Are you trying to decide how much RAM to get for your new system? Or, do you want to know how RAM speed affects your framerate? In this guide, we cover how much of an impact adding more memory and faster memory has on your in-game experience.
RAM is an important part of your computer’s performance. In fact, after your processor and graphics card (if you’re gaming), your RAM will play the next biggest role in your system’s performance.
However, while RAM is an integral part of your computer and it does have an impact on your system’s performance, there is a lot of confusion on how it affects framerates in gaming. So, in this article, we’ll go over how RAM will affect your framerate by considering a couple of different scenarios.
Does More RAM Mean More FPS?
There have been many benchmarks done that shows that, in general, just adding more RAM won’t increase your in-game performance.
However, the question of whether or not more RAM can increase FPS might not be the right question to answer. Rather, the better question would be, “if I have a low amount of RAM, will adding more RAM increase my FPS in games?”
And, the answer to that is: in some scenarios and depending on how much RAM you have, yes, adding more RAM could increase your FPS.
Games require a certain amount of memory to run. The amount of memory that games require to run can vary from game to game. Some games might require a lot of memory, whereas other games might not require nearly as much.
Also, the settings you play your games at will also affect how much memory the game uses. If you want to play your favorite games at maximum settings, those games are going to utilize more memory than if you were to play those same games at the lowest settings.
So, to answer the question of whether or not adding more RAM will increase your FPS, the correct answer would be something along the lines of the following:
If you already have a decent amount of RAM (say, 16GB), adding more RAM will probably not increase your FPS in most games and scenarios as there still aren’t very many games that utilize more than 16GB of memory. On the flip side, if you have a low amount of memory (say, 4GB-8GB), adding more RAM will increase your FPS in games that utilize more RAM than you previously had.
If you’re building a new gaming computer or upgrading your existing system, then 8-16GB of RAM is still probably the best capacity to go with in terms of what you pay for what you get. If you’re also doing video editing or graphic design, then it might make sense to choose over 16GB of RAM if your budget permits for it.
Does Faster RAM Equal More FPS?
Just like how adding more RAM can increase your FPS in certain scenarios, faster RAM can increase your performance in some situations, too.
However, most benchmarks show that the performance difference between base speeds of RAM (2133MHz is the lowest speed of DDR4 memory) performs very similar—or only slightly lower—than even the highest RAM frequencies in the majority of applications.
There are exceptions, though. For instance, many benchmarks show that Ryzen-based systems are able to deliver higher framerates in many games and synthetic benchmarks when they are paired with faster memory (~2666MHz or higher) than when they are paired with slower memory (2133Mhz).
Of course, this can vary from game-to-game. In some games, memory operating at higher clock speeds helps boost performance more than in it does in other games.
So, there is really no standard answer for whether or not faster memory will help you. It really depends on the types of programs you are running and the games you are playing.

It is also important to note that there is a difference in price between slower RAM and faster RAM. The price difference can vary, but as a rough estimate for DDR4 prices, 2133MHz memory is typically ~10-15% less expensive than 3000MHz memory. However, depending on where you’re shopping, the difference in price between 2133MHz kits and 2666MHz kits can actually be a lot less and, in some instances, can be the same price.
So, my best advice would be, first, if you’re building a system with a Ryzen CPU and you have the budget to afford faster RAM, try and get a memory kit that has a clock speed of at least 2666hz. Again, this is not going to increase your framerate and system performance in every game and application. However, it will cover you for those games and programs where faster memory does help.
The second thing to consider is your budget. If you’re working with a tight budget and the price difference between getting a slower kit of memory and getting a faster kit of memory means that you’d have to downgrade on your CPU or GPU in order to afford that faster memory kit, then you’d be better off choosing the slower RAM so that you can get the faster CPU and GPU.
Because, ultimately, the difference in performance between a lower-tier CPU/GPU and a higher-tier CPU/GPU is greater than the difference in performance between faster memory and slower memory.
But again, depending on the memory clock rate in question, in some instances, faster memory kits are only slightly more expensive than slower memory kits (2133MHz vs 2666MHz for example.)
So, maybe the best way to phrase what you should be looking for in terms of RAM speed is to say:
For new systems, get at least a 2666MHz memory kit (DDR4) and go with faster memory if the price increase won’t affect your choices on other more important components (like your CPU and GPU.)
