Why Do People Say That 16GB RAM Should Be The Minimum and Not 8GB?

PVA on 12/06/2023 - 13:48
Last edited 12/06/2023 - 14:14 by 1 other user

My old laptop (gen 4 i7) is 8GB and for me it’s fine for what I do (which isn’t much) internet tabs on chrome or Firefox, basic MS Office stuff, torrents sometimes, bit of YouTube … normal everyday stuff.

Would 8GB still be OK with a new (second hand) laptop. Was looking at a gen 8 i5 with win11.
What big difference would 16GB make? I mean, I’m only looking at a $300 cheapie not a video/photo editing powerhouse. Wouldn’t 8GB/256GB be fine?

Every laptop posted that’s 8GB gets bagged for being so and most can’t be upgraded.

Computing Computer Component RAM

Comments

  • Hybroid on 12/06/2023 - 13:49
    +11

    it’s fine for what I do (which isn’t much)

    Not everyone is the same. Also, 16GB gives you room for the future as software inevitably bloats and you use it more.

    If you're fine with 8GB for a cheap basic computer, then you're fine.

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 13:58
      +2

      That was what I was thinking.
      I hardly ever use a computer now, been using iPad or phone for 95% of online.
      Existing laptop is on its last legs, USB ports stopped working, case around hinges broken.
      Was really thinking to get a new one but realised I hardly ever use it so a waste.

      Was looking at a Dell Latitude 7390, it has a Ram slot so if in the future I could go to 16GB I suppose. 13.3inch is smaller than a 14 I’d like but hey, $270 for sometimes use and I can always just connect to an external screen if I need.

      • bargaino on 12/06/2023 - 14:19

        Note the 7390 2-in-1 is not upgradable.

        People want the capability of a 16GB upgrade, because in the past bloat has always increased over time. I'm not sure that is still happening as much though. Most likely, 8GB will continue to be plenty for some years yet.

    • Chandler on 13/06/2023 - 08:46

      100% this.

      Hell, one of the features I bought my ~10yo laptop for was its 4 x DIMM slots - makes RAM upgrades cheaper: 4 x lower capacity sticks instead of 2 x larger capacity sticks.

      Had 16GB installed when I bought it - still haven't upgraded the RAM haha.

  • djoz on 12/06/2023 - 13:49
    +1

    Evolution of Technology.

  • Nillionaire on 12/06/2023 - 13:53
    +2

    If you're fine with 8GB that's fine. I have 16 as my minimum for peace of mind. I'm not doing any intense stuff most of the time but I never want to be in a position where I get stuck or lag because of my RAM.

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 13:59

      That’s my worry. I’m looking at an under $300 used laptop, be different if I was buying new.

      • chartparker on 12/06/2023 - 14:03
        +6

        $300? Just buy it and use it until the point where you NEED 16GB

  • ihfree on 12/06/2023 - 14:03
    +2

    For what you've described 8gb would likely be ok and continue to be ok for the next few years.

    A relative is still using a 4th gen i5 with 4gb ram and an SSD installed. That's still fine for their use.

    If you don't have an SSD, that could be a worthwhile upgrade and you may find the bump in performance enough to not need an upgrade.

    16gb is a bit more future proof as operating systems and apps(including webapps) get more complex. I still don't think it's needed especially for what you've described.

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 14:15

      The existing one has a hybrid drive, part ssd part HDD. Not sure what their real name is, was when SSD was super expensive at the start. I was thinking to get an SSD but the case is broken around the screen hinge, USB ports don’t work and battery failed .. so not worth it.

  • AlienC on 12/06/2023 - 14:04
    +1

    If you have to do any editing or even light gaming or anything above pretty normal office or senior citizen tasks (what I call now due to most my previous use case scenarios) then getting above 8gb even just 12gb can be a game changer and prevent some programs randomly running out of memory and prevents random shutdowns and app freezes.

    • Rob-4x4 on 13/06/2023 - 11:41

      What about us senior citizens who are also into gaming :) … Just finished playing last of us so need more than 8GB for that :)

      • AlienC on 13/06/2023 - 12:08

        Then i definitely recommend 64GB of ram :) especially if you are going to go teach those youngins how to play the game.

