How Much RAM Does a Game Server Need?

A Valheim server for ten people wants 6 GB. An Enshrouded server for four wants 16 GB. Enshrouded is not four times the game Valheim is, and it does not have four times the players. It simply has a flat memory requirement that ignores head count entirely, and Valheim does not.

That is the whole problem with sizing a game server by asking how many players you have. For most games it is the wrong question. Below are the figures we actually size on, for every game we host, followed by what drives them.

The Numbers

Each row is the build that comfortably carries that player count. Storage includes room for the install, saves and backups.

Memory and disk are in GB. A slash-separated row reads left to right against the player tiers in the same row.

Two rows in that table should stop you.

Arma Reforger holds 40 GB of storage at 16 players and at 128, because a Reforger server’s disk is dominated by its mod cache rather than by anything that scales with players. And Enshrouded holds 16 GB of memory at every tier, because that is what the game asks for regardless of who is on it.

Player Count Is Usually the Wrong Axis

Look down the memory column and the games that scale steeply with players are the minority. Compare the two ends:

Barely moves with players. Enshrouded is flat. Factorio goes from 4 GB to 8 GB while the player count multiplies by five, because what costs memory is the number of machines in your factory, not the number of people watching them. Necesse and BeamMP move by 2 GB across their whole range.

Moves a lot. Rust runs 12 GB to 32 GB, Squad 8 GB to 32 GB, Project Zomboid 8 GB to 22 GB. These are games where each additional player genuinely adds simulation and state.

If you take one thing from this page: find out which group your game is in before you spend anything.

The Four Things That Actually Drive Memory

1. An engine floor the game publishes

Some games state a memory requirement that has nothing to do with player count. Enshrouded asks for 16 GB whether four people play or sixteen. Windrose publishes a tier table starting at 8 GB for two players. Rust publishes a 12 GB floor. When a developer publishes a floor, that floor is the entry rung, and no amount of “but there are only three of us” changes it.

2. World size and entity count

This is the real driver in building and automation games. A Factorio megabase with thousands of machines costs memory that a fresh save does not, and the player count is irrelevant to that. Same for a long-lived Satisfactory factory, or a Minecraft world with a large loaded area.

3. Mods and content packs

Mods are the single largest multiplier in this table, and modded Valheim is the clearest example. Vanilla Valheim carries ten players in 6 GB. The same ten players with a full mod pack want 12 GB, double the memory for the same roster. Modded Rust, heavy Minecraft modpacks and large Project Zomboid mod lists behave the same way.

4. A JVM heap, where the game runs on Java

Minecraft Java, Project Zomboid, Necesse and Terraria all run on the Java runtime, and there the memory you buy is the heap the server gets. Project Zomboid is the sharpest case: it needs roughly 6 GB before anyone joins, plus around half a gigabyte per player, which is how a 32-player server reaches 22 GB.

Cores Matter More Than People Expect

Memory gets all the attention and cores get almost none, which is backwards for several games here.

Most game servers do their heaviest work on a single thread. Factorio, Terraria, Necesse and Garry’s Mod are all pinned at two cores across their entire range, and adding a third does nothing measurable, because the simulation is one thread and the rest is bookkeeping. For those games, single-thread speed is the number that matters and core count is close to irrelevant.

Then there is the opposite case. Enshrouded is the one game in the catalog that scales on cores rather than memory: 6 cores for a small group and 8 at its 16-player cap, with memory pinned at 16 GB the whole way. Squad and Conan Exiles also climb to 8 cores at the top of their range.

Tip: If your server feels sluggish and memory usage is comfortable, more memory will not help. That is single-thread work, and the fix is a lower entity count, fewer mods, or a smaller simulated area

Every build here runs on AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPUs, which is close to the best single-thread performance available, and that is deliberate. It is the specification that helps the largest number of these games.

Storage Is Not An Afterthought

Storage tends to be treated as the throwaway slider, and there are two games where that is a mistake.

