Gadgetory

double data rate fourth-generation synchronous dynamic random access memory say that instead of ddr4 from now on and you'll sound like one cool cat it's the RAM required by x99 and most z170 chipsets along with the up-and-coming a.m. for platform from AMD we've been told time and time again that eight gigabytes is the bare minimum for modern gaming and that sixteen gigabytes is beginning to take hold as the standard presumably anything less than eight gigabytes results in stuttering induced lag and sharp decreases in frame rates let's find out how much you actually do need and on a platform that's neither outrageously overpriced nor over balanced Walter White stepping up to the plate again this weekend he's packing an i7 6700 K overclocked to 4.4 gigahertz an asus strix rog gtx 1070 running at stock out of the box and 16 gigabytes and for 4 gigabyte modules of ddr4 clock to 3200 megahertz for these tests the only changing variable that's kind of a written thing changing variable the only variable was the amount of RAM installed that's it we're ready to go let's start off with city skylines I always repeat this because some may be new to the scene but cities is one of those CPU intensive titles it will utilize as many threads as you throw at it verified right here so I expected in this case that memory increases would make a substantial difference they did not at 1440p even four gigabytes of memory yielded very playable frame rates no stuttering in a minimum that blended in with the other two scenarios and as for the difference between 8 and 16 gigabytes no change worth noting dropping the resolution to 1080p yielded much of the same so even when the CPU is being heavily taxed available SDRAM in this case makes virtually no difference when it comes to frame rates for this game now let's see if this trend continues GTA 5 an excellent blend of GPU and CPU intensive scenes reveals much of the same the difference between 8 and 16 gigabytes is negligible and we only saw 25% reduction at 4 gigabytes but while our average and maximum was on par and frequent stuttering occurred resulting in a minimum of 0 according to both fraps and the in-game benchmark lowering the resolution to 1080p revamped the story though and across the board 4 gigabytes was acceptable not recommended but still acceptable I should also note in this scenario that 16 gigabytes pulled away slightly from the 8 gigabyte run as a consequence of the higher framerate Witcher 3 is much like GTA 5 but on steroids everything in this game is what GTA 5 would be if options like hair works were made available but get this running the ultra preset even four gigabytes was enough for steady gameplay at one point the game froze resulting in the 0 you're seeing at the bottom but for a majority of the tests I honestly couldn't see a difference if we're focusing solely on the averages we'd be hard-pressed to discern between the three oddly enough at 1080p identical story average margins were the same and I kid you not at the exact same point in the benchmark the game locked up for a brief second during the 4 gigabyte run being that Ram available was the only variable here it makes sense to conclude that this was the cause total war Warhammer which taxes the heck out of a single CPU core yielded results that were all within the margin of error and this blew my mind I honestly expected Ram amounts to make a difference here it's very likely that since only one core is being heavily used many of the memory intensive scenes were being delegated to the graphics card not system Ram the story was nearly identical once again in 1080p the last game I tested was Forza Motorsport 6 apex it's in beta currently it could be downloaded via the Microsoft Store for free so check it out if you haven't already I tested this one because I knew Walter White could shell out some serious frames and I wanted to see if that made any more of a difference between the three scenarios however I was just a point to define out that according to Microsoft four gigabytes of system ram simply wouldn't cut it for port so I find this difficult to believe if it's enough for Witcher 3 and we're pushing over 200 frames per second in 1440p for four to six four gigabytes would likely be more than enough perhaps they'll relax the constraints once the official game releases now if you're shocked by these results don't worry you aren't alone I actually ran all of my Witcher 3 and City skylines tests to ensure that these frame rates were consistent I honestly just didn't believe them the first time around I also lowered in game settings only to find much of the same higher frame rates across the board but no marginal increases between 4 gigabytes and say 8 at this point really 16 gigabytes seems like a complete waste of time save a few games like Ark survival evolved erroneously dumped tons of data into system memory by default I didn't purchase Ark because many have recently complained about the addition of paid DLC introduction on a pre-release which I think is stupid but even so unless Ark is the only game you play managing with 8 gigabytes will more than suffice currently now if you're into content creation by all means opt for 16 gigabytes I see that is the bare minimum actually for content creation especially in 4k but if you're only into future proofing your gaming PC I don't really see that making much sense now future proofing has been just thrown around a lot lately and it's just kind of like well it's peace of mind I don't have to worry about upgrading my computer anytime soon but upgrading RAM takes about 15 seconds to do I mean upgrading from 8 to 16 assume you have 4 slots and two of them are occupied literally just requires you to pop the slot open and insert two more modules that's it if you're if you want to pay more upfront go ahead but veidt's according to these results we've just seen is more than enough for modern gaming my logic behind this is that since four gigabytes still resulted in relatively smooth gameplay save the one game that refused to open we've got a long way to go before eight gigabytes begins acting like four gigabytes is currently it's your rig so by all means do what you want but if I was in your position personally and all I did was play video games on my PC I would only purchase eight gigabytes of RAM take the save money and reinvest it in something like an SSD which would make a huge difference in boot times load times pretty much everything take it from a guy who used to only use a harddrive night and day difference if you liked this video be sure to give it a thumbs up give it a thumbs down if you do feel the complete opposite and subscribe for more content like this here on the channel this is science studio thanks for learning with this you