4GB of RAM is still plenty for gaming PCs, apparently

Super-rigs with 16GB or even 32GB of RAM enjoy little gaming benefit over those with a gentle 4GB.

That’s according to Techspot, which took on the challenge of testing whether the ever increasing amount of RAM being installed in modern PCs is necessary for those wanting to indulge in high-end PC gaming.

The site used a hefty machine to test the presumption, housing a 4.0GHz Intel Core i7-6700K and Nvidia GeForce GTX 980. It tested a range of titles while at the same time running Chrome with a whopping 65 open tabs.

Despite this, Grand Theft Auto V dropped just one frame per second when dropping from 8GB to 4GB (56fps vs 55fps). 16GB offered no performance benefit at all. There were also minimal single-digit differences when running Batman: Arkham Knight while the results were the same across the board with F1 2015.

Note that generally 8GB is still regarded as the optimum amount of RAM for those who use their PCs for a range of tasks.

The upward trend in RAM usage among PC enthusiasts is nothing new, but it has certainly intensified in the post PS4 and Xbox One era where maxing out the performance of new titles is becoming close to impossible on even the most expensive PCs.