Should I get 16GB or 8GB worth of ram for Civ 6

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The other consideration is long term. You spent $200 on this machine. How long do you intend to keep the machine for?? 2-3 years? 5-10 years?

As Callan has pointed out due to the PSU you will be limited to the graphics cards you can actually run here. 400 watts is not a huge amount if you want a gaming rig. Better graphics cards need bigger cases too. This is one of the limitations on my 9-10 year old Dell machine. The PSU and the case size.

Then you have to consider memory. If this rig is only going to last 2-3 years then spending loads on the memory makes less sense. It also depends the configuration you intend to run it in. If you have 2 dimm slots it's likely they will only hold 8gb each? This board can hold 16gb max? Do you intend to run other newer games in next 3 or so years? Will these require more ram?

It's possible in a few years you could upgrade again to an older Intel configuration that might accept ddr3? So in theory the ram could be reused? Otherwise sticking with 8gb now means you still have option for 16gb later? I would check your graphics vs minimum spec required for this game. Then you have the option of buying Civ VI and playing it with 8gb. If the machine struggles you still have options to add 8gb later?

I am holding off purchasing Civ 6 for now for similar reasons to you. Except my Ram is only 4gb and GPU is much weaker. (Expected for a 9-10 year old rig.) Plus I am worried about all these bugs the game has for now. Especially the crashes due to spies and capturing cities. Civ VI is far from the finished article right now.
 
callan said:
The above is very well considered and I wouldn't disagree with any of your reasoning. You have hardware for a purpose and you are looking into value additions to that as opposed to any kind of rebuild. You do say above that you do not have to pay for the RAM yourself so value may not be the primary consideration, in which case 16 is a bigger number than 8 and more is rarely worse than less. Strictly from that value perspective though, it's genuinely not something you'll actually use much, if at all, with that specific setup.

If at some point in the future you are looking to get one more generation of games out of that rig then the only decent GPU you'll be able to slot right in is the GeForce 1050 Ti, which has a very low power footprint and doesn't require extra connectors. It's not a brilliant card but it's cheap, puts up solid scores in terms of price/performance and will happily run most current gen games at 1080p, max settings. For comparisons sake it has about 5 times the overall throughput of your current GPU.
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1 Would that gpu even fit my case?

2. Fit the mobo pcix 2.0? It's nvda would it work with AMD mobo in general?

3. 400w is enough for that?
 
STOP... just stop now.... I dont think anyone here know jack about hardware

1. That AMD processor is gonna benefit a lot from ddr1866 or higher ram, in fact I wouldnt go less then 2400

2. that powersupply MAY not be enough. I will tell you right now that my pc doesnt draw but 350 watts from the outlet and I have 2 monitors lamp stereo receiver and a overclocked cpu. As I sit here typeing this up with all that on that my power draw is 156 watts
-2 monitors is 80 watts
-40 watts for the receiver
-21 watts for the lamp

you will need to measure the case to see if it would fit a GPU. I would go with a GTX 1070 but nothign higher. Even a GTX 1060 would work and they should fits most cases.
 
Sartre311 said:
Most ram that motherboard will utilize is DDR3 1333 MHz
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How so. AMD processors have the mem controller onboard unless the bios doesnt even give the option for higher? If thats the case then it would be better to just not even buy memory for it or even a GPU and just get a new build starting with a case that will fit a highend gpu and just transplant everything over and just build from it.
That way OP you could save your money and be forward thinking in your build and have it for years to come. This is how I build my PC's because its less impact on your wallet and I dont upgrade until I absolutely need to or I can do it with a good ROI
 
Sartre311 said:
Most ram that motherboard will utilize is DDR3 1333 MHz
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The MSI site says that 1333MHz is the limit, but they've tested and approved some 1600MHz modules for compatibility. https://us.msi.com/file/test_report/TR10_2443.pdf

The processor itself supports up to 1833MHz, which would probably work just fine. It's possible that the original board supported 1333MHz, but later updates to the BIOS increased the limit as new processors were released.

Anyway, unless the cost difference is important, I don't see a reason not to get 16GB.
 
Sartre311 said:
1 Would that gpu even fit my case?

2. Fit the mobo pcix 2.0? It's nvda would it work with AMD mobo in general?

3. 400w is enough for that?
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1. I don't know. I googled it for you though and it's 4.3 inches high and 5.7 inches long. It takes up 2 slots so the slot beneath your x16 slot needs to be free.
2. PCIe 3.0 cards (which this is) work in PCIe 2.0 slots (which you have). While this CPU/GPU combination would be somewhat unusual there is no reason why it wouldn't work.
3. 400w is enough to run it.

