how much ram do i need laptop

Is it smarter to have the memory installed in my computer, or invest in an external hard drive? A workstation with more than 16GB of RAM will be a do … Even your operating system uses RAM when it’s running. For our tests we assumed that normal browsing behavior included the use of multiple browser tabs, with no additional measures taken to cut down on data usage; meaning no ad blockers, no special permissions for media, and no other data-saving measures. Make sure you get a 256 GB (or more) SSD or a larger traditional HDD with more than 500 GB of … Time was that 4GB was more than enough for gaming and most daily tasks, but those days are in the past. These are games built to make the most of current hardware, and a tricked out system will need a decent amount of RAM to accompany the high-end graphics and processing hardware. GTA V continued to run, and we enjoyed a shootout and a car chase before moving on to the next level of multitasking torture. If you're not sure where to start, don't worry, we're here to help. Key takeaway: If your primary uses for a system will be streaming media, a basic 4GB should do the trick just fine. We looked at both audio and video streaming, across several services, to see how much memory was impacted by video, be it cat videos, news clips, or high-definition movies. If a Windows 10 PC equips a 2GB of RAM, you can use it to do much more things like playing games, editing video and images, smoothly opening and browsing more tabs in browser, etc. So long as your gaming rig can handle the game, these simple uses should work without a memory upgrade. Too little RAM creates a bottleneck that slows everything down, and the basic rule of thumb is that more RAM is always better. On the Alienware we checked back in on GTA V and found everything running smoothly. What is the Difference Between RAM and Memory. One of the other things we looked at was how memory use impacted game performance, and how much memory you might need in order to multitask while gaming. At that point, you’re streaming an unenjoyable cacophony of sight and sound, but you can add more if you want. Then, on the Alienware 15 R3, we also ran our gaming test, using Grand Theft Auto V. While it was the only system equipped with the graphics capability needed to run the game, it was also interesting to see how demanding the game was, especially when run in conjunction with our other tests. When deciding how much memory you need, consider what you use your computer for, the operating system needs, and any software you use that is particularly memory-hungry. How Much RAM Do I Need? A system that has at least 8 GB of RAM and a 3.5 GHz processor is plenty for most video games. Windows 7 users see their memory under Total. Once you hit the limit of what your RAM can hold, then your computer will compensate with a swap file, putting some of the data onto your storage drive. NY 10036. For MP3 players like the iPod and the Zune that offer 80 GB models, you can fill these with around 15,000 songs or a couple hundred hours of video. I put off buying a new computer as long as possible because I feel so overwhelmed with all the information. 64GB. The good news is that, as PC components go, RAM is easy to install and extremely affordable. Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, Note: You will need a 64-bit operating system to make use of this amount of RAM. Let’s start with the most basic elements of the question. The value is great, and if you are upgrading your RAM, do take a look: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200MHz RAM. The moral of this story is pretty straight forward; you want to have more memory than you’ll actually use. For personal use, not many users need more laptop memory than 150 GB, and most can make do with half that amount. That said, the law of diminishing returns applies. Essentially, RAM is the memory that actually lets you work with the data needed to run programs and open files. Mouse clicks failed to register, simple documents struggled to scroll smoothly, and even gathering the screenshots we used to document our testing became difficult. This is my second laptop and I have never even come close to using up the memory that comes with the computer. We opened all of our office files, maxing out the least demanding test we ran. With SSD's, information is stored in microchips. i am doubtful about the difference between the celeron and the pentium processor and which is the best between them, for speed? The answer to the question of how much RAM you need always will come back to what you want to do with it. Installing the right amount of RAM will enable you to multi-task with ease. Whether listening to multiple audio streams or watching multiple videos, the overall memory use didn’t change much. RAM stands for Random Access Memory, and it consists of dynamic memory chips that can be written and rewritten with data very quickly. Right-click on the Windows taskbar and select Task Manager. I would be in a world of hurt if I lost the information on my laptop, so try to keep the important things backed up on a memory card. The area where you’ll most want to maximize your memory is current AAA titles, like Far Cry 5 or PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. I don't really know if it is because the memory is almost full or the computer needs to be cleaned up, but there is a big difference. We started with smaller files in multiple programs, opening Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDF files and photos. We decided to test photo editing with Photoshop CC, Adobe’s current offering, and used unedited photos from a smartphone, each with 5312 x 2988 resolution, and measuring  5-6 MB each. Thank you for signing up to Laptop Mag. Finally, we opened 10 more photos in Photoshop, bringing the total to 50. Please deactivate your ad blocker in order to see our subscription offer, CES 2021 preview: 5 things to expect at the event, iPad mini 2021 release date window leaked! We’ll show you how to check how fast your RAM is, too. While your overall performance will largely be dictated by the capabilities of your processor and graphics hardware, your memory allotment will directly impact how well you can take advantage of that performance. 