You know that Bill Gates saying that no one would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of RAM?
Yeah, he didn't say that. But it's still a warning not to assume that your computer will be
good enough for years to come. And now it looks like we may be at the point where many users will
once again have to think about adding more memory. But hold the phone for a sec. Aren't most laptops
these days shipping with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM? Indeed they are. But even though 8 and especially
16 gigs might sound like quite a bit, it's easier than you might think to start running up against
memory limits on modern machines. Let's start just by looking at Windows 11. The OS has a 4 Gigabyte
minimum memory requirement. But remember that's a minimum. It wouldn't take much of a load for a
PC with only 4 gigs of RAM to start freezing and crashing if you're doing anything other than very
light tasks. And surprisingly enough Google Chrome is not one of those tasks. If you have a mid-range
8 Gigabyte computer, Windows will often increase its memory usage to take up more than half of your
available RAM, leaving only 3 gigabytes in change for the rest of your programs. Windows does this
in an effort to make your computer feel more responsive by preloading the data that you use
often. But even if the operating system can sense that you're running out of memory and
relinquishes some of it, you can very easily chew through that 3 or so gigs you have left.
Modern web browsers, for example, can take up positively silly amounts of memory, especially
if you have lots of tabs open or playing video. And even though Google Chrome has tried to improve
memory management in recent years by putting tabs you're not currently using in a cache on your SSD,
the browser overall still has a huge memory footprint. Even messaging programs and other
modern apps that you wouldn't necessarily think need lots of memory, they're basically just running
in a browser, like electron apps. And those can start adding up fast, meaning 16 gigs is a much
more comfortable amount than 8 if you're doing anything other than just very light multitasking.
If you're a gamer, you're most likely going to want to look at upgrading to 32 gigs of RAM in
the near future. We're already seeing some popular titles that require 16 gigs,
while some want 32 if you're turning up the settings to the max, partly due to the spillover
if the VRAM gets exhausted due to demanding features like ray tracing. Although these games are
currently the exception rather than the rule, developers at AAA studios want to be able to
say that their latest titles support the latest and greatest graphics tech. So it's not a matter of
if you'll need more RAM for your games, but when. And this is even more true if you want to stream
and record your gameplay too. And if you're an editor, there's a good chance you're already
feeling the squeeze on a 16 gig machine, as you can't do a whole lot else if you have a high
def project open in a program like Adobe Premiere Pro. Just like we recommend at least 16 gigs of
RAM for a current gaming rig, we'd suggest 32 as a starting point for a content creation machine.
And that might not even be enough if you're editing beyond 4k like we are,
or have some other creative apps sold at the same time, which is more common than you'd think.
Of course, we aren't trying to tell you to go out and immediately buy new RAM modules if your
system is currently running fine. But if you are experiencing issues, RAM is a simple, drop-in,
relatively inexpensive upgrade that can make a huge difference in your system's responsiveness
and capabilities. As long as you don't splurge on a kit that looks like it came straight out of
a Versace catalog. Thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out our other videos,
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