Gaming on 8GB RAM vs 24GB RAM – how much RAM do you need?

In our previous article, we compared dual and single-channel memory modes while the RAM capacity was the same in both cases – 16GB. But what if the capacity is different? Some machines have been shipped with just 8GB of RAM, which is the bare minimum these days not just for a gaming device but also for a normal daily routine of tasks like web browsing and watching videos at the same time.

In most cases, the majority of the gaming devices come with 16GB of RAM and that is perfectly fine – at least for now, you don’t need more than that. Apart from gaming, if you’re going to use your machine for some specific heavy workloads, more system memory will be a welcomed feature.

For today’s article, we’re going to compare 8GB memory in single-channel mode vs 24GB RAM (8GB + 16 GB) in dual-channel mode. As we said earlier, there is no difference for gaming if you have more than 16GB of system memory, but for the time being of this article, we had a single stick of 16GB so we decided to use it right away.

Without further ado, let’s continue with some specs and tests.

Contents


Specs overview

Our test sample is an Acer Predator Helios 300 (PH315-53). The device is configured with an Intel Core i7-10750H, GeForce RTX 3060 (100W), and the default memory configuration was 8GB (single stick). Of course, we have used the exact same configuration for the tests with 8GB of memory and for the other part of the testing, we just add a second stick of RAM with 16 GB capacity. Note that the 8GB RAM is DDR4-3200 MHz while the 16GB is DDR4-2667 MHz and we had zero problems with it despite the fact that the sticks have different timings and frequencies.
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8GB config
24GB config

Gaming tests

World Of Tanks EncoreFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)676 fps323 fps185 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)684 fps (+1%)335 fps (+4%)187 fps (+1%)

Rocket LeagueFull HD, H.Performance (Check settings)Full HD, H.Quality (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)712 fps373 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)725 fps (+2%)379 fps (+2%)

Assassin’s Creed ValhallaFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)96 fps88 fps78 fps62 fps (+2%)
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)114 fps (+19%)97 fps (+10%)81 fps (+4%)61 fps

 

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six SiegeFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)271 fps231 fps231 fps230 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)337 fps (+24%)278 fps (+20%)274 fps (+19%)276 fps (+20%)

Assassin’s Creed OdysseyFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra High (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)79 fps76 fps66 fps57 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)114 fps (+41%)100 fps (+32%)89 fps (+35%)70 fps (+23%)

Darksiders GenesisFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Mid (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)148 fps132 fps125 fps102 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)170 fps (+15%)150 fps (+14%)142 fps (+14%)119 fps (+17%)

Halo ReachFull HD, Performance (Check settings)Full HD, Original (Check settings)Full HD, Enhanced (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)255 fps220 fps195 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)283 fps (+11%)247 fps (+12%)210 fps (+8%)

Metro ExodusFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)103 fps71 fps34 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)139 fps (+35%)74 fps (+4%)35 fps (+3%)

Borderlands 3Full HD, V.Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)105 fps93 fps81 fps68 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)120 fps (+14%)105 fps (+13%)89 fps (+10%)71 fps (+4%)

Gears 5Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)140 fps115 fps108 fps90 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)173 fps (+24%)129 fps (+12%)117 fps (+8%)94 fps (+4%)

Doom (2016)Full HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)200 fps200 fps200 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)200 fps200 fps200 fps

 

Doom EternalFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, U.Nightmare (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)216 fps (+21%)203 fps (+14%)154 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)179 fps178 fps163 fps (+6%)

Battlefield VFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)146 fps128 fps120 fps112 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)188 fps (+29%)161 fps (+26%)150 fps (+25%)140 fps (+25%)

 

Total War Three KingdomsFull HD, Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM)191 fps114 fps81 fps67 fps
GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)240 fps (+26%)142 fps (+25%)95 fps (+17%)72 fps (+7%)

Performance summary (gaming tests)

Full HD, LowFull HD, MediumFull HD, HighFull HD, UltraAverage difference %
GeForce RTX 3060 100W (8GB Single-Channel RAM)
GeForce RTX 3060 100W (24GB Dual-Channel RAM)+12%+13%+14%+10%+12%

 

Verdict

There you go guys, the average difference between 8GB RAM (single-channel mode) and 24GB RAM (dual-channel mode) is 12%. Probably it doesn’t sound like a huge difference but in reality, things aren’t that simple. First of all, a 12% performance gap can be the difference between two GPUs. If you’re buying a device with a good CPU and powerful GPU but if it has just 8GB of RAM it’ll perform not-so-great and its results would be a step-down and lower than expected.

In some games, the results are closer, especially on Ultra settings, but despite that, the gameplay experience with a single stick of 8GB RAM is stutter-ish compared to 24GB RAM. We can give you an example with Borderlands 3 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – you can see that there isn’t a big difference in terms of results on Ultra between 8GB and 24GB. But with the smaller amount of RAM, you’ll experience lower 1% FPS values (at least in most cases) and there are heavy stutters here and there that can ruin the whole fun during gaming.

So, is 8GB memory still enough? Well, this is the bare minimum, kind of. If this amount of RAM is combined with some low-end dGPU like NVIDIA GeForce MX350 it should be fine (perhaps). But if you want a more powerful video card, 16GB is a must-have investment, especially if the RAM is in dual-channel mode. That will give a bit more FPS boost as well.

All laptops equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (100W)

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