Microsoft has quietly retracted its own documentation that suggested 32GB RAM is the “no worries” upgrade for gaming, and 16GB RAM is the baseline. This support document was likely written using a large language model, and Windows Latest first spotted it before it was taken down. Microsoft also nuked a document that recommended Copilot+ PCs for gaming.
Microsoft has a “Learning Center” where it publishes guides and marketing articles to promote various Windows features, and these rank well in search results. It’s mostly used by Microsoft to push a narrative and also make it easier for users to make a choice when they search the web.
In the first week of April, Microsoft quietly published a support document titled “Gaming features: What the best Windows PC gaming systems have in common.”
At first, the document might appear to be about Windows 11’s gaming features, but it goes a step further and builds a narrative around the memory requirement.
In the support document, Microsoft clearly notes that:
“For most players, 16GB RAM is a practical starting point. Moving to 32GB RAM helps if you run Discord, browsers, or streaming tools alongside your games. That extra memory also gives newer titles more breathing room as memory demands continue to rise.” – Microsoft.
“16GB RAM is the baseline; 32GB is the ‘no worries’ upgrade,” the company concluded in the support document, which was first spotted by Windows Latest.
This was later picked up by other outlets and the gaming community, and it didn’t go well with gamers.
Outrage?
I build PCs for a living, I’ve been pitching gamers the 16GB baseline / 32GB futureproofing ‘no worries’ for more than 5 years now.
yeah pretty much
ram has gotten cheaper and more ram is just a smoother experience
I remember getting 2nd 128mb DDR that allowed me to run Half Life 2 more smoother. Or additional 2GB of DDR2 to upgrade for 64bit Windows 7. Wild times.
It’s social media, you can stir up outrage on any topic because social media conditions people to be outraged at everything.
Exactly right. I would never build a gaming PC with less than 16GB these days. And for friends and family, I’d push them to try to go with 32GB if their budget extends to it.
The sweet spot is probably around 24GB, but then you’re mixing module sizes.