Sartre311 said:
By the way this is the ram that I'm considering what do you guys think?

https://m.newegg.com/Product/Index?itemNumber=N82E16820231486

Or if I were to go with the 8GB it would be the same brand and model.

https://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=N82E16820231426
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If you go for 8GB consider getting it in one module. Slight performance loss but it won't matter for what you need (at all) and it will be cheaper to get it a partner if you upgrade in the future.

Sartre311 said:
Most ram that motherboard will utilize is DDR3 1333 MHz
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This is correct. You can certainly buy faster memory as long as it supports operating at 1333 as well.

Edit: Going on what Kwami says you may be able to use DDR 3 1600 in later BIOS revisions. Take care if you decide to flash though. BIOSs available here.
 
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tekjunkie28 said:
How so. AMD processors have the mem controller onboard unless the bios doesnt even give the option for higher? If thats the case then it would be better to just not even buy memory for it or even a GPU and just get a new build starting with a case that will fit a highend gpu and just transplant everything over and just build from it.
That way OP you could save your money and be forward thinking in your build and have it for years to come. This is how I build my PC's because its less impact on your wallet and I dont upgrade until I absolutely need to or I can do it with a good ROI
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https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/760GM-P23-FX.html#hero-specification

Mother board- 24.4cm(L) x 20.5cm(W) Micro-ATX Form Factor - So it will be limited to certain GPU.

DDR3 800/1066/1333. It may well take a higher speed memory but it will be ultimately limited by the motherboard. Something to check? Albeit DDR4 and other memory types are gradually replacing DDR3 and likely DDR4 in next few years. It's the way of computers.

I think the point here is the OP has gone for a budget gaming machine. What you are suggesting would be very much a more mid/high end machine. It also sounds like the OP has only recently bought this machine. Last month or so? On this basis I would keep what the OP has and try to make most of it. 16gb of ram will be ample to run Civ 6. Albeit speed is not ideal. I am sure there are much older systems with slower ram running this game.

The PSU is not just about 400 watts. It's also about the quality of it. PSU are very complex. For a 200 dollars machine i doubt it will be a high end power supply. It may well be very capable but unlikely to be gold rated. The name on it is a good brand.

I think this system is fine for 2-3+ years. At $200 you can easily rinse and repeat in 3-4+ years. $66 a year is a reasonble outlay here. Less than $6 a month.
 
With the OP's system, the amount of ram and the speed of it aren't going to make a great deal of difference, 8GB is enough. The CPU and GPU are the bottlenecks, at least with Civ 6. 16 GB of DDR3, if you plan to upgrade could be a waste, as you will need DDR4. The newest Intel and the upcoming AMD Ryzen CPU's utilize DDR4. You could upgrade to an Intel Haswell CPU and motherboard that uses DDR3 or upgrade to a more potent AMD FX. Those are options you will have to consider and research for yourself.
 
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AriochIV said:
I don't know of any games, Civ VI included, that really benefit from more than 8 GB RAM.
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Depending on the Mods & ini tweaks 64bit Bethesda games can get up there.

Sartre311 said:
Can anyone vouch for the amount of RAM the late game has been using?
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Here's my current game: Industrial Age, Huge Map, 15 players remaining, 18-20 city states remaining. I've seen it go a little higher than this, but I don't ever recall seeing it break 4 Gigs (not that I monitor it regularly).

Mem.jpg
 
Unless of course someone can verify that a bios update would get me to 1600 MHz which just a simple Google search for me didn't really verify one way or another on that matter.
 
Sartre311 said:
^^^^ anyone
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Gskill is a great brand, used it in many builds, never had a problem. The "jaws" can get in the way, maybe consider the ares or regular version. I have the ares.
 
My Civ VI runs perfectly maxed out with 4GB. That's all about to quit W10 garbage stuff.
 
I would say 16 gigs for big maps and lats of civs, especially in the late game. I have 8 gigs and often I can't run high settings because I don't have the RAM for it.
 
To my knowledge civ6 uses a ton of vram, and less dependant on ram. I guess it just loads the entire world in instead of streaming it in. I guess that’s why the maps are also smaller.
 
Boi said:
I would say 16 gigs for big maps and lats of civs, especially in the late game. I have 8 gigs and often I can't run high settings because I don't have the RAM for it.
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You realise you reacted to a four-year-old topic?
 
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