How much data do I need. How much is 4gb

You will be able to perform basic Photoshop tasks on A3 format images with 4 GB of RAM. To edit very large files, you need at least 64-bit Photoshop and over 4 GB of RAM. Excess RAM of more than 4 GB is used as a fast cache. It is recommended not to install plugins with only 4 GB of RAM.

How much data do I need?

The data limit is now the most important part of your phone contract. Phone calls and SMS have taken their place on Facebook Messenger, TikTok, and WhatsApp, while web browsing, streaming, and even working from our phones is something we do more and more.

As such, it is important to have enough monthly data. But you also don’t want to pay for unused data, which a lot of people do.

To help you figure out how much you might need, we’ve covered all the common data consuming activities, with information on how many precious megabytes they’re using.

What are MB and GB?

In this article, we will be referring to data mainly in MB (megabytes) and GB (gigabytes). A megabyte is 1,024 kilobytes (KB) or 1,000,000 bytes. A gigabyte is 1024 megabytes.

It is rarely useful to talk about data in units smaller than megabytes because even the lowest data limits are typically hundreds of megabytes, with most limits being many gigabytes.

While it is not mentioned in this article, be aware that there are also Megabits (Mb) and Gigabits (Gb). These sizes are small, one MB is for eight Mb, but you should be aware that Mb is very different from MB.

The minimum requirement for Fortnite is 4 GB of RAM along with 16 GB of free hard disk space and an Intel HD 4000 graphics processor. For best results, it is recommended that the system have 8 GB of RAM and 16 GB of free hard disk space along with a graphics card such as AMD Radeon HD 7870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 that has 2 GB or more of dedicated VRAM.

Is 8GB RAM Better than 4GB RAM?

Yes, 8 GB is better than 4 GB of RAM. 8GB of RAM improved the overall speed and memory of the computer. Having 8 GB will allow better performance when running programs, streaming, and gaming.

Advantages of Using 8GB of RAM Over 4GB

1. 8 GB RAM makes the computer more responsive and faster than 4 GB RAM. This, in turn, improves the overall performance of the computer.
2. 8 GB of RAM gives better results than 4 GB when working with heavy applications such as AutoCAD and Photoshop, or graphics intensive in games with graphic resources and lots of maps.
3. 8 GB will help programs load faster than 4 GB, especially if you are multitasking and want to switch between applications. It also helps when working with large files such as a Word document that takes up thousands of pages.
4. 8 GB RAM is better than 4 GB RAM for gamers who expect decent performance when playing popular titles.
5. 8GB RAM helps to overcome audio distortion and stuttering in video files better than 4GB RAM.
6. 8 GB of RAM will show higher performance than 4 GB when tasks such as virus scans or Windows update start downloading in the background.

Can You Use 8GB and 4GB RAM Together?

Yes, you can use 8 GB and 4 GB RAM together.

• The motherboard should have two separate slots to accommodate both 8 GB and 4 GB of RAM. It should also support 12 GB of RAM.
• Both 8 GB RAM and 4 GB RAM must run at the same clock rate or frequency. If they run at different frequencies, the motherboard will set a lower frequency for both RAMs. This will reduce the data transfer rate. They must also be of the same type and generation and have the same number of pins.
• 8 GB RAM and 4 GB RAM will work together effectively only in single-channel mode.

For faster and better performance, you need to consider using two RAMs of the same capacity. This means that it is always better to choose two 8GB RAM or two 4GB RAM together.

Sometimes it may also be necessary to swap both RAM slots.

The minimum requirement for Fortnite is 4 GB of RAM along with 16 GB of free hard disk space and an Intel HD 4000 graphics processor. For best results, it is recommended that the system have 8 GB of RAM and 16 GB of free hard disk space along with a graphics card such as AMD Radeon HD 7870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 that has 2 GB or more of dedicated VRAM.

There’s a lot that can be done with just 2 GB.

Let’s say you send 100 emails, visit 50 websites, and stream 15 minutes of music every day all month long. In this case, you will use a little more than 1 GB.

Now when it comes to watching videos on your smartphone or tablet, your data usage can spike up fast. In this scenario, adding two minutes of daily 4G LTE video viewing will increase data usage to around 1.95 GB per month.

Are you a steady streamer? Then you’ll need 4 GB or more.

If 4G LTE video streaming is a regular feature of your smartphone experience, you’ll need more data – 4GB or more.

With a monthly subscription that includes 4GB of data, you can watch 300 minutes of video per month (equivalent to ten 30-minute comedy series), browse 50 websites a day, upload 10 photos, stream 15 minutes of music and send 50 emails daily. In this case, you will still only use 3.61 GB.

Instead of jumping up to an unlimited number, delve into your habits and learn more about your favorite apps. You can probably reduce your data usage with a few simple tweaks. And you may find you can reduce your data plan – and your monthly bill – in the process.

How to adjust your usage

Once you know how much data your apps are using, you can take steps to reduce usage – and that doesn’t necessarily mean watching fewer videos. In the settings menu, you can turn off some apps so they don’t use data at all, or adjust settings in your favorite apps to reduce data usage without actually changing how you use your phone. You have to do this in each application, but you can focus on the ones that download the most data.

Switch to a lower streaming quality on music and video apps. Typically, this option can be found in the Settings menu of each application.

You should also check the settings on your social apps, many of which also play videos. For example, Facebook automatically plays videos in your feed as you scroll. This can eat up a lot of data. Manage this feature by going to “Application Settings” in the Facebook application and clicking “AutoPlay”. Then select “Never play videos automatically” or choose to play only when connected to Wi-Fi.

This brings us to another great way to minimize data usage: Wi-Fi.

When you connect to Wi-Fi, you stop using your cellular data. This means you can stream, download, and upload content without reducing your data quota.

If you’re always listening to Spotify on the way to work, download your playlist when you’re at home and connected to Wi-Fi, then listen offline and save data for something else, suggests Phil Burrows, a Verizon Wireless spokesman.

Learning about data should be a long step towards usage management. But if you’re still using a lot of data and can’t figure out why, Burrows suggests talking to your carrier.

“Don’t be afraid to jump,” says Burrows. “Be it online chat or with someone in the store, these guys live, eat and breathe these things and can guide you through how you use your phone.”

Revisiting your plan

After you’ve made changes – to the app’s behavior and your own – you can determine how many gigabytes you actually need. A good rule of thumb is to wait a month or two for use to reflect new habits. Then check your bill, operator app or data usage counter on your phone. If your usage is well below the limits of your current plan, it may be time to change plans – or even vendors.

Each wireless company arranges its plans differently. The table below will help you compare the prices of the four major carriers. When choosing a plan, keep features like unlimited video or music streaming in mind. And don’t forget to consider coverage. Saving $ 10 a month on a data plan – prepaid or traditional – means little if you can’t use your phone wherever you want.

Prepaid plans are also worth considering. Each of the four major wireless companies offer prepaid options. They also lease their networks to carriers such as Straight Talk and Tracfone. Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile also own prepaid carriers that have a different name, such as Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless. If you can make them work, these plans can save you hundreds each year.

Keep an eye on your cash. NerdWallet shares your expenses and finds new ways to save each month.

A version of this article was written by NerdWallet and was originally published by USA Today.

About the author: Kelsey Sheehy is a personal finance writer at NerdWallet. Her work has been featured by The New York Times, USA Today, CBS News and The Associated Press read more

Not everyone needs gigabytes of data to live. If you’re likely on vacation or a retreat, you may want to chat, text, and a few megabytes (MB), such as 500MB. So the next time you deal with a data plan, a rough usage estimate might clear the matter.

Testing to find the ideal amount of RAM

To determine the optimal amount of RAM, I tested three phones: Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra with 12 GB RAM, OnePlus 9 Pro with 8 GB RAM and Pixel 3XL with 4 GB RAM. Samsung and Google devices run on Android 12, while OnePlus runs on Android 11. I noticed the amount of free RAM and the amount of swap space used on each phone. Then I launched the game, noted the amount of RAM the game was using, and then looked at the changes to free RAM and swap space. I kept repeating these steps until Android was forced to turn off the app already in memory.

Here is a list of the games I have used, along with the average amount of RAM they take up:

• Subway Surfers – 750 MB
• 1945 Air Force – 850 MB
• Crush candies – 350 MB
• Brawl Stars – 500 MB
• Minecraft – 800 MB
• Asphalt 9 – 800 MB
• Shadowgun Legends – 900 MB
• Elder Scrolls Blades – 950 MB
• Genshin influence – 1.4 GB
• Chrome – 2.2 GB

Galaxy S21 Ultra and Pixel 3XL tests

These two devices are at the ends of the spectrum. The Galaxy S21 Ultra has 12 GB of RAM while the Pixel 3XL is only 4 GB. Below is a chart showing how the devices performed in my test. At the bottom is a list of games in the order I launched them. The blue line shows how much free RAM is available and the green line shows how much swap space is being used.

