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日本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 configGaming tests
| World Of Tanks Encore | Full HD, Low (Check settings) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM) | 676 fps | 323 fps | 185 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 684 fps (+1%) | 335 fps (+4%) | 187 fps (+1%) |
| Rocket League | Full HD, H.Performance (Check settings) | Full HD, H.Quality (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM) | 712 fps | 373 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 725 fps (+2%) | 379 fps (+2%) |
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla | Full 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 fps | 88 fps | 78 fps | 62 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 Siege | Full 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 fps | 231 fps | 231 fps | 230 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 337 fps (+24%) | 278 fps (+20%) | 274 fps (+19%) | 276 fps (+20%) |
| Assassin’s Creed Odyssey | Full 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 fps | 76 fps | 66 fps | 57 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 114 fps (+41%) | 100 fps (+32%) | 89 fps (+35%) | 70 fps (+23%) |
| Darksiders Genesis | Full 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 fps | 132 fps | 125 fps | 102 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 170 fps (+15%) | 150 fps (+14%) | 142 fps (+14%) | 119 fps (+17%) |
| Halo Reach | Full HD, Performance (Check settings) | Full HD, Original (Check settings) | Full HD, Enhanced (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM) | 255 fps | 220 fps | 195 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 283 fps (+11%) | 247 fps (+12%) | 210 fps (+8%) |
| Metro Exodus | Full HD, Low (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Extreme (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| GeForce RTX 3060 (8GB Single-Channel RAM) | 103 fps | 71 fps | 34 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 139 fps (+35%) | 74 fps (+4%) | 35 fps (+3%) |
| Borderlands 3 | Full 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 fps | 93 fps | 81 fps | 68 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 120 fps (+14%) | 105 fps (+13%) | 89 fps (+10%) | 71 fps (+4%) |
| Gears 5 | Full 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 fps | 115 fps | 108 fps | 90 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 fps | 200 fps | 200 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 200 fps | 200 fps | 200 fps |
| Doom Eternal | Full 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 fps | 178 fps | 163 fps (+6%) |
| Battlefield V | Full 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 fps | 128 fps | 120 fps | 112 fps |
| GeForce RTX 3060 (24GB Dual-Channel RAM) | 188 fps (+29%) | 161 fps (+26%) | 150 fps (+25%) | 140 fps (+25%) |
| Total War Three Kingdoms | Full 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 fps | 114 fps | 81 fps | 67 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, Low | Full HD, Medium | Full HD, High | Full HD, Ultra | Average 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)
