Is 8 Gb Overkill for this rig?

Hello everyone!

I'm currently building a gaming system, nothing high-end, just common stuff. I already have everything but the RAM, an APU 5800k and a R7 260x (I know that an APU and a GPU is not the smartest choice, but I got the APU really really cheap), and the rest of the parts (HDD, PSU, Case, etc).
I was wondering if I could be fine with 4Gb since this is not a high-end PC, and so I won't be running every game in the highest settings, or if I'm going to need 8Gb of RAM. I won't be doing a lot of stuff while gaming, I never do, but due to games increasing requirements I started thinking about this and can't get to an answer.
I would go right away with the 8 Gigs but where I live RAM is pretty expensive, and there is a big difference (in price) from 4 Gigs to 8, so I would buy 8 only if it's really worth it.
Any ideas, thoughts and acknowledgements are aprecciated! Thanks in advance

If you can cope with very slightly longer loading times for games like Dragon Age: Inquisition then 4GB is fine for gaming. 8GB is beginning to have a small impact in extreme cases such as loading times for very demanding games.

For the difference in price. 8gb should be the norm.

Go for the 8GB, you'll regret it later.

Thank you for your answers! I'll have all that in mind. I think I will go with only one 4 Gb module and buy another later.

Buy now, DDR3 prices will only rise now (there is less supply and supply will be decreasing steadily as production lines are moved to DDR4) and games are starting to expect 6-8GB thanks to the new consoles.

Get a single 4GB module now and grab another one in the future when you have a tiny bit of cash on hand. At the moment, 4GB should suffice for most things although you might notice subtle slowness here and there (don't even get me started on browsing with multiple tabs) but soon the difference might become more apparent so just make sure that whatever module you get is going to be available months down the line when you get another one.

Yes that's a fact. Luckily in my country (Argentina) new things don't come as fast as in other parts of the world, anyways I'll try to buy the second one as soon as I can. Thanks everyone for your answers!

Not at all. 8gb will be fine

8GB nowadays is never an overkill, with OS systems requiring more and more ram its always best to future proof your rig

I still think 8Gb is overkill for any OS for everyday tasks. There's no need for more than 4Gb unless you're doing special work or gaming. Anyways I already have 8Gb just in case I need it (which I never did so far, but who knows). But there's no such thing as future proofing a PC. :O_o1:

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Originally Posted by saitam94

But there's no such thing as future proofing a PC. :O_o1:

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There is such a thing as increasing the time before you have to upgrade though(spend now when its relatively cheap and avoid potentially a bigger hit later on). My biggest regret is only going for 16Gb of ram when I built my machine now I am in the position of needing 32Gb more and more the cost has doubled :(.

I think you'd be best getting 8Gb. Its really not too hard to fill 4Gb of memory these days.

I would probably say start with 8gb and add another 8gb later if you need it.

As this thread is over 2 months old, I suspect the OP has his answer :)