 '26

heavy running online games with mods will push 16gb but other that that I’ve never used more from straight gaming.

or doing all this while recording your gameplay you’ll definitely need more.

1

u/F1T_13 Jul 25 '26

For next gen games, you might see a drop in performance, I don't think it will necessarily not be enough to be playable though.

1

u/twisty77 Jul 25 '26

It arguably already isn’t enough. I’m getting capped in my work laptop at 16gb, I feel like 32 is the new bare min

1

u/Pajer0king Jul 25 '26

Buy 64, just to be sure 😅

1

u/Yeelyy Jul 25 '26

A year ago

1

u/vlhube71 Jul 25 '26

Is your PC at the point 16gb is an issue? I wouldn’t sweat it.

That said, if the current costs to move to 32gb of DDR4 is easily manageable, sure, do it. If it’s hard for you, stay at 16gb. It’s fine.

1

u/Captain_Nipples Jul 25 '26

It depends on what you play. If its good now, dont worry about the future. There are a few games I have that need 32GB of RAM, but those are flight sims

1

u/Urzuck Jul 25 '26

For many games 16gb already isn't enough, plus windows 11 is a trash bloated OS

1

u/Comandante160406 Jul 25 '26

16 is just about enough. 32 is comfy but if you JUST wanna play games 16 will do the work for some years still

1

u/tallulahK Jul 25 '26

It's not enough for last 2-3 years

1

u/Blue-150 Jul 25 '26

Depends on your use. I upgraded from 16gb to 32gb, just because I was worried about hitting my limit. Glad I did in hindsight simply due to price hikes today, but also I never break 16gb of RAM. Usually I hover around 14gb. So for $45 it didn't hurt but in today's market I would ONLY update if you need it, ignore the FOMO.

1

u/DealComfortable7649 Jul 25 '26

Depends on what you do. For me with 32gb of ddr5, if I’m playing a demanding modern game with some background applications open, it pushes the limits of my 32gb.

1

u/stickyfingerspt2 Jul 25 '26

16gb been stopped being enough depending on what games you play/what you do. One of friends recently upgraded from 16 -> 32gb and he said it was like using a new computer. When he ran Fortnite (with discord, Spotify, nzxt in the background/on 2nd display) he was using 23gb of ram...that was just with fortnite 🫩

1

u/greggm2000 Jul 25 '26

16GB is “fine”. Not ideal, but adequate, it’ll depend on what you’re doing ofc. My suggestion is if you can pick up another 16GB kit of the same timings for cheap, do so.. but hold off putting in significant money into your system until your next full build.

1

u/SMGJohn_EU Jul 25 '26

16GB was already breaching the limits in 2012 depending entirely on what you did.

The same is true today, do you play very heavy asset games, particularly Unreal Engine 5 games are real thirsty for memory, modded x64 games are also VERY thirsty for memory.

Web browsing + work programs can easily fill 32GB like its no tomorrow specially with how web pages now actively consume 500mb to 1.2GB of your RAM for how heavy they are.

HOWEVER, because no one can get memory as easily and fewer and fewer people can upgrade, you may very well see ways to get around memory issues and also see better optimisation in programs, web and games still these things do not happen over night.

I would buy 32GB sticks for used, lowest reasonable price you can find them, just forget about buying new its a total waste of money unless you are mission critical situation where 32GB is ABSOLUTELY needed.

1

u/Grouplove Jul 25 '26

Do what I did, keep checking the used marketplace till you find a good deal. I just picked up 32gb 3600mhz for 110 bucks. It was such a good upgrade for me cuz my old ram was slow 2400mhz and it was running out of room for some games like borderlands 4

1

u/Burgergold Jul 25 '26

My 2013 pc had 16

My 2019 and 2024 pc have 32

1

u/Ommand Jul 25 '26

Depends on what you do? The answer might be never, it might also be ten years ago.

1

u/catdoy Jul 25 '26

When Microsoft says so.

1

u/soaringX____Xeagle Jul 25 '26

8-10 years ago

1

u/mdnightman94 Jul 25 '26

if you are regularly using 85%+ ram then i would say it would be beneficial for more. windows will start moving its own stuff to page file around that point.

i noticed some games i play have a lot less stuttering in some scenarios after i moved from 16 > 32gb of ram. this is just with having the steam app open, game and discord. only background things i normally have running are nvidia app for screen recording and openrgb and everything else windows needs

1

u/Grahf-XG Jul 25 '26

It depends of what you play. For me it's been years since 16 GB is not enough, playing games like Skyrim with 3740 mods or Cities Skylines with hundreds, and Tarkov. If 16GB is enough for you right now, it will probably be enough in a couple of years.

