What Does RAM Do for Gaming?

Nothing’s more annoying than running your game and realizing that your PC can’t keep up with it, leaving you with a disappointing gaming experience. We all know that RAM, or Random Access Memory, has an essential role in gaming performance, but not everyone knows what RAM does to improve our gaming experience. Additionally, RAM is not just essential for gaming but also for your PC to function properly. RAM bridges the CPU’s little, incredibly quick cache and the SSD or hard drive’s massive, incredibly slow storage. 

What does RAM do for gaming? What’s the ideal amount of RAM for gaming? Should you get the 32GB RAM? Or your 4GB or 8GB RAM is enough for gaming? Is 16GB RAM ideal? All of these questions (and more!) will be covered in today’s article about RAM and gaming. 

So, if you’re keen to learn more about RAM, its types, its role in gaming, and the best amount of RAM for gaming, keep reading! 

What is The Best Amount of RAM for Gaming?

The answer is that it depends. The RAM you get should depend on the game you want to run because not all game types require the same type of RAM. So, before investing in any RAM, you should first look at the amount of RAM it needs to run. 

4GB RAM used to run most games without problems, but not until games became more complex than ever and 4GB RAM couldn’t process all of this data. So, we recommend that you get 8GB RAM or if you want to enjoy a larger variety of games. 8GB RAM is enough to run cool games like Player Unknown’s Battleground (PUBG), Valorant, FIFA 21, Fortnite Battle Royale, Forza Horizon 4, Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA 5), Call of Duty: Warzone, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Assassin Creed: Odyssey, NBA 2K21, 

The good news is, that 4GB RAM can still run some lightweight games that don’t require high RAM, including PUBG Lite, Counter Strike: Global Offensive System, Prince of Persia, Sniper Ghost Warrior, Minecraft, Assassin Creed, League of Legends, Outlast 2, Battlefield Bad Company, Valorant, Witcher 2, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 3, and Crysis 3.

All gaming computers have at least 8GB RAM since many games can be easily played with this amount, including World of Warcraft Shadowlands, Apex Legends, and Cyberpunk 2077. On the other hand, most games recommend using 16GB RAM for a smooth, lag-free gaming experience. It’s recommended to use 16GB RAM when playing games like PUBG and Call of Duty Warzone. 16GB RAM can run cooler, more modern games than 4GB and 8GB RAM can, including Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), Battlefield V, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed Unity, Batman: Arkham Knight, Quantum Break, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Final Fantasy XV, Grand Theft Auto V, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. 

And finally, 32GB RAM is used by many gamers seeking the best possible gaming performance. 32GB RAM allows you to play your favorite game with improved graphics while running various apps simultaneously. 32GB RAM will significantly improve speed and prepare your computer to run more games in the future. 32GB RAM enables you to play simulation-focused games with incredible performance that will leave you astonished. This amount is also great for playing any game with many memory-intensive mods. Finally, 32GB RAM is also helpful when you want to do several things simultaneously, like extensive internet use and streaming. 

However, you will not likely need all 32GB, so you can still run your favorite games efficiently with just 16GB of RAM. If you think you don’t need the benefits of having the highest amount of RAM, you don’t have to invest in 32GB RAM to enjoy a great gaming experience. 

• Important: While RAM with the incorrect specifications for your PC can perform poorly, the incorrect sort of modules will not function. Incompatible RAM will either not fit or won’t work correctly. So make sure your PC’s motherboard can support the RAM you get. 

What Does RAM Do for Gaming?

RAM temporarily stores data during the gameplay to move the data to your CPU as quickly as possible. So, whenever any game is launched, RAM does its intended job of improving your gaming performance by receiving data from that game. 

The game’s data is kept on a hard drive or an SSD. However, retrieving the data in it can negatively affect the speed of the process. Thanks to its high speed, RAM can help because it temporarily stores the game’s data. So, high RAM will result in more data storage, hence better gaming performance. 

• Note: Factors other than RAM may also impact gaming performance. This annoying gaming performance could also be caused by GPU, CPU, or even a flaw in your software or hardware.

The More, The Better?

No! Since RAM helps load games, it is logical to conclude that the more, the better. But in reality, this is not true. More RAM is useless if it exceeds your need. For example, you don’t have to buy a 1-liter bottle if you only want to fill it with half a liter of liquid. The rest of that space is unnecessary since it is not even used. 

So, make sure you’ll make the best use of your RAM before investing in an expensive amount of RAM. You also want to ensure that your games need this RAM to run efficiently. 

