Is 32GB memory worth it?

James Pacey · 14 Sep 2020 at 12:16

Hi all,

My system is as follows:

9700k, 2080Ti, 16GB Ram.

I'm trying to decide if 32GB ram is worth it. It's mainly used for games such as Flight Simulator 2020, RDR 2, Control, various RTS games.

What do folk reckon?

With thanks,

James

mikeym · 14 Sep 2020 at 12:32

If playing MSFS2020 on higher graphics settings and flying in densely populated areas then I believe it is worth it. I've checked usage on my system and I can definitely utilise more RAM. Just keeping an eye on prices for a bit and any offers that come up.

TNA · 14 Sep 2020 at 14:00

From what I can see there is like 2 or 3 titles that will use more than 16gb. FS2020 and Horizon Zero Dawn being the main ones.

I recently upgraded because I found decent cheap Viper Steel RAM and thought why not at that price. I mean I do plan on playing FS2020 soon and it seems to me that some games going forward may make use of the extra RAM, so no harm in having more. My 32GB RAM is not quite as fast timings as my 16GB B-Die, but I really do not think it will make much difference due to me gaming at 4K. Not like 3600MHz C16 is a slouch

Will be interesting to see if Cyberpunk 2077 will make use of the extra RAM.

Going to keep the 16gb b-die ram and it will go in to my 2nd system together with my Ryzen 3600 in this system when I upgrade to zen 3 eventually in a year or so.

MPowerph · 15 Sep 2020 at 06:06

Well, i was not sure, as i used Team Group 4500MHz 16GB 8Pack kit until now on 4400C16... Due the price of a 32GB DR B-Die, i decided to stay on 16GB, it looked enough. But after my did friend appeared, and forced me to buy a Crucial Ballistix 3600MHz kit, 32GB, but it remained SR, not DR. It has the same IC's, what is on the Ballistix Max(which available from today), and which can reach 5GHz easily. It was cheap though, only £179... And i have to say, this kit beat the Team Group kit already. I cannot go further than 4.4GHz in mem frequency, due the weak IMC of my 9900K, but until that freq, appears, it brings the same performance. Look at this... The subs are still not done yet, i am working on it.

https://ibb.co/xG6nc2Y

In Winrar bench, it can do ~34300 points... I am sure, whit the same timings, it would be stable on 4500MHz, scary.
Only negative side of these moduls, the heat sink itself, it is very light, useless. In OC, it can be a shortage, as around 54C, your stable setup becomes unstable. The modules also has a internal temperature sense, so you are able to monitor them. I am about to solve the heat sink issue, just purchased a Dominator GT memories for bargain price, and i will just swop the heat sink. I also received the Corsair active memory cooling kit, so those two will help. I have water cooling, but honestly, i did not want to connect the memories into the CPU line. It just a pain....

What i wanted to say, a good 32GB kit is cheap enough now, so worth the upgrade.

Vimes · 15 Sep 2020 at 11:36

These might help....

and.....

some memory speed testing....

as noted in the last videos thread......"But the human eye can only see 2400mhz" lol

I went from 16 to 32, some differences were noted for me in Cities Skylines, that was due to the humongous number of assets loaded from the workshop, over 3000.

Games actually using anything above 16GB might be few and far between, accepting that allocating the memory isn't the same as using it.

TNA · 15 Sep 2020 at 11:57

Vimes said:
Games actually using anything above 16GB might be few and far between, accepting that allocating the memory isn't the same as using it.

Yea. I really would not have bothered had I not found a good deal. At least now I know this 32GB will be plenty again for another 5+ years.

Hopefully we will get a new comparisons made on somewhere like Hardware Unboxed by the end of the year once we have titles like Cyberpunk 2077 hit.

Vimes · 15 Sep 2020 at 12:40

TNA said:
Yea. I really would not have bothered had I not found a good deal. At least now I know this 32GB will be plenty again for another 5+ years.

Hopefully we will get a new comparisons made on somewhere like Hardware Unboxed by the end of the year once we have titles like Cyberpunk 2077 hit.

I think for now we have to cherry pick titles to see any practical reasons to think about 32GB for games, and like you have noted there are probably few of those.

By the time that 32GB could be better utilised by many games we might then be pushing over to DDR5.

TNA · 15 Sep 2020 at 12:49

Vimes said:
By the time that 32GB could be better utilised by many games we might then be pushing over to DDR5.

Oh for sure. Thing for me is, I am not sure if I will be upgrading to Zen 4. I get the feeling a 12 core zen 3 will last me a VERY long time when I eventually get it. I will likely just wait for Zen 4 to come out and buy a Zen 3 cpu from someone who is selling to upgrade for half the price or less

So yeah, at least now my RAM is sorted for a long time.

Toothy1911 · 15 Sep 2020 at 13:08

Recently went 32 because I was buying a new set of ram anyway. I wouldn't like to buy 32 if it was just to upgrade from 16. But if you're buying a set anyway, it seems worth it.
Mostly it has meant I dont have to close background apps (I'm looking at you Chrome) when I game.

