4 GB

[pcslookout]

I always hear people saying 4 GB of ram is plenty for Vista 64 bit as a gamer and 8 GB is not required unless you run a lot of VMs or a photoshop user.

The question is lets say you like to leave a lot of programs open in the background how many programs would it take to have left open, while gaming, for it to start and effect only having 4 GB of ram when I would need to upgrade to 8 GB of ram? I like to leave programs like firefox (with a good amount of tabs still open), ad muncher, windows sidebar, and email open. I have ran a single VM before but I always close that after I am done most of the time.

 

[alanwest09872]

What types of games do you like to play.

But Either way 4 gigs should be way more then enough. I could easily run crysis and have sidebar and mozilla with multi tabs open and not have a problem with 4 gigs of ram. I also had it on ultra if I remember correctly.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: alanwest09872
What types of games do you like to play.

But Either way 4 gigs should be way more then enough. I could easily run crysis and have sidebar and mozilla with multi tabs open and not have a problem with 4 gigs of ram. I also had it on ultra if I remember correctly.

Crysis when the time comes, Bioshock, Left 4 Dead, GTA 4 soon, Simcity 4, and Half Life 2.

 

[alanwest09872]

Ya you should be good. from what I was told your better off making sure you have a better HDD or video card. Besided cpu those are you biggest bottlenecks. If i'm wrong please someone step in.

 

[n7]

I tend to leave a lot of things running, & i've had usage running over 4 GB while gaming...

8 GB isn't imperative, but it really is nice to have such headroom too...

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: n7
I tend to leave a lot of things running, & i've had usage running over 4 GB while gaming...

8 GB isn't imperative, but it really is nice to have such headroom too...

Yeah this is what I was thinking. Always have a good amount of buffer is always helpful just in case and for the future. How many programs would you need open while running a game for all 4 GB of system ram to be fully used where you run out and start using mainly your paging file?

 

[Nothinman]

How many programs would you need open while running a game for all 4 GB of system ram to be fully used where you run out and start using mainly your paging file?

Depends on how much memory each app and game require.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

How many programs would you need open while running a game for all 4 GB of system ram to be fully used where you run out and start using mainly your paging file?

Depends on how much memory each app and game require.

Of course. Is there anyway you could give me an example of what programs and game would have to be open at the same time to use all 4 GB of ram in Vista 64 bit ?

 

[Blain]

High res or MP, Adobe video or photo.

 

[Nothinman]

Of course. Is there anyway you could give me an example of what programs and game would have to be open at the same time to use all 4 GB of ram in Vista 64 bit ?

Sure. Give a VM 3G of memory then run any game and all 4G will be used.