As you can see, the S21 Ultra offers an almost textbook example of memory management. As the amount of free RAM decreases, so does the amount of swap space used. With 12GB of RAM, the S21 Ultra was able to hold all the games in memory, from Subway Surfers, then 1945 Air Force, to Minecraft, Elder Scrolls Blades and finally Genshim Impact. No applications have been disabled. To push the S21 Ultra to the brink I booted up Chrome and when I opened 12 tabs and Chrome used up 2.2GB of memory, Android was finally forced to kill Minecraft. Pretty impressive. A deeper analysis of what happened can be found in the video.

The 12 GB Galaxy S21 Ultra provides manual memory management and can accommodate multiple active applications simultaneously.

Things looked completely different on the Pixel 3 XL. It was able to store three games in RAM simultaneously: Subway Surfers, 1945 Airforce, and Candy Crush. When I launched Brawl Stars, Subway Surfers was killed and unloaded from memory. As we expected, this lower amount of RAM means swap space is required with much fewer applications, and only a handful can be stored in memory at a time.

OnePlus 9 Pro test

The OnePlus 9 Pro used for testing has 8GB of RAM and includes the company’s RAMBoost feature found on many of its devices. RAMBoost tries to improve memory management. It analyzes your usage and tries to keep in memory the apps you use often and kills the apps you don’t use often. It will even try to preload some applications if it determines that you will be using them soon. To properly test the OnePlus 9 Pro, I tested it with RAMBoost enabled and RAMBoost disabled.

The first thing to note about the RAMBoost enabled test is the increase in free RAM when you run Candy Crush. This was because Subway Surfers was killed even though there was still plenty of free RAM and swap space available. I restarted Subway Surfers and continued. Brawl Stars started with no problem and so did Minecraft. When Asphalt 9 was launched, Android killed Candy Crush and the 1945 Air Force.

So, how much RAM do you need on your Android phone?

Apparently 4 GB is not enough for average multitasking. Only the last three or four games will remain in memory. Productivity apps tend to be smaller than games, so you should be able to run five or six smaller apps together before some of them reload when you switch to them. 6 GB of RAM will help alleviate this problem.

The 12 GB in the Galaxy S21 Ultra is very solid and well managed. At least 15 games, including some large ones, can stay in RAM simultaneously, including active Google Chrome pages. I doubt if any user would have reason to complain about or be disappointed with this level of multitasking capability.

While the OnePlus 9 Pro is aggressive at managing RAM, long-term use of RAMBoost should help Android make better use of its 8GB. But I assume 8 GB on other devices will be used better than on OnePlus.

Based on the results, our recommendation is to aim for 6GB of RAM when purchasing an inexpensive smartphone. For high-end or high-end devices, 8GB will provide good multitasking and some security for the future. In our testing, however, it became clear that the 12GB of RAM in the Galaxy S21 Ultra is clearly a sweet spot, and should provide a great overall experience for even the most discerning, advanced user. At the moment, 16GB of RAM feels like nothing more than just bragging rights.

While the OnePlus 9 Pro is aggressive at managing RAM, long-term use of RAMBoost should help Android make better use of its 8GB. But I assume 8 GB on other devices will be used better than on OnePlus.

The Bytes Table (Explained)

Currently, cell phone plans vary based on the gigabytes of data that comes with them. But before we get into what 1 gigabyte in use means, we need to break it down into smaller bits (bytes, bits – you understand?):

Here’s what you need to know Kilo <>

Data sizes	Kilobytes	Megabytes	Gigabytes	Terabyte
How much in a byte?	0.001 KB	0.000001 MB	0.000000001 GB	0.0000000000001 TB
How much in KB?	1 KB	0.001 MB	0.000001 GB	0.000000001 TB
How much in MB?	1000 KB	1 MB	0.001 GB	0.00001 TB
How much in GB?	1,000,000 KB	1000 MB	1 GB	0.001 TB
How much in tuberculosis?	1,000,000,000KB	1,000,000 MB	1000 GB	1 TB

For starters, you don’t need to remember the weird table above, but remember that 1 gigabyte (GB) is probably the standard measure for data plans at all network providers. So if you need unlimited calling, SMS, almost all carriers charge the same fee. The difference, however, is what data plan comes up.

