How much RAM do you find people need who use Dragon all day long -- without their computers suffering too many slowdowns and freezes?

 

The context: I have clients in security-conscious organizations. Their computers have layers of security software. Typically, the clients run multiple applications at the same time, e.g., Outlook + Excel + several web-based applications, some in Chrome, others in Edge. Some clients are also using assistive technology programs, mostly WordQ and ZoomText. Everybody is currently using Windows 10.

 

What do you think is the minimum amount of RAM these Dragon users need to prevent slowdowns and freezes?

 

I think oodles of RAM helps Dragon run more smoothly. But how much RAM? And is there a point of diminishing returns?

I think 8GB would do okay - my laptop has that and runs fine, but I don't load it up with zillions of programs.
16GB is plenty, in my view - my third computer has that much and ran fine with multiple apps running - Word, Excel, Chrome, etc.
For an experiment, I doubled the RAM to 32GB. The result was no noticeable difference that I could feel (but I want to believe it made a tiny difference under the hood).
Then I doubled to 64GB - no difference whatsoever.
Then I doubled to 128GB - no difference whatsoever.

I would say diminishing returns start at 16GB and are totally diminished after 32GB.

The cost of running 32GB vs 16GB is not worth talking about, IMHO. Memory is very cheap these days.

 

Oh, and PS - lack of memory has never caused me slowdowns on any of my machines, from 8GB up to 128GB. It's just not a factor. Disk speed - absolutely yes, SSDKeeper > NVMe SSD > SSD > Old spinning hardisks.

The biggest improvement I've repeatedly had on my machines over the years is installing the SSDKeeper disk caching program (now called DynamaxIO or something, $60/year (?) or a 3-pack for $99/year, something like that.) I could always feel the difference there - my machines felt snappy after the installation.

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Win10/11/x64, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/3950X, 64/128GB RAM, Dragon 15.3, SP 7 Standard, SpeechStart, Office 365, KB 2017, Dragon Capture, Samson Meteor USB Desk Mic, Amazon YUWAKAYI headset, Klim and JUKSTG earbuds with microphones, excellent Sareville Wireless Mono Headset, 3 BenQ 2560x1440 monitors, Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard and Logitech G502 awesome gaming mouse.

I upgraded from 8 GB to 16 GB of RAM in, I think, September. Microsoft Edge opened a bit faster, although it had been snappy already. The main difference to me was in Word, where it gave me a bit more traction in large files before Dragon stalled. Word is still not satisfactory (from the standpoint of a user who has to edit large files), so maybe 32 gigs of RAM for users who are heavy Word users?

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8 Gb of RAM is usually acceptable but never ideal. We consider 16 Gb of RAM to be the sweet spot for the average personal or business user. However, we don't believe 32 Gb is too much. M-Tech makes this recommendation; especially for power users and gamers. We are power users; not gamers. Our Windows 11 computer (including 3 32 inch monitors) takes nearly 15 Gb of RAM just to boot. By the end of an average workday we are using approximately 19+ Gb of RAM so 32 Gb is our sweet spot. Even in this set up, we didn't perceive improvements with 64 Gb of RAM.

Additional note: Our monster Intel processor i9-10980XE CPU @ 3.00GHz, 3000 Mhz, 18 Cores 64 Gb of RAM was probably a wa$te of money. We found a minimal i5 to be barely noticeably slower. We advise not breaking the bank unless you want bragging rights. Our company name KnowBrainer has more than one meaning

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Don't forget, the amount of RAM is only half the RAM equation - the speed of the RAM is also very important.

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-Edgar
DPI 15.3, 64-bit Windows 10 Pro, OpenOffice & Office 365, Norton Security, Shure X2U XLR to USB mic adapter with Audio Technica DB135 vocal mic, Asus X299-Deluxe Prime, Intel Core i9-7940X (14 core, 4.3 GHz overclocked to 4.9 GHz), G.SKILL TridentZ Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4 3333 (PC4 26600) F4-3333C16Q-64GTZ, NVIDIA GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 GV-N1060G1 GAMING-6GD REV 2.0 6GB graphics card with 3 1920x1080 monitors

The Windows memory algorithm will always take about half, plus or minus, of available RAM, and will report it as "used." So it doesn't much matter how many programs you run - Windows will always report about half of the memory as used. For example, it's reporting that I (as a user) am using 40% of the 128GB of RAM, which is kind of nonsense. I only have a few apps open and my normal browser, which reports 4 GB used on its individual line in the task manager. I agree with Lunis - 32GB is probably the sweet spot, mostly because none of us want to believe that 16GB is enough.

Although I always try to get "good" memory with adequate speed, I never get down into the clock cycles of the motherboard to match them to the clock cycles of the memory anymore.

After experiencing and feeling the obvious jump in speed with the SSDKeeper cache for the SSD disks (M.2 is noticeably faster than SATA SSDs), I don't worry much about RAM or clock speeds anymore.

And it's worth saying that the machine is rarely or never the limit. My own mental clock cycles and procedures and do-overs and mistakes and mouse speeds are CLEARLY the limit on my productivity. The machine is never at fault, overall.

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Win10/11/x64, AMD Ryzen 7 3700X/3950X, 64/128GB RAM, Dragon 15.3, SP 7 Standard, SpeechStart, Office 365, KB 2017, Dragon Capture, Samson Meteor USB Desk Mic, Amazon YUWAKAYI headset, Klim and JUKSTG earbuds with microphones, excellent Sareville Wireless Mono Headset, 3 BenQ 2560x1440 monitors, Microsoft Sculpt Keyboard and Logitech G502 awesome gaming mouse.

Thank you, everybody for weighing in.

Three years ago, I bought a laptop with 8 GB RAM to replace a laptop with 16 GB. Dragon works just OK, although with more slowdowns and freezes than I was used to. The main issue with 8 GB is that EVERYTHING runs more slowly. My first computer, purchased in 1988, was less pokey!

I will get 16 or 32 GB RAM for my next computer. (I'm waiting for the release of Dragon 16.)

In the corporate environments of some of my clients, computers have layers of security. I'm guessing it's the security software that negatively impacts Dragon performance. 16 GB doesn't seem to be enough memory for Dragon. Ditto for 24 GB. Less than 32 GB seems to lead to subpar Dragon performance. The main problems I've observed on computers with less than 32 GB RAM are that Dragon takes frequent "holidays," and that Outlook locks up.

Interesting to know that increasing memory above 32 GB doesn't appear to improve Dragon performance. I'll save myself the expense of ordering my next computer with 48 or 64 GB RAM!