Expert Consulted: Adrian Gardiner. With 30+ years in the IT industry, I still get frequent requests to repair, upgrade, and build new Gaming PCs. This experience has given me useful knowledge which I can share to advise on the importance of RAM in gaming.
Understanding the role of RAM in your system and how it interfaces with the rest of your system is useful for optimizing your gaming PC.
It serves the purpose of holding on to short-term data until required by the CPU, and the speed at which it can do this is measured in frequency or MHz, like 3200 MHz, for example – the higher the number, the better.
So, in a nutshell, the importance of RAM in Gaming can be summarised as follows:
RAM is crucial in gaming for storing data the CPU needs quickly, enhancing load times and performance. Sufficient RAM minimizes lag, allowing smooth gameplay, while insufficient RAM can lead to delays. It’s a vital component that bridges the CPU and storage, directly impacting the gaming experience.
In the rest of this article, I’ve provided more detail and the relationship of RAM in your computer and how it can affect your gaming if you don’t have enough.
Related Article: Is 8 GB of RAM enough for gaming?
The Importance of RAM in Gaming – A Guide for Gamers
The memory in your system can have many implications for how it performs. The following sections aim to address a few unknowns about this vital component and what you can do to ensure your computer runs as smoothly as possible.
How Can RAM Improve Your Gameplay?
Your computer’s RAM affects everything the computer does, and not having enough will have repercussions for whatever you do, whether it’s gaming or just surfing the web.
Here are a few ways that RAM, or more importantly, having enough RAM, can improve your gameplay:
- More RAM means shorter loading times, so you spend less time waiting and more time actually gaming. Having enough installed RAM also enables smoother performance even when the action gets intense.
- No more stuttering or lag when the firefights heat up – just nice smooth framerates to help you nail those headshots.
If there’s not enough RAM, and your system is compensating for low VRAM, or it has to use virtual memory from the HDD or SSD, you’ll see performance problems like stuttering and lag.
- A surplus of available RAM will let you stream, record, and multitask without sacrificing performance. Say goodbye to crashes from insufficient VRAM, too – when VRAM is low, the system’s RAM acts as a backup, although it will be slower than VRAM, meaning performance drops.
- RAM upgrades are an easy and affordable way to maximize frames, minimize lag, and game with confidence.
Popular Games and How Much RAM is Required
Here’s a selection of some of the most popular (some new and some old) games in 2023 and the minimum amount of RAM required:
| Game | Min. RAM Required | Recommended RAM Required | Competitive RAM Required | |
| 1. | Fortnite | 8 GB | 16 GB or higher | – |
| 2. | Roblox | 1 GB | – | – |
| 3. | League of Legends | 2 GB | 4 GB | – |
| 4. | Minecraft | 4 GB | 8 GB | – |
| 5. | Counter Strike: GO | 2 GB | 2 GB | – |
| 6. | Valorant | 4 GB | 4 GB | – |
| 7. | Overwatch 2 | 6 GB | 8 GB | – |
| 8. | Apex Legends | 6 GB | 8 GB | – |
| 9. | Rocket League | 4 GB | 8 GB | – |
| 10. | Genshin Impact | 8 GB | 16 GB | – |
| 11. | PUBG: Battlegrounds | 8 GB | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| 12. | GTA V | 4 GB | 8 GB | – |
| 13. | DOTA 2 | 4 GB | 4 GB | – |
| 14. | Destiny 2 | 6 GB | 8 GB | – |
| 15. | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare | 8 GB | 16 GB | 16 GB |
From the above list, you can see that 8 GB is the happy medium for most games, although for some, you can get away with only 1 – 4 GB.
However, all new desktop computers that I currently supply, whether for gaming or not, are supplied with 16 GB RAM as it really costs so little to double up.
Store-bought computers tend to come with 8 GB RAM, but even that is gradually changing now to 16 GB.
16 GB of RAM provides a good bit of future-proofing and means that it’ll be ready to handle most programs it comes across (from a memory perspective).
Choosing the Right RAM for Your System
Choosing the right RAM for your PC is essential, as getting this wrong could mean not getting the most out of your upgrade. The following tips will help:
- Always match the RAM in your system: So if you have DDR3 RAM installed, you’ll need more of the same. This also goes for DDR4 and DDR5.
However, some motherboards do have slots for 2 types of RAM, like DDR4 and DDR5 – in such a case, just check to make sure that your CPU will support both.
It’s actually impossible to fit the wrong RAM as the slots are slightly differently designed, but it’s easy to damage, so take it steady when fitting and make sure everything lines up.
However, it might be hard to see the difference unless you look closely, so care is needed, just in case you ordered the wrong type. Look at the position of the notch in the RAM and its relationship with the RAM slot on the motherboard.
Matching also applies to the frequency, which needs to be the same for each RAM module. For example, if you have 1600 MHz RAM installed, your additional stick of RAM should also be 1600 MHz.
If you purchase faster or slower RAM, the system will automatically adjust all installed RAM to the slowest module.
- Double Up Your RAM when upgrading: Currently, RAM is available in 4, 8, 16, and 32 GB modules.
If you have 4, 8, 16, or even 32 GB installed in just a single module and you want to add more, just double what you have.
If your motherboard has 4 slots, you can either fill just 2 of them or fill all 4 (NB. RAM usually works best in pairs). RAM works better if all the modules are exactly the same type, capacity, frequency, etc.
- Replace all RAM with faster and/or larger modules: For example, if you have 1 x 8 GB DDR4 2666 MHz module installed and you want to double up but preferably with faster RAM, you could remove your 1 x 8 GB DDR4 2666 MHz module and replace with 2 x 8 GB DDR4 3200 MHz RAM modules.
Signs Your PC May Need More RAM for Gaming
Listed below are all the symptoms that you could possibly see when your PC doesn’t have enough RAM:
- Slow performance everywhere, including on start-up and on loading programs
- Random freezing
- Stuttering and laggy performance
- You’re unable to run your game(s) at anything over minimum settings
- You receive ‘Your computer is low on memory’ warnings
- Files won’t open or take forever to do so.
How to Fix RAM Shortage Issues When Gaming
There are a range of different approaches you can take to fix problems your PC is having that are due to insufficient RAM:
- Stop unwanted programs from running in the background (go to Task Manager – Startups).
- Remove unnecessary programs (take care to only remove non-system related programs)
- Tweak your game settings to consume fewer resources.
- Make sure Windows is up to date so that you can receive all the latest bug fixes, etc.
- Make sure your game software is up to date.
- Try to ensure that anti-virus scans don’t run when you’re gaming (some can be very RAM-hungry).
- Add more RAM to your system (I recommend 8 GB minimum and ideally at least 16 GB or more).
Conclusion
RAM is a critical part of your system, and not having enough for what you want to do will mean all sorts of performance-related issues. Getting the right amount of RAM installed in your PC will make all the difference to your gaming experience.
No matter what game you’re playing, at the time of writing, I would recommend a minimum of 8 GB of RAM and preferably 16 GB – this will mean your system is ready to handle many different games at a range of levels, depending on your CPU and GPU of course.
Compared with other components in your system, RAM is relatively affordable and can make such a difference to its overall performance.