Built my new PC in late 2023… so glad I put 96 GB of RAM into it, despite several people asking me why the fuck I need so much RAM…
I mean I have 16 and 8 in graphics card, I have never used more than half my RAM gaming, maybe you don’t NEED that much RAM.
Making games often makes it nice to have 32gb
I just played ow 2 yesterday and the game was taking 20gb of ram
Theres far more demanding things than games
Oh, there can be all kinds of uses.
For example, I own an LTO tape drive. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the IBM drivers to compile on my particular flavor of Linux, but I do have a dual boot system.
Now, Windows is a shitty, shitty OS that I only boot up when I really need to. It interferes with all kinds of stuff in ways I hate, for example - copying files. It just refuses to read large files in a continuous, reliable data stream without any interruptions from my SSD when backing them up to tape. This causes the LTO drive to slow down, speed up, rewind, which is not a good thing because it causes additional wear on the tape.
Fix: Create a large RAM drive, copy files to RAM drive, run backup with RAM drive as source.
Just throw that in a omv server, idk what drive you have but it should be supported, do whatever works for you though
IBM stopped their support for LTFS, unfortunately. Which I kinda want to use despite all the drawbacks. And well, the RAM disk workaround does the trick, so there’s not enough pain to compel me into investing more time into the issue.
AS long AS you dont plan on selling your Ram I would still ask why you need so much RAM (if youre not running a lot if AI locally)
I’m a software architect. I work with large amounts of data. And a sizeable RAM disk is generally useful for many purposes. And yes, I also run AI locally, though that’s what my RTX 4090 is for.
I really wanted to build an AI PC but just kept being busy and kept telling myself that since prices always drop that I’m just wasting my money by doing it.
Boy am I upset lately.
You can still buy the Framework Strix Halo board (with 128GB RAM) for $2k. For now.
I have a 3090, yet I’m still seriously considering it. The CPU itself is an engineering marvel, not to speak of the ridiculously fast RAM and IGP.
Only caveat is you better be a Python/Linux person. As you will be building forks and beating your head against the screen to get the setup working right.
I installed 64GB when I built my current rig five years ago, because I do (or, did) graphic design for a living and Photoshop will use all the RAM you can throw at it. I routinely worked on files in the 10GB size range, and sometimes larger. The RAM makes a big difference in how long filters take to render on such large image layers–from minutes, down to seconds.
You don’t understand how many tabs I need open.
I saw it coming when Trump got reelected and wanted to setup tariffs. So I upgraded all my PCs before he took office and I am glad I did. Can easily last 5 more years.
I’ll be the first to say “well done, you”. I only got 32 could’ve easily spulrged at least for 64.
Same here when I built mine early March last year. Hindsight is 20/20…
The DDR4 sticks I got 18 months ago now cost 300-400% the price they were, so it’s not just DDR5.
… and I just realised the title doesn’t actually mean “DDR5 prices”, but that was an easy misinterpretation on my part, so I guess I’ll post this anyway.
Me to my 10 year old gaming pc: “I guess it’ll be another couple of years, buddy.”
They aren’t really making a ton of games that justify a costly upgrade anyways.
Honestly, my PC at this point plays FFXIV and that’s basically it. And I’m OK with that.
Can’t wait for yhem to push forced end of life on all computers
Microsoft tried that with TPM. Which you can bypass for the most part with Rufus and a clean install. Still some kernel anticheat games you can’t do so so easily.
I’ve already switched over to Linux, just got one more system to migrate. So far 100% worth it to not deal with Microslop.
What I am truly afraid of, is they somehow get ahold of Linux, and force slopware onto it, including that EoL bs. Keep offline devices as backup.
Uh that can’t happen with Linux. The closest you can look at is Red Hat, which doesn’t affect distros from Debian or Arch.
I agree. I recently swapped out my aging 2600x6core for a 5950x32core processor and upgraded from an 3070ti to a 5070 (well actually more of a sidegrade - my vram was simply too small). before this, my system had already a few years where there wasn’t much difference regarding gaming - In the current configuration and the glacial speed gaming developed i’d say i have a decade before upgrades are really needed.
My computer can run heavily modded Minecraft and honestly that’s all I need.
Will it Minecraft (with mods) is also the test I apply to every system I build or buy
Same, but with Skyrim!
Right? My APU can run almost all games up to 2020 in 3k. Not high-fps but i’m not sensible to that.
Except a few, like Valheim and Empyrion, which have 1 fps on the menu.
Do they require some special instruction sets or something, that a APU can’t handle?
Give it a lil pat pat for good measure
Saaame. I’m still chugging along with an RTX 2060 😭
I’m running a 1070.
Same here, running my 3700X with a 3080.
I should’ve pulled the trigger on the 9800X3D last year like I wanted, but thought it was just too expensive.
Welp.
Don’t worry, I suspect Cloud Terminals will be super cheap. You won’t even need that ol’ thing anymore!
Another couple of decades, even!
what a stupid metric…
That ain’t metric
How much is that in dodge RAMs?
This article sucks… I think they felt the need to excuse AI lest they upset corporate masters
While it’s easy to point the finger at AI’s unquenchable memory thirst for the current crisis, it’s not the only reason.
Followed by:
DRAM production hasn’t kept up with demand. Older memory types are being phased out, newer ones are steered toward higher margin customers, and consumer RAM is left exposed whenever supply tightens.
Production has not kept up with demand… demand being super charged by AI purchases
…newer ones are steered towards higher margin customers… again AI
consumer RAM is left exposed whenever supply tightens… because of AI
The LLM writing this feels almost sentient lol.
You see, it’s easy to blame AI data centers buying all the RAM - but that’s only half the story! the other half of the story is manufacturers selling to these data centers
I looked at how much my 128GB DDR4 costs and holy shit £900. Timed my build well I feel with the 3080Ti.
sell it and buy again cheaper later on -> profit
Can’t wait to enjoy cheap PC parts again while eating cat meat in a burned out car under a collapsed overpass.
If you sell your RAM quickly enough, you might be able to afford the dog meat, my friend.
The cat meat will do for a while. I know a place in Hawaii where there will be lots of delicious lean man meat. Just got to smoke em out first.
the macbook air ram is also faster lpddr
You know at this point people are probably gonna start insuring their RAM…
Amazon right now 700+ for two sticks of 32GB DDR5. Crazy
When the yet-to-be data centers never get built because AI slop bubble pops, we will be able to build houses out of RAM sticks for the poor
the problem with data center hardware is that they are often bespoke and nowadays can’t be reused in a consumer context. Think about those headless GPUs, they probably making these RAM modules with a different interface.
They will just be e-waste instead of having the possibility of being surplus.
Those headless GPUs are great for simulation work in blender and other creative tools. I’d love an opportunity to buy a good used one on the cheap.
The modules yes, but ram is bought on the chip level. If the modules are never built, the chips can be reused in normal dimms.
Worst case we get a new HBM dimm format :D
Theyll just manufacture another reason to keep prices high
Ahhh the de beers technique
Slaves have become very expensive. Pay more for rock.
I can’t believe I snagged strix halo 128GB ram mini PC for 1600$ when it first came out
Oh no
Im on Linux and it requires just as much memory as it did in 2018. No problem here.
I upgraded mine from 16GB to 32GB two years ago beacuse RAM was cheap. I didn’t really need it, and have probably never hit 16GB usage anyway.
Meanwhile my work Windows laptop uses 16GB at idle after first login.
Windows has always been wasteful computing, and everyone just pays for it.
I wish I had a 32gb ram laptop.
I can have 3 development IDEs open at once, and with all the browser tabs open and a few other programs here and there its stretching the limits on my Mac.
I have 32GB on my Windows PC laptop it can’t do three at once.
Running the backend (java) and the frontend (react native) in intellij uses 29GB RAM, so I must run Android on real hardware over ADB+USB. Running an android simulator pushes it over the edge.
Also: Laptops are shit. On Windows, the tau is so bad that the cores are throttled straight after boot because the cooling is rubbish. It almost never hits full speed. It can’t survive more than 40 minutes on a full battery. It might as well be a NUC.
