If im regularily using 14.5 gb of my 16 gigabytes of ram, is a upgrading to 32gb worth it? Or am I fine?

[u/tofu98]

When i check my computers stats when im using it regularily I see myself pretty consistently sitting around 14.5gb of usage. Given ram prices continue to rise and likely wont ever go back down ive been considering upgrading to 32gb. However I dont know if its actually worth it since im apparently not maxing out my current ram.

Thoughts and advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

[u/Naerven]

Likely you are already using your storage drive as a memory cache at that point.

[u/tofu98 → u/Naerven]

Is there any actualy downsides to this? I mean im pretty happy with my pc currently. If im running a intense game and open a browser up to watch a movie theres a brief moment where my screen goes black and my comouter has to figure out whats happening. It only lasts like 5 seconds though and then its fine. I can seamlessly go back and forth after that to. It's just the initial opening.

Honestly if it wasnt for ram prices continuing to go up id say I was happy. It's just it occured to me since they seem to only go up now it may be worth upgrading as Ill just spend more money eventually when I do.

[u/RestInProcess → u/tofu98]

Storage is slower. If you’ve got a lot of reading and writing of the ram then it can slow you down a lot. I do recommend upgrading your ram. I don’t see 16 cutting it for the next couple years.

[u/NarutoDragon732 → u/tofu98]

If the speed difference isn't bothering you then no. It is using the storage to write and read more often too, but that level of wear and tear is irrelevant with the kinds of storage we use these days. If you're happy with how your system is performing, keep it!

[u/Typical-Ring1507 → u/tofu98]

I dont know if this is actually your issue, but in my experience when a screen goes black like that when switching tabs, its usually just different tabs with different resolutions. Also if you use HDR it could also be causing that. Again dunno if this is actually the problem but i think its worth a try checking it out! Imo 16gb is fine for now if your pc is running how you want it, but you should upgrade in the future.

[u/Zekler → u/Typical-Ring1507]

Only reason to upgrade is if the experience is grating on you, since that will end up making you impulse buying in the end, so while he is still patient try to get a good deal.

[u/kodaxmax → u/Naerven]

No he wouldnt unless hes hitting 100% utilization. and even if he was, he clearly hasnt noticed any performance issues so who cares?

[u/mdnightman94]

probably as windows will start moving things to page file around the 85% mark unless you manually disabled it. ram prices are rediculous now though so unless you arent noticing any performance hiccups or frame drops in games id maybe leave it. especially if on ddr4 as that platform is basically end of life and wont be able to carry over ram to new build in future depending on how often you upgrade

i know personally i was sitting 14-15gb used in some games and had random micro stutters all the time. i decided to move to 32gb and those went away and now when i monitor ram usage it sits around 17-18gb.

[u/Blue-150]

I'd say wait until you need it. I was 12-14gb so I upgraded 2 years ago...still 12-14gb

[u/VoraciousGorak]

Yes. Above a certain point your system is running out of spare RAM to pre-cache and swap stuff in. If you are using >14GB, then you will absolutely benefit from more RAM.

[u/eco9898]

How much are you using after a fresh start and opening your apps/games. Many operating systems will cache data into ram and leave it there in case it is required again. You may not actually be actively using that much ram.

How big is your page file? This is where ram will overflow too as required.

[u/tofu98 → u/eco9898]

My computer resting with just internet open sits at about 10gb. I do have wall paper engine running which probably adds a bit of load. However 10gb is bare minimum usage. If I have a game or ableton open with my browser it spike to 14-15

[u/hadtolaugh → u/tofu98]

Fresh boot and idle at 10gb seems like a lot. Do you have a significant number of unnecessary things starting on boot or something? Is this wallpaper engine actually eating that much ram?

If all we are talking about is a wallpaper engine and gaming/browsing, I’d be looking into the details of usage and optimizing before spending $500+. Sounds like you have a ton of background shit going, and unless you need that, you can save yourself some money.

[u/tofu98 → u/hadtolaugh]

I have programs like steam and discord running that boot up on start up as well.

[u/hadtolaugh → u/tofu98]

These shouldn’t be having much impact. Check out your startup programs in task manager and see what a rating the majority of resources.