4GB. Everything was holding thus far. The baseline for RAM in a computer is 4GB; typically, it will do the job – just don’t expect to have several applications open at the same time without affecting performance. It took another 16 years to match this … Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. By testing a variety of use cases on different amounts of RAM, we can get a very good idea what sort of uses can be comfortably done with how much RAM, and even give you an idea of how you can stretch the RAM you’ve got. On our 4GB system, this was enough to overwhelm the laptop, causing the system to slow to a crawl, and basic functionality to become inconsistent. We started with a list of 10 popular websites and then opened new tabs of these same websites in batches of 10. In addition, memory cards and floppy or CD discs are popular ways to hold extra files or programs when your memory runs out. The sweet spot for memory for both laptops and desktops is 8GB. Conclusion: in short, here is how much RAM you need in your laptop: Casual user with low budget: 4GB Normal user’s : 8 GB Gamers: 8GB to 16 GB Video, Image editors and 3D Graphic developers: 16 … When we ran the game on our Alienware 15, we saw that firing up Steam and opening GTAV from our games library resulted in 5,324 MB of in-use memory, with 9,319 in standby. We’re here to fix that. The 4GB laptop hit that limit after simple opening some documents and a handful of browser tabs. I have no idea what is considered a small or large amount of memory space. Whatever your mix of uses, we can give you a very good idea of how much memory will be enough to meet the demands of the task. Streaming music or binging on videos is a slightly different use case than simple web browsing, putting its own stresses on memory. Pictures on a computer amass space fairly slowly, and a computer of 25 GB can hold many thousands of photographs. But these days solid state drives are the norm, especially in ultrathin laptops. My think my current laptop has 150 GB of memory and this is about right for my needs. The 8GB system did better, providing good support for photo editing in addition to a healthy number of browser tabs and simultaneous media streams, while the 16GB system supported dozens of tabs, an unreasonable number of concurrent media streams and even offered usable gaming right up to the end. A memory around 125-150 GB may be necessary for users with large amount of entertainment. Low-end gaming doesn’t require much in the way of hardware, letting you play games like Cuphead, Minecraft or Overwatch without investing in a purpose-built machine. The 8GB Dell Inspiron 17 continued with normal functioning. Then we opened up 10 browser tabs, followed by 2 media streams (one audio, one video). Those numbers held fairly steady throughout actual gameplay, so there’s no appreciable difference between running the game and playing the game that we could see. On Windows 10, click on Memory to look at your current RAM usage. How much RAM do I need? I have a new HP Pavilion dv6 laptop computer. The casual music or video fan with a normal amount of school or business work on a computer can survive easily with around 50 GB. Please refresh the page and try again. That would cost a bit more, but the memory capacity will be absolutely useful on the long run. Even with all the pictures I have stored on there I still have a lot of memory left. Whenever your computer loads a program or opens a file, it opens up that data in RAM. You're now deep in the realm of heavy lifting. RAM is where data is stored before processing. Memory demands stay quite reasonable, running smoothly with 4-8GB of RAM. Everything still worked, including the game. As you approach the limits of your memory, the impact on your productivity and user experience will be felt more and more, right up until you can’t do much of anything. This is a lot of music and video for most users, but combining the media can add up quickly and may fill your MP3 player and come close to filling older computers with GB amount around 30-50. The casual music or video fan with a normal amount of school or business work on a computer can survive easily with around 50 GB. Whether we had one Word doc open or 10 files open across 5 programs, working with standard small documents barely exceeded 5GB of memory in use, and never exceeded 7GB of memory in use and in standby. You will confuse the uninitiated. When combining school work with multiple recreational programs and large amounts of media, a computer around the size of 150 GB may be needed. For the most part, today’s home computers have either 4, 8 or 16 GB of RAM, while some high-end PCs can have as much as 32, 64, or even 128 GB of RAM. Key takeaway: You can do a lot of work with only 4GB of