If you are a streamer, then you definitely want to have a minimum of 8GB RAM depending on the games that you are planning on streaming. Because 8GB of RAM gives people plenty of headroom to perform standard tasks, and it is perfectly suitable for the current games. As mentioned, 8GB of RAM is excellent for gaming, since many, if not all, games will run fine with that amount of RAM. This means you do not have to upgrade the RAM later on down the line should games begin requiring more than the standard 8GB of RAM.

While there are some users that can easily get by using 8GB of RAM, if you are playing current games and/or doing any demanding productivity work, 16GB is preferred.

For the average PC user, you may not need to go too far overboard and exceed 4GB of RAM. As games keep getting more complicated and demanding more RAM, only 4GB of RAM is going to be insufficient. While you could get by on only 4GB of RAM for a lot of older games, there is very little reason to build a new system around that small amount of RAM. 16GB of RAM will let you handle day-to-day computing tasks, as well as playing demanding games, with no problems.

With 8GB of RAM, your PC will be able to handle most games without any issues, although you may need to make some graphics concessions when dealing with the more recent, more demanding titles. If you are a hardcore gamer that occasionally streams games, 16GB of RAM is going to be your best option. For casual to hardcore gamers that do not use their PCs for anything but gaming, 8GB of appropriately fast RAM should be enough. If you are not a hardcore gamer, 8GB is plenty of RAM for simply browsing websites casually online, or doing a little bit of digital media work.

Whether it is the best DDR4 RAM you can get, or a relatively speedy kit of RAM for your build, 8GB is going to get you the lowest number of issues at a very reasonable price. You can fit 64GB of RAM in your system, but if you are using just 2GB for playing lightweight 720p indie games, you are never going to make the most out of that large portion of memory. Having this amount of RAM in your machine will let you switch up which games you are playing, as well as avoid issues of latency and stuttering. I generally recommend having at least 32GB RAM (you could go slower) if you are planning to run more games, particularly RPGs.

While some games say that 16GB is the minimum, you will often find that 8GB runs them equally well. At the absolute minimum, 8GB is generally a good starting point for most games. As I said, even playing graphically intensive games such as God of War on PC, I have hardly used 16GB of RAM. If you are looking to play the latest AAA releases on maximum settings, making sure that every component of your gaming PC is of top-notch quality will go a long way towards helping you to achieve this goal, including the RAM.