Back to memory articles. Extend the Life of Your Computer. If any of these symptoms sound familiar to you, you may need to add computer memory: Everyday tasks are plagued by poor or subpar performance Programs frequently stop responding Typing constantly involves waiting for your computer to catch up Clicking or selecting an icon has a delayed response Multitasking with more than one app or program is nearly impossible Working on spreadsheets slows your system to a crawl You get system notifications about low memory System updates stall productivity because your computer is slow You have display problems, like pulling up a page that either partially loads, doesn't load at all, or shows a blank space where data should be.
You try to open apps or documents and the system stops responding. How much memory RAM does your computer have? How much ram do I need? Does your computer need more memory RAM than the system requirements? How much memory RAM does your computer need for design or photo software? Related Articles. Does my Computer Need More Memory Find out once and for all whether your computer has enough memory for your daily usage or if it's time for a RAM upgrade.
Read more. Memory buying guide Find out about upgrading your computer's memory RAM. Crucial System Scanner Upgrade your system storage with our range of solid state drives. Casual User Internet browsing, email, listening to music, or watching videos.
Intermediate User Internet browsing, email, Word Processing, spreadsheets, running simple graphics programs, flash games, music, videos or multitasking.
For example, a simple text news story is relatively light on memory, while something like Gmail or Netflix uses a lot more. The same goes for offline programs. A chat program or a game like Minesweeper will use almost no RAM, while a gigantic Excel spreadsheet, a huge Photoshop project, or a graphics-intensive game like Wolfenstein: Youngblood may use gigabytes by themselves.
Outside of games and general browsing, professional applications tend to hog the most RAM. Tablets are not expected to deal with heavy-duty software tasks, so their RAM needs tend to be pretty low — similar to a lot of smartphones. However, as multi-tab browsers and more complex software continue to make the transition, tablet needs are becoming more and more similar to laptop needs. Current spec options typically range from 2GB to 16GB of RAM, with other considerations like battery life and processor speed often being of greater consideration.
Remember, tablets are generally complementary devices that reside between your smartphone and your PC. As previously mentioned, tablet and laptop needs are converging, but most users feel comfortable running more complex programs on laptops, which means RAM has a more important role here. Most of the best laptops come with 16GB for good reason. If you are doing a lot of graphic design work or are planning on dabbling in some higher-end gaming, you may want to consider increasing that to 16GB.
In , prices of all components, including RAM, are heading upwards. We list some of our top recommended kits that money can buy in our roundup of the best RAM. People tend to keep their desktop computers around longer than tablets or laptops, so planning for the future is worthwhile. An upgrade to 32GB is a good idea for enthusiasts and the average workstation user.
Serious workstation users may go further than 32GB but be prepared for higher costs if you want speed or fancy features like RGB lighting. Anything beyond that is the realm of extreme specialty rigs equipped to handle huge datasets, staggeringly large video files, or niche programs designed for researchers, corporations, or government. Most motherboards use dual-channel or quad-channel memory, and they have requirements for where you should place the sticks.
Instead, the extra capacity gives you some wiggle room in running other applications while your games are running. For the vast majority of gamers, 16GB is enough. However, if you plan on streaming or running multiple applications while your games are running — OBS Studio, a web browser, etc.
Though running out of RAM can turn a solid system on its head, buying too much is a waste of money. And no matter what your PC building budget, every dollar or pound sterling matters. For starters, forget about 4GB. Most PC games use a fair amount of memory. Note this is with no other major programs running, just whatever naturally starts up with Windows which uses about 2. In these titles, the amount of RAM used in total ranges from 6.
Even the low-end 6. So if you are a gamer, you may be able to get away with 8GB, but we recommend going for at least 16GB. You can do plenty of productivity work without swapping out to the page file, but if you plan on running something memory intensive and doing another task at the same time, you could end up exceeding your limit. Today, 16GB is the sweet spot between price and capacity for most enthusiasts and gamers.
That amount gives you the headroom to do a couple of things at once, without having to close tabs or applications to exceed your available RAM. This is getting close to the 16 GB limit, but how often are you really leaving all your work open and playing a game? My personal system has 32 GB in total and I find it difficult to go over even 16GB with my use model.
Net and keeping a dozen or more Chrome browser tabs open. Those who are rendering large files or doing other memory intensive work, should consider going with 32GB or more.
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