16 vs 32 gbs of ram

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Johnmcl7

Member
Mar 12, 2003
64
2
71
Still using 6Gb on my X58 systems, never ran out of memory once.

I'm in a similar position with an 8GB X79 system which I always planned to upgrade when I needed it but so far I haven't seen it run out of memory during Vegas encodes, blu-ray encodes, Lightroom/PS work or gaming. It's a bit odd now the GPU has as much memory as the entire system but the ram isn't that cheap (around £60 to change to 16GB) and it doesn't seem to be suffering at all, still not showing it running out of memory and performance is where it should be.

John
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Any advantage to having 32 gb's. I will be transcoding with Linux/handbrake with some gaming with Win7.
Not unless you use it. I have 32GB, and have used close to 25GB. If you don't do anything that'll use it up, though, it will just be wasted money.

Best option? Get a 4-slot board, and buy 2x8GB. If you start getting close to the edge, buy more.
 

Cerb

Elite Member
Aug 26, 2000
17,484
33
86
Beware of RAM caches, in the event of a random kernel crash (e.g. a driver causing BSOD) may corrupt your file-systems (even if you have battery/UPS). 32GB RAM are perfect for virtual machines, you can create your own mini cluster in your PC.

Let's say for Windows host you need 8GB, then 4GB RAM for a linux VM is a must if you are to use a modern GUI and some applications. Another 4GB RAM for say a Windows 7 VM or something, you are already at 16GB RAM.

Now, it's very easy to go over 16GB usage if you want. For instance, if you want to test a cluster of 3 Windows Server VMs connecting to 5 Linux VMs as backbone, but who does that :p

Then there is also hardware and games that become more demanding. For instance, the new graphics cards have 8GB of VRAM, it wouldn't be very efficient to have a system that doesn't have at least 8GB of system RAM for the driver and the game.
Good SSDs are even cheaper than RAM; and with SLC mode caches on so many today, you don't need a really fast one most of the time. Let RAM disks die, outside of niche uses.
 
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jimbob200521

Diamond Member
Apr 15, 2005
4,108
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My previous i7 system had 6gb of RAM and when playing Cities: Skylines with a large city, I'd chew all that up no problem with every other app closed down. I upgraded to 12gb and I'd inch up towards 8gb or 9gb every now and then but that was with Chrome and about a dozen or so tabs open at the same time.

My current system has 32gb of RAM but I didn't actively choose that much. Guy I got it from had that much so hey, who am I to complain!

That being said, 8gb min, 16gb max right now if you do some multitasking and gaming. As I like to say, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
 

ReignQuake

Member
Dec 8, 2015
86
5
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32GB is pretty good for games that have memory leaks, which is most games when they're first released, likewise if other gamers have crashed they leave ghosts until the server disconnects them... free points!