4GB's of ram, or is 2GB enough?

[twinturbovenom80]

I have read that now 2Gb of ram is becoming the standard for Vista like 1GB is the standard for Games on XP. If this is true, to get the highest performance from your PC, do you need 4GB's of ram? I say this because even now, games like FEAR can use 2Gb's of ram, so if 2Gb's becomes the '1 GB standard of today', then 4 GB I am assuming will become the enthuthiats chocie for games?

Sorry if this sounds confusing, but any opinions on this?

 

[ddviper]

Personally Id wait for the 4GB of RAM to become more mainstream and the memory companies to start dealing with the higher RAM. Right now 2GB sticks are VERY slow so i would definately not recommend them now, and would just take the 2GB and see where the market goes, although I can 100% sure that 4GB will be the mainstream, its just a matter of time.

Hope this helps

-Got quick RAM?

 

[n7]

I think 2 GB will still be fine for a while.

I have no doubt that sometime during Vista's lifetime, 4 GB will become common, but for now, i'd say wait till you really need it.

 

[obeseotron]

It isn't necessary, there are no reasonable 4GB kits I know of, RAM is the easiest thing in the computer to upgrade...

 

[Makaveli]

Right now 2GB sticks are VERY slow so i would definately not recommend them now.

How so?

U can get 2GB DDR sticks with timings of 2-3-2-5 just slightly slower than 2-2-2-5 which is not noticeable at all.

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

Originally posted by: Makaveli
Right now 2GB sticks are VERY slow so i would definately not recommend them now.

How so?

U can get 2GB DDR sticks with timings of 2-3-2-5 just slightly slower than 2-2-2-5 which is not noticeable at all.

Not at a very reasonable price though.

 

[Bobthelost]

Does FEAR use 2GB, or does it just use more than 1GB? At the moment there is no reason i know of to have 4GB of RAM for gaming.

 

[SpeedZealot369]

Originally posted by: unfalliblekrutch

Originally posted by: Makaveli
Right now 2GB sticks are VERY slow so i would definately not recommend them now.

How so?

U can get 2GB DDR sticks with timings of 2-3-2-5 just slightly slower than 2-2-2-5 which is not noticeable at all.

Not at a very reasonable price though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220040

Originally posted by: Bobthelost
Does FEAR use 2GB, or does it just use more than 1GB? At the moment there is no reason i know of to have 4GB of RAM for gaming.

The only game I think that actually shows any benefit of having 2gb is BF2 right now. I'm sure as newer games come out more and more will benefit from the extra ram, but as of now 1gb would probably be fine for any high-end gaming rig.

 

[Stas]

I think he was talking about 2 gig sticks as 1x2GB, not 2 gig as 2x1GB. If you find 1x2GB stick with 2-3-2 timings I will buy it in a heart beat (as long as they are under $250 a peice).

 

[ProviaFan]

I currently have 4GB of DDR (4x 1GB PC3200) in an X2-based socket 939 system. While for most people today 4GB is overkill, I can easily exceed 2GB while working in Photoshop and Bridge with other apps running. Thus, it was beneficial to upgrade to 4GB from 2GB since Newegg had a good deal on the kind of RAM I had bought originally.

With that said, I was able to get dangerously close to 2GB in Vista beta 2 with only light multitasking and normal Photoshop use, so I do think that it won't be long before 4GB becomes common in workstations for power users of professional graphics and video applications.

 

[Auric]

Does Vista really have higher capacity requirements to preclude paging? The same was claimed for XP vs. 2000 but in truth only really applied when all the extraneous crap was enabled.