GilesGuthrie · 15 Sep 2020 at 15:08

Toothy1911 said:
Recently went 32 because I was buying a new set of ram anyway. I wouldn't like to buy 32 if it was just to upgrade from 16. But if you're buying a set anyway, it seems worth it.
Mostly it has meant I dont have to close background apps (I'm looking at you Chrome) when I game.

Chrome can take a bunch of GPU cycles, so it's always worth closing that if you're gaming.

I have 32GB. It's mostly when I'm doing content creation that I'm using up more than 16GB.

ttaskmaster · 15 Sep 2020 at 15:18

32GB? Hell yeah!
Thanks to 32GB, I now have four sticks of RGB in my case, which looks vastly better than just two.
I'm even considering getting another four (because it's quad-channel), although prices have gone up considerably since I last upgraded.

Poneros · 15 Sep 2020 at 16:03

Absolutely. 16 GB is becoming the new normal which means that it won't be long before you're really going to want >16 GB for optimal experience. People always say more RAM is overkill but I have never once regretted having more. When I first bought sixteen GB 8 GB were normal and 16 was considered overkill but today I'm pushing into that quite easily and that's even as someone who kills all apps when gaming so not heavy on the multi-task at all. But as I start doing that, and I start doing some video editing as well, and some other tasks, it's definitely becoming apparent that 16 GB is more like a recommended minimum rather than ideal.

MSFS 2020:

Toothy1911 · 15 Sep 2020 at 16:48

GilesGuthrie said:
Chrome can take a bunch of GPU cycles, so it's always worth closing that if you're gaming.

I have 32GB. It's mostly when I'm doing content creation that I'm using up more than 16GB.

Really? Thanks for the tip!

mikeym · 15 Sep 2020 at 18:08

Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G36C16U4B 3600 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 32GB (16GB x2), CL16

The above worth it for my system at 137.99 or wait for equivalent 8-pack to fall in price???

TNA · 15 Sep 2020 at 18:10

mikeym said:
Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G36C16U4B 3600 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 32GB (16GB x2), CL16

The above worth it for my system at 137.99 or wait for equivalent 8-pack to fall in price???

You can pick up the Viper Steel ones for £35 cheaper, they run fine at C16 if you are happy to use DRAM calculator.

mikeym · 15 Sep 2020 at 18:17

How tall are the Vipers? Not got much clearance to CPU cooler...

Shaolin Chicken · 15 Sep 2020 at 18:40

mikeym said:
Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G36C16U4B 3600 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 32GB (16GB x2), CL16

The above worth it for my system at 137.99 or wait for equivalent 8-pack to fall in price???

I can't find the Ballistix memory for that price and in stock, as I would buy that. Supposed to overclock very nicely.

BallistixOnZ490 · 15 Sep 2020 at 18:43

mikeym said:
Crucial Ballistix BL2K16G36C16U4B 3600 MHz, DDR4, DRAM, Desktop Gaming Memory Kit, 32GB (16GB x2), CL16

The above worth it for my system at 137.99 or wait for equivalent 8-pack to fall in price???

Thats a great price if its Micron E Die. I'm able to push my 3200 2x16 kit to 4200 CL16 / 3900 C15 / 3600 C14 but they might not all manage this.

Just that secondary timings will never be as good as B die.

Been trying like a maniac to push it to 3733 C14 or 4000 C15 for better latency but it wont do either without memtest errors, nor 4266 at any timings. Can't really complain for £150 for 32 Gb.

3700 C14 also nope.

TNA · 15 Sep 2020 at 20:18

mikeym said:
How tall are the Vipers? Not got much clearance to CPU cooler...

I have a Dark Rock 4 Pro and it fits in the A2 and B2 modules withoout removing CPU.

https://assets.website-files.com/5cdb2ee0b102f96c3906500f/5ed95e78fd1e6a51a0b89f61_PVS432G360C8K Sku Sheet_060320 Copyable.pdf

To be honest if you do not want much hassle to get to C16, then the extra money does seem to buy you a better memory. From what I have seen micron e die's are quite good.

mikeym · 15 Sep 2020 at 20:33

TNA said:
I have a Dark Rock 4 Pro and it fits in the A2 and B2 modules withoout removing CPU.

https://assets.website-files.com/5cdb2ee0b102f96c3906500f/5ed95e78fd1e6a51a0b89f61_PVS432G360C8K Sku Sheet_060320 Copyable.pdf

To be honest if you do not want much hassle to get to C16, then the extra money does seem to buy you a better memory. From what I have seen micron e die's are quite good.

Thanks, useful info - I have same cooler so should be OK. Will have to think about it and decide where to spend my money. Will probably wait to see if anything turns up in 'This Week Only' offers here tomorrow. Hopefully price for Ballistix won't change in the meantime...