I'm building a gaming PC that I'd like to keep for at least six years. The system will use a Ryzen 7 7800X3D and a Radeon RX 9070, but I haven't bought the memory yet. I mainly play Counter-Strike 2 and Rainbow Six Siege, though I also want to play newer games such as War Dogs and other demanding titles in the future. Some games currently show around 14–15GB of RAM usage on a 16GB system, while The Witcher 3 uses roughly 13GB for me. Is 16GB still enough, or should I buy 32GB?
3 Answers
For a new AM5 gaming build, I’d go with 32GB as 2×16GB DDR5. Sixteen gigabytes can still run most games, but it leaves little room for Discord, a browser, music, launchers, and background programs. Thirty-two gigabytes gives you useful headroom and is a much better fit for a PC you want to keep for years.
Sixteen gigabytes isn’t suddenly unusable. It should handle CS2, Rainbow Six, and plenty of current games, although some newer or poorly optimized titles may have worse 1% lows, stuttering, or occasional crashes. RAM usage also changes depending on how much memory is available, so seeing a game use nearly all 16GB doesn’t automatically mean it required that much.
I wouldn’t plan on buying one 16GB stick now and adding another years later. Single-channel memory can reduce performance, and the exact kit may be discontinued or difficult to match. Since this is a new system, a matched 2×16GB kit is the safer choice. If you regularly use virtual machines, video editing, or very heavy multitasking, then 64GB would be worth considering, but it isn’t necessary for normal gaming.
Exactly. The main benefit of 32GB is smoother minimum frame rates and more multitasking headroom, not necessarily a huge increase in average FPS.