Should you really get 32gb memory for a ThinkPad I7 with integrated graphics? Or is it a waste of money?

eddie500

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I purchased an Lenovo Yoga Gen 6 laptop with an I7. I only got 16gb of ram.

My reasoning was that, it only has integrated graphics so I don't think I will play any games that would need 32gb. I also don't do any video editing or really anything like that.

This is more my travel laptop, and I don't see any reason at all for needing 32gb of memory.

Everyone else is telling me I need 32gb. I guess mainly for future proofing in 5 years or something??

What is the honest truth, will I really see any benefit of 32gb in the next 3 years for a very lightweight mobile computer with integrated graphics. I am really just an average computer user, not really planning on doing anything demanding with the laptop. I have a desktop that is high end.

Will it be hard to sell the notebook in 3 years with only 16gb of memory? Would 32gb really get me that much more money?

Did I make a stupid decision buying the 16gb memory and not the 32gb?
 
I'm wondering about this too. I think there are specific scenarios you would need more. Maybe video editing. I don't know of many others. Other use cases likely go up to specific professional things. Maybe CAD modeling.

16GB should work for up to 4k editing with fewer effects. I doubt I need 32GB but its still a bother.
 
I'm wondering about this too. I think there are specific scenarios you would need more. Maybe video editing. I don't know of many others. Other use cases likely go up to specific professional things. Maybe CAD modeling.

16GB should work for up to 4k editing with fewer effects. I doubt I need 32GB but its still a bother.

I think the best description of why I would need 32gb is that people who bought laptops 6 years ago and got 16gb instead of 4gb are still able to use their computers today. However, if you got 8gb 6 years ago, you are still doing fine with 8gb today.

This assumes the same thing would happen now, in 6 years would 16gb be a huge handicap? I seriously doubt it.

If you have an all out gaming desktop then maybe 32gb is justifiable. But if you are running an ultra light laptop with integrated graphics, then it is hard to imagine needing 32gb.
 
I decided to just get the 32gb and pay the extra money.

I really doubt I will need it on a laptop, but peer pressure steered me towards and it got to a point that I would rather just spend the extra $100 and not be bothered anymore about making up my mind or thinking I didn't get enough memory.

I also like to have a million chrome tabs opened, and this can get around 10gb alone for these opened tabs.
 
I decided to just get the 32gb and pay the extra money.

I really doubt I will need it on a laptop, but peer pressure steered me towards and it got to a point that I would rather just spend the extra $100 and not be bothered anymore about making up my mind or thinking I didn't get enough memory.

I also like to have a million chrome tabs opened, and this can get around 10gb alone for these opened tabs.
I don't think you should feel guilty. It's not a huge additional outlay, and you clearly have enough memory use that you might benefit from 32GB down the road.
 
No game I have played uses up 16GB ram.
If you only play games there is no need for more.
 
No game I have played uses up 16GB ram.
If you only play games there is no need for more.

Very true, however, do you play games and have 20 chrome tabs opened? I do all the time. You can get around this by closing all the chrome tabs.

Why I decided to just get the 32gb was more for future proofing, I figured, I may just keep this laptop for a while. What I think may happen is a new version of windows comes out down the road and uses even more memory than windows 10. While it will work with 16gb, it will start to cache files to the hard drive.

I still kind of think 16gb will be plenty to be honest, even in the future, but I just figured safer to just get the 32gb.

That all being said, because of me changing my order my laptop is on major back order because of the 32gb and I am considering just ordering the 16gb.
 
16GB of ram for an iGPU is useless , period...8GB is useless, period, because they are not powerful enough to actually use 8GB/16GB of ram EVER!

The only reason to get more ram is because you like to use a LOT of applications at once, otherwise you will see absolutely ZERO performance gain on an iGPU with 8GB/16GB or 32GB of ram even.
 
16GB of ram for an iGPU is useless , period...8GB is useless, period, because they are not powerful enough to actually use 8GB/16GB of ram EVER!

The only reason to get more ram is because you like to use a LOT of applications at once, otherwise you will see absolutely ZERO performance gain on an iGPU with 8GB/16GB or 32GB of ram even.

If you were getting a new laptop with an iGPU. How much memory would you buy?
 
What are you using it for?


For me, 16GB min, but i also do a lot of work with virtual machines and such, my desktop has 32GB and i am often in the 20-30GB range pending what I am running so 32GB would go into the laptop.

If all you do is browse the web, use office apps and a little photoshop here and there, 16GB is going to be more than enough ram for 99% of the population.
 
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