WEBVTT

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You know that Bill Gates saying that no one would ever need more than 640 kilobytes of RAM?

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Yeah, he didn't say that. But it's still a warning not to assume that your computer will be

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good enough for years to come. And now it looks like we may be at the point where many users will

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once again have to think about adding more memory. But hold the phone for a sec. Aren't most laptops

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these days shipping with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM? Indeed they are. But even though 8 and especially

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16 gigs might sound like quite a bit, it's easier than you might think to start running up against

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memory limits on modern machines. Let's start just by looking at Windows 11. The OS has a 4 Gigabyte

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minimum memory requirement. But remember that's a minimum. It wouldn't take much of a load for a

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PC with only 4 gigs of RAM to start freezing and crashing if you're doing anything other than very

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light tasks. And surprisingly enough Google Chrome is not one of those tasks. If you have a mid-range

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8 Gigabyte computer, Windows will often increase its memory usage to take up more than half of your

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available RAM, leaving only 3 gigabytes in change for the rest of your programs. Windows does this

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in an effort to make your computer feel more responsive by preloading the data that you use

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often. But even if the operating system can sense that you're running out of memory and

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relinquishes some of it, you can very easily chew through that 3 or so gigs you have left.

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Modern web browsers, for example, can take up positively silly amounts of memory, especially

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if you have lots of tabs open or playing video. And even though Google Chrome has tried to improve

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memory management in recent years by putting tabs you're not currently using in a cache on your SSD,

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the browser overall still has a huge memory footprint. Even messaging programs and other

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modern apps that you wouldn't necessarily think need lots of memory, they're basically just running

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in a browser, like electron apps. And those can start adding up fast, meaning 16 gigs is a much

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more comfortable amount than 8 if you're doing anything other than just very light multitasking.

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If you're a gamer, you're most likely going to want to look at upgrading to 32 gigs of RAM in

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the near future. We're already seeing some popular titles that require 16 gigs,

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while some want 32 if you're turning up the settings to the max, partly due to the spillover

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if the VRAM gets exhausted due to demanding features like ray tracing. Although these games are

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currently the exception rather than the rule, developers at AAA studios want to be able to

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say that their latest titles support the latest and greatest graphics tech. So it's not a matter of

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if you'll need more RAM for your games, but when. And this is even more true if you want to stream

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and record your gameplay too. And if you're an editor, there's a good chance you're already

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feeling the squeeze on a 16 gig machine, as you can't do a whole lot else if you have a high

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def project open in a program like Adobe Premiere Pro. Just like we recommend at least 16 gigs of

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RAM for a current gaming rig, we'd suggest 32 as a starting point for a content creation machine.

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And that might not even be enough if you're editing beyond 4k like we are,

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or have some other creative apps sold at the same time, which is more common than you'd think.

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Of course, we aren't trying to tell you to go out and immediately buy new RAM modules if your

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system is currently running fine. But if you are experiencing issues, RAM is a simple, drop-in,

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relatively inexpensive upgrade that can make a huge difference in your system's responsiveness

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and capabilities. As long as you don't splurge on a kit that looks like it came straight out of

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a Versace catalog. Thanks for watching guys, like, dislike, check out our other videos,

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comment with video suggestions, and don't forget to subscribe and follow.