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Your next Windows PC may need at least 16GB of RAM
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this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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It already should have that. 8 GB is the absolute bare fucking minimum for most computers these days, but unless you have 16, it's a generally unpleasant experience.
For windows, yes. For Linux and OSx, 8gb si still ok for most usecase
While 8GB is typically enough for Linux today, it may not be enough a few years from now. Buying a laptop with 8GB of soldered in RAM would limit the useful life of it.
It will probably depend on distro. Some distros might get more bloated, but I think most won't do anything that makes them unusable on lower-spec hardware, especially those that specifically have low system requirements as one of their core tenets.
Everything seems to get more bloated over time. An 8GB system probably won't become unusable soon, but things will certainly begin to run less smoothly to the point that many people would replace the computer. Browsers and electron apps are RAM hogs.
It depends on the use case, but for what it's worth on a 4GB Android tablet, I can run VSCode + Chromium/Firefox via Termux without too much trouble. ~2GB of memory is taken by Android, so 8GB on a proper Linux system is more like 3x more memory available. It would take a massive amount of bloat to make an impact. My main concern would like with websites being wasteful with both memory and CPU usage via JS, rather than the browser itself becoming bloated.
Just to run the OS sure, but what about the ever enlarging bloated software?
That would depend largely on the use-case and specific software. I'm fairly confident that Lyx isn't going to become bloated any time soon, but I can see that happening especially with proprietary alternatives like Word (ignoring for a moment Word isn't on Linux). It all really depends on whether or not a less bloated alternative exists.
With 8G oom killer will kill my Firefox process.
I was evaluating Linux desktop prior to switching my work pc to Linux with an 8G VM and it wasn't enough for just browsing and general tinkering.
Yep, browsing, developing, listening to music all alright on 8GB, could probably run on even 4.
My memory idles on around 3341MiB with a browser and just a few basic daemons like Syncthing used in mint cinnamaon. 4GB is pretty tight unless you are willing to make some behavioural changes or use a less friendly distro. But 8GB is more than enough.
Different story trying to run VMs on my server, though.
8GB was the bare minimum in 2010. It’s amazing how the increase of memory just stopped.
Didn’t memory get heaps expensive for a while there?
I seem to remember that, for a couple years after DDR4 became the standard, it was significantly more expensive than DDR3.
I keep seeing this statement all around the web but it is still amazing that we need that much RAM even for today.
Don't get me wrong, I know 8 GB is becoming the standard even for mobile phones, so it is only logical to assume to bump this number for PCs (why no 12 GBS of RAM? IDK) and I have been using 16 GBs of RAM for 10 years now, it is a MacBook Pro and for me Apple does not make it clear to see how much of that RAM I'm actually using... Regardless RAM has never been a problem for me, with casual usage, and I always thought 8 GBs should work the same for even a lighter usage, why do I say that? Because before moving to such a Mac I used a laptop with 4 GBs of RAM around 2011-2014 and it was a pain in the ass to use (the processor was shit as well) for simple navigation for my thesis... So yeah if you think 8 GBs is bad, try 4 GBs.
Another reason I think 8 GBs is "a high amount for casual usage" is that my work PC had also 4 GBs of RAM, but there was not a reason to hoard tabs and such, so it was very manageable (also the processor wasn't shit, but it was like a Core i5 or something like that, the usual office PCs you see and know), if we are talking about bottlenecks it would be the shitty HDD speeds LMAO.
What I think you guys all mean with 8 GBs of RAM is the bare minimum for nowadays standard is if you use it for IT related topics or you like to hoard stuff in it (which ain't bad, unused RAM is wasted RAM after all) or simply depend on heavy programs which ain't the web browser, for casuals I'd say 6 GBs would be a fair number, although it is not usual, and fuck 4 GBs of RAM in 2024, for any kind of device lol (I bet offices still use that dog shit).
