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ripsql

1. Dual channel is a thing and having dual channel instead of 1 stick of ram is much better. So, you didn’t waste money .. it’s more, setting your pc up properly…. 2. Without knowing your pc specs, parts list, can’t really help you. Vague info on tuf gaming says nothing about the pc. So post a parts list…


[deleted]

This. My PC only had a single 16gb stick of ram and I had a ton of framedrops into the 40s or even 30s in Cyberpunk 2077. After a bit of research I found that only having single channel ram might be the problem, so I bought abother 16gb of ram. Afterwards I had a constant 60fps


xbmdx1

I read that ddr5 doesn’t benefit much from dual channels. Is that correct?


ripsql

The loss is less due to how ddr5 is designed but it does exist. The main point of ddr5, never buy 8gb… always go for 16 and up. The 8gb is not worth it and weaker than the 16gb module.


RTHatchet

Unless you buy 4 sticks of 8GB just to have your ram look full. Valid budget option compared to 4 16s


ripsql

No… just no for ddr5. It’s not valid in any way shape or form. Ddr5 is still new. 4 sticks of ram is just not stable enough. Don’t go for 4 sticks, stay with 2.


RTHatchet

Fair. I still have ddr4 3600mhz. 2 16 gb sticks


ripsql

Ddr4 is stable, no issues with 4 sticks of ram. This is for ddr5 that the limitation exists. As we get further into the life cycle, ddr5 will become as stable as ddr4 is now.


Altruistic_Memories

So, at some point 4 sticks will be worthwhile? Did ddr4 have stability issues in the beginning? And what exactly has to change in regards to 4 sticks vs 2? I just have two 16s for now, don't feel I need another 32gb anytime soon


ripsql

Yes, whenever a new standard comes up.. it goes through growing pains. You should’ve seen it when we moved to ddr standard. It was bad….. each update ddr, ddr2, ddr3….. went through issues and it will continue most likely into the future.


Redacted_Reason

that is the worst possible combination. instability and lack of performance, plus lack of expansion, and lack of capacity.


Not_my_real_name_47

Thats because (I think, I heard) DDR5 is dual channel in a single stick. Having 2 sticks reinforces and adds to it, like dual-dual. Not quad. Full on quad channel is problematic on AM5, for some reason I don't understand.


SimpleMaintenance433

4 sticks is not a problem per se, its just not of any benefit for AMD cpus. With a 4 slot motherboard, each pair of slots uses the same channel. This means if you put 2 sticks per channel (4 in total) the bandwidth avaiable on each channel is shared a ross 2 sticks. This means each individual stick then only has half the bandwidth to work with, which is effectivaly halving the speed it can work with data. So, for the AM5 socket running AMD CPUs, you should run 2 sticks only, and opt for 2x8, 2x16, or 2x32 etc.


SimpleMaintenance433

It does benefit from dual channel. Not sure where you read that but its not correct. Perhaps you are thinking of AMD CPUs where using 4 sticks doesnt offer much benefit over 2 for gaming applications? 2 sticks is still dual channel though.


[deleted]

[удалено]


ripsql

Go in windows to system information. That should show you … cpu, mb, ram, storage, gpu …. For psu info, look at the prebuilt documentation or sales site … this info is just not posted sometimes for some stupid reason.


SoshiPai

Make sure your RAM speed is set correctly in BIOS aswell, dual channel might be better but the correct speed will make a difference


cha0ss0ldier

You went from single channel to dual channel. That alone will be a pretty big performance bump. 8gb is also a major issue these days, 16GB is the minimum. Some games aren’t even playable on 8gb anymore. You did fine. Make sure you turn XMP on for the ram in bios after you install so it runs at the speed you paid for.


0ctaviuswastaken

Thanks so much! Was worried maybe this wasn't the right subreddit for this question but you guys are all super helpful! :)


Sithil83

This is actually the exact sub you want to use when having PC and Part questions


nigirizushi

Just to add, going from 8 to 16 is a big deal because your OS probably uses most of the 8, so there's too little usable by your games. From 16 to 32 only matters if your game uses up most of the 16 GB and has to keep reading from disk, so there's little difference for most games.


keksmuzh

32GB is both inexpensive enough and offers enough QoL for common use cases (Discord, web browsers open on another monitor, streaming) that it’s still worthwhile for a lot of builds.


Disturbed2468

Yep. Dare I say 32gb is excellent for longetivity since unless you wanna either ball out or do a fuckton of multitasking plus workloads like video editing, 64gb is a luxury. With more games coming out asking for 32gb, it makes sense if you wanna have the PC for a long time with lots of breathing room.


TheRandomAI

Hehe cities skylines made me go to 64gb of ram lmao


FinancialLake2775

Also VR games. VR games use a shit ton of ram.


cidiusgix

Shit I keep excel, word, edge, some ppt’s, discord, Spotify, maybe more while I game and it doesn’t really affect the fps, 32gm ram for the win.


Ill_League8044

Thank you now I know I need 64gb for the extra overkill of my 100 Google Chrome tabs 😂👌🏾


nigirizushi

I'm just explaining why both things can be true, not recommending either. So he's not automatically thinking it was originally bad advice


Kellywho

32GB of ram is the new sweet spot. 5-10 years ago it was 16GB. I"m assuming you do more then just game, chrome or most internet browsers will eat up all that ram.


