What does RAM do In a pc and how much is needed for high-end gaming?
In: Technology
RAM is the short-term memory of a computer. It keeps the fast processor fed with data that it needs to have available all the time that programs are running. When you close a program, it’s RAM is freed for other programs to use.
(As opposed to hard disk/SSDs which are permanent long-term storage but comparatively slow… so you load the game from disk to RAM when it first loads, and then you hope to keep everything you need in RAM).
For high-end tasks, you need enough RAM to keep everything you need in memory, and you need fast RAM to keep up with your processor (anything faster is pretty much wasted because the processor can’t keep up).
I haven’t used a machine with less than 16Gb RAM for the last 8 years (and that’s a gaming laptop). 8Gb is my minimum for work machines running nothing but Office. People seem to build PCs with pathetic amounts of RAM nowadays – likely because they close absolutely every other application before they play a game, or they don’t notice that it’s swapping (using the disk a lot) because they have an SSD or NVMe.
I’m looking at a new gaming laptop, I’m not considering anything less than 16Gb of main RAM.
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