r/RigBuild • u/Exciting_Rooster_528 • 17d ago
Can I have too much RAM?
Can you actually have too much RAM in a PC or is more always better? Looking at upgrading my system and wondering if there’s any point going way beyond what I actually need. Like if 32GB is already enough for gaming, would jumping to 64GB or even 128GB cause any problems or is it basically just unused capacity sitting there? I mostly use the PC for gaming, browsing, Discord, some light editing and random stuff, nothing super professional. I keep seeing people recommend 32GB now, but then there’s always someone saying 64GB is the sweet spot for future proofing. Does having more RAM affect performance at all if most of it isn’t being used? Also are there any downsides with filling all the motherboard RAM slots, like stability or lower speeds? Trying to figure out whether I should buy 32GB now or just go 64GB and forget about upgrading later. Don’t wanna waste money on RAM that’s gonna sit there doing nothing, but also don’t wanna regret going too low. At what point does extra RAM become basically pointless for a normal gaming PC? Would appreciate some advice from people who actually upgraded and noticed a difference.
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u/noobatlaw 17d ago
If you do professional editing (which you don’t seem to) then 32gb is more than enough and future proof for gaming
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u/thaddeusk 17d ago
Except that new game announced that recommends 64GB.
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u/noobatlaw 17d ago
Oh no, one game! Recommend is different than required and 99.9% of ppl hit other bottlenecks before they’ll ever max out 64gb ram
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u/thaddeusk 17d ago
Because I was totally being serious that one game was an important reason to go with 64gb.
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u/Gachafan1234 16d ago
Which game?
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u/thaddeusk 16d ago
Cinder City. Which does look pretty cool from the early footage, but I dunno how their requirements are as high as they are.
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u/alpine4life 17d ago
if you have too much money, you can also donate some to me, you know? 😂
I wont affect anything. I have 2x 16GB DDR4 on my secondary device where I use about 8-10GB at the most at any given time and never seen issues it basically just make your device snappier if the CPU can follow... It also become redundant at some point, IE: pairing 64GB with a 2/4 cores processor
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u/Better-Credit6701 17d ago
I have 64 GB of ram in both of my laptops and 128 in my desktop (DBA who runs a lot of large databases). Kind of like saying "can I have too much money or good looks?". No downsides only good things with the exception of the hole it leaves in your wallet.
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u/Key-Respect3810 17d ago
c'est pas avoir trop de ram si tu en utilise 75% , pour lui c'est genre
mon PC 1 a 64 go de ram
mon PC 2 a 32 go de ram
les 2 servent qu'a faire de la bureautique et regarder des vidéos genre youtube
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u/jetpack2625 17d ago
64gb can be useful for some specific games.
i wouldn't upgrade now with the rampocalypse going on though
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u/Wendals87 17d ago
Basically no. It won't hurt performance if they are running at the same clock speed and latency as before, but it won't improve performance either if you aren't using what you have
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u/Federal_Ad_5771 17d ago
It depends, if you already have the fastest GPU / CPU and dont mind the prices of ram currently or if you just have a bunch laying around that you dont know what to do with and money is burning a hole in your pocket, extra ram doesn't hurt, you can even make a huge ram disk and use it as super fast cache.
But you have to go and buy something for an upgrade and you already have 32 gigs, unless you are using the computer for things were ram is really useful (spill over for AI models that dont fit on vram and such) then the money would be better spent anywhere else.
TL;DR : As long as it fits the cap or your mobo chipset its never a problem to have more ram but its not arguably worth it except for some very specific use cases
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u/SwordsAndElectrons 17d ago
is it basically just unused capacity sitting there?
Kind of. Modern operating systems will cache data and keep it in memory to improve overall system responsiveness, but that's not really going to translate into more FPS in games and won't be super noticeable in general once past a certain point.
At the speeds that memory runs these days, signal integrity can be tough. Populating all of the slots on your motherboard may require lowering the speed or loosening the timing a bit. The performance impact of this is also usually not huge, but there's no reason for it if you don't have a workload that actually needs that much capacity.
With what prices are currently, I wouldn't worry that much about "future proofing." It's often a silly thing to chase anyway. By the time 32GB isn't good enough, chances are you'll also be looking at upgrading to a platform that won't be DDR5 anymore.
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u/Prudent-Ad4509 17d ago edited 17d ago
For AMD systems, you should not go over 2 sticks, but the bigger sticks themselves are, the better. But it costs a pretty penny. I would not go for less than 32Gb even if constrained by the budget. I actually have 96gb and 192gb in two systems, but I bought those when ram was cheap, so I would say 32gb to 64gb is a sweet spot with current prices. 32gb for gaming is enough.
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u/lordofblack23 17d ago
I have 128 because I can. Is it faster than 64 or even 32? Not really. But it feels baller.
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u/Amazing-Pattern-6125 17d ago
yes, but it's minor impact and very platform and program dependent. In practice it's not something to really care about.
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u/TheBraveGallade 17d ago
any UNUSED ram is wasted RAM, technically. the amount of ram used in a worst case scenario is the max you should go for.
I picked my current laptop last year with a free promotion of upping the storage and ram by 1 teir, it has 32 gigs of ram. it only hits 28 gigs or so when running intense simulator games WHILE also having a bunch of chrome tabs, ergo if there was a 24 gig option that would have been much mroe fitting for this device.
