Published minimums start at 4GB (Windows 11) and the recommendations we read cluster at 16GB to 32GB: games 16GB to 32GB, Blender 32GB. Size to what you run today. Buy the capacity you need now, do not buy speculatively, and a working kit you are happy with is not a reason to buy.
Live prices updated ยท requirements read 2026-09-22; prices refreshed through the day
Buy the capacity you need now, do not buy speculatively, and a working kit you are happy with is not a reason to buy. Part of this market's demand is fear of higher prices, and buying on fear is how a buyer ends up owning capacity they did not need at the top of a price cycle. If your machine works and the memory in it is enough for what you run, the right amount to buy today is none.
The buying decision this page exists to slow down is the large one: capacity bought to feel safe.
This page answers one question, how many gigabytes, and deliberately nothing else. It says nothing about which kit is quicker, which speed is worth paying for or which memory suits a particular game, because those depend on your machine and a price site cannot know them. What it can do is put the amounts the software makers themselves publish next to what memory costs today, so a buyer can see how much capacity a use actually calls for and what that capacity costs, and decide from there.
The figures below are the makers' and publishers' own, read at their own pages, with the date. They are minimums and recommendations for that one program. They are not a total for a machine, which also runs an operating system, a browser and whatever else is open, and they are not a promise that a given amount will be comfortable for you. Read a recommendation as the publisher's own statement of what they tested against, not as a rule.
The only requirement we can cite for ordinary desktop use is the operating system's. Microsoft publishes 4GB of RAM among the minimum requirements for installing Windows 11. That is a floor for installing, not a description of a comfortable machine, and it is far below the smallest memory kit we track, which is the point: nobody is buying new desktop kits at this size to run an operating system.
Beyond the operating system, the amount an everyday machine needs is set by what is open at once, and that is your own habit rather than a published number. A useful check is to look at how much memory your machine is actually using during a normal day. If it sits well below what is installed, more capacity buys you nothing; if it regularly hits the ceiling, that is the signal that a purchase would change something. If you have never looked, look before you buy.
Cheapest new non-ECC desktop kit at each size, as of 2026-09-22. A price, not a recommendation: buy the size you need.
Game publishers state their own requirements per title, and the four we read at their Steam store entries on 2026-09-22 range widely at the low end and converge at the recommended one: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Xbox Game Studios) states 16GB minimum and 32GB recommended; Cyberpunk 2077 (CD PROJEKT RED) states 12GB minimum and 16GB recommended; Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian Studios) states 8GB minimum and 16GB recommended; Starfield (Bethesda Softworks) states 16GB minimum and 16GB recommended. Four titles is a sample, not a survey, and requirements change with patches, which is why each is dated in the table.
What the sample says is narrower than the marketing around memory suggests. Every recommendation among the four sits at 16GB or 32GB. None asks for 64GB, and none asks for more than 32GB. A machine with 32GB has met the highest recommendation we found with room left for the operating system and other software; a machine with 16GB has met all but one. Whether more than that helps your particular games is not something these numbers show and we do not claim it.
Cheapest new non-ECC desktop kit at each size, as of 2026-09-22. A price, not a recommendation: buy the size you need.
Blender publishes a minimum of 8GB and a recommended 32GB on Windows, macOS and Linux alike. That is one program's own statement and it is the one creative-tool figure we can cite directly. Adobe's Premiere Pro and Photoshop requirement pages did not render to our reader on 2026-09-22, so we use no Adobe figure rather than quote one from memory; if you work in those, the vendor's own requirements page is the authority. Heavy media work, large scenes and very large files are exactly where a working set can outgrow a recommendation, and the way to know is to watch your own memory use on your own projects.
For virtual machines and containers the arithmetic is your own: the memory you give each guest, added up, plus what the host needs. Docker publishes 8GB of system RAM among the requirements to run WSL 2 on Windows, which is a requirement for the tooling to run and is separate from what your containers will use. Add the allocations you plan to run, leave headroom for the host, and that total is your number, not anyone's rule of thumb.
Cheapest new non-ECC desktop kit at each size, as of 2026-09-22. A price, not a recommendation: buy the size you need.
Local AI is different from the rest because the requirement is arithmetic on a file you choose. A model's weights, at the precision you run them, plus the working memory for the context you need, add up to a figure that either fits or does not. We do not cite a published requirement here because it depends on the model and how it is run, and we do not duplicate the arithmetic: our model calculator turns a model and a context length into a memory figure, and that figure is the one to buy against.
If the calculator says a model needs more than a desktop can hold, the route to that much memory may not be a desktop at all; the server-versus-consumer comparison prices registered server memory against desktop kits and counts the platform. And if the calculator says the model fits in what you already have, the right amount to buy is none.
Cheapest new non-ECC desktop kit at each size, as of 2026-09-22. A price, not a recommendation: buy the size you need.
The most expensive mistake available in memory today is buying 128GB 'to future-proof'. It feels like prudence and it works the other way. Future-proofing means paying now for capacity you do not use now, in the hope it will be useful later, and the price you pay is the highest of the cycle by every source we cite. If the need arrives, it arrives with a workload you can name, and you can meet it then with memory bought against a real number. If it does not arrive, you have spent a large sum on gigabytes that sat idle.
Nothing in the published requirements supports it either. The recommendations we read top out at 32GB for the programs we checked, and the arithmetic for local AI is a number you can calculate rather than a hope. A buyer who can point to a task that does not fit is not future-proofing, they are buying what they need. A buyer who cannot is guessing at a price that other people's panic set.
There is a related trap in kits: buying two kits 'because it is cheaper per gigabyte' or 'in case prices rise again'. A larger kit that costs less per gigabyte is still a larger purchase, and the cheapest gigabyte you do not need is the most expensive one you can buy. Rising headlines are not a use case. Buy the capacity you need now, do not buy speculatively, and a working kit you are happy with is not a reason to buy.
Microsoft publishes a 4GB minimum for Windows 11, which is a floor for installing rather than a comfortable machine. Beyond that it depends on what you have open at once. Check how much memory your machine actually uses on a normal day; if it sits well below what is installed, more buys nothing.
The four titles we read (Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate 3, Starfield) publish recommendations of 16GB and 32GB. None asks for more than 32GB. Publishers' figures are per title and change with patches; the table on this page is dated.
Not on the published requirements, which top out at 32GB for the programs we checked, and not at today's prices. Future-proofing means paying the highest price of the cycle for capacity you do not use. If a later need arrives with a workload you can name, meet it then.
It is arithmetic on the model you choose: weights at your precision plus working memory for your context. Our model calculator does that sum, and that figure is the one to buy against. If the model fits in what you have, buy nothing.
If your machine works, wait or do not buy. Buy the capacity you need now, do not buy speculatively, and a working kit you are happy with is not a reason to buy. We do not predict prices; the outlook is on the RAM price forecast.
From the makers' and publishers' own pages, read on the dates shown in the table: Microsoft's Windows 11 specification page, Blender's requirements page, Docker's Windows install page, and each game's Steam store entry, where the publisher supplies its own requirements.