memory, but if you need to work with extremely large files, you’ll want to bump up to 8GB or more. However, you should have at least 4 GB of RAM if you want to open more than one or two tabs at once. For this particular game, we’d echo the recommendation to have 8GB of memory or more, and think our 16GB system probably hits the sweet spot for playing demanding AAA titles. For this test we looked at various programs in Microsoft’s Office Suite, examining how large files stress memory as well as using multiple productivity programs at once. Check your PC’s current RAM usage. While these five use cases are all common, they’re also relatively simple in the sense that the testing focused on one or two specific uses at a time. You will receive a verification email shortly. Many are made to be pocket size, and nearly all external hard drives can fit easily on a computer desk next to your laptop. The Pentium processor is the better choice between the two. But not everything is quite so demanding, and you can find games that will run on nearly any laptop out there. We ratcheted up to 50 tabs. The more RAM your computer has, the more you can do at once. I am so used to storing everything from pictures, music, videos and documents that I don't like to think about running out of space. For this we used Grand Theft Auto V. It’s not the newest game on the market, but it’s still relatively demanding, requiring a decent graphics card to handle all the visuals. We tested with a number of documents with upward of 1,000 pages. a 2GB RAM computer is enough to get most work smoothly done in a Windows 10 PC including Adobe Photoshop. For those who already own computers and are running out of laptop memory, there are ways of supplementing your hard drive space without having to buy a new laptop. A swap file still lets you get some things done, but will be dramatically slower. If y… If you want to do things like stream to Twitch, we’d recommend opting for the 32GB options offered on many gaming PCs. This test was rather eye-opening in how clearly it showed the impact of web browsing on memory use. I mostly use my laptop to surf the internet and read my email. Depending on the uses of your laptop, your budget, and the type of computer you are buying, the differences in memory can be vast. It’s ideal for professional work and more demanding … So, what's the difference between them? When we tried to reopen the still-running game, the system locked up and refused to cooperate. Ideally, you should go for a laptop with 16GB of RAM. They also use a mechanical arm with a read/write head that moves around. Before you decide how much memory to add to your new computer, first consider how you plan to use your computer. How much RAM do I need? Here’s how to check how much your system has. Key takeaway: If you’re a heavy web user, you can get by with 4GB of RAM, but will definitely see a benefit from a larger allotment, such as 8GB. For personal use, not many users need more laptop memory than 150 GB, and most can make do with half that amount. @anon92038 -- I feel the same way as you do. For example, Batman Arkham Knight runs well on systems with Windows 7 / 8 with 8GB RAM but will stutter on systems with Windows 10 with 8GB RAM. we've got answers. While creating and editing documents is generally a low-resource task, office productivity gets much more demanding as you open multiple files in multiple programs. Key takeaway: The bottom line here is that you can use Photoshop CC with the minimum 2.5GB required, but you’ll see smoother performance and better photo handling with larger allotments of RAM. Where things really get interesting, however, is when you’re working on multiple photos. This smaller memory size can cut a computer price by as much as 10-15%. “How much RAM do I need?” It’s one of the most frequent questions asked by anyone buying or upgrading a desktop or laptop, and while there are some reasonable stock answers that people usually share, there is no one-size-fits-all answer, and very little of the advice you do see has any real testing to back it up. If you want to run a program, it pulls the data from long-term storage on your hard drive to short-term storage in RAM, where it can be accessed quickly enough for smooth operation. In these titles, the amount of RAM used in total ranges from 6.6GB to 11.3GB (F1 2018 and The Division 2, respectively). 4 GB is found in regular desktops and office computers or those still running a 32-bit OS. Whether your memory is for music, videos and other entertainment, or for school work or business work, the amount of gigabytes (GB) of memory needed can vary greatly. We did this on both the Dell Inspiron 17 and the Alienware 15, without trouble. Unless you plan on doing a huge amount of multitasking while gaming, there’s little reason for most gaming rigs to go beyond 16GB of memory. To help you find the best answer for you, we tested for five specific use cases, each common but distinct in its memory demands: Each of these uses is common, but has distinctly different hardware requirements and memory demands. How much is the average cost of a laptop memory upgrade? I would prefer an easy to install, easy to use, flash drive. For this level of gaming, 16GB seems to be the sweet spot, meeting all of the memory needs for unimpeded gameplay without throwing extra money into an already-expensive system. Learn about a little known plugin that tells you if you're getting the best price on Amazon. 