The Bottom Line on RAM’s Impact on Framerates
The bottom line is that memory can impact the framerates you get in a given game. However, the amount it can impact it can vary from game-to-game and scenario-to-scenario.
As a general rule of thumb, 2666MHz is probably the best starting point for DDR4 memory as it typically doesn’t cost much more than 2133MHz memory. And, 2666MHz memory offers a decent performance boost over 2133MHz memory (at least, according to benchmarks on Ryzen-based systems), but not much less of a performance difference when compared to faster memory kits.
My guess is that, adding more ram, which also is faster, will fix issues with the game stuttering.
Like when moving from one location to another in warzone 2, or dragon riding in WoW dragonflight, if you have less RAM, the processor works overtime as it has to do more loading/unloading of data as you move. For example, I have a high speed SSD, but only 8GB 3000mhz RAM, i7 8700, RTX 2060.
In WZ 2, standing still and looking around or staying in one area my frame rate at the settings I prefer is average 90 FPS. But when I sprint to a different area, or am on a vehicle going fast the game jolts and stutters but it still says 90ish FPS. Upgrading my RAM to running dual 8 GB(16GB total) 3200mhz the issue no longer occurs. The only way I could reduce this before was to put the graphics on lowest settings.
Hey there, I would like to ask that why does my Hp Laptop Lags so much even though it has (16 GB Ram). When I play good quality games for a while it doesn’t lag but after a while it lags badly. Please tell me solution to fix this problem without spending money. Thank you.
This would likely be a heat issue. Feeling around the base of your laptop when it’s lagging for hot spots would give you a idea.
first try to check your CPU temperature make sure not overheat.
Second Try to check Disk Usage in task manager make sure the usage its not 100%
” having big ram it’s helpful for gaming but if your HDD it’s too busy it’s useless “
Hello! I have an Acer Aspire 5, A515-52G with intel CORe i5 8th Gen and a NVIDIA GeForce MX150. I have a 8 GB DDR4 Memory and 256 GB SSD. I wonder if I can change ANY of the parts on my laptop will boost my FPS.
It was the first time am buying a computer, I think I got scammed :(. They said the NVIDIA mx 150 is good, but I don’t even find much info. about MX150!
I opened the lid of my computer before, it was amazing XD.
With some games upgrading the ram may be useful for your case. As you already have a SSD which helps game speeds.
Nvidia MX 150 is a bad graphics card. It’s not any better than integrated graphics. Its only there to allow some dedicated gpu applications to run and you will not really benefit in gaming with that thing. Also check if your processor name ends with a “U”. U processors are reputed for bad performance because they are designed to use the lowest amount of power a processor can. I’ve had first hand experience with many i7 11th gen U processors which even being i7, end up performing worse than an i3 in a lot of cases especially in gaming.
I have a ryzen 7 5800x and a evga 380 ftw3 I get such low fps in every game had my build for a year and stilll can’t find the problem ! I’ve reinstalled windows all drivers with DDU and still get low fps results! I think it might be my ram tho which is 2666mhz which I can OC to 3200mhz but works better with 2666mhz any clue what my problem could be and would buying a 3600mhz ram solve my problem
Hi so i have this old laptop… It have 4gb ram, i5 4th gen and nvdia geforce 610m gpu.. will
upgrading my ram to 8Gb gives fps to my games? Right now i’m playing Genshin Impact with lowest settings.. My fps goes around 20-50..
yes , get another 4gb with the same specs for duel channel
Sir, why my pc is lagging but i meet the required ram for the game.
the game i played required 4gb ram and my pc is 4gb ram and i experience lag do i need to buy 16gb ram?
Your CPU and Graphics card are probably below the minimum requirements for the game. That may be why you’re experiencing the lag
Sir, why my phone(vivo y83) used to lag too much while playing pubg. So Will you pliz guide me for that so I can play game smoothly.
Vivoy83,4GB RAM.
sometimes I fell that I make a mistake buying this phone vivoy83.
Thanking you
i think ping is the point. holy pingas ! ! ! ! !
The biggest impact comes from running dual channel RAM as opposed to only a single channel. I think the article missed this important point.