What does Windows have to do with cooling? That is a hardware problem.
You’d have the same issues if you installed Arch on it.
Stop blaming Windows for all your problems.
Are you using a cooling pad?
Yep. With active fans.
You might want to use Process Manager or the like to see if something is pegging the CPU/GPU. What is the model?
Also: Laptops are shit. On Windows, the tau is so bad that the cores are throttled straight after boot because the cooling is rubbish. It almost never hits full speed. It can’t survive more than 40 minutes on a full battery.
That’s the reason I have not bought a new laptop in years. Everything must be as thin as possible because apple did it. Fuck that. I want my laptop as thick as a brick to have enough cooling for CPU, GPU and a 6l V8 engine, and a battery that will outlast the sun!
Ya, macs are definitely more efficient with their ram.
I’ll have Android Studio open for my main work, Intellij Idea for all the backend work, and Xcode when I need to tweak some iPhone things. (edit: usually it’s just 2 of the 3, but sometimes its all 3)
I also mainly use real devices for testing,and opening emulators if all 3 are open can be a problem, and it’s so annoying opening and closing things.
Empty ram is inherently wasteful.
Linux doesn’t waste RAM. All unused RAM becomes a disk read cache, but remains available on demand.
Cool, so the thing you stated wasn’t what happened, and you’re correcting me for not fact checking your comment.
Requiring less RAM is good, but conceptually, it’s Linux that is “wasting” the RAM by never using it. It’s there, and it’s reusable, fill it up! Now, does Windows make good use of it? No idea. Wouldn’t bet on it, but I could be surprised.
What for? My system only has I/O if i open a file and that doesn’t need to go faster, because NVME.
And no, it doesn’t work like that; a desktop pc is not a smarthone. Used RAM gets reserved and you get a OOM freeze or snipe if it’s full.
Linux uses “free” ram for caching, so it’s not really wasted.
Seems like you (or your company) installed loads of bloat.
You do know you can disable programs from starting during boot, right?
I fired up procexp and found nessus scanning every file on my drive. I found the SentinelOne had written 10GB of logs since start. I found some bullshit dell service was slamming the CPU. It’s all shit that my company put there.
I found that it adds an extra 7 minutes to a 12 minute build when I compile my project, compared to doing it on WSL. The Windows bloat is insane.
Storing data in ram isn’t wasteful though, I have a lot of criticisms of windows but the memory management isn’t one of them. I’d rather have as much predictive content be staged in ram as possible as long as it’s readily dumped out if I go to do something else, which is my experience. Like I don’t earn interest for having unused RAM on my computers (for reference I have an endeavorOS, rhel, fedora, and windows computers under my desk connected to a dual monitor kvm right now; it isn’t like I don’t regularly use/prefer Linux; I mostly access my windows machine via rustdesk for work related stuff I don’t feel like having to dick with on Linux like the purchase order system and Timecard system), I just don’t get this critique.
I regret not buying a new mini PC during the holiday sales 2 month ago.
I can’t believe how lucky I was to upgrade my desktop before the surge. This is an outrage!
I did my desktop but skipped my server.
Even decade+ old used surplus server DDR4 didn’t escape the apocalypse.
Built a new PC in April 2025. 192GB DDR5 for 650€. This is totally insane.
Same … I hadn’t upgraded since 2012, and had some extra cash, so rebuilt in August. Feeling pretty lucky to have done it then, and really glad I went ahead and put 64GB RAM in it.
You waited a long time holy shit. I regret not getting 64 gb in 2024 when I did my current build.
Yea, the 2012 build was a 3770k with 16 gb ram, multiple SSDs, a GTX680, etc. So it was a pretty fast machine back in the day.
I upgraded the video card and SSD drives several times, just didn’t have the budget to replace it all at once for a long time.
I did as well which is a polite way of saying I blew all my RAM savings on the how overpriced GPUs were at the time
Same. Feel like I could sell my rig for more than it cost me a 18 months ago.
Minus the case and video card, I have an entire 3rd gen i7 machine sitting in a box that would actually make a pretty good machine for a lot of different uses.
I upgraded January last year. My only regret now is not getting 64GB of ram
