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.

2400 is the best I can find for my price range.

I admit it feels bad to not upgrade on RAM as I already have 8gb on my 6 year old computer. But I really don't keep too much open at once anyways.

Problem with 1060 computers over 1050 computers is the $300+ price difference. Being a poor college student atm, I would rather save the $300 for my next upgrade in a few years.

Of course I don't expect perfect graphics and framerate, I just want to play mid tier games smoothly without stressing my computer too much.

Then go with 8GB DDR4 absolute-cheapest-regardless-of-speed memory and the Geforce 1050Ti and then replace both in a few years, your rig will still be capable, but it will struggle with settings dialed up and it won't last the distance due to rising system requirements. (Some games will already use more than 8GB for itself, they still run fine on systems with 8GB though.)

What kind of CPU are you looking at out of curiosity?

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.

Lol where did u get that info? 960 is a bit more powerful than 1050:

http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-GTX-960-vs-Nvidia-GTX-1050/3165vs3650

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-960-vs-GeForce-GTX-1050

Sorry my knowledge of GPUs is very minimal.

What I meant to say is 1050ti vs 950/960. Much better then 950, and much better cost efficiency then 960.

I also learned that the 1050ti is a 4gb card and not a 2gb.

If you could get 1060 that would be huge gain, it is 60% more powerful than 960 and can run all games on max at 1080p. I regret not upgrading before the mining craze started. I have 960 2gb, it plays all games fine on High to Very High. Now I'm playing Batman Arkham Origins on max, except the Nvidia Physics setting is to Medium, the game looks glorious and average framerate is around 50.