Apart from being one of the components needed for a PC to operate or function, the RAM is one of the significant components that affects the performance and output of your PC. Your PC’s operating system will not function without your RAM.
Other factors like your processor, GPU, or SSD storage size also affect the performance of PCs but how fast and smooth your PC works depend mainly on how large your RAM size is, how fast your RAM is, and the type of RAM your PC features.
Gamers try as much as possible to get laptops or PCs with the best types of RAM in other to have a good gaming experience. As a gamer, you might need to upgrade your RAM and other components of your PC from time to time in other to meet up with the requirements of new game releases.
Is 12GB RAM good for gaming? Yes. 12GB RAM is good for gaming. A lot of games will run smoothly on 12GB RAM. However, the type of RAM, RAM speed, and the features on the motherboard of your PC like the CPU play a huge factor in determining if 12GB RAM will be enough for gaming. Current flagship games will require more than 12GB of RAM to run smoothly though.
There are different types of RAM, and these RAMs have different speeds. The latest PCs mostly come with fourth-generation double data RAMs or DDR4 SDRAM (double data rate fourth-generation synchronous dynamic random access memory) and the latest fifth-generation DDR5 RAMs.
However, there are older generations of double data RAMs like the DDR2, and DDR3 but these previous generations of RAM can only be found in older PCs. PC manufacturers ensure to include the latest versions of RAM in their new releases to meet the requirements of the new software and games.
The DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, and DDR5 RAMs have different speeds, with DDR5 being the fastest. The standard unit for RAM speed is MHz (Megahertz). DDR2 RAMs reach speeds of 400MHz, 533MHz, 667MHz, 800MHz, and max out at 1000MHz. DDR3 RAMs reach speeds of 800MHz, 1066MHz, and 1333MHz, and max out at 1600MHz.
DDR4 RAMs reach speeds of 2400MHz, 2666MHz, 2933MHz, 3000MHz, 3200MHz, 3600MHz, 4000MHz, and max out at 4400MHz. Finally, DDR5 RAMs, which are said to be about 40-45% faster than DDR4 RAMs, can attain a minimum speed of 4800MHz and a maximum speed of 7200MHz.
Is 12GB RAM Good For Gaming?
YES, 12GB RAM is good enough for gaming. Many games will be able to run smoothly on this RAM. One big factor that matters is the RAM speed. The RAM of your PC needs to be able to reach speeds of at least 3200MHz for you to be able to have a decent gaming experience.
However, some games, especially current flagships, require at least 16GB of RAM to be able to RUN. Other factors determining if 12GB of RAM will be good for gaming include CPU, GPU, and storage.
What’s The Standard RAM Size For Gaming?
The standard RAM size for gaming is not fixed. It all depends on the type of game you want to play. 32GB-64GB RAM will run any game, 16GB RAM should be enough to run almost any game and 8GB-12GB of RAM should run not-so-demanding games smoothly. You would have to play some games with reduced graphic settings if you have 8GB of RAM. 4GB RAM is not ideal for gaming at all.
How Much RAM Do I Need For Gaming?
Depending on the game you intend to play, you’ll need at least 8GB RAM and at most 32GB for gaming. 64GB will be very great for gaming also. However, 8GB is not great for gaming. Not that you can’t play some games with 8GB, but, there are really few games that can run smoothly on 8GB RAM, if there are even any at all, and you might even need to reduce your graphic settings to get a good FPS. 16GB RAM is kind of like the in-between RAM for gaming. With 16GB of RAM, you should do just fine.
How Much RAM Do I Need To Play Heavy Games?
16GB-32GB of RAM should do just fine for heavy games. Although there are other conditions for you to have a good gaming experience like your processor, screen display, and graphics card, if you have 16GB-32GB RAM, you should be able to play any game.
Final Thoughts
In this article, we have been able to answer the question: is 12GB RAM good for gaming? and also talk about the different types of RAM and the speeds they reach.
Lots of games will run on 12GB of RAM smoothly or not, but for you to be able to play current flagships, you’ll need at least 16GB or 32GB of RAM. 12GB RAM is below the requirements to play many heavy or high-demanding games. However, it’s still decent for gaming.
That’s all for now, please ensure to reach out to us if there’s anything you would like to know. Also, you should check out other game-related articles like:
