The maximum random access memory (RAM) installed in any computer system is limited by hardware, software and economic factors. The hardware may have a limited number of address bus bits, limited by the processor package or design of the system.
Is 64/128 GB of RAM Overkill? For the majority of users, it is. If you plan on building a PC purely for gaming and some general, basic, everyday activity, 64 GB of RAM is just too much. The amount of RAM you need will ultimately depend on your workload.
As you can see, it is definitely possible to have a computer with 2TB RAM; however, there are some considerations that you should be aware of before making any decisions.
How much RAM do you have in your PC? If you're an average user then you probably have between 4GB and 16GB of RAM. But modern workstations take a lot of RAM. For example, Apple's new Mac Pro can be kitted out with a whopping 1.5TB of RAM.
Is 1TB of RAM overkill? On most systems, RAM is one of the worst limiting factors when running virtual machines. With 1TB of RAM, this is no longer a concern. That much RAM lets you spin up dozens of virtual systems without impacting overall system performance.
For gaming purposes, 128 GB of RAM would be considered overkill. Even the most modern and demanding games do not require more than 16 GB of RAM. While it is true that having excess RAM will not harm the system, it will add to the cost of the system without providing any significant benefits.
Is 256 GB of RAM enough? The reality is that 256GB of internal storage is probably going to be plenty enough for most people who don't already have (or anticipate having) a ton of locally stored photos, video, video games, or music that can't either be easily offloaded into the cloud, or to a backup drive.
In all seriousness, yes, it is overkill unless you're running a huge server that hundreds or even thousands of people may be using/playing on at any given time. For gaming it would be useless past 16.
For typical light PC use - web browsing, office apps, etc - yes, massively overkill. 8GB of RAM or less is more than sufficient for that sort of thing.
With 1TB of RAM, you could buffer dozens or even hundreds of videos (on YouTube, Vimeo, DailyMotion, and other sites) ahead of time to play at your leisure. Normally this is a bad idea, because loading data from virtual RAM to physical RAM is slow. But if you have 1TB of RAM, this won't ever be a problem for you.
Compared to DDR4, DDR5 RAM kits have a higher base speed, support higher-capacity DIMM modules (also called RAM sticks), and consume less power for the same performance specs as the previous generation. However, DDR4 still holds some key advantages, like overall lower latency and better stability.
If you use your computer for less resource-dependent tasks and applications, then 3200MHz RAM will be great for you. However, if you use your PC for gaming, video editing, or other applications that require high speeds, you'll want to opt for 3600MHz RAM.
If you plan on streaming or running multiple applications while your games are running — OBS Studio, a web browser, etc. — 32GB will give you a little more room, and top-tier gamers might even want to go for 48GB with a non-binary memory kit.
Yes, it is possible for a computer to have 1TB of RAM. The largest commercially available server-class computer can be configured with 2TB of RAM and the highest capacity consumer-grade PC can have 128GB of RAM.
With 1TB of RAM, you can run as many virtual machines as you need without any limits. Video editing and rendering require a lot of memory.
The system has 192 GB of memory per front-end and 7.6 petabytes (PB) of disk cache. Data stored on disk is regularly migrated to the tape archival storage systems at the facility to free up space for other user projects being run on the supercomputers.
DDR6 RAM is expected to begin the testing phase of production in 2024 and be available to buy sometime during 2026. While the standard is still in development, you can expect speeds in the area of 12,800Mbps for DDR6.
To a certain extent, RAM does affect FPS or even improves FPS, which is more true for laptops with integrated graphics or AMD CPU. Frankly speaking, more RAM will undoubtedly help to improve FPS or game performance, but it will not be so much compared to graphics cards and CPUs.
As we noted after our Intel testing, 4000MHz or higher RAM only really makes sense for high-end systems, like a Ryzen 9 3950X or Core i9 10900K with an RTX 2080 Ti, where you're already essentially at the limits of consumer PC gaming. For all that is holy, don't forget to set your RAM to its XMP speeds in the BIOS.
DDR6 RAM is the next generation of computer memory, promising faster performance and greater capacity than the current DDR4 RAM. While DDR5 RAM is under development, DDR6 is expected to be the largest upgrade in memory technology in recent years.
DigiTimes say prices will continue to drop rapidly in the second half of 2022 and will hit the "sweet spot" in 2023. Falling DDR5 prices are also expected to boost the adoption rate of DDR5.
This is a very typical result. DDR4 comes out roughly 4fps ahead of DDR5. The only spec here where the DDR5 came out ahead was the “CPU Simulation” where DDR5 got 410.8fps and DDR4 got 401.8 fps on the minimums. The average differed by 3fps, which at 400fps for either, means less than a one percent difference.
1024 GB or 1 TB of RAM is definitely overkill for the vast majority of uses. There are certainly contexts where it's useful (large in-memory databases for example) but for most people it would just be a big waste of money.
If the memory usage is close to 100%, this can slow things down a lot. This is because the computer will then try to use your hard disk as a temporary memory store, called swap memory. Hard disks are much slower than the system memory. You can try to free up some system memory by closing some programs.