AI amazes and scares me at the same time. I can type 2 letters in Bing or Google and up pops what I am looking for. What's next, I simply open my search engine and there's what I want without me typing anything?
The bad guys have figured out how to use it to thwart anti-spam measures not only by getting their bots through defenses easier, but by making the spam look more applicable to the topic. That scares me.
I think what scares me most is our do-nothing governments will do-nothing to get a handle on it until after it is too late, AI has become sentient and has decided the best way to rule the world, and taken control of the means to do it. And I don't even wear tin-foil hats! So yeah, that's what scares me most.
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Having said all that - and getting back on topic, IMO 16GB of RAM would be reasonable even without AI. 16GB has been the "sweetspot" since W10. Just because Windows and our apps can run in less RAM, that does not suggest wait-states are not happening, and more importantly, the performance would be satisfactory.
And with CPUs and GPUs constantly becoming more capable, OSs and programs demanding more, and with users asking more of their systems, not having to wait for RAM resources just makes sense.
Otherwise, what will happen? The same thing that always happens. Microsoft will get blamed for causing computers to be sluggish, and for everything else that goes wrong in the universe.
Frankly, I would like to see the new minimum specs include ≥500GB SSDs - at least for the boot drive - too.
The problem in general with published System Requirements is they typically are totally unrealistic. Clearly created by
marketing weenies looking to attract more buyers, regardless their systems capabilities. Reminds of the banks pushing mortgage loans on people who clearly cannot afford them.
Windows 11 System requirements.
Processor 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with 2 or more cores
RAM 4 gigabyte (GB).
Storage 64 GB or larger storage device
Yeah right.
For Windows 10, it was 1GB of RAM for 32Bit and a whopping 2GB of RAM for 64Bit Windows (and only 32GB of disk space with either version).
Those less savvy folks on a budget, thinking they could run Windows
and their apps with no problems would invariably be disappointed - especially when they learned their entry-level device could not be upgraded or had very limited (and likely proprietary
) upgrade options.
So yes, today W10/11 will run in 8GB with a hard drive. But it will run much MUCH better in 16GB and a SSD. And it makes total sense to me W12, expected to run in even more modern, more demanding, more capable hardware, would need (to run satisfactorily)
at least 16GB.
Important note - RAM is cheap. I see 16GB (2 x 8GB) of DDR5 of Samsung RAM for only $36.
