Call of Duty Warzone is one of the hottest video games right now. It is also one of the most demanding games you can play on a PC or gaming laptop. Apart from using the best settings for Warzone laptops you must also ensure you have at least 175 GB HD space available. This is for files such as maps or other game modifications with massive updates. Plus, a speedy processor and a dedicated graphics card.
You also need a substantial amount of random access memory (RAM) for Warzone to run smoothly. But how much RAM do you need for Warzone? Well, I have played COD Warzone with 8GB of RAM and 16GB of RAM. I can tell you there is a substantial difference between the two.
If you want to enjoy the best COD Warzone gameplay, keep reading as I explain how much RAM you need and share some tips on how you can improve your gaming laptop if it only has 8GB of RAM.
So without further ado, let’s jump into this article below.
How Much RAM Do I Need for Warzone?
Your laptop must have at least 8GB of RAM to run Call of Duty Warzone. If you have less memory, you will most likely experience some lag and performance issues. To play Warzone with optimal performance, it is recommended to have 16GB of RAM or more.
For competitive players or those who like to record and stream their Call of Duty Warzone gameplay, 32GB of RAM would be needed and will be the most effective amount of RAM all-around.
| RAM AMOUNT | MULTITASKING | POSSIBLE OUTCOME |
|---|---|---|
| 8GB RAM | Unlikely | Possible Stuttering Every Few Seconds |
| 12GB RAM | Some | Optimal Call of Duty Warzone Gameplay On Low Settings |
| 16GB RAM | Ample | Optimal Call of Duty Warzone Gameplay On Medium Settings |
| 32GB RAM | Unlimited | Optimal Call of Duty Warzone Gameplay On Ultra Settings |
Running COD Warzone on a gaming laptop with 8GB of RAM or less is generally not advised. This is because gaming laptops typically don’t have nearly as much horsepower as a dedicated gaming PC.
More RAM Equals:
- Improves Overall Performance
- Faster Games Load Times
- Boost System Responsiveness
- Improves Warzone Frame Rates
Warzone Recommended System Requirements
As per Activision’s ‘ COD Warzone System Requirements, you’ll need a CPU equivalent to an Intel Core i3-4340 or an AMD Ryzen R5 1600X to play this action packed game on your laptop. For your GPU, they recommend something on par with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 4GB/GTX 1660 6GB or an AMD Radeon RX 470. As for RAM, they recommend at least 8GB, but as we’ve said, 12GB or more is ideal, and 16GB would be best.
However, these system requirements can be misleading to those new to playing Warzone. They state you need at least 8GB RAM, but that doesn’t take into account the RAM required for running your operating system and/or your system vitals software. All must have things needed for running Warzone.
Minimum COD Warzone System Requirements
Minimum Specifications needed to play Call of Duty: Vanguard:
- OS: Windows 10 64-Bit
- CPU: Intel i5 8th Gen 4 core – AMD Ryzen 5 4000 series
- RAM: 8 GB RAM
- STORAGE SPAGE: 175GB HD Space: All Game Modes
- GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470
- GRAPHICS MEMORY: 2 GB
- GRAPHICS DRIVER: NVIDIA 472.12 or AMC 21.9.1
Recommended COD Warzone System Requirements
Recommended COD Warzone System Requirements to run at 60FPS with all options set to high:
- OS: Windows 10 64-Bit or Windows 11 64-Bit
- CPU: Intel i5 9/10/11th Gen – AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series or above
- RAM: 12 GB RAM
- STORAGE SPAGE: 175GB HD Space
- GRAPHICS CARD: GTX10 series (Not GTX1050M), or GTX16 series – Radeon RX5000M series
- VIDEO MEMORY: 4 GB
- GRAPHICS DRIVER: NVIDIA 472.12 or AMC 21.9.1
Competitive Call of Duty Warzone System Requirements
The competitive system requirements to run at a high 120+ FPS for use with a high refresh monitor:
- OS: Windows 10 64-Bit or Windows 11 64-Bit
- CPU: Intel i7 9/10/11/12th Gen – AMD Ryzen 7 4000 series or above
- RAM: 16 GB RAM
- STORAGE SPAGE: 175GB HD Space
- GRAPHICS CARD: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060/RTX 2070+ or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT+
- VIDEO MEMORY: 8 GB
- GRAPHICS DRIVER: NVIDIA 472.12 or AMC 21.9.1
Helpful content: Looking for a decent budget gaming laptop under 800 that has at least 8GB of RAM with the option to upgrade with more RAM at a later date.
