RAM can make or break a PC. The more RAM you have, the more applications you can have running side-by-side. Also: How much RAM does your Windows 10 PC need? But if you don’t have enough, your PC can be reduced to a crawl and be pretty much unbearable. But putting more RAM than you need into a PC can be a waste of money.
Back in the Windows 10 days, you could install 32-bit Windows on a PC with only 1GB of RAM. The 64-bit version doubled this minimum to 2GB. And it really was the bare minimum. You could work with it, but it could get painful at times. For Windows 11, things have changed, and Microsoft has increased the minimum to 4GB. It’s a big increase, but oddly enough, it quickly feels like a minimum. I’ve seen systems where after everything has booted up, the system has about one gigabyte free. Also: If you use Google Chrome, you need to install this now Forget about things like video editing (unless you’re just topping and tailing a video) or serious gaming. It’s just going to end in frustration. If you want a PC that doesn’t frustrate you, then doubling that RAM to 8GB is going to give you a lot more freedom and flexibility. Google Chrome is going to feel a lot snappier, photo and video editing becomes a reality, and you also have enough RAM for gaming. Also: How to choose a computer for your child I’ve done a lot of testing of different systems, and I now recommend that 8GB be considered a practical minimum for Windows 11. The time when more than 8GB of RAM becomes useful and starts paying for itself is when you’re running several resource-heavy applications simultaneously – especially high-end image or 4K+ video processing, CAD, or 3D modeling. Also: How to get Photoshop for free If you’re running applications like Premiere Pro, Photoshop, and After Effects side-by-side on a system with 8GB of RAM, things are going to start feeling sluggish. On a system with 16GB or more, this is no problem. Having more than 8GB also comes in handy if you make extensive use of virtualization tools such as Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware Workstation, especially if you run multiple virtual machines simultaneously. Also: How to create the perfect Windows 11 virtual machine But remember, you’re going to be paying for that RAM, and going from 8GB to 16GB and beyond is going to start pumping up the price. I’ve seen a lot of gaming systems with 24GB or even 32GB of RAM and beyond, and while that’s nice because it offers a great deal of overhead, I find that most of the time this RAM is sitting in the PC doing nothing. Also: SSD vs HDD: What’s the difference, and which should you buy? If you’ve got the money, sure, spend it on RAM, but you’d be better off spending that money on faster SSD storage or a better graphics card. It’s important to remember that a fast PC is built from a selection of fast parts. Putting tons of RAM in a system with other bottlenecks – a slow CPU, slow storage, poor graphics card – is just a waste of money. Also: What graphics card do I have? How to check your GPU and drivers Laptops have increasingly moved to fixed RAM where the RAM chips are soldered directly to the motherboard and can’t be removed or upgraded. Also: How to identify your motherboard quickly and easily What you buy is what you’re stuck with for the life of the system. Thankfully, most desktop PCs still have RAM that can be upgraded. But you need to know a few things. Specifically, what type of RAM your PC takes, and how much RAM is the maximum. How do you find out this information? You can consult your PC/motherboard manual, or, if your PC was manufactured by an OEM, use a system checker such as the one found on Crucial.com to find out what RAM is compatible with your system. Once you’re armed with this information, you can then go shopping. This should give you all the information you need.
Windows 11 Enterprise: 6 TBWindows 11 Education: 2 TBWindows 11 Pro for Workstations: 6 TBWindows 11 Pro: 2 TBWindows 11 Home: 128 GB
In reality, you’re going to hit a hardware limit long before you hit these operating system limits.
