Question about memory (ram)

bembz

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I have 8GB of memory in my computer at the moment and I've never had any real reason to upgrade since I have never had the need to use all that memory simultaneously. I've tried to monitor over how much % of my memory i do use and it is usually somewhere between 4,5-7,2 depending on what i'm currently doing but I've never hit 100% and had the whole 8GB active at the same time, even when I've tried to do so.

My question is if there would make any difference if i upgraded to lets say 16GB and if the extra "room" would add to the preference and make it somehow run smoother.

This may seem like a weird question but the reason I'm so unsure about this is that i know the standard memory in any "gaming" desktop computer nowadays usually is 16GB but I have not found a clear answer to why most people looking for a gaming PC aim for that much memory when i also read people saying 8GB is enough.

Another reason for why I'm unsure is that i heard an SSD hard-drive would preform a lot better if it wasn't completely filled up.
I know an SSD hard-drive and Ram are two different types of memories but it still made me curious if it that could relate to this.

I appreciate it if anyone could help with a few answers and i'm happy to go into more detail if needed.
 
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Ok I'll cover the ram thing first, then I'll get onto the SSD side of things.

Upgrading from 8 GB > 16 GB of ram is really not required unless you're hitting like 90+% memory usage a lot of the time in my opinion. Reason being, any lower and you won't notice any performance drawbacks. But if you're getting up to like 7 or 7.5 GB used, might not be a bad idea to upgrade. As for why gaming computers today have 16 GB of ram, I believe it's because of two reasons. 1. Games are only going to get more and more ram intensive as time goes on because we'll add more and more content to them, allowing for a more rich and diverse gaming experience. 2. It is becoming more and more common to record gameplay and upload it to youtube. For this reason, many prebuilt gaming rigs are starting to come with more ram because programs like Adobe Premiere will absolutely eat as much ram as you can give them when you really start using the advanced functions of them. (Don't even get me started on the CPU usage it uses when rendering).

As for not filling up an SSD to its max, there's a reason for that too. If you fill up any storage medium to its absolute capacity, you mess with the operating system's ability to generate a page file. This page file is used to store things that aren't directly needed by any programs or the OS itself at any given moment, but are still relevant bits of info that might be needed later. A cramped page file = majorly sluggish performance from what I've observed as a technician in the repair workshop.
 
As for not filling up an SSD to its max, there's a reason for that too. If you fill up any storage medium to its absolute capacity, you mess with the operating system's ability to generate a page file. This page file is used to store things that aren't directly needed by any programs or the OS itself at any given moment, but are still relevant bits of info that might be needed later. A cramped page file = majorly sluggish performance from what I've observed as a technician in the repair workshop.

That's not why you shouldn't fill up SSD's. It's the way the controller manages files. The more free space, the faster it is at writing because then it can move blocks around easier to place files intelligently. HDD's don't suffer this issue, but they suffer from fragmentation (the system placing pieces of files all over the disk surface).
 
Upgrading from 8 GB > 16 GB of ram is really not required unless you're hitting like 90+% memory usage a lot of the time in my opinion. Reason being, any lower and you won't notice any performance drawbacks. But if you're getting up to like 7 or 7.5 GB used, might not be a bad idea to upgrade. As for why gaming computers today have 16 GB of ram, I believe it's because of two reasons. 1. Games are only going to get more and more ram intensive as time goes on because we'll add more and more content to them, allowing for a more rich and diverse gaming experience. 2. It is becoming more and more common to record gameplay and upload it to youtube. For this reason, many prebuilt gaming rigs are starting to come with more ram because programs like Adobe Premiere will absolutely eat as much ram as you can give them when you really start using the advanced functions of them. (Don't even get me started on the CPU usage it uses when rendering).
Not wrong, not quite right.

I'd be willing this dude is capping 8GB quite easy, only most of the overflow is going into page file. 16GB is becoming the minimum because 64bit is finally a standard so apps are becoming more bloated. Games are easily taking over 4-8GB a pop and GPUs are coming out with increased VRAM capacities meaning more system RAM is required. Prebuilt PCs are coming standard with 16GB+ for marketing and because DDR4 is cheap. It doesn't take much off their overhead to provide that much RAM.

As for not filling up an SSD to its max, there's a reason for that too. If you fill up any storage medium to its absolute capacity, you mess with the operating system's ability to generate a page file. This page file is used to store things that aren't directly needed by any programs or the OS itself at any given moment, but are still relevant bits of info that might be needed later. A cramped page file = majorly sluggish performance from what I've observed as a technician in the repair workshop.
That's not why you shouldn't fill up SSD's. It's the way the controller manages files. The more free space, the faster it is at writing because then it can move blocks around easier to place files intelligently. HDD's don't suffer this issue, but they suffer from fragmentation (the system placing pieces of files all over the disk surface).

Both of these are correct, but Carnage's reason is why you shouldn't fill an SSD. If you have a low amount of RAM you should fill up your storage drive for the pagefile reason.
 
All I know is, when I played Fallout4, I would actually get random crashes, all because it wanted more RAM and Pagefile space than what I had available for it. 8GB really isn't enough these days for gaming, 16GB is becoming the new "minimum" sooner than what most figured it seems. How I remember 12 years ago when 2GB was an amazing thing to have in a desktop, and 16 years ago 64MB was pure bliss.
 
All I know is, when I played Fallout4, I would actually get random crashes, all because it wanted more RAM and Pagefile space than what I had available for it. 8GB really isn't enough these days for gaming, 16GB is becoming the new "minimum" sooner than what most figured it seems. How I remember 12 years ago when 2GB was an amazing thing to have in a desktop, and 16 years ago 64MB was pure bliss.

I think we can all look back at the old photos of the first few computers that took up entire building floors... or perhaps an entire city block (or quite a few) for the first few server installations and designs :p
 
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