If a game requires you to have 16GB of RAM, what does that mean?

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Funxre 25 May @ 8:35am

Hi

If a game requires you to have 16GB of RAM, does that mean that my PC must have 16GB installed, or does that mean I should have 16GB of available free RAM?

For example, I have 16GB of RAM, but 8GB is always in use for background stuff, that means I have only 8GB free, does that mean I am not meeting the games requirements?

Thanks

FUNXRE

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Showing 1-15 of 22 comments

Lixire 25 May @ 8:45am

16GB installed. as the developer usually takes into an account Windows+their game+driver overhead and other software you may have open

ˢᵈˣ FatCat 25 May @ 8:48am

The short answer is you dont need free 16GB RAM, you just need 16GB stick

Last edited by ˢᵈˣ FatCat; 25 May @ 9:10am

_I_ 25 May @ 4:03pm

Originally posted by ˢᵈˣ FatCat:
The short answer is you dont need free 16GB RAM, you just need 16GB stick

?
16g usb stick wont do anything to help system ram

@op
most games that list 16g ram as min req can run with 8-12g
just may stutter some while windows is swapping working ram to the page file
as it will use drive space for ram when needed

just close the background stuff while gaming if its having troubles

wesnef 25 May @ 4:23pm

Originally posted by _I_:
Originally posted by ˢᵈˣ FatCat:
The short answer is you dont need free 16GB RAM, you just need 16GB stick
?
16g usb stick wont do anything to help system ram

He meant the ram modules/DIMMs/whichever. Not USB sticks.

Last edited by wesnef; 25 May @ 5:06pm

gwwak 25 May @ 4:29pm

It means 16 installed, not free.

Numlock587 25 May @ 6:32pm

Must of been thinking of win vista\7 ready boost

AmaiAmai 26 May @ 4:20am

It means it can run, but if it's a UE game way better to have 32 or a larger page file.

Numlock587 26 May @ 6:55am

If you are on the minimum requirements, its maybe time for a new computer soon.

Schamyl006 27 May @ 9:40am

I don't believe the system requirements that are written on the store page. The game will probably work fine with only 8GB RAM.

andreasaspenberg575 27 May @ 9:55am

the game might work with less but, your harddrive with be working overtime to compensate. i know that from experience. the requirements for mega man x3 was 16 megabytes but, i had only 8. the game ran but, with the harddrive working overtime to compensate. some game however have software lockouts, preventing them from working with less ram than the requirements. diablo for example could not run multiplayer with only 8 megabytes. the multiplayer option was greyed out. as for vram: half of your ram pool is converted into vram, meaning that your total vram is dedicated vram+half of ram. of course, if you have too little ram and too little vram, then the game will likely crash.

Last edited by andreasaspenberg575; 27 May @ 9:55am

#10

HardwareAccent 27 May @ 10:08am

The number is estimate. It usually means a PC with installed 16GB.
However, system requirements are not always accurate.
Recommended and/or minimal requirements can be either set too low or too high.

It's nice if they are set too high and you get better than expected performance but it can also happen that matching recommended settings won't guarantee good performance.

#11

andreasaspenberg575 27 May @ 10:20am

i know that all too well. system requirements can be directly incorrect even. several games whose operating system is listed as windows 10 might run in windows 7 and 8.1.

#12

Ontrix_Kitsune 28 May @ 6:59am

Originally posted by _I_:
Originally posted by ˢᵈˣ FatCat:
The short answer is you dont need free 16GB RAM, you just need 16GB stick
?
16g usb stick wont do anything to help system ram

No one in this entire thread said anything about USB. You're WAY out to left field there buddy.

#13

nullable 28 May @ 11:46am

Originally posted by andreasaspenberg575:
i know that all too well. system requirements can be directly incorrect even. several games whose operating system is listed as windows 10 might run in windows 7 and 8.1.

Well that's not incorrect. Sometimes (most of the time) system requirements aren't the absolute minimums, just what the developer is willing to support. So if you roll in with a problem on Windows 7/8, they can point at the system requirements and not have to deal with it. Which is fair since you would have made the choice to ignore the requirements.

#14