Garry’s Mod climbs from 30 GB to 120 GB while its memory goes from 2 GB to 8 GB, because what fills a Garry’s Mod server is Workshop content rather than players. An addon-heavy server really does reach tens of gigabytes.

Arma Reforger holds 40 GB flat, and almost all of it is the mod cache. The engine mounts the full dependency set from disk, so mods that are not in your current config are still needed on the disk. This is why a Reforger server that looks like it has unused mod folders usually does not.

DayZ and 7 Days to Die also sit high, at 160 GB and 150 GB at the top, on maps and mods rather than on head count.

Warning: Never size storage to exactly what the install needs. Backups live on the same disk, and a server with no room to write a backup is a server with no backups

How To Tell You Sized Wrong

Too little memory shows as the server restarting on its own under load, long pauses when several players are active in different places, or a crash during world generation and save. On a Java game it shows as an out-of-memory error in the console, which is unambiguous.

Too few cores shows as the world feeling slow while memory sits comfortably. Tick rate falls, NPCs and physics lag, but nothing crashes.

Too little storage shows as failed backups, then failed updates, then a server that will not start.

Too much of everything shows as nothing at all, which is exactly the problem. An oversized server behaves identically to a correctly sized one and simply costs more every month. This is the failure mode nobody notices, and it is the most common one.

Sizing Without Guessing

You do not have to work from this table by hand. The server configurator has a player-count control per game that reads the same curves these figures come from, so choosing a player count sets memory, cores and storage to the row above. From there you can move any slider and the price updates live before you pay.

Two things worth knowing about that. Player slots are a sizing aid rather than a product: Loafhosts does not bill or cap player slots, so the control is there to suggest a build rather than to sell you seats. And where a game imposes its own cap, the control stops there. Enshrouded stops at 16 and Windrose at 8 because those are limits in the games themselves.

Tip: If you are between two rungs, take the higher one on memory and the lower one on storage. Memory is the one that causes crashes; storage is the one you can raise later without drama

Frequently Asked Questions

How much RAM does a Minecraft server need?

4 GB carries about ten players on vanilla Java, 8 GB around twenty, and 16 GB up to sixty-four. Modpacks change the answer more than players do: a heavy pack for six people can want more memory than vanilla for forty. Bedrock is lighter, starting at 4 GB. See the Minecraft hosting guide or the Bedrock guide.

Is more RAM always better for a game server?

No. Past the point where the server has what it needs, extra memory does nothing at all. It does not raise tick rate, reduce lag or increase player capacity. For games such as Enshrouded that have a flat requirement, everything above the floor is wasted spend.

Why does my game need so much RAM for so few players?

Because the memory is going somewhere other than the players. A published engine floor, a large world, a mod list, or a Java heap will all dominate the per-player cost. Enshrouded is the clearest example: 16 GB whether it is four players or sixteen.

Do more CPU cores make a game server faster?

Usually not. Most game servers run their main simulation on one thread, so single-thread speed matters and core count does not. Factorio, Terraria, Necesse and Garry’s Mod are all fine on two cores at any size. Enshrouded, Squad and Conan Exiles are the exceptions that genuinely use more.

How much storage does a game server need?

Anywhere from 10 GB for Necesse or BeamMP to 160 GB for a large DayZ server. The install is rarely the deciding factor. Workshop content, mod caches, maps and backups are, which is why Garry’s Mod and Arma Reforger sit far higher than their memory would suggest.

What happens if my server runs out of memory?

It restarts on its own, crashes during a save, or is killed outright. On a Java game the console prints an out-of-memory error first. Data loss is possible if it dies mid-save, which is the real reason not to run memory tight.

Can I change the size later?

Yes. Memory, cores and storage are sliders on an existing server, so a build that turns out to be too small is a slider move rather than a migration. Start close and adjust once you have seen real load.

Do more players mean I need to buy more slots?

Not here. Player slots are not billed or capped, so the slot control is a sizing aid rather than something you purchase. Where a hard cap exists it comes from the game, as with Enshrouded’s sixteen and Windrose’s eight.