When it comes to running multiple applications beyond basic productivity web browsing and watching fine YouTube videos like this one, many common tasks are quickly becoming memory hogs. Even Google Chrome can eat into your memory very quickly and take up a few gigs if you've got a lot of tabs open. While the browser does use a technique called tab discarding, which removes unused tabs from memory and then reloads them when you access them, you'll still get a noticeably smoother experience for everyday tasks if you don't skimp too hard on your RAM.

However, what if you're gaming? Well, the answer becomes a little more complicated. You see, many big-budget titles these days recommend 16 gigs of memory, but the thing to keep in mind is that system requirements for games often are not validated well. What can be learned more about right up here is that many games that ask you to use a system with 16 gigs of RAM can actually get by just fine on 8 gigs with only a very marginal performance drop, if any. However, as games get more complex this may not be the case in the near future, especially as some games actively do make use of more than 8 gigs of system memory.

Only having 8 gigs can also hinder your ability to do anything else while you're playing a game, such as streaming. That's why we'd recommend 16 gigs as a sweet spot for gamers and especially streamers unless you're playing less resource-heavy titles. Many motherboards have four RAM slots which makes upgrading to 32 gigs a cinch if you've got the money. Investing in this much is probably only worth it if you're working with lots of data at once, such as large photo sets or editing high-resolution video. And especially if you're multitasking creating high-resolution video with you know edited photos in it.

Furthermore, with how long it takes certain kinds of media files to render, you'll probably want to use your rig for other things while your content renders in the background. And this is where having 32 gigs of memory or more can really come in handy, especially if you're into that whole 8K thing. As for 3D modelers animators or scientists, their memory requirements are basically limited only by the size of the scenes or the data sets that they're working with.

Sounds expensive but what if you're trying to figure out how much graphics memory or VRAM you need on your graphics card? Even if two cards have the same graphics processing unit (GPU), they can actually have different amounts of VRAM. Benchmarks often focus more on the GPU itself than on how it performs across its various memory configurations.

The primary purpose of VRAM is to hold the graphics information that the GPU acts upon, meaning that higher resolution gaming and higher resolution textures will require more VRAM. This is also the case if you're using certain types of anti-aliasing that involve rendering at effectively higher resolutions such as Super Sampling Anti-Aliasing.

Many mid-range cards come with 4 gigs of VRAM which, as a general rule, should do fine for 1080p gaming. But you'll want at least six for 1440p and about eight or more for 4K. Just be sure to read reviews for the titles you want to play because some particularly demanding games or especially third-party mods like high-resolution texture packs might mean that a card with slightly more VRAM would be a great investment if you want to play it at high quality.

Running out of VRAM can render no pun intended certain games completely unplayable if you try to bump the resolution up too much. Meaning that 4K monitor you just shelled out a bunch of money for won't be living up to its full potential kind of like that gym membership that you only use twice per year or not at all.

Speaking of having things on hand, my segue to our sponsor MSI's Vigor GK50 low-profile keyboard features low-profile mechanical switches for speed precision and endurance. It's got a high-low keycap design which MSI says will keep your hands and wrists in a comfortable and natural position. You get a brushed metal top plate and matte coating on your keycaps for extra durability, and the convenient lighting hotkeys allow you to change the speed direction or mode of your lighting effects.

There's even a hotkey for afterburner activation, MSI's overclocking utility is got millions of different RGB lighting and effects, and stuff. And the customized function allows you to create various and unique lighting effects via the MSI Dragon Center software. You can learn more at the links below and get your own today also today you can like or dislike this video depending on how you felt check out our other videos leave a suggestion if you have a future fastest possible topic that you'd like to see, and you can subscribe you don't have to but you can't