  • freefall101 on 12/06/2023 - 14:17
    +1

    The problem with RAM is that it's always enough until it's not, but ununsed RAM is doing nothing (unlike a faster CPU, which makes stuff faster). Generally speaking, anyway, computers are better at handling less RAM and having RAM available for an application to use is probably a fraction of a second faster.

    If you're not noticing it, you're probably fine. One thing Windows introduced (I think with 10?) was memory compression, rather than swapping to the disk it simply compresses the data in memory when you start running out. For simple tasks that makes it a lot less noticeable than when systems used to write to disk when they ran out of RAM.

    When you have a full workflow running, open up Task Manager, to to the "Performance" tab and click on "Memory". There you can see things like how much memory Windows is compressing and is available. If compressed is high and available is low, going for 16GB might be a worthwhile investment (as computers tend not to use less memory over time, only more). Or if the amount Committed is higher than 8GB.

    • bargaino on 12/06/2023 - 14:23
      +3

      but ununsed RAM is doing nothing

      Not quite true. RAM not being used in the traditional way is likely allocated to extra buffer and cache. It will increase i/o speed and reduce battery use a bit, as well as extending SSD life.
      Right now I have 6GB allocated, 6GB free and 12GB buffer/cache.

  • altomic on 12/06/2023 - 14:18
    -5

    32GB RAM Should Be The Minimum and Not 16GB

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 14:19
      +1

      Why, what would it do for my use?

      • rumblytangara on 12/06/2023 - 14:28
        +3

        Absolutely sweet FA. That poster was just being unhelpfully facetious.

        8GB for your described use case is fine. Win11 is practically identical to Win10, so OS version has no effect either.

        You can go to your Windows Task Manager to get real time memory usage information if you want to look into what's happening on your current machine.

        • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 14:33

          Thanks. I’ll check my old one.

          The used laptop I’m thinking has a single ram slot , not soldered .. so I’m guessing a 16GB module would be cheap $30-40 if I need it . Just guessing price.

          • Ultimate Gattai on 14/06/2023 - 01:24

            @PVA: Depends on what Ram it uses, DDR4 is cheap right now, I just bought a pair of 16GB DDR4 sticks, I mostly game and web browse and never fully use 16GBs, but video editing gets me pretty close to using the entire 16GBs.

      • ihfree on 12/06/2023 - 14:36
        +3

        Lol, not much or nothing meaningful. A few things would be marginally faster as more data would be cached in memory.

    • rogerm22 on 13/06/2023 - 11:27

      That's not true. 8GB really is more than enough for basic use. If you use memory hungry apps, or regularly have tens of browser tabs open, then most likely 16GB or in some cases, 32GB will be better. In time, 8GB won't be enough for basic use, so it doesn't hurt to have more so you don't have to upgrade in the future. But even then, 32GB would be overkill.

    • BangkokDessert on 13/06/2023 - 20:32

      8GB if you don't care about the person using the system.
      16GB if you are feeling poor and might upgrade later.
      32GB is where it is at, high enough that any normal user shouldn't run out.

      I wonder if the 8GB purist realise that their phones probably have 8GB?

      I'd hazard a guess that anyone who uses Chrome saying 8 or 16 is fine, if they upgraded to 32 they would find that Chrome will just eat it for breakfast and next minute they are sitting at 16-20gb usage.

      How else do you watch 10 YouTube videos at once?

    • Ultimate Gattai on 14/06/2023 - 01:22

      16GB is the minimum though, most people wouldn't exceed that, unless you're doing something that requires it, like 3D work or Video editing, video games and web browsing won't exceed 16GBs.

  • Cave Fire on 12/06/2023 - 14:20
    +1

    Probably better to do a refresh of your windows install. Or use taskmgr and cancel the resource hogs. Win 10 and beyond is also optimized for ssds + they are $40 odd for a new ssd + easy install.

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 14:28

      Yeah, but then I need to buy a new battery (battery has failed) ….. seems like throwing money at something that’s not worth it.

