Does RAM affect streaming or how much RAM is required for streaming? These are the common questions that people mostly asked on different forums.
Playing big title video games, watching movies on Netflix or youtube, and others, all these tasks need different amounts of RAM. Right?
Does RAM Affect Streaming?
Even when you are planning to build a custom PC for streaming on twitch, keep in mind RAM does affect streaming. But how much?
Well, good question! Scroll down more to Know the answer!
First Thing First – What Is RAM?
Random Access Memory or the computer’s temporary memory is a temporary memory of your PC or which stores all important data for a short period of time.
Whether you play games or stream videos on youtube, more RAM always gives you better performance.
Now, What Is Streaming And How It Works?
Streaming is a relatively recent development, as many times no need to download the video because you need it only once, so why should we waste our PC memory on saving that video by downloading it.
People do a continuous stream of data, whenever they listening to music, watching videos in ‘real-time, watching internet videos and live webcasts, and also some broadcasters prefer streaming, as they want to enjoy the live session.
By making sure that your broadband connection should run fast to show real-time data because congestion on the internet causes the audio to drop out, the screen might go blank. This doesn’t look great!
Always try to discuss PC ‘buffers’ and ‘buffering’ as PCs’ built-in solutions for this problem to avoid lagging or distortion issues.
Streaming is used by several viewers in several ways for example internet radio stations, audio and video-on-demand services like Spotify, YouTube, Last.FM, and the BBC’s iPlayer.
Highly compressed files use little bandwidth, so they might be ok with the little amount of RAM but files encoded for streaming should use a bit more RAM. YouTube recommends at least 500Kbps of connection speed, so take care of it also.
Does RAM Affect Streaming?
The answer is simple: Yes, RAM does affect streaming!
RAM helps to send the streaming content over the internet without any major issues, and also helps to stream comfortably.
RAM affects the streaming performance or not, this is a common question but there is another question that might come into your mind.
Does extra/add RAM affects streaming? It totally depends on what type of content you are going to stream friends. Sometimes you are streaming big title games such as GTA 5, Pubg, and Tomb Raider. To play these games at least 16GB DDR4 RAM is required (32GB DDR4 is good enough).
More RAM means better Frames Per Seconds (FPS), and better streaming performance.
How Does RAM Size And Speed Affect The Streaming?
Does RAM speed affect streaming? Well, it is totally dependent on how fast it will be processing the files. Normally the frequency of RAM is used interchangeably with speed which may be in terms of DDR4 memory operating at about 2,400MHz or 2400MT/s, or DDR3 RAM operating at 1,866MHz to 2,000MHz at least.
A 16GB RAM 3200mhz DDR4 and 32GB RAM 3600mhz DDR4 is a perfect amount of RAM for a PC or a laptop.
1.) Streaming with 4Gb – Is 4GB RAM Good Enough For Streaming?
Another good question and the answer is that 4GB is barely enough to handle your operating system. 4Gb can play just casual games so don’t ever try to play hardcore games with a 4GB RAM laptop or PC.
Moreover, while streaming in 4G, your video may become choppy!
2.) Streaming with 8Gb – Is 8Gb Is Enough For Streaming?
Yes, an 8GB RAM is minimum required for streaming videos, and it will also give good performance even with demanding games. The games which you stream using OBS software, or any other quality software.
3.) Streaming With 16Gb – Is 16GB RAM Good For Streaming?
Of course Yes! A 16GB RAM totally depends upon multi-tasking, which means when you open various windows at once.
It is also highly recommended for most demanding games, so gamers this is for you.
When a PC has a mediocre CPU and SSD, 16GB RAM still gives you an excellent experience on streaming.
Different Streaming And Their RAM Requirements:
Different software e.g. OBS or Open Broadcast Software needs different sizes of RAM so measuring RAM or memory usage is a vital thing to do before running them on your PC or laptop.
1.) Streaming Different Software:
To do streaming with different software faster like an F-16 around 150-300MB of RAM is required.
2.) Web Browsing:
You mostly do web surfing on Windows 10. Around 50-300MB RAM is enough depending on streaming types, for instance, photos, videos, clips, stream the source which you require.
3.) Live Broadcast Window:
Almost 4GB of DDR3 memory type is enough to live broadcast different channels or windows like movies, concerts, or the final of the FIFA world cup.
4.) Discord or Chat Servers:
Discord or chat servers are used by gaming enthusiasts to do conversations with family and friends, and it consumes around 300-600MB, an additional 200MB will enhance the audio, video quality.
5.) Running Dual Monitors:
Working on two monitors at a time does not need to add more RAM to your PC or laptop. Working with dual-monitors e.g streaming on Twitch using the Open Broadcast Software and working on the other monitor at a time will be ok with already present RAM.
6.) Streaming Your Game:
RAM requirement for games is highly dependent on the type of game, e.g Streaming Resident Evil Village consumes at least 2600MB to 6000MB of RAM.
Always try to go for higher-than-recommended requirements for streaming to heavy-duty tasks. When you have a plan to play higher-end games a 16GB RAM is the sweet spot. Google Chrome consumes around 500-600MB so internet surfing is no more difficult.
7.) Optimizing Your Games:
Remember anything graphics-related consumes VRAM or the GPU and will reduce RAM usage, which simply means less burden on RAM and more on a graphic card.
Tip: To improve streaming video playback, choose a high size of RAM. Always use third-party software such as FPS Monitor for an overlay to show up displaying CPU, RAM, and SSD usage or your beautiful laptop.
Our Takeaway:
Sometimes this is not only the RAM but the connection is temporarily interrupted due to which the playback will continue uninterrupted. To handle the video playback, invest in good RAM. 16GB RAM is best for day-to-day streaming, and at least 32GB of RAM is perfect for streaming multiple games like RPGs, Fortnite, CSGO, Warzone, and others. After carefully reading the article we conclude that RAM affects the storage, so choose a higher size RAM, and also lessen the irregularities in network bandwidth.