Is 8GB RAM Good For Warzone?
If you want to compete with the most skilled players I would have to say no. 8GB of RAM is not enough to run Warzone smoothly. With only eight gigs of RAM you won’t hit the required (60-80 fps) frames per second that you need to compete in this highly addictive first person shooter.
8GB of random-access memory would be more than enough to run most other games smoothly. Games like Overwatch, CS GO, and GTA 5 will run fine but Warzone needs at least 12 GB of RAM.
When it comes to Call of Duty Warzone, this game is so demanding that 8GB of random access memory is not enough. You will most definitely experience performance issues, such as stuttering and frame drops. These issues will affect your gameplay and your chances of winning the battle.
That would still be the case, even if you turned off all other programmes and apps that you don’t use. You would still need to lower the graphics settings to the absolute bare minimum just to maintain 50 to 60FPS and you would likely experience lag.
However, it is not all bad news because you can upgrade most gaming laptops with more RAM. You can swap out the 8GB (most likely 2x4GB) with 2 x 8GB RAM, which may be cheaper than buying a gaming laptop that already has 16+ gigs of RAM that will offer a significant increase in performance.
More Helpful content: Looking for the best gaming laptops for Call of Duty Warzone with at least 16GB of RAM that will offer the best overall performance.
Is 16GB RAM Good For Warzone?
16GB RAM is more than enough to run Warzone smoothly. 16 gigs of random access memory is known as the sweet spot for gaming on laptops and PC computers. This amount of random access memory offers a nice balance between power and price.
16GB would also be enough RAM to future-proof your gaming laptop against any potential RAM-hogging games that might come out in the future. It is also enough to run multiple programs while playing Warzone.
That means if you like to have a lot of tabs open in your web browser or music playing in the background while running Warzone on medium settings. 16GB RAM will be able to handle that without any problems.
In terms of raw power, 16GB is a good amount of RAM for gaming and even for the most demanding games at high settings, including Warzone.
Why You Need 16GB RAM for Warzone?
The gaming laptop that I use to run Call of Duty Warzone used to have 8 gigs of RAM. With this, I often suffered while playing Warzone and experienced issues. However, I have since upgraded to 16GB RAM (2×8 gigs), and most of the time enjoy 120+ fps on medium settings.
While playing Call of Duty Warzone, you also need to think about other programmes and apps that you need. A gaming laptop such as the HP Omen 15 uses the Omen gaming hub software to monitor system vitals and it also helps control the fan speeds. This software runs in the background and will take up system resources.
Running the HP Omen software, GeForce Experience, and Call of Duty Warzone together uses about 15.6GB of RAM. This means if you only had 8GB for Warzone, you would not be able to do any of this with experiencing issues. For this reason, I always recommend buying a gaming laptop with at least 16GB for playing Warzone. Or upgrading your own gaming laptop with more RAM.
16GB Vs 32GB RAM For Call of Duty Warzone?
For gaming, especially running an intensive game like Call of Duty Warzone, the difference in performance between 16GB and 32GB RAM is not that much. You will only see a slight difference in gaming performance.
The benefits of 32GB RAM are not that significant unless you plan on using your gaming laptop for other things like video editing, streaming, graphic design or other memory-intensive task. 32GB of RAM will ensure you complete these tasks much quicker.
Additionally, this amount of RAM (32GB) will ensure you future proof your gaming laptop for many years to come. What I mean by that is maybe in three, four, or even five years. 32GB RAM could overtake 16 gigs of RAM, just like 16GB took over 8 GB of RAM for being the sweet spot required for gaming.
All that said, 32GB RAM is not absolutely necessary for running Call of Duty Warzone, as this game will run perfectly fine with 16GBs of RAM. However, I wouldn’t kick 32 GB of RAM out of bed if it was given to me.
Do I Need 32GB For Warzone?
