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How Much RAM is enough.
Random Access memory is volatile memory, which means that it doesn’t store data permanently. The speeds of RAM is much faster than hard drives or solid state drives. When you launch a program, the data is first loaded from the hard drive to the RAM, then it can be quickly accessed by the CPU.
Many people think adding more RAM always increase performance. More RAM does’t necessarily make your PC faster e.g. If your’re system has 8GB RAM installed and is only using 4GB then you won’t see any difference installing 16 Gigabytes of memory.
The amount of RAM you need depends on what you want to do with your computer.
Overview of RAM recommendations
| If You Use Your PC For: | Then We Recommend |
|---|---|
| Nothing | <2 GB Memory |
| Basic Windows applications like MS Word or MS Excel. Internet Browsing and Emails Watching Videos and listening to music. | 4 GB Memory |
| Entry-Level Gaming. Photo editing software like Photoshop. Running multiple office applications. | 8 GB Memory |
| Mid-Range Gaming system Video Editing Software like Premiere Pro for HD media. Doing Multitasking | 16 GB Memory |
| High-End Gaming system. Video Editing Software like Premiere Pro for 4K or higher media. Running design programs like AutoCAD. Doing heavy multitasking. | 32 GB Memory |
| Running multiple Virtual Machines Professional 3D Modeling and rendering. Intensive Multitasking | 64 GB Memory |
Advanced video editing software and CAD programs usually uses a lot of memory. 16GB Will be a good option for productivity users who are doing heavy multitasking. With 16GB memory, you will also be able to play demanding video games.
32 GB will be enough if you are planing on using multiple demanding applications like After Effects, Premiere Pro and 3D rendering programs. It will also be enough to run any demanding video game at ultra resolutions.
To see how much memory your PC is using, Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager and click on the Performance tab.
My average RAM usage on my work computer is usually between 3 and 5 Gigabytes.
In the screenshot below I had a Photo editing program and 8 tabs open in Google Chrome. Only 3.4 GB memory was in use.
If you’re not running demanding applications and games then 8 GB Memory should be more than enough.
How much RAM are you using?
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