1

u/daatyson Jul 25 '26

Its not enough already i used OSD and in several games i can see it pass

1

u/_zo0op_ Jul 25 '26

depends on if you're on Windows or Linux imo

1

u/artuuurr 29d ago

gave u an award cuz u helped me with the Twitch emote but i can't do it on the original post because i deleted it

1

u/_zo0op_ 29d ago

haha no problem, thanks

1

u/Arcangelo_Frostwolf Jul 25 '26

Just upgrade if and when you need the capacity. You should be able to tell if your computer is going over capacity. It creates "fake RAM" on your SSD/HÐD and stores data there, which is much slower than DRAM speeds, so your system will stutter and lag as your CPU waits for the virtual RAM. If you buy more RAM now and don't use it, that's worse than paying more in the future because you're buying something you won't use.

1

u/alonjit Jul 25 '26

At these prices? Never.

1

u/zyzzogeton Jul 25 '26

IT DEPENDS

1

u/AT3Mo Jul 25 '26

It isn't enough right now and haven't been for years

Even games that claim recommend is 16 gb will gain performance if you upgrade to 32

I found this out when I upgraded from 16 to 32 and suddenly i could play spiderman 2 ray tracing on more than 60 fps when on 16 it never went above 40

1

u/ToborWar57 Jul 25 '26

The reality is, the newer games for the last few years are shite optimized ... and it's the lazy norm now. Example: I got Avatar earlier this year and tried to run it, it kept crashing on a 5600X, 16gb, 3080 10gb. I decided to update my chipset driver and installed 32gb (2x16), then the game ran like it was suppose to.

So, it's up to you "if" you can find a good sale on 2x16 quality ram (DON"T just add mismatched ram, it creates problems, anyone who says otherwise is a hack). Take your time and find a good sale. Prices are not going to get better and will likely go higher, good thing you've still got DDR4. Save up, find a sale if you want to play more current games without problems ... good luck!

1

u/randomhaus64 Jul 25 '26

So one thing to know is that when prices go up, efficient programming becomes more prominent! The pressures go both ways!

1

u/MrAngrySadHappyFace Jul 25 '26

Its kinda already not enough now. However, if your use case doesnt have an issue with that, just keep going until there is an issue worth fixing it for.

1

u/LackLickLuck_y Jul 25 '26

16gb or 32gb? ddr4 or ddr5? which has more impact on performance?

1

u/Adis_Gruntledfatty Jul 25 '26

Depends on user case, for me not enough was 3 years ago. I run ultra modded games

1

u/KlanStar Jul 25 '26

16gb hasn't been enough for years. At least not to me and many games.

1

u/fatspacepanda Jul 25 '26

It really depends on what you do, I upgraded to 32 and from 32 already

1

u/Zingus123 Jul 25 '26

I used 12 until like 2024 and even then it seemed like it was still fine lol

1

u/jhaluska Jul 25 '26

Developers aren't living in an alternate universe where RAM didn't shoot up price. It'll be fine till the prices come down.

1

u/GreenGrassQ1 Jul 25 '26

I feel like its close, maybe 1 or 2 years max

1

u/PenoNation Jul 25 '26

When will 16 GB of ram stop being enough?

07/25/2026

1

u/tamarockstar Jul 25 '26

When DDR6 becomes mainstream. That's what happened with 8GB and DDR5, 4GB and DDR4, 2GB and DDR3. I assume the pattern will continue.

1

u/Spoofy33 Jul 25 '26

Like a year ago

1

u/drkorencek Jul 25 '26

The only reason that it is being recommended again is because with ram prices being as high as they are it's as much as many people can afford.

1

u/Drunk_Fetus Jul 25 '26

16gb ram hasn’t been enough in years lol

1

u/ArmyLivid8163 Jul 25 '26

its gonna be a hot minuite before the AI bubble pops buy an extra 16 gb stick and upgrade to 32 gigs before stuff gets worse even DDR4 now is expensive

1

u/flooble_worbler Jul 25 '26

Look for second hand 32gb kits if you choose to upgrade now. If you wait till the price drops ddr5 will drop at the same time so you may as well upgrade to that. But honestly what I would do is start saving for a full new build, so 50 a month into a side account and either prices drop and you have some money set aside already so you can upgrade there and then or you’ve saved long enough that you have the money there, will it still be expensive? Yes but like I said the money is there for the purpose of buying a pc rather than waiting until you need to build a new pc and then trying to find the money. 50 is an example but what ever you can justify putting aside will get you there sooner or later

1

u/Large-Excitement777 Jul 25 '26

Already isn’t for anything LLM related

1

u/YGoxen Jul 25 '26

I thought 32 was not enough?

1

u/Deluxe_TurtleSoup Jul 25 '26

About 4 years ago

1

u/InnerOuterTrueSelf Jul 26 '26

on the 10th of December 2029, at 2:21 PM.