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere's a quote often attributed to bill gates that goes something like no one would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of memory in their computer well turns out he never actually said that but it got us wondering how much ram do you actually need in modern times well let's start with the kind of ram that most of us are familiar with the main system memory living inside your desktop or laptop pc it's quickly becoming common for budget computers to come with four gigabytes of ram while mid-range machines often have eight on the higher end 16 gigs or even 32 gigs of memory is easy to find but is it worth paying a premium for that here's the deal unless you're seriously cash-strapped it's worth getting at least eight gigabytes even if you're not planning to do anything with your computer beyond basic productivity web browsing and watching fine youtube videos like this one many common tasks are quickly becoming memory hogs even google chrome can eat into your memory very quickly and take up a few gigs if you've got a lot of tabs open and while the browser does use a technique called tab discarding which removes unused tabs from memory and then reloads them when you access them you'll still get a noticeably smoother experience for everyday tasks if you don't skimp too hard on your ram but what if you're gaming well the answer becomes a little more complicated you see many big budget titles these days recommend 16 gigs of memory but the thing to keep in mind is that system requirements for games often are not validated well which you can learn more about right up here it turns out that many games that ask you to use a system with 16 gigs of ram can actually get by just fine on 8 with only a very marginal performance drop if any however as games get more complex this may not be the case in the near future especially as some games actively do make use of more than 8 gigs of system memory and only having 8 gigs can also hinder your ability to do anything else while you're playing a game such as streaming so we'd recommend 16 gigs as a sweet spot for gamers and especially streamers unless you're playing less resource heavy titles of course many motherboards have four ram slots which makes upgrading to 32 gigs a cinch if you've got the money but investing in this much is probably only worth it if you're working with lots of data at once such as large photo sets or editing high resolution video and especially if you're multitasking creating high resolution video with you know edited photos in it furthermore with how long it takes certain kinds of media files to render you'll probably want to use your rig for other things while your content renders in the background and this is where having 32 gigs of memory or more if you're into that whole 8k thing can really come in handy as for 3d modelers animators or scientists well their memory requirements are basically limited only by the size of the scenes or the data sets that they're working with sounds expensive but what if you're trying to figure out how much graphics memory or vram you need on your graphics card even if two cards have the same graphics processing unit or gpu they can actually have different amounts of vram and benchmarks often focus more on the gpu itself than on how it performs across its various memory configurations so remember that the primary purpose of vram is to hold the graphics information that the gpu acts upon meaning that higher resolution gaming and higher resolution textures will require more vram this is also the case if you're using certain types of anti-aliasing that involve rendering at effectively higher resolutions such as super sampling anti-aliasing many mid-range cards come with 4 gigabytes of vram which as a general rule should do you fine for 1080p gaming as of filming this video but you'll want at least six for 1440p and about eight or more for 4k just be sure to read reviews for the titles you want to play because some particularly demanding games or especially third party mods like high-resolution texture packs might mean that a card with slightly more vram would be a great investment if you want to play it high quality running out of vram can render no pun intended certain games completely unplayable if you try to bump the resolution up too much meaning that 4k monitor you just shelled out a bunch of money for won't be living up to its full potential kind of like that gym membership that you only use twice per year or not at all right now you know hand sanitizer quick thank you we didn't even stage that he just had a hand sanitizer on hand speaking of having things on hand my segue to our sponsor msi's vigor gk50 low profile keyboard features low profile mechanical switches for speed precision and endurance it's got a high low keycap design which msi says will keep your hands and wrists in a comfortable and natural position you get a brushed metal top plate and matte coating on your keycaps for extra durability and the convenient lighting hotkeys allow you to change the speed direction or mode of your lighting effects there's even a hotkey for afterburner activation msi's overclocking utility it's got millions of different rgb lighting and effects and stuff and the customized function allows you to create various and unique lighting effects via the msi dragon center software you can learn more at the links below and get your own today also today you can like or dislike this video depending how you felt check out our other videos leave a suggestion if you have a future fastest possible topic that you'd like to see and you can subscribe you