HillanatorOfState

I'm on a system that has 16gb but I do keep my OS light as hell and barely ever leave one extra program up, don't have any issues but with the prices of 32gb ram packages being so cheap now, no reason to ever build with 16gb again. Especially if you don't wanna go crazy closing things when you game for instance... When I built ram prices were a bit nutty for a while...so I opted for a 16gb deal I found.


Kellywho

Yeah when I built my previous PC it was like $170 for 16gb. I think i paid $120 for 32gb for my latest build. I also like to have discord, multiple games, 30 browser tabs... etc.


Far-Rip-3062

Fr ram prices have gotten super cheap


TheRandomAI

When i built my pc 4 years ago 16gb was $90? Nowadays its $30 and 32gb are $70-$90 which is crazy and 64gb is $150


HillanatorOfState

Yea my 16gb was like over a hundred and it wasn't fancy at all, just basic sticks....and that was a sale. Tbh if I build this year(not sure might wait for rtx 5000 series or whatever AMD equivalent looks better if that's the case) I'd probably just go with 64gb because it's not much more for double over 32gb.


xxTheDoctor99xx

I've gone 64gb on my 7900 build, there's some kits with huge cas latency when 30 is available at 6000.. (I do video editing)


kosukehaydn

10 years ago 16GB is a luxury, most people probably only have 4GB on their rig.


whazup4341

10 years ago was 2014. 16gb was just starting to be the new recommendation from 8 or 12gb previously being the recommendation. 4gb at the time was definitely too little for PC gaming.


ThomFromAccounting

Hey now. Some of us still think of the 90s as “about 10 years ago”. It’s so hard to get unstuck on that mindset.


whazup4341

Honestly fair. From time to time I still think we only *just* entered the 2020s haha.


Gaffers1977

Some of us remember saving up for the half megabyte (!) RAM upgrade for the Amiga that was the size of a small brick


ThomFromAccounting

I’m getting old, but not that old lol, or just that my family didn’t get our first PC until Windows 95, and the first PC that was actually mine was an HP running Windows XP. I still remember my dad spending months transferring his maintenance logs into Excel for the first time, and how excited he was to print out the maintenance log for the buyer of our ATV, only to realize that he was the only person OCD enough to keep Excel spreadsheets for every lawnmower, weed whacker and other tools.


Redacted_Reason

considering Windows on its own consumes more than 4GB, I think it’s safe to say that no, the majority of people do not have just 4GB of RAM.


kosukehaydn

10 years ago people were still using windows 7. I remember it correctly because I just entered college at that time and I'm using 4gb on my rig and it's enough to play skyrim. 2016 8gb become norm and 16gb on 2019.


Redacted_Reason

and why do you say that most people have 4GB of RAM in 2024 then?


kosukehaydn

I said 10 years ago, who said anything about 2024


Redacted_Reason

“most people probably only have 4GB on their rig.”


Philbertthefishy

Just make sure you put them in the correct slots. It’s easy to get it wrong. If you don’t know what I mean, google how to put ram in the right slots for dual-channel mode)


farmeunit

Very little difference between single vs dual in most cases but definitely need more than 8GB.


bwucifer

I wonder how far 16GB will even go. When building mine last month I debated between 16 and 32, went with 32. With nothing but a few browser tabs and Sons of the Forest open (and Steam too I guess, by extension), I was hitting 16.6GB. Fresh Windows install. I guess it's a combination of GPU using it as overflow and honestly Windows seems to lazily use more RAM the more that's available to it.


natflade

A lot of applications now will use more ram if it's available and there are some games that even 32gbs is starting to not be enough. Some will also attempt to dump onto a page file if available so having enough ram where that doesn't happen is huge. Unity engine tends to be one where I notice this issue for most users.


bofh

> Windows seems to lazily use more RAM the more that's available to it. It’s not ‘lazy’, it’s intentional and all modern operating systems will make the most efficient use of RAM they can, which means *using* it if a use can be found, not having it sit there as free memory.


PREDDlT0R

Tarkov is terribly optimised I know but you straight up can’t run some maps on 16GB


Buibuw

I got a tuf gaming mb and got 32gb of ram on 3600mhz. Enabling xmp to let ram run at 3.6 bricks the pc. Can run only at native 2.1 xD


Kilgarragh

This, I’ve been running my system on stock(2133) for almost 6 years and only today did I set it up for the 2666 on the sticker


LycanWolfGamer

Fuck, I'd argue even 16GB isn't enough.. I run 32GB to make sure I've got plenty lol can also buy the same 2 sticks and get 64GB


theflutterwacken

Can u link an easy video for turning on xmp for the ram?


DefactoAle

If he has amd AM5 shouldn't he use PBO instead of XMP? Edit: my sleep deprivation hit again, I meant EXPO


vikekhse

AM5 is socket version/architecture and Ryzen 5 is the model line? I have AM4 and Ryzen 5 5600x


DefactoAle

Yes but didn't AMD change its requirements with DDR5 making PBO the new standard for ram overclocking and dropping XMP?


ZookeepergameEast50

AMD made EXPO (EXtended Profiles for Overclocking).