Bonus Tips and Tricks To Improve Your PC Gaming Performance

The good news is that there are some solutions other than upgrading RAM to a slow PC that can improve your PC’s gaming performance. Now that you know the best amount of RAM for PC gaming, we have some bonus tips and tricks for you to enhance your overall gaming experience:

• Make Upgrades 

The first thing you can upgrade to improve gaming performance is storage. You can switch to a fast M.2 storage or SSD, which can significantly enhance the overall performance. Upgrading the RAM can also improve gaming performance. 

• Pro tip: you can buy a gaming mouse and keyboard if you own a laptop to upgrade the gaming performance on a budget.

• Check for Updates

In addition to bringing you the newest features, updating your macOS or Windows also fix bugs that can slow down your PC. This also guarantees that you have the latest version of DirectX, which is a collection of software tools that improve your gaming experience. 

You also want to check if there are any available game updates released by developers. These updates fix bugs and improve the overall gaming performance. 

• Clean Your Hardware

You can get impressive results only by cleaning your hardware. Hardware that is not clean could be the reason for poor gaming performance. If you game on your laptop, we recommend cleaning its hardware regularly for the best performance. You can also seek the help of a specialist to help you open the laptop and clean the hardware. 

It’s possible that the thermal paste has to be changed if the laptop overheats while you’re playing games. Replacing the thermal paste can be a little challenging, so it is better to leave the work for a professional if you doubt your abilities to do it yourself. 

• Use an eGPU

Getting an external GPU is great for those who want to play games on their device but don’t own a gaming PC. The performance of your laptop can be easily increased by getting an external GPU. 

But that doesn’t mean that the external GPU is a perfect option for everyone. It is, in fact, not practical for all people. Your laptop must have a Thunderbolt port since other ports don’t have adequate bandwidth for supporting the GPU. Plus, buying an external GPU is not affordable for some people. 

Finally, keep in mind that if the performance of your laptop is poor because of the limits of the CPU, getting an external GPU won’t make much of a difference. So, you don’t want to invest money on an external GPU if you’re not sure yet that the poor gaming performance is not affected by any other factors.

• Try Overclocking

Did you know you can enhance your laptop’s gaming performance by overclocking? The performance of your CPU can be noticeably improved by overclocking. Thanks to the extra clock cycles, games can operate more quickly on your PC. Overclocking is also an effective fix for a CPU bottleneck, giving your CPU a little boost to get better gaming performance.

Although overclocking can contain some risks for beginners, it is still a good way to enhance gaming performance. You’ll need to make the necessary changes to power settings on your laptop since there’s a lot of electricity used due to overclocking. Overclocking raises the GPU’s temperature, so keep that in mind.

• Close The Apps You’re Not Using

This one is obvious but is still overlooked by some gamers. If you cannot do anything to improve the gaming performance, you can at least close the apps you’re not using while playing games. This way, you allow your PC to give the game more processing power to run your game efficiently. 

• Note: don’t expect much from this method. Closing background apps has little effect on gaming performance. It is still worth a try, though! 

• Lower Your Game Resolution

If you struggle with poor gaming performance and nothing yet seems to work, lowering the game resolution is one of the quickest, most effective methods to improve game performance. You can lower the game resolution by going to the settings menu of your game and clicking on the resolution settings. 

Of course, we can’t exactly tell you what resolution will work best for your game. You have to find the sweet spot and test all available resolutions to see which is the best.

• Cool Down Your PC

High heat can significantly cause your PC’s poor game performance to worsen. This is because when a PC is overheated, it functions with less power in an attempt to cool itself down.

If you have a laptop and want to help it cool down, you don’t want it to be placed on a blanket or on your lap. Instead, you want it to be on a surface that is both flat and smooth to improve air circulation. You also want to make sure to clean its vents and fans thoroughly. Your laptop’s ability to effectively vent heat decreases as dust accumulates. Finally, don’t forget to plug your laptop in as it can get hotter when running on the power of its battery alone. 

• Upgrade Your Internet

Online games require an excellent internet connection if you want to enjoy the best possible gaming experience. If you think your internet may be why your online games run poorly, you may want to boost your internet speed. 

You can visit https://www.speedtest.net/ to test the speed of your internet. After that, compare your internet speed with the one required to run your online game. If you have slow internet, you can upgrade your internet and see if this improves the gaming performance.

Want to know more about RAM and what it does? Check out this video from Linus.