Is 80% RAM Usage OK?

As a passionate gamer and streamer, I often field questions about how much RAM usage is too much when running demanding games, recording gameplay, and livestreaming to audiences.

The quick answer: Yes, around 80% RAM utilization is perfectly fine during gaming or creative workloads. However, higher usage leading to lag or crashes indicates you need more RAM.

In this in-depth guide, I‘ll break down optimal RAM usage ranges for gaming and content creation rigs. You‘ll also learn how to troubleshoot overload issues and optimize available memory for smooth performance.

Understanding RAM Usage

First, what does that percentage actually measure?

RAM (random access memory) is super fast temporary data storage that apps and games use when running. The RAM usage percentage reflects how much of your total system memory is currently occupied.

According to Tom‘s Hardware, ideal usage varies by how much RAM you have:

So if you have 16GB RAM installed, usage around 80% (12GB) is completely normal under load. Whereas 80% usage on an 8GB system indicates it needs an upgrade.

Now let‘s look at ideal RAM specs for gaming and content creation PCs.

RAM Usage in Gaming Setups

According to leading hardware site PC Gamer, 16GB is the current sweet spot for gaming:

16GB is the ‘sweet spot’ for a high-end gaming PC. This gives you enough breathing room to game, stream, have apps and browser tabs open, and do everything else you want to do simultaneously.

For perspective, here is how RAM usage stacks up across popular games at 1080p "Very High" graphics:

[Add additional game examples…]

You can see there‘s healthy headroom even when gaming RAM usage peaks around 80% on a 16GB system. Enthusiast PC builders often go up to 32GB or beyond for future proofing though.

How does RAM impact in-game performance? Running out causes freezing and crashes as the system relies on slow virtual memory. So while 16GB keeps most games running smoothly today, 32GB ensures great performance for years.

Recording, Streaming, and Multitasking

Gaming is very RAM intensive on its own. But content creators have additional overhead from recording, streaming, and running creative apps.

Here are the RAM requirements when streaming triple-A games from a single PC at 1080p 60 FPS:

That leaves very little unused RAM to spare on a 16GB system when streaming and gaming simultaneously. 32GB or 64GB is recommended to avoid crashes and stutters.

The same applies to recording long gameplay sessions, editing video, streaming creative workflows – all are memory hungry on top of gaming alone.

Signs Your RAM is Overloaded

High usage percentages alone don‘t tell the whole story. Your RAM capacity is only a problem if it causes issues like:

• Game stuttering and FPS drops
• Apps randomly closing or not responding
• OS freezing for 30+ seconds at a time
• Spikes in GPU/CPU usage but low framerates
• Windows repeatedly needing to clear standby memory

These symptoms typically appear above 95% total usage as you run out of headroom. The system has to juggle data between fast RAM and slow virtual memory on your hard drive, tanking performance.

Monitoring RAM usage along with gaming performance helps identify these problems. If a game starts stuttering badly, check your total memory usage in Task Manager.

Consistently seeing 95%+ usage indicates a RAM capacity bottleneck holding back FPS. Upgrading capacity or reducing load fixes this.

Optimizing RAM for Gaming and Content Creation

If your RAM usage is lower than 90% but you still have performance issues, try these software optimizations first:

Use Memory Cleaner Apps

Utilities like Wise Memory Cleaner and Restoro can deeply clean unused standby RAM that Windows won‘t clear automatically. This frees up available memory without closing active programs.

Disable Unnecessary Startup Apps

Too many auto-starting background apps eat RAM for breakfast. Disable anything not essential using the Startup tab in Task Manager.

Close Memory Hungry Browser Tabs

Chrome is notorious for gobbling up idle RAM with dozens of open tabs. Regularly closing excess tabs helps lower your memory load.

These tips optimize what RAM you already have. But upgrading capacity is still the ultimate fix for overload issues…

Upgrading RAM Capacity

Adding more physical DDR4 RAM sticks immediately resolves out-of-memory crashes and stuttering during intense gaming or streaming sessions.

Here are great RAM upgrade options to consider from 16GB:

Doubling or quadrupling RAM headroom gives you tons of overhead for smoothly running multiple intensive programs simultaneously.

I personally run 64GB in my gaming PC and can play new titles like Elden Ring at max settings while recording 4K video without RAM ever maxing out. The peace of mind is worth it!

Just make sure to match the speed (MHz) and latency (CL) of your existing RAM when upgrading. Mixing RAM sticks with different specs hinders performance.

So…Is 80% RAM Usage Okay?

To recap based on everything we‘ve covered:

Yes, around 80% RAM usage is perfectly fine and expected if you have 16GB or greater installed. It indicates healthy utilization maximizing available memory.

However, consistently exceeding 90-95% total usage will likely cause performance issues or crashes during intensive gaming, recording, streaming, and other multitasking.

Monitoring your usage percentage along with FPS, recording lag, etc identifies problems before they ruin your experience. Keeping some comfortable headroom below ~90% total RAM usage ensures buttery smooth gaming while allowing for simultaneous recording, Discord chats, background apps and more!

Hopefully this deep dive dispels worries about hitting that 80% threshold everyone seems concerned about! Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments below.

Game on, friends!