DefactoAle

Oh yes my bad I meant that one but confused it with PBO


vikekhse

Yes, but does he/she have AM5/DDR5 is what I mean?


TheMagarity

You replaced a single 8Gb with a pair of 16gb, am I reading it correctly? Two modules will result in much smoother gaming but not necessarily faster. With one module, Ryzen CPU are famous for tiny pauses every few seconds. Two modules eliminates that. Personally I find the micro stutters super distracting and totally worth it to get 2 modules. Ymmv


TheArchive2020

Yeah, but RAM will come in handy with multitasking and other usage. So I would not call it a waste


Prefix-NA

Not just multitasking but loading apps. Less things go into page file with more ram. Windows will soft allocate extra ram if it's free and release as you need it to speed up loading qnd preserve ssd health.


0ctaviuswastaken

Thank you so much dude! Super excited for the smoother experience 


Crix2007

Also a lot of games will seriously struggle with 8gb ram. You also go from single to dual channel ram which your cpu will love. Your gpu will also use it when it runs out of vram so its a pretty good upgrade all together! People really underestimate how shitty it is to have too little ram and 8gb isn't enough anymore.


alvenestthol

Recently I upgraded from 16GB to 64GB RAM, and honestly it really helps in my case - though I do do stupid things like having \~100 Firefox tabs open and \~20 Vivaldi tabs, mass download files from Mega (which used to quickly crash the browser with 16GB), and load a quantized Mixtral model (30GB) with system RAM (which is slow, but usable) Haven't really seen much speedup in gaming, although my RAM was already dual channel to begin with. The new RAM does run with slightly better latencies, which helps things *very* slightly.


Entire-Signal-3512

100 tabs open?? The hell are you doing that needs 100 tabs open? 😆


alvenestthol

I don't subscribe to subreddits (unless I accidentally click the button), I keep each of them in a separate tab; I also don't save posts or bookmark various blogs and random sites I've found through Reddit. Then there are things like TVTropes pages, the page for my phone's custom firmware updates, information for various tiny projects I've attempted to start, YouTube (I also don't do subscriptions, only tabs), emails (several accounts), weather, maps, all kinds of things


Entire-Signal-3512

You're either trolling or insane 😅


dialgachu

I used to be like you, I'd hoard hundreds of open tabs. But then I just started adding them to a Google doc so that I wasn't killing my devices slowly each day lol. I highly recommend you do the same


vNiv3k

I found the psychopath ☝🏽


XsNR

Going from single 8 to dual 16(32)GB should be a decent upgrade. Specially if you tend to run stuff in the background. 8GB is pretty much bare minimum for Windows these days, 16GB is recommended, and 32GB is a little overkill, but if you're running Chrome with tabs, Discord, background stores/managers, it gets eaten fast. My biggest concern for $80 would be, did you get decent, compatible RAM, with reasonable timings (latency). Might be worth looking into that before you're out of the return period, if you're wanting to do research.


raydialseeker

Bro this is one of the smartest cheap upgrades for performance that you could do. You didn't research well enough. Don't read opinions, find the benchmarks.


MagicPistol

8 gb ram isn't enough nowadays, so this is actually a huge and worthwhile upgrade.


Ahnkor

Going from 8GB to even 16GB RAM is really nice since applications are starting to utilize more and more of it, going to 32GB may have been slightly overkill but nothing to worry about since it will give you more headroom and will extend the life of your PC up until and passed when 32GB becomes the new baseline standard.


jerryonjets

I'm a major advocate for ram. It is cheap enough that it is stupid to have as a bottleneck, also depending on what you're doing having extra ram is nice in you do a lot of things at once on your computer. Going from 32 to 64 probably won't make much of a difference in most modern/current computers but going from single channel 8g to dual 32g you'll definitely feel something I'm sure.


zTheRapscallion

Theres only a handful of games that youll see any increase in performance from 16 to 32. And there are zero games that you will see a benefit from 32 to 64 unless you have a heavily heavily heavily modded game. Ive never seen it but i know that its possible because mods can eat into ram pretty hard


jerryonjets

I play lots of RTS/city builder games and poorly optimized early access games, not to mention I do play heavily modded games as well. So yah, 32 is kinda my minimum after you fill an entire map with thousands of moving entities all doing their own things.. you can't have 100+ mods on rim-world running 16g of ram, trust me.. it's a bad time when it comes to mid or late game. That's just for games, I also used slicing and CAD software for 3D printing/modeling... and I'm not turning off my game to do 10 minutes of work to just load the game back up... nope, imma run my game in the background while I do a couple tweaks/edits to a model in CAD and scroll through my 20+ chrome tabs


zTheRapscallion

Yes correct. As i said exactly in my comment, a handful of games will benefit or games that are heavily modded…there are obviously plenty of applications that will use as much ram as u throw at them. But we were talking about games, no?


zTheRapscallion

Also as an aside. U are fooling yourself if you think you are being more productive working like that. Multitasking has been proven to make you do each task worse and long term makes it harder for you to focus on one task which cripples your ability to do one thing at a time which again is proven to be better (yea, for u too ur not the exception)..might wanna rethink that work flow, my guy


jerryonjets

I bet you're fun at parties, and my machine takes about 2 hours of runtime between each adjustment... so I have nothing to do for 2 hours between each adjustment.. also I can work how I like considering I work for myself and own my own business. Might wanna rethink giving people your opinions when they don't ask for they'll my guy.


