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Jasmine is Software and PC Hardware Author at XDA with years of tech reporting experience ranging from AI chatbots right down to gaming hardware, she’s covered just about everything.

Whether it’s breaking news about the latest AMD NPUs or creating video tutorials on social media platforms, Jasmine has contributed to the world of AI and tech in a variety of ways including interviewing the CEO of Razer, AMD’s Director of Product Marketing and the VP of Lenovo. Passionate about gaming and PC technology, she has built countless computers, keyboards and other peripherals - knowing them inside and out.

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The talk of the town right now is RAM. Thanks to memory shortages, DRR5 kits are at an all-time high price point and that’s if you can get your hands on a set of sticks at all. If you’re hoping to upgrade to 64GB of RAM or pick up a brand-new gaming rig or laptop with a whole load of ‘future-proofed’ memory, then let me stop you right there.

32GB is actually the true sweet spot of RAM, the ‘Goldilocks’ zone if you will. Affordable, stable at high performance and plenty of memory for 99% of tasks. Rather than looking for more RAM, you need to manage the memory you already have by optimizing how Windows and your apps use RAM. This will stretch 32GB of RAM so much further so you don’t need to worry about upgrading to 64GB.

The "Ghost" consumption

You’re not even using the processes that are eating your memory

The biggest RAM hog for most users isn’t a game or even a creative app being used, it’s actually a browser window with one too many tabs open. While having a few tabs open won’t feel like a big deal, when those few tabs suddenly turn into 50 tabs that you’ve completely lost track of, it’s likely that your internet browser is eating away at your memory.

The easiest way to get rid of this issue is to ensure that you close the tabs you’re not using and close your internet browser entirely when you’re not using it. However, this might not be an option for everyone, myself included - I need my trillion tabs open at all times because you just never know when you’ll need to refer back to that one web page you looked at 6 months ago.

Another step you can take is enabling Memory Saver mode in your Chrome settings. Most other browsers offer an equivalent too if you’re not using Chrome. These modes will put background tabs to sleep when they’re not being used, which will free up gigabytes of active memory.

Other background processes can eat away at your memory too, without you even realizing it. If you have certain applications automatically open when you first turn on your PC, these can continue running in the background even after you’ve closed them. The easiest way to stop this from happening is by turning off any applications you don’t need from launching at start-up in your Task Manager.

Technical optimization

Take these steps to optimize the RAM you already have

Using software tools to ensure your RAM is dedicated to what you’re actually doing rather than a load of background processes is an essential step when you’re trying to utilize lower amounts of memory.

If you’re using a gaming PC, laptop or any other device which has its own separate GPU, then your integrated GPU can still continue to use some of your memory despite not being used. You can stop this by ensuring your integrated GPU is disabled or its memory allocation is minimized in your PC’s BIOS if you already have a dedicated GPU.

Another tool which is worth picking up is ISLC (Intelligent Standby List Cleaner), which can clear your standby memory list which can sometimes fail to empty. This will ensure that background processes you’re not using are cleared up and aren’t using up your RAM.

Using 32GB of fast RAM is actually better than using 64GB of slow RAM. For gaming, general speed and responsiveness of your PC, then having lower latency and higher frequency RAM is much more fundamental than having 64GB of memory which isn’t being fully utilized. Another way you can optimize lower amounts of RAM is by ensuring that you have dual-channel memory.

64GB is overkill

Most users just don’t need this much RAM

While there are some instances where users might benefit from 64GB of RAM, this is usually limited to professional workload. Those who are editing 4K and 8K video as well as 3D rendering or using a virtual machine would likely benefit from having 64GB of memory. Outside of this, users can likely stick to 32GB of RAM so long as it is optimized correctly, even when playing AAA titles or gaming in 4K.

There are multiple steps you can take to optimize 32GB of RAM. Ensuring that you don’t have a whole load of background processes running is a great first step, with browser windows with multiple tabs open being the main RAM hog that users don’t recognize. Another step is technical optimization, from turning off your integrated graphics to ensuring you have speedy memory sticks and are taking advantage of dual-channel memory.

For many, 32GB of RAM is likely your ceiling, so why bother opting for more, especially in the middle of a RAM shortage? Save your money and spend it elsewhere.