16GB vs 8GB RAM: Capacity beats dual-channel for heavy multitasking

16GB in single-channel outperforms 8GB in dual-channel for real-world use because running out of RAM and hitting disk paging kills performance more than bandwidth limits. Dual-channel doubles memory bandwidth, which helps with video editing or VMs, but capacity is the priority for heavy multitasking like 20+ browser tabs, Slack, and Docker containers. For a new build, get 16GB in dual-channel; for an upgrade, adding a second stick is cheap and worth it.