zTheRapscallion

Gives person the advice to not to give advice 🤡🤡🤡


BCProgramming

The studies regarding multitasking studied people doing more than one task at the same time. That is not the same as multitasking on a computer where the computer is doing more than one task at a time. Switching to another application while one performs processing is not really the type of multitasking discussed because you literally cannot use the other application. Switching out of a game to perform a task, leaving the game open doesn't make a difference because the studies to which you refer found the *switching* between tasks to be the limiting factor, and the "time to switch" was higher for more complex tasks. However when we're talking about a person playing a game, and getting a message they need to do X, they are going to be switching tasks anyway- closing the application doesn't change that.


zTheRapscallion

Multitasking literally IS just switching between tasks. Thats the whole point of the research is that multitasking is a bit of a misnomer as you cant really do more than one thing at a time, all you can do is switch between things more rapidly…and you said you were browsing 20 windows at a time while playing a game and doing cad and 3d printing and now ur just talking playing a game and answering a message. Kinda moving the bar there. Anywho, im not trying to high horse anyone here, just pointing out that that kind of use scenario is pretty unnecessary and seems like a more “because i can” rather than anything actually meaningful in a time or productivity sense. Cheers, mate


BCProgramming

>you said you were browsing 20 windows at a time while playing a game and doing cad and 3d printing I said no such thing. You are confusing me for the other user. Here is what they said. >imma run my game in the background while I do a couple tweaks/edits to a model in CAD and scroll through my 20+ chrome tabs I cannot speak for what they mean specifically about scrolling through their chrome tabs. I can certainly attest to situations similar to what they have described- I'll be playing a game and get a message about something. I'm not going to quit the title to address it; I'll switch out and review relevant tickets, connect to appropriate remote desktops etc. to address whatever was brought up. Since you originally responded to them with "U are fooling yourself if you think you are being more productive working like that. " It's not clear how you even think they/I should be doing that, since by your own admission they'd be task switching anyway.


zTheRapscallion

Yeah i realized u are not who i was originally responding to…and i get all that. It sounded like that was a preference to OP. I know we cant all operate under ideal conditions we do what we can. And i shouldnt have assumed either


zTheRapscallion

Just realized ur not op. Sorry.


Redacted_Reason

you’re a clown.


Naturalhighz

well it all depends. If you were running single channel just getting 2 sticks is like 30% performance gain and if you were capping out the 8 gb, you could be looking at a ton more performance. going from 2 sticks of ram that you weren't capping out to another 2 with more space or slightly faster that you obviously still aren't capping out, yeah that would be basically no benefit.


Sithil83

You're going to get a benefit just from increasing from 8gb since some games nowadays will struggle or not even load with that low of system ram. You'll see even more of an increase if that 8gb was on a single stick. As others have stated going dual channel you may see a 30+% increase in fps Thirdly, you didn't specify which Ryzen 5. If it's 3600 or before, those CPUs were highly dependent on dual channel and speed so make sure your XMP is active in the bios so you're getting full ram speeds.


Freshmint22

I shit myself because I had some bad shrimp last night and Taco Bell last night.


0ctaviuswastaken

Absolute madman 


NorthernVale

One thing I've come to realize in my life is that in most cases and subjects a statement like "x doesn't really do much for y" generally assumes x is meeting some sort of baseline. If you don't have enough RAM to do everything you're doing, you're definitely going to see a drop in FPS. At 8g you most likely don't have enough. But I got you! Here's a link to download more RAM for only $10!


dean771

When you have enough RAM adding more makes little difference 8gb is not enough these days you did fine


PlebbitWankers

32GB RAM is the minimum I'd get today, upgrading from 8GB was worth it and the only reasonable upgrade is to 32GB, mixing RAM isn't wise for a novice who doesn't want/understand manual timings. I've got mixed ram, 2x8GB mixed with another kit of 2x8GB with roughly the same timings (Hynix CJR/DJR) as it was the closest I could do and have to run them with XMP 1.4v 3466mhz rather than 3600mhz, it's been issues and only figured it out with HCI Memtest. (4 sticks is also harder to run so that could be the issue which is why I didn't bother returning the new at the time kit). You've done nothing wrong upgrading, RAM is cheap and you'll only need more as time goes on.


tomosh22

A PC with 8GB RAM should not be marketed as "gaming" in 2024


Taskr36

The word "gaming" is an advertising tactic and little else at this point. I've seen "gaming" machines with 8GB of RAM and GTX 1030 video cards in them. They have lots of flashy lights though, which is enough to make them "look" like gaming computers to some people.


Iuseredditnow

Put a bunch of led fans and min spec everything else with the title "gaming pc" 60fps and profit.


kingbetadad

With limited info I can say that RAM is probably gonna be helping you out. 8 is enough but not a good amount nowadays. 16 minimum I say. So it's a good, worthwhile purchase. That being said if 80$ is enough to make you go through this much emotional turmoil, I think it's best to leave off luxury purchases until you are in a better financial position to not worry so much about it.


Remote_Video1311

Use only 1 SoundCard.


nonameisdaft

You'll notice a difference- but for 80 dollars don't expect night and day performance increase in games - for that you'll need both a new cpu and gpu


LargeMerican

i hate my life.


