I am crunching numbers again for purchasing a PC. It just doesn't seem like much benefit in 16GB RAM atm.

I made a thread asking for suggestions about half a year ago or more, and it seems that a 1050 2gb Card is definitely worth it over a 960 2gb card. Both seem rather weak to me, but the numbers don't lie with around 96% better performance from the 1050.

For RAM on the other hand, it seems there is minimal benefit.

Am I completely wrong? Any tips?

You are more than likely going to need more than 8GB of RAM.

Depends what you are doing with the pc. I'll have netflix or hulu streaming on one monitor, playing a game on another, and typically have a couple vms running in the background each with dedicated gb of ram, not to mention desktop apps that I leave running. Sometimes 16gb is a little low...

If all you typically do is play one game at a time, 8gb is normally enough.

I don't really have attention span for multiple things at once haha. But my TV will always be next to my computer anyways as it is right now running automated missions on the PS4 in MGSV PP.

Man I remember when 8GB of RAM was a huge deal.... back in 2003 (PowerMac G5).

I feel like we haven't advanced computers at all in the past 10 years. We should be at 512GB by now.

16GB is better, but the speed of the ram is just as important. IMO I'd go for 32GB of RAM.

What's a decent memory speed?

Honestly now that I thought about it more. The computer I am thinking of purchasing has the option to slot 2 16GB RAM into it so I really think 8gb to start is the best course of action.

Also I am looking for cheapness.

For graphics card it seems to me that NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (4GB GDDR5)>> AMD Radeon RX 550 (4GB GDDR5).

16 GB might not be worth it for gaming in most cases yet, but it will be. RAM is cheap and probably won't become much cheaper soon, so might as well get the extra.

I've been thinking about doubling up myself lately but don't wanna overpay. The same RAM I bought last year for $30 costs $70, now. 8GB of DDR4 (+6GB GDDR5) has been fine for 1080p thus far, though.

Ram prices are currently inflated. Bad time to be buying Ram.

Depends on a multitude of factors.
Ryzen's sweet spot is 3200MHZ kits.
Intel you could get away with lower 2666mhz memory.

If you are really pinching pennies 2400mhz memory is the lowest I would go.

My rig will use 7GB of Ram on idle just sitting at the desktop.
Sure, windows will free up memory if the need arises... But why should it?

16GB of Ram is the mid-range sweet spot right now, some games will benefit greatly from it, most will not.

The main issue with 8GB of Ram is that despite the majority of games being happy with it... Once you start loading up apps like uTorrent, Winamp, Skype, Blizzard Launcher, Steam, Origin, uPlay, Browser, Virus Scanner, Drivers and more in the background... Then you will notice your system paging to disk more and more often, which means things like alt-tabbing, loading and sometimes even framerates can take a dive.

Some games will also introduce "hitching" as it runs out of available working Ram too.

If you wish to save a few bucks now with the potential of spending a few bucks later, going with 8GB of Ram rather than 16GB then that is fine, just remember to close programs when you are not using them. ;)

The 1050 Ti is also allot more expensive than the RX 550. ($225 AUD vs $125 AUD here.)

A more apt comparison would be the Radeon RX 560. Which can beat the Geforce 1050 Ti in some games, get close in others, but does still get beaten most of the time, but is also $40 cheaper in AUD ($185.)

Both have a fair bit of overclocking headroom.

I wouldn't recommend either for 1080P gaming though, the GPU is probably the most important component for gaming a step up to the RX 570 or Geforce 1060 would net you much better results in the short and long term.