So, I’ve obtained to ask: Did you guys see this entire reminiscence disaster coming a mile off, or what? Because, whereas we’re frequently bemoaning the state of the trade with AI datacenter enterprise hoarding all of the obtainable reminiscence as quick as Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron could make it—and the following pricing batshittery that has adopted it—you lot have seemingly been securing yourselves in opposition to the RAMpocalypse.
With the subject of widespread {hardware} value rises owing to this reminiscence demand and provide situation being one thing that’s nearly completely in our heads on the PCG {hardware} workforce, we thought it value simply discovering out the way you guys had been faring in these troubling occasions.
So, over the previous week, we have been asking one easy query: How a lot RAM do you’ve got in your present gaming rig? And the solutions have been apparently enlightening; mainly, the overwhelming majority of you had already protected your self from the core situation by filling your machines with an entire lot of RAM already.
I’ll admit I had my very own expectations, which have been completely overturned by the information you guys have supplied. I believed that there would successfully be some level-pegging between these rocking 16 GB of RAM and people with 32 GB of their gaming PCs. But the numbers should not even shut.
A strong 50% of readers have already got 32 GB of RAM of their primary gaming PCs, which is by far the largest contingent within the outcomes. Those with 16 GB of RAM surprisingly solely make up 18% of the readers who responded to the survey, which is definitely lower than the quantity of people that’ve gone even larger with 64 GB of RAM. Golly.
In truth, in case you mix the three% nonetheless sporting 8 GB of reminiscence (how do you get something carried out, and which model of Linux are you utilizing?) and people with 16 GB, that solely nearly tops the quantity with 64 GB, after which by solely 133 votes.
Then you’ve got the native AI luvvers (absolutely) who’re sporting greater than 64 GB of RAM, which makes up a surprisingly giant 7% of responders.
The factor to notice right here, nonetheless, is that we’re nonetheless simply speaking about capability, and that is not the be-all and end-all of reminiscence. You may very well be sitting on a ton of DDR4 RAM with a restricted improve path for future CPU platforms. But in at the moment’s local weather, I’d most likely be happier sitting on 32 GB DDR4 than 16 GB DDR5, as a result of even the CPUs of these latter generations will nonetheless be preserving trendy GPUs fortunately fed with uncooked frames to play with.
It additionally does not safe you in opposition to the knock-on results of the reminiscence disaster, both. Sure, you might need plenty of system reminiscence, however shopping for additional storage to your PC or NAS field remains to be a nightmare expertise. To say nothing of the rising costs of PCs, laptops, graphics playing cards, and just about anything that may declare to wish reminiscence.
I’d guess we’re not far off peripheral makers attempting to justify a me-too value hike by saying the reminiscence chips they want for saving tiny profiles necessitate 200% will increase.
Let us know within the feedback the place you stand on this sliding scale of reminiscence capability, and the way the reminiscence disaster has affected you and your PC gaming expertise.