Help with new iMac purchase configuration, worth it to upgrade RAM/Cores all the way given my usage?

[sch983]

Hi guys looking to buy the new M3 iMac. Won’t be doing anything crazy on it besides surfing the web,YouTube, tutoring lessons via Skype and occasionally maybe playing a game on steam like baldurs gate 3.

Which configuration of the iMac would you go with? Would you really need to take the ram all the way up to 24gb? How many cores would you advise? Regardless I’ll be getting 1TB of storage

Wanted to get some opinions before I finally configure and order. Think I am going to go with the Silver or Blue Color

 

[wilberforce]

I would get 16GB RAM, if running games like that, and generally a good idea for future. Otherwise I think a base model will do. Lowest models have few ports, so consider if you might need more ports.

 

[sch983]

So no need to upgrade up to 24GB for RAM?

 

[wilberforce]

So no need to upgrade up to 24GB for RAM?

You should not think of it as "need." A better word is "benefit."
There is not a need. There might be a benefit, such as increased speed for certain activities. What activities is debatable, how much speed increase is debatable, and whether it is worth it to you is subjective.
Personally, given your usage description, I think the benefit would be small

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

16GB RAM minimum, especially for Baldurs Gate 3. 24GB RAM likely wont make much of a difference. And the better you want BG3 to run, the more cores you want, especially on the GPU.

 

[sch983]

16GB RAM minimum, especially for Baldurs Gate 3. 24GB RAM likely wont make much of a difference. And the better you want BG3 to run, the more cores you want, especially on the GPU.

Got it. Maybe I’ll go 1TB SSD, 10 core gpu and 16GB ram

 

[sch983]

You should not think of it as "need." A better word is "benefit."
There is not a need. There might be a benefit, such as increased speed for certain activities. What activities is debatable, how much speed increase is debatable, and whether it is worth it to you is subjective.
Personally, given your usage description, I think the benefit would be small

Yes that’s more along the lines of what I was thinking that it is a benefit and probably not much of a big one. All my gaming stuff I have my PS5 for and I’m mainly just surfing the web and using YouTube and Skype

 

[Steve121178]

Don't go for any less than 16GB.