Anyway I'd personally aim for 16 GBs of RAM or more regardless, for any of my future purchases, because I like to keep my stuff for years to come.
I am on the poorer side and living in one of the central European countries (yeah I'm a teen)
I only have a core 2 duo desktop with 3 GB of ram and a laptop with a i5 also with 3gb of ram, both only HDD machines
The desktop now runs Linux, but because it has components even Intel doesn't want to list on their website (the mobo) it runs it pretty poorly (also I bricked it somehow not run windows or any other usb install media, which is a big problem), the laptop runs windows 7 (it literally refuses to open the update utility I downloaded from MS's website, so that's that, two obsolete machines, that are absolutely horrendous to do anything with (not to mention my shitty 350$ phone is more powerful than both of them combined)
Because computing architecture is based around powers of 2, and having memory that follows that pattern is more efficient.
I would disagree. Even casual usage these days is much more demanding than it once was. Try having Chrome, Spotify, and Discord open all at once. You're going to start pushing that 8 GB further than you'd imagine. Plus, look at the new apple silicon macbooks. They put 8 GB in as the baseline saying shit like "since we designed it to all work together, it's more efficient", and real world test have shown that to be complete nonsense.
4 GB is completely unacceptable for deskop/laptop usage and would be a miserable, if not nearly unusable experience.
16 GB right now is definitely the baseline any new machine should have. I have a MacBook Pro from 2015 that has 16 GB and it still feels reasonably comfortable to use.
I do agree with your central premise here that it's absurd that we need so much. But it's just what happens as hardware advances, software developers push the limits of what the hardware can handle. Either that, or they're just lazy and don't bother optimizing since they think the machine can handle it (looking at you Chrome devs, and anyone who uses Electron).
But what about Android phones? I see there are not many issues on that side with that amount.
Yeah, I see a pattern here, all of that is Chrome lol.
My former work PC (which I mentioned before) that had 4 GBs of RAM required to be running always Windows 11 with Chrome, Microsoft Dynamics, Outlook, Microsoft Word, Excel, Sumatra PDF and some other few apps, so yeah I agree it was miserable, but I remember I could have Spotify as well, and AFAIK there are still Chromebooks shipped with 4 GBs of RAM? Granted they are more alike to a phone than a PC.
Definitely, my girlfriend uses a lot Notion on my Mac, and while the RAM isn't an issue there we can see the fans spinning non stop when it is in use lol, I told her to open it on a Firefox tab and it was much much quieter.
My Win10 PC with just my default apps open, which is mainly Firefox, Steam, a few other Launchers, Obsidian and Messaging clients - 8GB definitly doesn't cut it today anymore. Running a newer game smashes the 16GB border easily.
Because there were no 6 or 12 GB modules. But that changes with DDR5
I have 8 and am able to play 4x games at high settings w/o significant lag until late game lol. People really tend to blow this one out of proportion. Unless you're an incredibly heavy user you probably don't need more than 8 and 16 still feels luxurious.
"Incredibly heavy user" here, my Windows 11 boots into 9GB thanks to a few tools and a LibreOffice preloader... then gets close to 16GB the moment I start a few VMs and some dev containers in VSCode.
Fortunately, when I got this laptop on a -50% sale with just 8GB, I made sure that I'd be able to add a 32GB memory stick... so now it keeps running with up to 20GB of cache, and it flies.
Compared to the average person, yes, you are a very heavy user. Most people use their laptop for little more than browsing the internet.
I browse the internet on a phone or a tablet... don't really get people who use a laptop just for that. Running some office software, is the minimum I see as the need for a laptop, when it isn't drawing, 2D or 3D design, audio/video, or something programming related. Maybe gaming, but there seem to be better options for that too (either a desktop, a Steam Deck, a console, or a phone/tablet again).
That's the thing. WHY should it need that? What is the OS doing that could possibly justify that level of memory use?
Other than a browser, I had none of these on my Linux machine and I could comfortably run on 4GB of RAM