don't have to but you can'tthere's a quote often attributed to bill gates that goes something like no one would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of memory in their computer well turns out he never actually said that but it got us wondering how much ram do you actually need in modern times well let's start with the kind of ram that most of us are familiar with the main system memory living inside your desktop or laptop pc it's quickly becoming common for budget computers to come with four gigabytes of ram while mid-range machines often have eight on the higher end 16 gigs or even 32 gigs of memory is easy to find but is it worth paying a premium for that here's the deal unless you're seriously cash-strapped it's worth getting at least eight gigabytes even if you're not planning to do anything with your computer beyond basic productivity web browsing and watching fine youtube videos like this one many common tasks are quickly becoming memory hogs even google chrome can eat into your memory very quickly and take up a few gigs if you've got a lot of tabs open and while the browser does use a technique called tab discarding which removes unused tabs from memory and then reloads them when you access them you'll still get a noticeably smoother experience for everyday tasks if you don't skimp too hard on your ram but what if you're gaming well the answer becomes a little more complicated you see many big budget titles these days recommend 16 gigs of memory but the thing to keep in mind is that system requirements for games often are not validated well which you can learn more about right up here it turns out that many games that ask you to use a system with 16 gigs of ram can actually get by just fine on 8 with only a very marginal performance drop if any however as games get more complex this may not be the case in the near future especially as some games actively do make use of more than 8 gigs of system memory and only having 8 gigs can also hinder your ability to do anything else while you're playing a game such as streaming so we'd recommend 16 gigs as a sweet spot for gamers and especially streamers unless you're playing less resource heavy titles of course many motherboards have four ram slots which makes upgrading to 32 gigs a cinch if you've got the money but investing in this much is probably only worth it if you're working with lots of data at once such as large photo sets or editing high resolution video and especially if you're multitasking creating high resolution video with you know edited photos in it furthermore with how long it takes certain kinds of media files to render you'll probably want to use your rig for other things while your content renders in the background and this is where having 32 gigs of memory or more if you're into that whole 8k thing can really come in handy as for 3d modelers animators or scientists well their memory requirements are basically limited only by the size of the scenes or the data sets that they're working with sounds expensive but what if you're trying to figure out how much graphics memory or vram you need on your graphics card even if two cards have the same graphics processing unit or gpu they can actually have different amounts of vram and benchmarks often focus more on the gpu itself than on how it performs across its various memory configurations so remember that the primary purpose of vram is to hold the graphics information that the gpu acts upon meaning that higher resolution gaming and higher resolution textures will require more vram this is also the case if you're using certain types of anti-aliasing that involve rendering at effectively higher resolutions such as super sampling anti-aliasing many mid-range cards come with 4 gigabytes of vram which as a general rule should do you fine for 1080p gaming as of filming this video but you'll want at least six for 1440p and about eight or more for 4k just be sure to read reviews for the titles you want to play because some particularly demanding games or especially third party mods like high-resolution texture packs might mean that a card with slightly more vram would be a great investment if you want to play it high quality running out of vram can render no pun intended certain games completely unplayable if you try to bump the resolution up too much meaning that 4k monitor you just shelled out a bunch of money for won't be living up to its full potential kind of like that gym membership that you only use twice per year or not at all right now you know hand sanitizer quick thank you we didn't even stage that he just had a hand sanitizer on hand speaking of having things on hand my segue to our sponsor msi's vigor gk50 low profile keyboard features low profile mechanical switches for speed precision and endurance it's got a high low keycap design which msi says will keep your hands and wrists in a comfortable and natural position you get a brushed metal top plate and matte coating on your keycaps for extra durability and the convenient lighting hotkeys allow you to change the speed direction or mode of your lighting effects there's even a hotkey for afterburner activation msi's overclocking utility it's got millions of different rgb lighting and effects and stuff and the customized function allows you to create various and unique lighting effects via the msi dragon center software you can learn more at the links below and get your own today also today you can like or dislike this video depending how you felt check out our other videos leave a suggestion if you have a future fastest possible topic that you'd like to see and you can subscribe you don't have to but you can't\n"