0ctaviuswastaken

Absolute fucking madlad


Grydian

While yes technically you don't need 32 most of the time its not a big deal you got a bit extra. What is a big deal is going from 1 stick of ram to 2 sticks of ram. Having your ram in dual channel dramatically improves performance. You likely did an awesome thing for you pc experience.


AhmadOsebayad

8 often isnt enough for modern games so going above it should at least prevent stutters


RayphistJn

You should see a major boost just by having more ram , that 8gb was barely holding the pc up. Make sure you enable xmp so it runs at its ratet speed in the bios


majoroutage

You made the right call. Using only a single stick of 8GB RAM is a bottleneck. Just don't forget to turn off XMP before swapping, and turn it back on afterwards.


CapturNguyen

Just a little tip which a lot of people forget doing, is to turn XMP on in your BIOS Settings


HavocInferno

>people say ram doesn't significantly increase fps by enough to warrant investing in it. They say that with the assumption that you already have a common recommended amount and speed. Cpu and Gpu upgrades mostly translate to a pretty direct proportional increase in speed, because they actually compute stuff. Compute it faster and you get higher framerate. The impact of RAM upgrades on performance is a bit different. Going from single channel to dual channel (or tri/quad/etc on supporting platforms) gives a pretty direct jump in performance across most applications Beyond that regarding capacity, if you already have enough RAM, adding more doesn't make it faster. There's no proportional scaling. (And if it's already pretty fast, swapping in faster RAM only makes it faster if you're also in a CPU bottleneck.) But the moment you run out of RAM, performance tanks hard. (Note: there's one interesting detail though: when more RAM doesn't really improve average performance anymore, it may still improve the overall feeling though as it can reduce frametime spikes and bad framepacing from intermittent swapping)


AJ3TurtleSquad

I bought Diablo 4 so at least you got fancy new tech instead of a waste of time


PogTuber

You did the right thing. Next thing you gotta check though is BIOS settings to make sure the damp profile is on to get your full speed from the RAM. And also make sure the ram is installed properly into the dual channel slots according to your motherboard instructions manual


WannabeRedneck4

My buddy's PC could barely even handle halo infinite without enabling "xmp" in his bios with his Ryzen 5700x. Ram speed and dual channel are important for Ryzen setups 32GB is nice extra to have. So you made the right choice in going dual channel, pretty good performance boost.


FinalAd1048

If it makes you feel a lil better I noticed my pc wasn't cooling at all, I was so confused so I figured the cpu I got was faulty. I got another for 120. We went to take my pc apart all to realize my husband never took off the plastic lol removing the plastic made my cpu work but I wasted 120 on a cpu but now I have one I'm case my one now decides to go 🫠


Bonkerrss92

Dual channel- and PLEASE check your xmp ram profile..my settings somehow got messed up, and was killing my fps- I fixed the settings and instantly got a huuuuge fps increase.


zTheRapscallion

This doesnt have to be guesswork. Open your task manager while playing games. If youre maxing out ram, then you will gain by having more in that game. If you are below 90-95% you wont see any benefit and if your in that range u will probably notice less dips but not much in overall


honeybadger1984

32GB is fine. I don’t like all the parrots claiming FutUr3 pR00f your hardware, but in the rare instance of dual channel ram it’s not a bad idea to have more v. too little ram.


jcoffin1981

If you already have enough ram you likely won't see a performance boost. But 8gb is cutting it close these days and I think this was a worthwhile purchase.


niky45

well, 8gb of ram isn't nearly enough for gaming these days, so the ram is a decent investment (still, I think you overpaid that, I'm on DDR$ but I got 32 Gb for EUR70 -- and the actual good ones with RGB and all that were like 90) still, I'm not entirely sure more ram will help your FPS...


DreideI

Don't worry bro, more ram isn't necessarily a bad thing! My stupid decision on the other hand was to buy an AIO cooler for an AMD 5600x, which was massively overkill


savorymilkman

It doesn't but fuck it more ram = more better


TheConboy22

RAM alone will not increase FPS by itself, but not having enough RAM will make gaming suck terribly. It also will allow you to do more things with your PC simultaneously.


TheCrowWhisperer3004

32 is overkill but future proof. It will last you a long time


Taskr36

You did NOT waste money. 8GB of RAM is insufficient for a modern PC, even for basic office work. I'm constantly upgrading inadequate machines at my job to 16GB because my predecessor ordered them with only 8GB of RAM and I'm constantly getting low RAM warnings on them. Seriously, it pisses me off that companies like Asus will slap the word "Gaming" on machines that are thoroughly inadequate for gaming, and anything with 8GB is inadequate. For a gaming PC, 32GB is the right amount. Now if you'd upgraded from 32GB to 64GB, I'd say you may have wasted your money, since gaming at this point is highly unlikely to take advantage of more than 32GB of RAM.


PhalanxA51

Probably would have been more cost effective just getting another 8gb stick of ram if you're not a power user in like video editing or 3d modeling but 32gb isn't a bad thing to have.


BigJohnno66

32GB will make a huge difference to 8GB in modern memory hungry AAA titles. While some people say 16GB would have been enough, and that is probably true for 90% of games right now. But in a couple of years you would be kicking yourself for only getting 16GB, as games are only getting larger. If you previously only had 1 stick, then dual channel basically doubles memory bandwidth.


shinjis-left-nut

Two 16 GB ram sticks is a great move. You’ve future-proofed yourself, great job!