Not everyone needs gigabytes of data to live. If you’re likely on vacation or a retreat, you may want to chat, text, and a few megabytes (MB), such as 500MB. So the next time you deal with a data plan, a rough usage estimate might clear the matter.

What does 1 Gigabyte (GB) of data get you?

One gigabyte (GB) is approximately 1,000 megabytes (MB). There is the whole thing about one GB being 1024 MB. If you want to delve into this type of detail, we recommend that you take a moment to read the article by Techopedia.

With the help of kenstechtips.com, we figured out what 1 GB of data looks like.

Action	1 GB =
Websites	600 websites
Email / Instant Messages	350,000 messages
Streaming video (HD)	30 minutes of video
Streaming video (SD)	2 hours of video
Music streaming	200 songs
Skype voice call	30 hours of talk time
Skype video call	4 hours of talk time
Application downloads or updates	25 applications

Likewise, the video is likely to be streamed in higher quality as services will think you’re using a Wi-Fi connection (for example, Netflix can use up to 7GB per hour if you’re streaming 4K video on your computer), and if you’re using a tablet connection and set the application to update automatically via Wi-Fi, these updates will take place while tethering.

How Much RAM You Need For Gaming Video Guide

While it’s true that some games may not be able to provide a decent gaming experience if you’re using 4GB of RAM, some (newer) games don’t have the 4GB issue.

Below are graphs of the changing RAM usage when playing at 1080p for comparison and evaluation. Starring 4 GB RAM, 8 GB RAM and 16 GB RAM, respectively. Photo courtesy of YouTube Uploader Science Studio for the charts below.

Looking at the charts above, all games (except The Witcher 3) have no issues with 4GB of RAM, even with the Ultra, High, and MAX graphics settings.

Even games that recommend 16GB of RAM as per the system requirements recommended by Steam, such as Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, can run with 4GB of RAM as shown below.

For budget gamers taking every penny to the limit, 8GB may seem unnecessary, but to really let your system shine, it doesn’t make sense to go for the absolute minimum RAM size.

Graph showing the framerate for Rise of the Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and For Honor using 4 GB, 8 GB, and 16 GB RAM respectively.

Photo courtesy of Linus Tech Tips Youtube Video

Is 4GB RAM Enough for Gaming Today?

While these charts show strong evidence that you can easily run several games with 4GB of RAM, the shortcuts are simply not worth the trouble. Considering the low additional cost of extra RAM and the extra headroom that a smarter investment of at least 8GB would bring, makes a game with 4GB of RAM redundant.

Is 8GB RAM the Ideal RAM for gaming?

Is 8 GB of RAM enough to play? In short, yes, 8GB is considered by many to be the new minimum recommendation. The reason 8 GB is considered the best storage location is because most of today’s games run without a problem at this capacity.

For gamers, this means you really want to invest in at least 8 GB of adequately fast RAM for your system. This amount will eliminate the risk of a poor game experience and provide the headroom you need for some games and, of course, future updates.

With the release of the newer Ryzen CPU, we can see that our primary focus is on RAM speed, with the capacity recommendations growing slowly as always. Certainly some games won’t require anything more than 4GB, but since the cost of RAM is very affordable, you might as well invest in what’s to come.

Is 16GB of RAM Worth Investing In For Gaming?

The first thing to mention is that there are no downsides to downloading the 16GB RAM kit, it’s a solid investment if you can afford it. While some games claim to require at least 16 GB, it is often found that 8 GB works just as well.

Final Verdict

So what have we learned? Well, while using 4GB of RAM for gaming may seem likely, on paper, it’s not really the smartest investment for you and your money.

8GB of gaming RAM seems to be the route most gamers should be taking. Whether it’s the best DDR4 RAM you can buy or a set of RAM with relatively fast speeds for your build, 8GB will give you the least hassle for a very reasonable price.

Of course, if you have a very advanced version, plan to build a top-notch PC, or create a lot of different video content, 16GB or more of RAM is probably your best bet.

Most, if not all, motherboards found for gaming support dual channel memory. Some high-end motherboards can even support quad-channel.

The main advantage of having multiple RAM modules is that it provides the system with some protection against crashes or damaged modules as others may get slack.

It’s unlikely you’ll notice a difference in games with one or more RAM modules, but at least with many, you can continue playing when something goes wrong.