You do not need 32GB RAM for running Warzone smoothly. 16GB will be more than enough to run any game, including Call of Duty Warzone. 32GB of RAM is only necessary if you are using your gaming laptop for other memory-intensive tasks like streaming.
If you only want to use your laptop for gaming, 16GB would be more than enough and for some multitasking. Additionally, the price difference between 16GB and 32GB RAM can be significant. This is because you would need to purchase two 16GB sticks of RAM if you only had two sticks of 8GB of RAM. So it’s not worth opting for 32GB RAM unless you really need it.
How to Run Warzone Smoothly on 8GB RAM?
If you’re looking to get the most out of your 8GB RAM, there are a few things you can do to try and improve performance. However, even with these tweaks you may still experience issues. I mean, lagging and page filing issues etc. Don’t forget, Call of Duty Warzone isn’t optimized the best for gaming laptops, so you need also to consider that.
Close Programmes and Apps
The first thing you should do is close any unnecessary programmes and apps you are not using. And this will free up some of your system resources, including the available RAM, for Call of Duty Warzone to use.
Click: CTRL + ALT + DELETE – Select Task Manager – Click on the Memory Tab to see what uses most RAM – Right Click on the programme and select End Task. Doing this will free up some RAM.
Lowering the Graphics Settings
You must also consider lowering the graphics settings in Call of Duty Warzone to the minimum and this will help improve performance. But it will also make the game look visually worse. So, it’s a trade-off.
Toning down settings such as Map Resolution – Particle Lighting – Anti-Aliasing – Details & Textures will help.
Change In-game Settings
Another thing you can do is change the in-game settings. And this includes things like capping the frame rate to 60fps or lower, and changing the render resolution scale. These changes will help improve performance, but again, they will also have a negative impact on the game’s visuals.
Allocate More RAM to Warzone
You can also allocate more RAM to Call of Duty Warzone. This can be done by going into Windows settings and changing the amount of RAM already allocated to the game. By increasing the amount of RAM already allocated you may see a slight improvement in performance.
Click: CTRL + ALT + DELETE – Select Task Manager – Click on the Details tab and the click on the Memory Tab and look for Call of Duty Warzone – Right Click – Set Priority and Change to High. Note: this will only work if Warzone is already running in the background. By selecting high, you will allocate more memory to Warzone.
Upgrading your RAM
And finally, if you’re still struggling to get good performance out of Warzone on 8GB RAM, you could consider upgrading your laptop with more RAM.
Upgrading your laptop with more RAM is usually a pretty easy thing to do, and it can make a big difference to performance. You must ensure you have dual channel as the benefits are huge.
So, those are a few things you can do to try and improve performance if you’re looking to run Call of Duty Warzone on a laptop with only 8GB RAM at your disposal.
Why Dual-Channel RAM is Best?
If you’ve just purchased a new gaming laptop to play Call of Duty Warzone with only 8GB RAM. You may want to consider upgrading it with more RAM. And, if you decide to upgrade. I would recommend going for dual channel RAM.
Dual channel RAM (random access memory) is when you have two sticks of RAM working together in pairs. Adding a second RAM stick is an easy way to upgrade your laptop’s performance significantly and provides a nice performance boost over single channel RAM, which is only one stick of RAM working by itself.
Overall, it may work out to be slightly more expensive to get two 8GB sticks or two 16GB sticks of RAM, but it would be worth it for the performance boost it will give you.
Conclusion
You need at the very least 8GB RAM to run Call of Duty Warzone smoothly on lower settings. 16GB of RAM (random access memory) will allow you to play with higher graphics settings and allow you to have other programmes running in the background, like video recording software.
If you only have 8GB RAM, there are a few things you can do to try and improve performance on your laptop, but you may still struggle. Upgrading your laptop with more RAM is always an option. And, if you decide to upgrade, make sure to go for dual channel RAM, and both RAM sticks are the same speed.
I hope this article has answered your questions regarding how much RAM you need for Warzone? If so, consider subscribing to our newsletter for more great content like this. You never know we could meet one day in Call of Duty Vanguard, and if we do, let us know how you got on.
Thanks for Reading, Until Next Time, Cya!
Sources: Call of Duty Website: Call of Duty: Warzone | Best Free Battle Royale Game
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