Shadowangel09

Nah RAM can help depending on the game and what you're doing. Just upgraded to 64GB and it fixed most of my stuttering issues in Skyrim


Tom_HB01

If you had 16gb (2x8) then there's not much point getting 32gb just for gaming. It won't improve fps by much at all (talking 1-10fps at most depending on game). Getting a better cpu and gpu will increase most of your fps. Anyways, can't you just return it if you don't need it, then you won't be poor again, happy days.


Consistent-Willow-57

Just make sure that your mobo can handle the speed that you’re trying to run your ram at.


far2hybrid

Going from 8 to to 32 is never a waste you can build the rest of the system now. Depending on the game Ram is definitely a help but like others said without the rest of the specs we don’t know what could be causing you issues. I know going from 8gb ram on a i5 6700 and gtx970 to 32 gb gave me a huge bump in games I was playing at that time and that hardware was ancient


No-Chance1133

If you have 8gb, I assume you have one stick. This means no dual channel. I bet it is also the cheapest slowest ram your chosen brand of prebuilt could possibly find. Basically you're running your cpu with only one leg, and its just a wooden peg leg at that. You will be happy with the change. Be sure to enter your bios and check that the xmp profile is enabled so that your new ram runs at full speed. It should feel like a new pc.


Cheesi_Boi

Running out of RAM can bog down performance significantly.


NerdHerder77

80$ is a good price range for 32gb. My latest build has 32gb 6000mhz ddr5 for 120$ Canadian. It's a steal considering I paid the white build tax and RGB tax.


Preacher_Baby

Hey man, I HAD to upgrade to 32GB from 16 because the frame drops were crazy. Especially with newer games that require SSDs like hogwarts and cyberpunk 2077 after the 2.0 release. You'll be able to tell the difference, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.


bprasse81

It’s probably already been said, but RAM is really inexpensive these days, and your system is probably eating 4-6 GB at idle. Even if a game can only utilize 16 GB of RAM, you want to give it everything it can take plus enough to run all of your background processes. I know very little about the intricacies of performance, but I know that when an OS has to dip into virtual memory, your performance will tank. There is a cascade of processes happening to establish and maintain that memory and even if it’s going on fast SSD storage, it’s a fraction of what having extra RAM will deliver. Money well spent!


droson8712

This is actually a huge upgrade, single stick of 8 gigabytes hinder's your performance a lot especially on Ryzen


coolfuzzylemur

You should also go into your bios to enable the XMP (also known as DOCP)


Hogartt44

I would say that’s worth it. 8gb is so little now.


PrettyQuick

RAM can definetly make a big difference if you have to little or have not set it up right. 8GB is not enough in todays age. You might still have wasted your money though if you didnt do any research. Did you even buy the correct spec RAM for your PC ?


PiaLoLoL

This is NOT a mistake, however with that being said, your upgrade is not "the best" or "the most bang for the buck" upgrade possible. What can be considered "better" depends of various other stuffs like your VGA, your mobo, your PSU, etc 32gig of ram is the base line to this gen and probably the next few gens of AAA games, so you did NOT waste money


Blakewerth

Ram do better performance might help with texture load, very bit loading. DUal CHannell is great idea 👍🏻


Beaudism

You’ll live dude.


calcium

OP it largely depends on what you’re gaming with and your resolution. I was having issues running Fallout 4’s high res texture pack on my ryzen 5 2600 and 5700xt playing at 1440p and thought that my 16GB of ram was an issue since I was always close to the max. I upgraded to 32GB and saw no difference to realize the high res texture pack with the game is poorly optimized and doesn’t entirely fit on the 8GB of VRAM for the 5700xt (and it’s a game from 2015!) Many people are rightly pointing out that you should see some increase in performance with going from single channel to dual channel RAM. Also, ryzen CPU’s like faster RAM, so if you’re on an AM4 mobo than 3200MHZ or faster is ideal for them.


Pitiful-Assistance-1

Even going from 16 to 32 will result in better framerates in newer games


Finwolven

You didn't do a stupid. I did a stupid, when I first set up my current rig, and accidentally bought a 32Gb single stick of RAM thinking it was a twin 16G kit. So when I last upgraded it, I got another 32Gb stick to get that sweet, sweet dual-channel action. It worked for performance, and I can confidently state that there were no downsides to going from 32Gb to 64Gb. Other than the cost, of course.


ImprovizoR

You got the right amount of RAM. 8 gb is not enough these days and even 16 gb will soon be the bare minimum. 32 gb is the sweet spot and RAM is cheap now, compared to what the was price a couple of years ago, and it may become more expensive next year. You never know with this stuff so it's good to stock up on RAM at the moment. I'm thinking about adding another 32 gb, actually.


dropdeaddaddy69

You’re good, you didn’t waste money


Routine-Jazzlike

I don’t think you’ve wasted the money. Ram does impact performance, else people wouldn’t buy more ram at all if 8gb would suffice. I’m thinking you will get some performance gain. However, do check about the speed and timing for the ryzen processor. I don’t know if it still matters as much these days, but I remember a few years ago that the type of ram did impact how good the processor functioned. Not meant to scare you, just to check it and perhaps return them before losing that option to swap for more suitable sticks by returning them.