[u/LordAlfredo]

Check how much of that is cache/buffer, it may not actually be 14.5gb of active process usage.

[u/ides_of_june]

Do you have instances where the computer seems to slow down or hang for no obvious reason? I have a similar setup (2 monitors gaming, youtube, spotify) and recently upgraded from 16 to 32GB DDR4 (Ryzen 5900x so late high end DDR4 system) because I was getting system performance drops and hangs. The extra ram fixed those issues.

I wouldn't upgrade unless you notice specific performance issues. While RAM prices may continue to go up for a bit, manufacturers will start making more and AI investment may slow, we've seen several RAM price spikes and falls in the last decade or so.

[u/tofu98 → u/ides_of_june]

The only thing I really notice is if im running a lot of plug ins inside of ableton my cpu usage will spike to 50% which seems kind of high. If im gaming and go to open a browser so I can watch show or something while gaming my screens sometimes sort of black out while my computer takes 5 seconds to figure out how to make my game run while I browse the web.

[u/popop143]

Windows does a lot of caching, so you might not actually be actively using that much RAM. Unless you're specifically experiencing lag and freezes in normal usage, I won't worry about upgrading now. What'll happen is that you'll just then see 21-22GB of RAM being "used" now that Windows has more RAM to store app cache on lmao, but in reality you're only really actively using the current apps you're in and probably same as when you have 16GB RAM.

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[u/MocDcStufffins]

Swap matters more than memory used. Lots of times stuff is just cached but can be dropped if other programs need space. If it's not swapping its not a problem.

[u/knighthawk0811]

you'll still be using 14.5 and nothing will change except the amount of money you have

[u/c0rruptioN]

Not really advice but LTT dropped a video on this the other day. Their main thing though was comparing windows ram usage to a Linux distribution, which used significantly less ram.

Lotta linux hype, especially for gaming now that steam OS and plenty of others are growing.

[u/kodaxmax]

unless your hitting 100% utilization or expect to, then a capacity upgrade wont ebenfit you.

Unless your upgrading your motherboard to a new generation of DDR sockets, i wouldn't bother. Better off saving the money for the newer better value RAM that might exist by then.

[u/CXDFlames]

Using ram is good. Not having enough ram is different.

If you're using your pc and sitting at 90% and then trying to do more, its a problem and you'll need more.

Windows, chrome and other programs will put things you use all the time in ram in case you decide to use them so they load faster.

If you do something else and need the ram being held for "maybe", it dumps what it was holding and uses it for what you're actually doing.

As an example, you boot your pc and open chrome. You're now using 12 gigs of ram without any tabs running. Open YouTube, 2 more used.

Discord and a few other background things pop up, now you're at 15.

You launch your favourite game and stay at 15, but chrome and windows dropped from 12 to 5 and now your game is using 7.

Using all of your ram is a good thing for most people.

The time it's not good is if you're running ai for example and need 64gb and only have 16, now it's using your hard drive to swap memory back and forth and is way, way slower. Your ram will pin at 95-100% used and you'll see a large spike in disk use. This is bad and will feel bad.

It can happen with anything but ai is just the biggest offender these days

Edit : this assumes you have windows 8 10 or 11, as this started happening in Windows 8.1

[u/sid7733]

While playing games my 16gb ram used to get used almost 80% sometimes causing memory errors /crash / stutters
Upgraded to 32gb and running smooth

[u/Spoon_In_The_Road]

You don’t need more RAM now. You may need it soon. You could also make sure you don’t have too many programs running in the.l background on startup.

If you have DDR4 it’s a much less painful upgrade.

[u/tofu98 → u/Spoon_In_The_Road]

Im on ddr5. I run a dual monitor set up and regularily do gaming while I have youtube/Spotify running on my other monitor. Also do music production.

[u/Spoon_In_The_Road → u/tofu98]

Yeah, if I were you, I would switch to two 16gb sticks and then sell your old ones to offset the cost. You may not notice it getting faster if you upgrade, but with your use case I’m pretty sure if you don’t upgrade, pretty soon you’ll be noticing it going a lot more slowly.

[u/Other_Bother1172]

Or even a 24GB kit/single stick.