Is 32 GB RAM Overkill for Gaming in 2024?

As an avid gamer and content creator myself, I get asked this question a lot when advising people building new high-end gaming PCs. And my answer usually boils down to this:

For most gamers, 32GB of RAM remains overkill for smooth 1080p or 1440p gaming performance in 2024. But it does provide extra breathing room for extreme multitasking, future-proofing, and edge case performance gains.

Let‘s do a deep dive on the current state of game memory requirements and why shelling out for that 32GB RAM kit can still be justified.

Current and Future Game RAM Usage

Modern big-budget video games continue to become more visually impressive but also ever more memory-hungry. Recent blockbuster examples like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) recommend a system memory capacity of 12GB RAM just to meet the published minimum specs.

And while 16GB remains sufficient for now, games have been slowly ratcheting up their memory usage every year. Here‘s a chart showing how the average RAM requirements of popular game releases on PC has risen over the past five years:

Assuming this trajectory continues, we can expect the average memory usage to surpass 16GB by around 2026.

Now take into account usual hardware upgrade cycles…

If you bought a high-end Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU today, you‘d reasonably expect to still run new games on high-to-max settings for at least the next 3-4 years. Maybe stretching it to 5 years if you don‘t mind tweaking some settings down.

But a 16GB RAM kit purchased now may start struggling to keep up before a flagship GPU like the 4090 shows its age. So while still overkill today, upgrading to 32GB gives your system more balance and headroom to avoid that RAM bottleneck over the lifespan of your build.

Now let‘s talk real world gaming benchmarks…

Memory-Dependent Game Performance

More RAM capacity doesn‘t always directly translate into higher frame rates. But for some games, it can have a minor impact.

Here are frame-per-second (FPS) benchmarks in a variety of popular games, comparing 16GB vs 32GB configurations using the same core hardware:

As you can see, the difference is modest up to around a 3-4% FPS boost in titles like Cyberpunk 2077. However, not all games inherently benefit from simply having more unused RAM capacity on hand.

So why does it help in some cases? Having unused RAM allows for more and larger asset files from storage to be cached for faster access. The extreme example of this is seen in PC mods that can radically improve load times but demand ample memory overhead.

Additionally, certain game genres and engines handle memory differently. Complex simulation and strategy games are more prone to be sensitive to total available RAM than straightforward first-person shooters.

Beyond capacity alone, you also shouldn‘t underestimate the importance of memory speeds and timings, which can sometimes close the gap when choosing between 16GB of fast premium RAM compared to budget 32GB.

Extreme Multitasking

Where 32GB RAM really shines outside of edge case gaming performance is when you push the limits of multitasking.

Modern games easily use over 8GB RAM each, leaving limited breathing room when combined with background software and operating system overhead.

As a real world example, here is typical memory usage behavior on my personal system:

• Idle system usage: up to 8 GB
• Regular Chrome usage (12 tabs open): +2 GB
• Playing Call of Duty (2022): +9 GB RAM
• Total usage: around 19 GB

So I‘m already brushing up against my 32GB limit while doing relatively mundane stuff. And that‘s without even streaming or recording gameplay which can easily add several more gigabytes of memory overhead!

Of course, you technically don‘t need Chrome or other software open while you game. But who wants to compromise and limit themselves like that?

For developers and content creators, 32GB provides much more usable headroom:

• Running multiple local database instances and Kubernetes for testing
• Editing 8K raw video footage and complex 3D CAD project files
• Software development across multiple IDEs, containers, terminals, browsers, etc.

I‘ve experienced first hand stuttering, crashing, and abysmal performance when working under these conditions with only 16GB total system memory. The whole OS starts thrashing data out to extremely slow disk paging. Trust me, that‘s not fun.

Bang for the Buck

At the end of day, the money aspect plays a big role too. Paying double the memory cost is hard to swallow if gaming is your main use case.

But fortunately, RAM pricing continues getting more affordable:

Here is quick price comparison between a fancy 16GB RGB kit and a standard 32GB DDR4 kit today:

With only a $60 difference, the value proposition is pretty clear cut to me. But it becomes an even better long term investment when you consider the expected lifespan of your build.

Today‘s new AMD Ryzen 7000 and Intel 13th Gen platforms will likely support at least two future generations of CPUs over the next 5+ years.

So spreading that $60 over the extended usable timeframe of your motherboard makes investing upfront in future-proof 32GB capacity even more sensible.

Conclusion: Who Should Upgrade to 32GB RAM?

At the end of the day, if you primarily just want to play games smoothly at 1080p or 1440p, I believe 16GB RAM remains the obvious sweet spot for most gamers building a PC today.

But enthusiasts, hardcore competitive gamers, extreme multitaskers, and power users should seriously consider bumping up their RAM capacity if they:

• Want to maximize FPS and gameplay fluidity for esports and racing/flight-sim titles
• Regularly have multiple memory hungry apps like Chrome running in background
• Stream or record gameplay while playing
• Edit high resolution video and 3D assets as hobbyist content creators
• Push their workflow efficiency as developers and engineers

Given further declining prices, don‘t be surprised if 32GB becomes much more prevalent and recommended for high tier gaming PC builds in the next few years. But only you know your own actual usage, ambitions, and budget flexibility.

So if you‘ve made it this far – let the benchmarks versus your unique needs decide if now is time to join the 32GB RAM club!