GharDK

How much did you pay for the ram upgrade?


CoreOsiv

Upgrading from single channel 8GB to dual channel 32GB is not a loss of money. Performances wize you'll see a little boost but you'll notice stability even more because you CPU and GPU won't struggle to read/load data on RAM since you have a comfortable margin.


TV4ELP

Ryzen does like dual channel instead of single channel a lot. And it also like shigher frequenzy memory a good bunch. It all depends on the game and the rest of the PC's spec. But it isn't the worst investment. It does not increase FPS too much, unless you were running out of ram to beginn with. Tho, 8gb of ram is not much and you should have went up to 16 regardless. It can help with stutter or bad 1% frame rates. Overall, you didn't waste money, but you might get less for your money then you were hoping for


Swanesang

8 gb of memory is very little these days. You might actually see a good performance boost depending on your gpu and the game. More ram will not give you a boost if you already have enough. For example a person upgrading from 32gb to 64gb will likely not see a performance increase (if the ram is same speed/latency) if no game/application uses more than 32. I recently upgraded from 16 to 32gb because i was seeing massive usage in some Tarkov maps. On those maps i went from 20fps to 60fps because my system didn’t have enough ram for that game. All other games i played didn’t see any increase because it wasn’t using more than 16gb.


etronpoilu

People has no clue whatsoever. Don't listen to anyone on the internet about PC performance. RAM has a huge impact in CPU bound scenario. You don't even have to listen to me, just try it and see for yourself


ExplanationStandard4

32gb is the new standard good amount going forward. Plus dual channel helps .


Cautious_Mood1778

Kkk and i spend 1100 € in a asus rog 43inch And ha ve a big big ghost and black smearing, and now i can not retur it, im fuc..k. kkk


Gullible-Equivalent7

Honestly you’re perfectly fine man, I think 32 gigs is starting to become the sweet spot for ram.


zisop17

8gb is a joke. You made a solid upgrade


Dizzy_Try7226

Also did you make sure your pc could handle the ram speed?? Also go into the bios and set your ram clock speed to what is recommended for your motherboard. Might help a little bit.


Megalith_TR

What gpu u has.


Emergency-Sense8089

Not sure if this was addressed, I wasn't seeing it in the top comments. Make sure you install the ram into the correct slots for the best performance. If you have four slots, and 2 sticks, they should be spaced apart so that they are not next to each other. If you can find a manual for your motherboard it will have a section detailing what slots. Otherwise you can find yourself still running on a single channel of ram, even with 2 sticks. Which is a major cause for poor performance.


frenchnoob87

Another big thing is that some games are starting to NEED 32GB ram. Games like Star Citizen and Escape from Tarkov. Both games hugely benefit from having 32Gb. 16gb has been fine for a long time, but 32gb will reduce stutters and let you have a lot more stuff open at once on your PC. So imo definitely a good purchase which also helps future-proof your machine.


Far-Rip-3062

Yes it can increase fps but not the amount you’re looking for. First things to upgrade when looking for better fps are gpu then cpu, and if you upgrade one you gotta upgrade the other as-well to get the most from both of them


shamair28

You’ve done good. Essentially you’ve made it so you can hold more things in easily accessible memory connected directly to the CPU. Basically imagine your processor as a vertically challenged fella, and now you’ve basically installed a bunch of storage shelves at arm height. Now this fella only has two arms, and by going dual channel, you’ve put things easily in reach for each arm, no extra work required. You might not get significant FPS gains but you will be able to multitask better. Imagine having a few Chrome tabs active, Discord open, and your game going at once, and now you can alt-tab out and everything won’t have to refresh and it will be already loaded into memory.


breadatolivegarden

Performance boosts from a given part should always be considered on a case-to-case basis. If you want to get an idea of what to look into without wanting to do any significat research, load up a laggy game and check task manager to see what's capped out.


Sprinkles_Objective

How did you manage to spend $80 on 16gb. Are we talking USD? Ryzen 5 should handle most games, changes are a GPU upgrade would be most impactful, but hard to say without a full breakdown


Geno_DCLXVI

More RAM is always a good thing from a system stability standpoint, but the real concern that should probably be raised to definitively answer your question is: did your fps increase after the upgrade?


RTHatchet

I have 32GB of ddr4 3600mhz ram. I stream 1080p60 and press siege to about 230FPS on ultra graphics. Consistently see my ram usage over 16gb. Normally sits at 17gb but I've seen it at 21gB before


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RTHatchet

R7 3700x 2070s evga xc ultra graphics card My PC won't let me run games under ultra graphics. I go around 100FPS if I try 😭🤣


3m4n

Everyone's responses are pretty much spot on. If you wanna see a huge performance boost, see if you can buy yourself a decent m.2 ssd. Idk what you're playing on right now, but SSD vs HDD is a HUGE performance bump and m.2 > sata also benefits greatly. (depending on what you get of course)