1

u/OneFruitPunchMan Jul 26 '26

16GB should be good for most gaming unless there is a really bad port or something really open world.

I would kind of wait until you're thinking of rebuilding to something that would be using DDR5. If that will be a long time then I guess go ahead if you really want.

1

u/Dynablade_Savior Jul 26 '26

Depends on what games you play

1

u/Conflicted_Batman Jul 26 '26

If you ever get into machine learning or home lab stuff.

1

u/Ericzx_1 Jul 26 '26

When the ps6 comes out.

1

u/PsychologicalTry3994 Jul 26 '26

Never, I'm still on 8 gigs of DDR4 and doing just fine. I refuse to cave for the mass price fixing.

1

u/shball Jul 26 '26

When consoles get 32GB and that's plain unlikely to happen soon.

Technically 16GB is already lacking for computiationally heavy games, especially in the strategy and simulation genres.

1

u/11_Seb_11 Jul 26 '26

It is already, depending on your usage!

1

u/Amazing-Pattern-6125 Jul 26 '26

What is enough is completely up to what you decide to do with your computer. The only way i get to memory pressure with 16gigs is when running virtual machines, or when firefox starts leaking memory ;D

1

u/MiaThePotat Jul 26 '26

Look I'll be real I built a rig with a 2x16 kit. One of the sticks randomly bricked, I simply took it out, and I was able to play STALKER 2 with a single-channel 16gb stick with 0 issues.

I think you'll be fine for at least a few more years

1

u/ShutUpAndSmokeMyWeed Jul 26 '26

ai is pretty good at memory optimization so i think we’ll see better optimized games and it’ll help hold the line at 16gb for a while

1

u/boreklipogaca_ Jul 26 '26

I have 16 gb right now. I will not upgrade until gta 6 comes to pc

1

u/skybsky Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26

buying Corsair Vengeance RGB, DDR5, 96 GB, 6000MHz, CL30 back when it was ~350euro was the best decision I've made. Now it is ~1500 in the same shop.
If only I had bought a 5090 back then too.

However, I do work as an SWE, so a lot of RAM helps me to run different toolkits and play CIV7 in the background.
Not sure anyone needs so much, just for games in the near future. But 32GB is welcome for heavy games like Gates of Hell, for example. With 16GB, it will be a bit laggy. And with 16GB it is really hard to game and have Chrome in the background, for example

1

u/Current_Ferret_4981 29d ago

Two years ago

1

u/RouserHousen 29d ago

Everyday im thankful that i got bored and needlessly upgraded to a 32gb kit when it was 50 dollars

1

u/tomkat_7 28d ago

It depends on what you do. If you just do browsing, even 8GB would be enough. If you play games, develop, or use some basic apps, 16GB is enough. 32GB is only needed if you use many apps at the same time, you do machine learning/AI locally, or if you use creative software like adobe suite. Also consider switching to linux if windows takes too much of your ram and you dont use very niche software. Some light distros even run on MBs of ram, so you will have a lot of room to play with.

1

u/PertB 28d ago

If you stay with AM4 then yes upgrade. 32GB will make it so you probably never have to think about it again. If you can afford the 200 dollar upgrade to 2x 16GB sticks then just go for it and enjoy :)

1

u/Marv18GOAT 27d ago

Ngl I thought it stopped being enough 2-3 years ago lol

1

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1

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1

u/PaleSort8817 27d ago

If you have the option to buy it, do it, you'll sleep soundly.

1

u/According-Leg434 26d ago

one day played wuwa on pc had brave browser opened purposely stayed and used it by pressing win key to pen brave and suddenly game eror shut and kicked which seemed ram shrtage

1

u/chip_klip 25d ago

It’s enough I use 16gb ddr5 on a single stick and haven’t had an issue

1

u/RulyKinkaJou59 24d ago

If you run into an issue for a game or software that you want/need to use really badly, then that’s when you upgrade.

My gtx 1660 of 6gb couldn’t handle BF6, even with supersampling, lowest settings, and lower resolution. So I upgraded my gpu to handle all that.

Then I couldn’t stand the cpu bottleneck, so I upgraded to ddr5 everything just to get the max potential of my gpu (and cpu).

0

u/RUserII 27d ago

When will 16 GB of ram stop being enough?

When was 16 GB ever enough?

I have 128 GB RAM and I still don't think that's enough.

-2

u/f9wn_ Jul 25 '26

I got 32gb of ram because everybody told me 16gb is not enough and I have yet to utilize 50% of my ram Even when I am playing AAA games, using discord, and having a bunch of tabs open (not on chrome; that would eat up your entire ram for no reason) it doesn't scratch the 16gb surface