Yes, more RAM definitely helps. On SnappyCam, I had to arbitrarily limit the size of the buffer to a fraction of the system memory because there's no way to kn

Yes, more RAM definitely helps. On SnappyCam, I had to arbitrarily limit the size of the buffer to a fraction of the system memory because there's no way to know "how much" RAM can be allocated to avoid the dreaded memory warnings until you hit one; and then it's a three strike's out policy: you get two and the third kills the app. The first two are "soft" warnings, but I suspect have a lower threshold than the "hard" one that sends SIGKILL. In setting the limit arbitrarily, I unfortunately have no choice but to select it rather conservatively: it might otherwise be (a lot?) higher.