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If you’re planning on getting a gaming laptop, you may be wondering if 8GB of RAM will be enough.
While it’s always tempting to want the latest, the fastest and the best tech (check out our look into the best RTX 4090 laptops if that sounds like you!) sometimes it’s important to check that you’ve got the basics down first. Don’t worry, we’re here to help.
All you need to play games on a laptop is (amazingly) a laptop.
Do not be fooled though! It may sound simple, but actually, each laptop has different capabilities, and some laptops, while they may be fabulous for the occasional google, just don’t have the chops to take on the sort of quality of game coming out these days. Indeed, it might even be worth asking whether 8GB is enough for gaming.
The most important factor in deciding if a gaming laptop is up to scratch is whether it has the RAM capabilities needed.
What is RAM?
RAM is an acronym for Random Access Memory. What this means in reality is that it acts a sort of temporary storage for the short-term memory your laptop needs to access to run the game.
Picture it this way: if you wanted to fill a lake with water but you only had the kitchen sink as your water source, you wouldn’t fill your hands with water from the tap and run back and forward. You would find some sort of storage like a bucket to ferry the water between. RAM is the bucket.
When you boot up a game, all the information you need to play gets temporarily dumped into that repository to allow to fast information access and smooth gameplay. If the game was constantly having to deep dive into the computer’s hard disk drive (HDD) for the information it needed, things would be much, much slower.
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As with all things though, quality varies when it comes to RAM. The larger your laptop’s RAM capabilities, the smoother some games are going to play as there is more storage for the data the game needs.
So, how much RAM do you really need? Let’s find out…
Is 8GB enough for a gaming laptop?
In short, 8GB is the minimum amount required for any gaming laptop, but, that doesn’t mean it’s enough to play every game smoothly. While it should be enough to load most games, some may not play at their most smooth. Issues like lagging or shutting down of other applications and windows could appear if your computer has less than the recommended RAM.
As such, we recommend checking the game system requirements before attempting to run the game. This information should be readily available for whatever game you are attempting to play, just by going to the game’s official page and checking the Game Developer’s recommendations.
This may sound like a bit of hassle – but don’t worry! We’ve checked out these top 5 game RAM specifications for you.
- Elden Ring – 16GB recommended (12GB minimum)
- Marvel’s Midnight Suns – 16GB recommended (8GB minimum)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – 12GB recommended (8GB minimum)
- Fortnite: Battle Royale – 8GB recommended (4GB minimum)
- League of Legends – 4GB recommended (2GB minimum)
As you can see, it’s quite a mix. At the end of the day how much RAM your laptop needs is a game by game judgement to make.
If you expect to play a lot of Elden Ring then it’s probably worth investing in a laptop with more than 8GB RAM. On the other hand, if League of Legends is more your speed, then 8GB RAM is more than enough to run the game smoothly.
If you are playing a game well within your RAM capacity, then you can even keep background programs running as you game.
The Answer
Ultimately, you want the best game experience you can get, and if you’ve invested in for example the best gaming monitor, or the best headset, then there’s no point sabotaging yourself with too little RAM, particularly if you intend to play games with high quality graphics and fast gameplay.
8GB is the minimum and is enough to play most games, but we would recommend looking into 16GB or even 32GB in anticipation of larger and larger games and more and more impressive graphics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a big difference between 8GB and 16GB RAM laptop?
Games that are recommended to play with 12GB or above will register a large difference in user experience quality from 8GB to 16GB. If your RAM is too low it can cause games to freeze or lag.
Is 8GB RAM high end?
8GB RAM is the minimum required to play most games on laptop. For the casual gamer it may be more than enough to meet your individual requirements, however as visuals and graphics cards are becoming more and more advanced, higher RAM capabilities are becoming more recommended. Fortunately, it’s an easy upgrade.
