SmokyBarnable Now our OSs are being enshittified because of the AI insanity. Reply
ezst036 SmokyBarnable said: Now our OSs are being enshittified because of the AI insanity. No. Microsoft's 16/32 GB recommendation was in a gaming context. Most of the problems long complained about over the last 5 years of Windows 11 do not relate to AI, with some complaints even going back to Windows 10, 8, 7, and beyond. "Recall" is the primary AI problem child in recent memory but all the rest of the things people have gotten upset over are: forced online user accounts, the recently discovered GDID tracker, TPM 2.0, UI stupidity such as disabling the capability to move around the task bar, Microsoft advertisements and 3rd party advertisements everywhere, the dark patterns of trying to coerce people into accepting settings they would not normally select, and the insane amounts of memory that Windows has long been consuming which did not all of a sudden appear (WHERE DID YOU COME FROM???) in the AI era. Nobody was all of a sudden surprised that Windows is HulkOS when it comes to gulping DRAM because now we are in an AI era. This is not new information. 1oIyk13JwQM View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oIyk13JwQM https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-now-recommends-32gb-of-ram-as-the-future-proof-no-worries-config-for-gaming-16gb-becomes-the-new-practical-starting-point-during-the-ramageddon The company does lay out its reasoning for this — it says that more RAM will help in running apps like Discord alongside your game, while AAA blockbuster titles also benefit from the extra breathing room. That's true in essence because, of course, having more RAM will always be nice; it'll allow the system to rely less on the page file, which is much slower, while keeping more things in memory. https://www.techpowerup.com/348715/microsoft-now-recommends-32-gb-ram-as-a-no-worries-upgrade-for-windows-11 Microsoft has published an updated support document outlining what the company believes the best Windows 11 gaming PC systems have in common. Among the listed specifications, Microsoft makes an interesting note about the system's RAM capacity configuration. The document suggests that 16 GB is a baseline for a modern PC, describing it as a good "starting point." However, the company recommends that gamers aim to surpass this baseline, as it now suggests 32 GB as a "no worries" upgrade for gaming PCs. This higher RAM capacity makes running multiple workloads much easier, which is naturally true, but raises question about the feasibility of Microsoft's future plans to bring more optimizations to the operating system. Most TechPowerUp readers are PC enthusiasts who understand how a RAM-limited system performs and know that more RAM is almost always better. However, in an era where the DRAM shortage is making it difficult for enthusiasts to easily buy more RAM, many are turning to more optimized operating systems like Linux-based distributions or even macOS, which is an entirely different platform. Microsoft now recommends a 32 GB capacity, stating it "helps if you run Discord, browsers, or streaming tools alongside your games." The extra memory also provides newer titles with more breathing room as memory demands continue to rise. This might also indicate that Microsoft's operating system is more RAM-hungry these days than it used to be, during a challenging time for RAM upgrades. Tom's and others were talking about gaming and Discord and others, not AI. While it is true that all of the AI focus from Microsoft does indeed make things just that much worse, pretty much all of this was going to be true anyways when we pretty much exclude the AI question from the equation. Reply
DS426 SmokyBarnable said: Now our OSs are being enshittified because of the AI insanity. Mmm, well, this mempocalypse situation is causing Microsoft and other software providers to do what they should have been doing anyways: more focus on memory optimization. Reply
DS426 Has anyone here ever ran Windows 11 on a PC with 4 GB of RAM? I can't begin to imagine how miserable that experience would be. Reply
JeffreyP55 RoLleRKoaSTeR said: 640K is all anyone needs… Bill Gates denies every having said that. Sure Bill… 🙂 Reply
Lamarr the Strelok JeffreyP55 said: Bill Gates denies every having said that. Sure Bill… 🙂 He said it in a context that was accurate. This isn't Steve apple, Bill knows what he's doing in actual coding. Reply
Vidikron ezst036 said: Tom's and others were talking about gaming and Discord and others, not AI. While it is true that all of the AI focus from Microsoft does indeed make things just that much worse, pretty much all of this was going to be true anyways when we pretty much exclude the AI question from the equation. You entered that whole post and then glossed over and buried at the end why they removed the recommendation. If all this is true outside of AI then why did they remove the recommendation if it should still be true? Because of the AI induced hardware crunch. A crunch they themselves have helped create. They are now afraid to admit how much RAM you might need in specific scenarios because the prices have sky rocketed. Reply
purposelycryptic DS426 said: Has anyone here ever ran Windows 11 on a PC with 4 GB of RAM? I can't begin to imagine how miserable that experience would be. Reminds me of the heyday of the netbook, most of which would come with 1GB of RAM and the 32-bit version of Windows 7. It would technically run, but the way a Honda Civic runs when you fill the entire trunk and back seat with bricks – you'd get where you were going eventually, but not anytime soon, and it wouldn't be what you'd call a smooth ride. Reply
USAFRet DS426 said: Has anyone here ever ran Windows 11 on a PC with 4 GB of RAM? I can't begin to imagine how miserable that experience would be. Tiny11 will apparently run in 2GB RAM. Just don't try to do anything beyond making it boot up. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/tiny11-lean-windows-11 Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/microsoft-quietly-purges-32gb-of-ram-recommendations-from-its-website-company-reels-from-the-effects-of-the-memory-shortage-as-it-released-8gb-base-models-for-surface-laptops-this-year#main
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