8GB RAM. You can check out our story “How much RAM do I need” for the details. Laptop Mag is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. On a 16GB system, that’s a sizable chunk of memory to dedicate to a single program. We look at how gaming impacts memory use, what the requirements are for various current titles, and whether or not it’s worth getting memory that is optimized for gaming. The following chart provides a general idea of how a computer will run with various amounts of memory: Minimum: 4 GB Optimal: 8 GB Smooth Sailing: 16 GB or more Here's when it could launch, Nintendo Switch Pro potential leak reveals tons of exciting details. Want to do some document work and web browsing but still want the option to do more? This was much cheaper than buying a new computer and also pretty easy to figure out how to use. Depending on the amount, it can drive up the price of the laptop considerably. If you're thinking of investing in a … Photo editing is far more demanding than basic office or web functionality, and is usually right on the cusp of what an affordable system can do well. To test multitasking we started by simple adding one use case on top of another, and ran the same test on three different systems: An inexpensive Dell Inspiron 11 2-in-1 with 4GB of RAM, a mid-range Dell Inspiron 17 5767 with 8GB of RAM and the Alienware 15 R3 with 16GB of memory. Switching between windows became difficult and the laptop finally locked up when we tried to open more browser tabs or photos. But if Activity Monitor is telling you your RAM is full to the brim, you probably need more. 2. Scroll down to Installed Physical Memory (RAM) and see how much memory is installed on your computer. And moving beyond 16 GB is going to be a smaller boost still. For each program you run, it will actively use some of the space for in-use memory and allocate some of the available space as standby memory, essentially reserved space for potential operations. Also, be on the lookout for the type of RAM available. Key takeaway: Multitaskers should really opt for 8 GB of RAM when possible, and those running multiple applications along with a ton of tabs should opt for 16 GB. Adobe recommends your system have at least 2.5GB of RAM to run Photoshop CC in Windows (3GB to run it on Mac), but in our testing it used 5GB … You will need at least 2 GB of RAM to use basic programs like Microsoft Word or surf the web. External hard drives are available for a quarter of the price of most computers, and many of these offer at least 100 GB of memory. Check the graphics hardware requirements for individual games to … You are talking about storage not memory, which are two different things. For use case testing we used an Alienware 15 R3, equipped with an Intel Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX970M graphics card. How much RAM do you really need for gaming? About the only thing I store on there is a few pictures and a text document every now and then. My laptop also seems to run slower when it has so much stuff stored on it. While every gamer knows that the best gaming laptops need to have impressive graphics and processing hardware, the place of memory in that overall equation is something of a mystery. At this point, on both the 8GB Dell Inspiron 178 and the 16GB Alienware 15, you’ll notice that the amount of standby memory changes, reprioritizing things to briefly open up additional free space. I never store that much information on my laptop so look for models that are cheaper and have less memory. Amazon Doesn't Want You to Know About This Plugin. Subsequent sets of 10 increased the in-use memory to 7,699 MB for 20 photos and 8,828 MB for 30 images. We repeated the increasing demands, stepping up to 40 Chrome tabs, 8 media streams and 40 photos in Photoshop. Will this be your only drive for storage? Our initial testing showed no real impact on memory usage from actual use, with little to no difference between viewing open photos, simply cropping photos or performing complex edits with multiple layers. RAM modules take up precious space, so laptops are typically engineered with only two RAM slots, and both are usually occupied by existing memory when you buy it. Remove Memory if Necessary: If all of your memory slots are already filled, you'll need to pull out the … Subscribe to our newsletter and learn something new every day. My needs RAM you need always will come back to what you want to do with.! The more RAM your computer has, the system locked up when we tried to more... 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By a laptop that comes from the factory with 4GB of memory if Activity Monitor is telling you RAM! Show you how to use your computer has, the hottest reviews, deals! Adobe Photoshop you might need 8-16 GB of RAM to use basic programs like Word! Memory needed by a laptop owner can depend on a computer that should also be for. Out there, this write up was so beneficial of multitasking or use intensive programs gaming rig can the. News, the system locked up when we tried to reopen the still-running game, these simple should..., especially in ultrathin laptops to use your computer loads a program or opens file. Pc components go, RAM is the better choice between the celeron and the Alienware 15, trouble! Will be streaming media, a basic memory configuration will work back in on GTA V found! Memory runs out is, you ’ re streaming an unenjoyable cacophony of and. Cheaper and have less memory opened all of my pictures on my laptop and them!, memory cards and floppy or CD discs are popular ways to Save Money that lets...