In this short article, we will be looking at why RAM for Minecraft Server Hosting is critical to running an awesome multiplayer Minecraft experience on your server. While making a server, 2 very important questions continually pop up.
- Why do I need RAM for a server?
- And how much RAM will be enough for my server?
Let's look to answer these and a few more below...
Also, when you make a server, it takes a small amount of RAM initially, but as you grow, and your requirements grow with it, you will need more RAM after some time.
Why is RAM needed?
There are many things that RAM depends on. As you increase in server size, the need for more RAM increases. You see, RAM is needed by a server to run the software and to connect the different players to that server.
And it is also dependent on various factors which include:
#1 - Server Type
RAM is dependent on what type of server you are opting for. A server with a normal setup and no plugins or mods does not need a lot of RAM.
Such servers have nothing other than the software to run, so can run on a small amount of RAM. A server with no Plugins or Mods can run on 2-3 Gb of RAM, and that is super basic.
But the servers which have Plugins or Mods need lots of RAM.
They have to run the plugins and mods other than the software that is required for Minecraft itself. It is also dependent on what type of plugins or mods you are using, as they vary in size, scope, and requirements.
A server with 10-15 plugins or mods can run on 3-4 Gb of RAM (Normally).
#2 - Player limit
RAM is also dependent on the number of players on the server. The more are active players on a server, the more RAM will be needed.
RAM connects each of the players with the server and hence consumes the RAM for it. Each player playing on the server has a separate area, block, or particles.
To load these blocks/chunks on a server you need RAM.
With more players playing at the same time this processing or loading time gets reduced. So, to decrease the load time more RAM is required, or else you will be having incredibly choppy gameplay.
Also, if a player has a bigger Render distance (Number of loaded chunks/blocks), more RAM will be consumed.
You can change and limit the render distance for players on the server.properties file of the server.
A normal server with 5-10 players playing in it can easily run on 2-3 GB of RAM.
But for the server with mods or plugins, it multiplies. A server with 20-30 plugins or mods and 100-120 players needs 8-10 Gb of RAM to run.
You can check out our article on how to know how much RAM you need here.
#3 - World Size
RAM on a server also depends on the size of the world in which you are playing. With more players playing on a server, more area of the world is discovered.
As it takes RAM to load the Blocks or chunks, with more loaded area, more RAM will be required.
Similarly, if many players are playing on the server, the world will load more and will consume more RAM.
And if they have the particles on, it will need more RAM for it.
You can limit players from discovering the World more and more. You can add the world borders to your servers’ world which will not let players pass that area.
You can set the world borders in server.properties file or /worldborder set file (1).
If the world on the server is discovered more, its size increases with it. Normally the server with a world border at 5k blocks takes about 20-25 Gb of storage. A world with a bigger world border will also need more storage and RAM.
A normal server having 10 players playing and a world file of 6-8 Gb can run on 2-3 GB of RAM. And a server with plugins and mods with 30 Gb of world size and having 30 players can take about 10 Gb of RAM.
What happens if you don’t have enough RAM?
Having less RAM than is needed can affect your server badly.
If all of the RAM allocated for the server is consumed and more players join the server, it can make the server lag and can even crash the server. Crashing the server means forcing the server to stop. It can have a bad impact on the server and you can lose many important files and world backups.
If your server runs both plugins and mods and has limited RAM for each of them to function correctly, any error that occurs in the plugin or the mod will need more RAM to work... Limited RAM will force it to crash.
Or if the server that is made for 10 players starts to get increased numbers and has limited RAM, it will eventually crash the server as it can not connect all players.
Similarly, if the RAM is limited and the players are exploring more and more parts of the world, all RAM gets consumed in that, and the players will feel the lag when loading more of the world - and it will force the server to stop.
How to increase the RAM of the server?
Increasing the RAM for a server is needed when your server starts growing. If a server is device-hosted then it will take RAM of the device it is running on, like your home computer.
You can limit the RAM as you need but it can affect the device’s health, and running it can badly affect your device. So, allocating the RAM for a server is best for it. This RAM doesn’t run on your device and only runs a server on it. These hosts also provide many other advantages as well, which you can see here.
If your server is already running on a host and you want to increase the RAM you can upgrade or buy a better package and shift your server on that one.
Making a backup before this is required so if something bad happens to the server, it can be rollbacked (luckily many hosting companies provide a super-easy way to do this).
How do I know If I need more RAM?
After making your server, or buying from a recommended host, it is important to keep an eye on the RAM usage of the server.
Once a server is ready and running it will always need more RAM than the initial start point.
When the server starts growing and more people start joining it, the server starts getting lag spikes or crashes. This means that it cannot run smoothly on this RAM and it’s time to increase the RAM.
You can also look at the server speed by doing /tps on the console or the server if you are an admin.
TPS means Ticks per second, and it is the server speed or processing speed.
Final Thoughts On RAM For Minecraft Server Hosting
In this article, we learned why we need RAM for the server and what RAM does in the server.
We also looked at the various things RAM is dependent on. RAM is used to connect people to the server and run the software, and RAM requirements can be increased by adding more plugins/mods and more people joining the server.
Key Point: Updating or increasing the RAM is a must do!