I always hear 16gb memory is an overkill - but why ?

[whatif]

I have been using Primo ramdisk on and off for a while due to the speed increase. It allows variable automatically adjusting usage size depending on what is in it and it stores the info at shut down to be there upon start-up.
I have 32GB on my gaming machine and it rips with games loaded onto ramdisk. But it is great for all those temporary and work in progress files and folders to lengthen a SSD's life. I use it also on my NUC which has no hdd, just a msata with 16GB ram and it is my media center. Again to get more life out of the msata (I can load movies and other files onto the randisk and when I turn the PC off, it only saves for reloading what I want.
If you check out these forum links (1/ http://www.overclock.net/t/1381131/ramdisks-roundup-and... and 2/ http://www.overclock.net/t/1470905/ramdisks-roundup-and... ) to a whole range of ramdisk software and included are test results of speed increases when using them. This should help anyone wanting to use this type of program. Probably the first thing you will notice is that there can be big differences between the different programs and their abilities. Plus you may have to pay for the best features. I do not know of any ssd that gets up to 5000MB/s plus read and write speeds. You can pay over $20,000 (HGST FlashMAX II 4800GB PCIe Enterprise SSD) for a PCIe ssd setup that will only give you less than half the read speed and about one seventh the write speed but it does have a 4.8 TB storage size (always pros and cons). And that high ramdisk speed is only with DDR3 ram. What would you achieve with 128GB DDR4 high speed ram?
I also use a UPS on anything running ramdisk (laptops excluded), I have a 2000VA on my gaming PC due to it's large power usage (triple crossfire, watercooling, and many fans) and only a small power brick 350VA on the NUC. This is to allow me to safely shut down when a sudden power loss occurs (ramdisk's worst problem).
It definitely still has a place to be used, but to get the best out of it you need to learn what are the pros and cons of the program you are using and whether you are willing to pay to get the better features and accessories.

[mdwheeler1]

Without even doing anything but web browsing and forum reading my system (WIn 8.1 64bit) is using 4GB before any real programs so almost 23%, the the swap file I can have most of my active programs in memory (16Gb dual channel) - so the system is more efficient - it cannot directly use all the ram, Windows can handle a lot more than 3Gb now Windows 8 supports up to 128GB of physical memory (64-bit edition), while Windows 8 Pro can go up to 512GB. But the benefit for most users diminishes as you go past 8Gb so quality of modules (2x4Gb) may be better than just getting 16Gb but future proofing (crystal ball) would suggest good ram 2x4 if you can have 4 modules, then as needs change - get 2 additional 4 Gb modules - load in dual inline mode (depending on mobo)

Suggest 8Gb minimum - few need 16Gb

[jim]

I think given the age of this thread, it has probably run its course - and advice will keep shifting as time goes on - so as things stand, I'll lock it.