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[Rendered Tangent]

So, I just wanted to pick the brains of my fellow Gaffers and ask for a bit of advice.

I'm in the process of purchasing a computer from a friend and I have a question regarding RAM.

Like most of you, I often hear the term "bottleneck" used and in my experience it's usually related to a lopsided GPU or CPU combination, and so I'm not sure how much a particular amount, type, speed etc...of RAM might hold me back.
The computer is in near mint condition and I'm getting it for a reasonable price, so I do have a little bit of money left to upgrade, though I'd rather use it for some new peripherals if it's not necessary.

It has a 4080, an i9 14000k, and the 32 GB
of RAM (3600 DDR4).

My question, therefore, is would that hold this system back?

(I should add I've asked questions before about RAM but the information in that thread wasn't really helpful in answering this question)

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Should I get DDR5?

Is that amount, 32 GB, sufficient?

My old computer has 16 GB and I've read in different places that 16 is still enough, but only just - and in the coming years I will see it struggling to cope and as such 32 will become the bare minimum, so is 32 enough or should I even consider 64gb?

This was why I asked whether the term bottleneck applied to RAM.

Ultimately, would it be better to upgrade the 32 to a faster (?) version (from 3600 to 6000?) of 32gb and from DDR4 to DDR5?
I should add that this system will be used almost exclusively for gaming (at 1440p).
I mention this as I know heavy workloads, design etc...can be more demanding in some respects and require more performance.

As I've said, I'm looking for some advice and I felt like I'd get much more concise information on here than trying to trawl Google getting contradictory or incorrect advice.

Thank you in advice, Gaffers.

 

[winjer]

32GB is enough for games. If you do video or photo editing, or other heavy work, it won't be enough.
More and more games make use of higher memory bandwidth, so DDR4 will be a bottleneck.
But to go for DDR5 you will need to also change motherboard.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

32GB is enough for games. If you do video or photo editing, or other heavy work, it won't be enough.
More and more games make use of higher memory bandwidth, so DDR4 will be a bottleneck.
But to go for DDR5 you will need to also change motherboard.

Right, so I couldn't just swap out 32 DDR4 for 32 DDR5?

But, what if the motherboard in the computer is compatible with DDR5?

 

[winjer]

Right, so I couldn't just swap out 32 DDR4 for 32 DDR5?

But, what if the motherboard in the computer is compatible with DDR5?

Open a program like CPUZ and check what is the model of your motherboard.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

Open a program like CPUZ and check what is the model of your motherboard.

I can't at the moment, mate, I don't have it yet.

I'm just trying to get ahead so that if the consensus is change it, I can have the new RAM ordered and delivered around the same time the pc gets to me.

I need to find out what motherboard it has, don't I?

It would help a lot, right?

 

[winjer]

I can't at the moment, mate, I don't have it yet.

I'm just trying to get ahead so that if the consensus is change it, I can have the new RAM ordered and delivered around the same time the pc gets to me.

I need to find out what motherboard it has, don't I?

It would help a lot, right?

Yes, you really need to know your motherboard, to know what things it can support.

 

[thief183]

It will work fine, you will not notice any difference in real life scenario.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

It will work fine, you will not notice any difference in real life scenario.

You are saying for gaming it really won't make much difference?

 

[RJMacready73]

M8 you have a 4080 coupled to an i9 FFS, you'll be able to run pretty much everything flat out and wouldn't notice the difference upgrading the ram (which could also entail a motherboard upgrade) keep yer money and buy something else, you'd need to get into Digital Foundry like detail to spot anything remotely worth a shit

 

[Mr.Phoenix]

You don't need to lift a finger. You have a good enough PC. Even for Video editing, if video editing, 32GB doesn't mean you don't have enough RAM, just means it would be about 10-20% slower. Which if taken in context is nothing considering you are talking about like taking like 30-40 seconds longer. But this isn't even your problem, for games, you have a powerful enough PC.

And if you have a 1400k CPU, chances are it's already on a MB that supports DDR5. But you needn't even worry about that. Unless you are into competitive gaming and will be prioritizing framerates above EVERYTHING, then you do not need DDR5 RAM in your case. If you are going for 1440p/4K gaming, you will be hitting a GPU bottleneck long before you will be hitting a RAM bottleneck.

 

[thief183]

You are saying for gaming it really won't make much difference?

Every possible scenario is going to be maybe 5% slower? Imagine going from 100 to 95 fps... not a big deal. Also you will be probably hitting 150 for almost every single game, 5 frames more (or even less) is not going to justify the money.

Also keep in mind that the socket of your MB is going to change with the next tier of cpu, so buying a more expensive one just for 5% more power is kinda useless.

In editing and more heavy stuff you are already rocking a top of the line PC, saying 20 seconds on a 10 minutes work is nothing.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

M8 you have a 4080 coupled to an i9 FFS, you'll be able to run pretty much everything flat out and wouldn't notice the difference upgrading the ram (which could also entail a motherboard upgrade) keep yer money and buy something else, you'd need to get into Digital Foundry like detail to spot anything remotely worth a shit

I understand, thank you for your feedback.

 

[Rendered Tangent]

You don't need to lift a finger. You have a good enough PC. Even for Video editing, if video editing, 32GB doesn't mean you don't have enough RAM, just means it would be about 10-20% slower. Which if taken in context is nothing considering you are talking about like taking like 30-40 seconds longer. But this isn't even your problem, for games, you have a powerful enough PC.

And if you have a 1400k CPU, chances are it's already on a MB that supports DDR5. But you needn't even worry about that. Unless you are into competitive gaming and will be prioritizing framerates above EVERYTHING, then you do not need DDR5 RAM in your case. If you are going for 1440p/4K gaming, you will be hitting a GPU bottleneck long before you will be hitting a RAM bottleneck.

Right, ok, thanks for explaining.

I just didn't want to hold the system back and I wasn't sure if the RAM did/would.