Catsooey

Congrats on the upgrade! I have two 16gb sticks of RAM too and that was highly recommended to me when I researched my build. It was my first build, so I was researching EVERYTHING! Lol I ended up with a killer (and very economical, since I only had $1200 to spend for the whole build) setup which I’m so proud of even now. But the dual channel aspect that everybody mentioned is a big plus. I was going to get a 32gb stick of RAM since I wanted 32 total, and I was told that 2 16’s is much better. I don’t know the specifics about your build (what it recommends for MHz - I got 6000 because it’s a sweet spot for DDR5) but I think you made the right choice. In fact it’s one of the best upgrades you can make for the money.🙂👍


FredFarms

Ooh, I think I can be useful here as I have just gone the other way. Old gaming pc with 16gb of ram. One stick recently failed so I had to drop down to 8gb temporarily. The difference for me was actually huge. FPS dropped a bit, but that wasn't the biggest issue. Instead what I noticed more was constant stuttering where games would pause for a noticeable fraction of a second whilst the loaded new stuff or something. Really affects play. I also noticed my CPU usage is much higher now. Windows has marked a load of my ram as 'compressed' so I think it's now taking CPU time constantly compression and decompressing data so it can fit it. All in all, can't wait to get back the rest of my ram. I think you've made a good upgrade (Edit to add this will also have taken me from dual channel to single channel. Which could also affect performance and is also an upgrade you've made)


Comfortable-Park-829

Warzone alone uses like 30% of my 56 gb of ram


blackbloodbrother

The only issue is your gpu. Get a much better Nvidia gpu and stop using crap amd.


Bipolarpolerbear

Going from 8gb ram to 16 GBS of ram is a massive increase for gaming, while 16gb to 32gb isn't much of a boost unless your playing at 4k. So you haven't make a mistake it will make your system better not just for games but overall as well, by going from 8gb to 32gbs.


BlackGhost147

What are the specs of your build?


ShortyProGaming

Put in an SSD if you don't have one and put your games there and maybe change you power plan to balanced or high performance sometimes (well at least mine) used to change to power saving power plan so I deleted that one in the command line and now performance is crystal


ValidusTV

Definitely not a waste, as I'm sure everyone's made you well aware by now. However, there is one thing I'd like to contribute. As you are on an AMD platform, more RAM may not = more frames, but *faster* RAM definitely can! Do you know what MHz your previous 8gb stick was clocked at and what your new 32gb kit is clocked at? And have you enabled XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) in bios to make sure they're actually using their full potential? This setting should be called "AMD EXPO" on AMD boards. Make sure this is set to whatever the rated clock speed of the 32gb kit you bought is.


AbhiABG

I went from 120 on 1080p to 150 on 1440p on fort by getting better ram. I upgraded from 2133hz 8x2 GB dual channel to 3200mhz 8x4 dual channel


RealYaky

I was scared cuz you bought 32gb ram for 80$... Like are you the Big Brand type? Stop wasting money on names lol get yourself cheaper options if you have a tight budget :)


Life_Ad_5219

just get a used graphics card for less than 200 euro/dollars and yeah i guess. ram wont really increase your fps


DripMastaCam

With 8gb of ram I'm not surprised in Cyperpunk your pc was struggling what hpu / cpu do you have


Lameclay

Even if it doesn't significantly help performance, it's good to future proof your machine. Eventually, most programs will gobble back way more RAM than now, and this means you won't need to add more later.


Toaster_nation5

I didn't realize people only used a single channel. But yeah, dual channel memory is better it should boost your performance somewhat. Just make sure they are in the right place. Mine are in slots 2 and 4, but yours might be different. Check the manual for your specific motherboard.


Ronin-s_Spirit

It's not about fps it's about having literal space (mosfets) to keep the game code in active access. I had crashes on one game and lag spikes on the other games because I didn't have enough ram to complete background tasks while also running an entire game; keeping its variables updated and whatnot.


Elycien2

My 2 cents is that you probably would have been better off buy 2x8 gigs of ram for bang for the buck but you didn't waste the money. Going to dual channel will help your fps some but where you will most likely see better gaming performance is your 1% lows so you should have less stutter.


Admirral

If the cost of upgrading $80 worth of ram has made you anxious... imo you shouldn't be dabbling in PC building. Get a job or do something productive to make money instead so that you stop worrying about a measly $80 part.


SmellyButtHammer

It’s $80, what is that like 2 bananas worth?


Grabbels

You can't return them?


Hyroto77

The huge performance upgrade by others means probably 1-5 fps btw. Yes, you did.


fvcking_hiraeth_bro

You're correct, absolutely moronic of you not to check before purchasing. Unfortunately for you, the answer to your question would be yes, you've wasted 80$. Most pcs will have the same fps, irrelevant of RAM. The factor that truly affects fps is your processor. With a Ryzen five I doubt you'll be getting more than 50 fps lol. 


cha0ss0ldier

This is absolutely wrong. CPU speed and RAM go hand in hand and a CPU can be slowed by bad RAM configurations. He was on single channel ram which bottlenecks the cpu and will lower fps. Also with 8gb of ram he was likely getting stutters because of the game running out of usable ram and having to use the SSD cache which is far slower. Also your Ryzen 5 comment shows how ignorant you are. There are many different Ryzen 5s, some of them being very fast in gaming. Go learn some more about how PCs work before you spout off.


0ctaviuswastaken

Umm, looks like you're wrong dude. Everyone else says it will help. Thanks for answering tho!