I am planning on getting a framework desktop to use as my main PC for work, development, and gaming. Considering that, I was wondering if anyone has noticed the extra ram being helpful in other applications aside from local AI usage. I’ve watched some reviews online and I’m getting the impression that most video games don’t exceed ram usage that the 64gb model can’t handle. I could purchase the 64gb model sooner, or wait longer and save for the 128gb model, but I want to know if it would be worth it. Would be helpful to hear from you all!
64gig version should be totally fine.
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The 64GB model is now a much better value, for the time being at least, as it has seen a much lower price jump. Making it actually a pretty good value option for that much memory of that speed.
For video games, you absolutely don’t need the 128GB. 64GB is already plenty for that, even for a unified memory system. AI work loads aside, you’ll need some serious computing tasks to even fill the 64GB (large, complex 3D model operations in Blender for example, or maybe video edititing and things like that?
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64GB is fine, for today. But, you can’t upgrade later–what is your desired service life for the machine? And what software are you running? Tools like nonlinear video editing will eat memory.
I ran Arch with 6GB of RAM 15 years ago. I remember running Ubuntu with 2GB of DDR2. Today, Arch will use 16GB of DDR4/5 at boot if you have it. That is just how things are, needs expand over time. Personally–I wouldn’t buy a Windows PC in 2025 (now 26) with less than 32GB of RAM; and I wouldn’t consider less than 12GB short-term viable for gaming. AAA Video games just won’t fit inside 8GB framebuffers anymore.
64GB is “fine”, as of today–for Windows in 5 years? Given how much Microsoft brags about its code being copy/pasted brainlessly from LLMs, and how badly Windows is coded today…who knows how much it will need to function in 2-5 years. Gaming might need less RAM in the future as a reaction to RAM scarcity, OR due to silicon scarcity it is also a possibility the entire gaming industry just collapses–because Nvidia and AMD realize that all of consumer gaming is a massive opportunity cost compared to selling AI shovels in an AI g\old rush.
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It’s not even remotely true unless you’re doing something really stupid or really specific that only makes sense for a handful of people.
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For non-ai 64gb is absolutely sufficient and I am confident it will be for many years, yes even 5 years from now.
I use my desktop with a 16/48gb split. 16gb of vram is much more than enough for this GPU, it does not have the raw horsepower for high native resolutions anyway. 48gb for system ram is absolutely plenty. Most users will not even fill 32gb with relatively demanding workflows.