Requirements for the amount of RAM are growing with the release of new versions of Windows, the emergence of new resource-intensive applications and especially games. The issue of choosing the amount of memory remains relevant for everyone who plans to purchase or upgrade a personal computer.
First of all, you need to decide for what tasks you plan to use your computer.
If this is an office machine used for undemanding applications like a word processor and surfing the Internet, then 4 GB of RAM is enough for you.
Theoretically, 2 GB may be enough for office tasks. For example, if you are running 32-bit Windows 7 or older OS and outdated office suite. But in this case, problems may arise due to lack of memory when working with a large number of browser tabs or a large number of documents. In addition, in this way you prevent yourself from accessing new versions of the OS and programs.
For a home multimedia station - for watching movies and listening to music - 4 GB of memory will also be enough.
For games, you will need at least 8 GB of RAM. This will be enough to play, for example, any session games (Dota2, CS: GO, WoT, PUBG, etc.) or MMOs (World of Warcraft, Lineage 2, Final Fantasy XIV, The Elder Scrolls Online, etc.)), with a margin of several years ahead, as well as for most modern games at medium and high settings.
To play on ultra settings in the latest novelties and as a groundwork for several years in advance, you will need 16 GB of RAM. This same amount will allow you to get rid of the paging file to extend the life of your SSD and speed up applications.
Finally, for some resource-intensive tasks, such as modeling or graphics processing, you will need up to 32 GB of RAM.
It should be borne in mind that if you use a video card built into the processor, then it reserves from 500 MB to 2 GB of your memory, making it inaccessible to the system.
Along with choosing the amount of memory, you need to plan a possible upgrade. One of the aspects to consider here is the number of RAM slots on the motherboard. As a rule, it is worth purchasing two memory modules for dual-channel operation. For example, 8 GB of memory is purchased in two 4 GB modules.
If there are 4 memory slots, then there will be no problems with the upgrade. But if the board has only two such slots, you will have to sell the old memory and purchase a new one.
A possible option is the purchase of one memory module, with the purchase of the second after a while, when the money appears.
So, for office applications, internet surfing and multimedia - you need 4 GB. For games "here and now" 8 GB. For the latest new products on ultra settings and for the future - 16 GB. And for some professional tasks - 32 GB of RAM.
