The topic 32GB RAM is becoming the new 16GB, and gamers are slowly realizing it is currently the subject of lively discussion — readers and analysts are keeping a close eye on developments.
This is taking place in a dynamic environment: companies’ decisions and competitors’ reactions can quickly change the picture.
For many years, gamers were totally fine with having 16GB of RAM in their builds. In fact, if anybody even suggested getting 32GB solely for gaming, there was a good chance they’d be laughed out of the comments section. It’s funny because I used to have 16GB of DDR3 RAM in my rig back in 2012, and my friends would give me hell for it. Fast-forward to today, and many gamers would actually agree that 16GB may not cut it, especially if you want to be on the safer side for the latest AAA titles.
I know that’s probably not what some of you with 16GB of RAM wanted to hear, especially at a time when DDR5 prices are already outrageous due to the memory shortage. The good news is that I’m not suggesting you should go out and buy a 32GB kit tomorrow, but it’s worth knowing where the industry is heading. And if you’re building a new PC and considering 16GB to keep costs low, think twice. Games do run fine on 16GB, but the amount of breathing room it provides is definitely shrinking.
The vast majority of games still recommend 16GB of RAM, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any titles that have started pushing beyond it. In fact, some of those games were released a year or two ago, which is why I think we’re closer to 32GB becoming the norm than most people expect. You can write off Microsoft Flight Simulator as a niche simulation game that has always pushed specs harder than most titles, but when other developers start doing it too, it’s definitely worth paying attention to.
Games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, DOOM: The Dark Ages, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II already list 32GB in the recommended specs if you go through their Steam pages. Of course, that doesn’t mean the game won’t run fine if you only have 16GB, but the recommended specs are meant to reflect the experience developers actually want you to have. My point is that the growing number of games recommending 32GB tells us where exactly the industry is heading.
As someone who spends far too much time monitoring performance with MSI Afterburner while gaming, one thing I’ve noticed over the last couple of years is just how much newer AAA titles really push memory usage, despite listing 16GB in the recommended specs. One very recent example I have is 007 First Light, which actually utilizes more than 20GB of RAM during gameplay despite recommending 16GB. What’s crazy is that this isn’t some massive open-world game, and it doesn’t even support ray tracing.
That alone should tell you that recommended specs aren’t always fully reliable. I’ve also seen games like Black Myth: Wukong and Assassin’s Creed Shadows consume around 15GB of memory, and while that technically falls within the recommended spec, there’s very little room left for anything else. Considering most of us have multiple applications running in the background, like Discord, Chrome, OBS, Steam, and RGB software, that 16GB kit you have in your build may not be as comfortable as it once was.
I didn’t write this article with the intention of making everyone with 16GB kits panic. At current memory prices, I don’t want you to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a 32GB kit just because a few games are starting to push beyond what we’re used to seeing. You can still play the latest AAA games just fine with 16GB of memory, especially if you’re mindful of the apps running in the background on Windows. For a year or two, I don’t think this is a problem most gamers need to lose sleep over.
That said, I still want you to understand how little headroom you have with 16GB of RAM these days. Sure, your average frame rates may be unaffected, but those 1% lows can take a hit, which you’ll notice as an occasional stutter in newer open-world AAA titles. You can’t treat 16GB the same way we treated it five years ago. Back then, it was the comfort zone, but today, it’s starting to look like the bare minimum, much like 8GB did a decade ago.
It may seem like the PC industry is moving faster than many of us would like, but I’d argue that it’s a step in the right direction. For years, PC gamers have complained about stagnation, so if we want developers to push visuals further, we also have to accept the hardware demands that come with it. To be honest, with next-gen consoles around the corner, this trend makes all the sense in the world. You don’t need to upgrade today, but there are enough signs that 32GB is becoming the new sweet spot for PC gaming.
The Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 32GB (2x16GB) offers the best of DDR5 performance with the absolute best white design on the market.