      • Cave Fire on 12/06/2023 - 14:34

        Yeah, kind of projected my situation. Only use laptops at home, so figured you meant running of the A/C power.

        • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 14:43

          It is at home just sometimes it’s moved around and would like a battery.

          It was a good unit, just really at past it’s life now.

  • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 14:44
    +2

    Really appreciate everyone’s answers. Thanks.

  • knasty on 12/06/2023 - 14:50
    +1

    I'm currently using a Lenovo Slim 7 with 8Gb. It's perfectly fine for casual use. Of course 16Gb is 'better' but I've never hit a situation where it hasn't been enough. I have 8Gb work laptops supplied to me that are used for working on reasonably large excel files and I certainly start to see performance issues there but it just takes a bit more time…

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 15:58

      Thanks.

  • sam-1966 on 12/06/2023 - 15:37

    I scarily remember getting the PC with 2Mg of ram. And it was the powerful one in the office. And there was a worldwide shortage of ram chips at the time due to a factory fire.

  • Ozbar Gain on 12/06/2023 - 16:15
    +2

    Open up the apps and browser tabs (like say youtube) as you normally do and then open up task manager and see RAM usage. If close to 80% usage, you'll see a benefit to having more RAM. At that stage your PC is frantically swopping around and trying to figure out what is top priority to store in RAM.

    • PVA on 12/06/2023 - 16:27
      +2

      Thanks.
      I ended up payingan extra $30 and got 16GB.

      No idea if i need it but at least i wo t be wondering and wishing i paid the tiny bit extra.

      • Ultimate Gattai on 14/06/2023 - 01:26

        It's cheap, so it doesn't matter, you may/may not notice an improvement in speed, I think it's worth the upgrade.

  • Sinnerator on 13/06/2023 - 08:55
    +1

    depends what you are doing?
    I have a N5030 pentium with 4gb and 128ssd and it's fine for normal stuff no lag, i just limit tabs open to less than 10.
    If you find a killer deal on a gen 8 i5 with 8gb then that's totally ok

    • PVA on 13/06/2023 - 09:32

      Thanks mate.

  • A-mak on 13/06/2023 - 10:09
    +1

    My system is using 10.2GB of ram at the moment and that's just with chrome (2 youtube tabs, gmail + this page), steam and discord using the most. I recommend 16gb as a minimum for gaming. General usage 8gb is fine, especially if you have an ssd for swap-space.

    • PVA on 13/06/2023 - 10:54
      +2

      Thanks. I ended up paying an extra $30 and got 16GB.

    • Ultimate Gattai on 14/06/2023 - 01:28

      Chrome is a Ram hog anyway, so no surprise you're system is using so much RAM, I know when I have a lot of Fire Fox tabs open that I use more than half of my 16GBs of Ram.

  • jumpypotato53 on 13/06/2023 - 10:11
    +1

    If you haven't noticed an issue then you are fine. You will definitely notice when your system is under RAM pressure.

    • PVA on 13/06/2023 - 10:55
      +1

      Thanks. I ended up paying an extra $30 and got 16GB.
      I just didn’t want to spend too much on a used laptop they may fail who knows when.

  • Ramrunner on 14/06/2023 - 15:48

    8 was indeed fine, but now I have seen client's machines using 97% RAM on 8Gb recently running sweet bugger all.

    I've been fitting 16Gb to our sold PCs as standard for years now but thinking it's becoming 100% justified.

    Good thing is RAM is really cheap.

    • rogerm22 on 15/06/2023 - 11:57
      +1

      My experience with many PCs, is that 8GB is more than enough for basic use. I presume your clients must have been running some memory intensive apps or have had ten of browser tabs open, to use that much RAM.

      • Ramrunner on 15/06/2023 - 14:10
        +1

        No they did not that was my point. It's a very recent thing that this is happening. Most of the memory seems to be used by Windows Defender (250Mb+).

        If they had been I'd dismiss it but for some reason vanilla Windows 11 on the latest update seems to spike towards 8Gb often.

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