Today I did the last possible upgrade supported by this processor and its board, both components from 2012. I have upgraded the RAM from 16 to 32GB.
The change is not as noticeable as going from 8GB to 16GB, which is enough for most common tasks. But for heavy use editing large files and the inevitable multitasking I was starting to ask for extra RAM.
do I need 32GB of RAM?
Yes and no, it will always depend on your needs and how you use the machine.
The scenarios in which doubling the memory is a good choice are very specific.
Improve performance moving heavy files and projects. Photoshop, Premiere and After Effects and other editors suck memory like crazy and for large projects they limit multitasking and the use of any other application in the background, this is where the 32 GB is most noticeable and useful.
For me it is essential to be able to open everything I need to consult while I work, listen to music, play video, everything related to the procrastination of the obligatory breaks.
In addition, having more space always prolongs the life of the components and extends the useful life of the equipment. Last but not least, it was a cheap upgrade. The four 8GB Kingston Fury modules cost just under €50 in that popular Chinese store.
Not for gaming, at the moment
Where this expense is of no interest whatsoever, at least for the moment, is for gaming because there is hardly any noticeable improvement beyond scratching an FPS or two and loading the game a little faster.
Even the few games that were announced at the time as needing 32GB of RAM (the first was Returnal and more recently Hogwarts Legacy) never actually occupied them and with 16 they could be played in medium quality and lowering some options.
All this depends largely on your processor, Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, recommends 12GB and with 16GB, depending on what machine, it runs poorly.
With 16GB of RAM and a good graphics card you can still stretch the machinery, if it is not too old, to play the vast majority of current games. Another thing is that developers will go overboard tomorrow and embrace games with really high requirements.
These were the outgoing 4GB modules from 2012 that are no longer in production.
4 x 4GB DDR3, 1600 Mhz modules (Kingston Hyperx Genesis)
Make, model, speeds and latency: Kingston HyperX KHX1600C9D3/4G 4 GB DDR3-1600 DDR3 SDRAM (11-9-9-9-27 @ 800 MHz) (10-9-9-9-27 @ 800 MHz) (9-9-9-27 @ 800 MHz) (8-8-8-8-24 @ 711 MHz) (7-7-7-21 @ 622 MHz) (6-6-6-18 @ 533 MHz) (5-5-5-15 @ 444 MHz)
