RAM costs have risen to ridiculous heights over the previous 6 months. It is to the purpose the place you could be higher off buying a prebuilt PC than attempting to supply the elements at cheap costs your self.
And with a looming GPU shortage coming in 2026, it is solely going to worsen for potential PC builders.
RAM requirements for the top 20 most popular PC games
|
Game |
Minimum |
Recommended |
Max |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Fortnite |
8GB |
16GB |
16GB |
|
Roblox |
1GB |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Minecraft |
2GB |
4GB |
N/A |
|
League of Legends |
2GB |
4GB |
16GB |
|
Counter-Strike 2 |
8GB |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Valorant |
4GB |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Overwatch 2 |
6GB |
8GB |
N/A |
|
Apex Legends |
6GB |
8GB |
N/A |
|
Rocket League |
4GB |
8GB |
N/A |
|
Genshin Impact |
8GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
PUBG: Battlegrounds |
8GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
GTA: V (Enhanced) |
8GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
Dota 2 |
4GB |
N/A |
N/A |
|
Helldivers 2 |
8GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) |
8GB |
12GB |
16GB |
|
Arc Raiders |
12GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
Battlefield 6 |
16GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
Marvel Rivals |
16GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
Path of Exile 2 |
8GB |
16GB |
N/A |
|
Rust |
12GB |
16GB |
N/A |
Note: Statistics for this list were pulled from Steam’s “Top 100 played games by Daily Players” checklist and estimates from activeplayer.io’s “Top 15 Most Popular PC Games of 2025” checklist. They aren’t sorted by complete participant rely. RAM necessities have been collected from the system necessities sections.
As you possibly can see from the desk above, 8GB is by no small margin the commonest minimal RAM requirement for contemporary video games.
Up to now, I would suggest a minimal of 16GB of DDR5 – and that is nonetheless what I finally suppose you must intention for, and what exhibits up most prevalently within the Advisable class – however with memory prices the way they are now, you could possibly skate by with half that. At the very least till RAM costs stabilize once more and you’ll take into consideration upgrading.
Sadly, just a few video games checklist a “max” configuration requirement, however people who do all specify 16GB.
It is also necessary to notice that if you happen to run different applications, akin to Chrome and Discord, for music and comms whilst you recreation, you will have to issue that RAM utilization into your setup.
Google Chrome sucks up a ton of free reminiscence – in fact, some browsers are higher optimized – however it’s possible you’ll run into bogged-down efficiency if you happen to’re working a resource-intensive recreation at excessive settings with these different applications within the background.
There are additionally a number of exceptions I would like to spotlight from the checklist, specifically Minecraft and Roblox. Each of those video games are basically playgrounds for mods, and if you happen to’re taking part in a very spectacular Roblox recreation or considered one of Minecraft‘s many huge modpacks, you are going to want extra RAM than simply 1 or 2GB.
How much RAM do I need on my laptop?
If you’re not a gamer and mainly use a laptop for work and media, my recommendations remain the same as they have for the past few years.
8GB is a solid minimum to shoot for – unless you’re using a Chromebook, in which case 4GB is sufficient thanks to ChromeOS optimizations. 16GB is better if you push the limit on open Chrome tabs or run heavier programs like Photoshop. You might want 24GB in case your job entails video enhancing or working with LLMs.
Something greater than that may be a superfluous cherry on prime.
How much RAM do I have?
If you want to find out how much RAM you currently have in your system, it’s quick and easy – here’s how.
- For Windows 10 and 11, open the Windows Start menu from your taskbar (or by clicking the Windows button on your keyboard). Then, type in “About your PC.” Your RAM is shown under “Installed Memory.”
- For macOS, click the Apple icon at the top left of your screen, then select “About this Mac.” Your RAM is displayed by “Memory.”
This is also where you can see your CPU, GPU, device model, and operating system model.
To see how a lot of your RAM is at present in use on a Home windows machine, open Process Supervisor (right-click the taskbar and choose “Process Supervisor”), then go to the Efficiency tab (second possibility within the left-side navigation).
On macOS, open the Highlight search bar (Command + House), then sort in “Exercise Monitor.” Click on the Reminiscence tab within the prime navigation bar to view your present RAM utilization.
It is a good strategy to see in case your utilization habits stumble upon the upper finish of your complete put in reminiscence, which is a sign that it could be time for an improve.
The most effective DDR5 RAM for all budgets
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