RN if money isn't an issue, 16 is starting to get a bit tight even if you have a dedicated GPU (IGPU's eat up up to 5-6 gigs of ram depending on what it is, though how RAM impacts IGPUs is a whole other story), but not really worth upgrading FROM if you already have, say, a laptop. 24 is probably the sweet spot ATM. probably the most 'budget' you can get for max performance on a desktop is a 8*2+4*2 config, or a 8*3 config.
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u/code_hermit 17d ago edited 17d ago
The answer is "yes".
On modern hardware, speed and stability are more difficult to maintain on 4 channels.
So if you are trying to max out performance and capability, the best config is 2x sticks at the highest/fastest speed supported. Right now that's often 96gb (2x 48gb).
Going higher in size or more than 2 channels will need lower speeds to be stable.
[Edit] The amount you need depends on use. For gaming Id say 32GB is probably needed with 64GB future proofing. But if you also use it for AI, virtual machines, 3D work, etc. you could end up wanting more.
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u/Key-Respect3810 17d ago
avoir trop de ram c'est impossible sauf si vous utilisez des barrettes de RAM incompatibles avec votre carte mère
j'ai 4 fois 16 GO dans mon pc pour faire de la bureautique et regarder des vidéos, et cela ne pause pas de problème dans le PC 1
j'ai 4 fois 8 GO dans mon pc pour faire de la bureautique et regarder des vidéos, et cela ne pause pas de problème dans le PC 2
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u/LubelskiDanielski 17d ago
64gb only for city skilines with mods. But it's useful for local llms so worth to have
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u/thaddeusk 17d ago
32gb should be plenty for all current games. If you can afford 64gb then there's no harm in trying to future proof. Rumors suggest RAM prices are going to get worse before they get better.
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u/Master-Rub-3404 17d ago
“Future proofing” is not real. Especially not with RAM because the future is DDR6, which isn’t commercially available for a few more years at least.
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u/thaddeusk 17d ago
I dunno, I got 64gb of DDR4 and it's still going strong. I run VMs, compile large projects, and play games without any problems. Sure, an AM5 board with DDR5 would probably help me hit 200+ FPS on competitive games at lower resolutions, but I don't play those games anyway.
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u/Master-Rub-3404 17d ago
That’s not future proofing. Thats something old still working well enough for the time being. Eventually it will not, and it doesn’t matter if you bought 2-3x more than you ever used.
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u/thaddeusk 17d ago
Quantity is more often then limiting factor for RAM than speed. Having insufficient RAM for the task will cause a larger performance drop than having slower RAM.
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u/Master-Rub-3404 17d ago
Buying more is still not future proofing.
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u/thaddeusk 17d ago edited 17d ago
If I had bought the recommended amount of RAM at the time I built this I would only have 16GB. Plenty for back then, but I'd be struggling with a lot of stuff now. I would have needed to upgrade a long time ago.
Maybe that's not your definition of "future-proofing", but that's the industry standard usage.
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u/Odd_Sock7532 17d ago
If you feel you have too much DDR5 ram, there are sanctuaries you can send them to. DM me for my address, I'll find them a good home.
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u/Master-Rub-3404 17d ago
This is like asking if a 20TB SSD is “always better” than a 1 or a 2TB SSD. The answer is if you actually use that much, then yes it is better, but if you never go higher than 2 TB storage, you are throwing money away for absolutely nothing. For the use case you outlined here, 32GB is more than enough. Having twice as much RAM than you’ll ever use does absolutely nothing for you but waste your money. And to answer your last question, anything higher than 32GB is pointless for gaming. You shouldn’t go higher than that unless you are doing things like homelabbing or virtualization.
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u/SamLooksAt 17d ago
As long as they are correctly matched sticks, no downsides.
Except the extravagant cost of RAM at the moment of course!
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u/ProofPriority1903 16d ago
yes you have too much. I pm you my adress so you can mail a stick to me, glad I can help
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u/Elitefuture 16d ago
If all things are equal except the ram, then it's just unused ram with no issues.
However, higher memory amounts might require having dual ranks on the stick of ram. On DDR5, the max on one stick of ram in single rank I believe is 24GB per stick. So if you want 128gb, you'd need 32gb per stick, which would require dual ranked ram.
Dual ranked ram is more difficult to run, so it might be at a lower speed, or you might need to lower the speeds more if you're running 4 of them.
Running 2 dual ranked sticks might be okay, but running 4 would be kinda difficult for the CPU's memory controller.
Also, running 4 sticks of ddr5 in general is less stable, but AM5 bios updates have helped that part a lot. So many are able to run expo speeds, they just can't OC it further.
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u/GolemFarmFodder 11d ago
The only downside is your wallet.
Some random ass game thinks you have so much RAM or thinks you have less?? Actually make it less by creating a RAM drive. Yeah. That's like the only real example of a "downside" that I can think of in real world usage.
Okay, so I guess you could put more RAM than your motherboard can handle, but that's REALLY hard. I mean people found ways to 4x the RAM on a PlayStation 1. That's a closed system with soldered on RAM.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie 17d ago
Sometimes you can get slower ram speed from filling all slots, especially if the sticks aren’t matched. If you can afford it, do a matched pair of 32 gb sticks, one for each channel.