DayZ server RAM: how much do you need?
Among the survival games here, DayZ has the smallest cost per player — its map is a fixed size and is loaded in full whether or not anyone is playing.
Recommendation
You need a server with at least
8GB
- Engine / Base OS:
- 6 GB
- Player Overhead:
- +2.0 GB
- Estimated Raw Usage:
- 8 GB
- Suggested cores:
- 4
- Disk to allow:
- 20 GB+
The central economy loop runs continuously regardless of player count.
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What uses the memory in DayZ
The terrain is hand-built rather than generated, so its cost is set the moment the server starts. What moves is the loot economy, where the central economy system tracks every item spawned on the map and keeps respawning towards its targets, along with whatever players have built. A hundred extra players add far less than moving to a modded map or an expansion.
DayZ server RAM by player count
The calculator above, run for 4 common sizes. Each figure is rounded up to a plan size people actually sell.
| Players | Vanilla Chernarus | Expansion / Heavy Mods |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| 40 | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| 50 | 12 GB | 16 GB |
| 100 | 12 GB | 24 GB |
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Where people get it wrong
Equating a big slot count with a big server. Vanilla Chernarus with a hundred slots is cheaper to run than a forty-slot server loaded with expansion mods, so settle the map and mods first and size from there.
The loot economy is a setting
How many items the central economy keeps on the map is not fixed. Each item's target count, its nominal, is set in types.xml in the mission's db folder, and the server tracks every one of them. Servers that raise nominals across the board for more loot, or that add mods with long item lists, carry far more items than vanilla, and that costs memory and CPU on every economy cycle.
Persistence grows until you wipe
Bases, stashes, tents and vehicles are kept in the storage_1 folder inside the mission folder. It grows for as long as the world lives, and the server loads it at every start, which is part of why a long-running server boots more slowly. A wipe means removing that folder while the server is stopped; back it up first.