6GB vs 12GB

[Carfax83]

OK here's the deal. I recently ordered a Core i7 970 and a Noctua DH-14. Both of them are getting here next week.

While I originally considered keeping the memory in my sig, I found out that my G.Skill Tridents may not be compatible with the new heatsink due to the height of the fins.

I don't have a module in the slot closest to the heatsink, but due to the size of the DH-14, I may still run into clearance issues.

So basically, I may need to buy some new memory, and I was looking at a 12GB package, specifically Corsair XMS3 2000 CL9.

I can get the memory for fairly cheap, so price is not much of an issue. I just want to know what I can expect from doubling my memory.

There's been a few times where I've run low on memory on my present config, usually due to running lots of games back to back, a long with some other programs running in the background.

I also ran out of memory when running the witcher 2, but that game clearly has a memory leak :biggrin:

My pagefile is disabled, so Windows 7 will surely put this much memory to use right?

 

[boochi]

Go for 12GB. I would still keep a pagefile at the recommended minimum of 400MB. Your sig line does not show an SSD so you may benefit from running a ramdisk in some of that extra memory.

 

[nanaki333]

i wouldn't bother with any page file. i haven't for years since 12GB+ became cheap. with the way memory pricing is, you'd be silly not to buy it all now

 

[Carfax83]

Well I got my 12GB of memory installed, and so far, I'm loving it

It's nice to never have to worry about running out of memory again, and my Windows cache got a huge increase.

As far as snappiness is concerned, I don't see much change....until I load a whole bunch of stuff. Once something has loaded, it pretty much remains in the memory and Windows doesn't retire it until a reboot.

Can someone advise me how to go about making a ramdisk?

 

[nanaki333]

if you want that snappiness, you should really look in to getting an SSD. an intel 320 or even a vertex 2/agility 2 will make you very happy in pants

 

[boochi]

Dataram ramdisk is free to use for personal use and up to a 4 GB ramdisk. http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk
If you have any acronis software installed see the following page for a link to a compatibility fix http://kb.acronis.com/content/15097 .
Setup whatever size ramdisk you want up to 4GB. You can set it to save to hard drive when shutting down or not. If you set your internet cache to use the ramdisk you will see a noticeable speed increase if it saves on each shutdown. For security you may not want it not to save. You can install programs or whatever you like to it. It does increase startup and shutdown times when it loads or saves. I think it is well worth using, especially with having that much ram. I prefer to use ramdisk+ but it isn't free. Dataram is faster but user interface is better on ramdisk+ and you can have multiple ramdisks (some save, some don't).

 

[Carfax83]

if you want that snappiness, you should really look in to getting an SSD. an intel 320 or even a vertex 2/agility 2 will make you very happy in pants

I have long considered getting an SSD drive, but the price/capacity ratio has always turned me off.

I have so much stuff, so I figured that I might as well get some Raptors and have both speed and capacity.

Of course, my Raptors are nowhere near as fast as SSDs when it comes to random access speeds, but when it comes to linear and random read speeds (write speed as well), they're almost as fast as a slow SSD:

I was astonished at how fast and snappy two 600GB Raptors in RAID 0 can be when combined with a good defrag program like PerfectDisk 11.

PerfectDisk 11 is amazing! I highly recommend it if you're still using HDDs.

Of course, once my programs and apps get loaded into memory, then whether I'm using HDD/SSD no longer matters :biggrin:

 

[Carfax83]

Dataram ramdisk is free to use for personal use and up to a 4 GB ramdisk. http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk
If you have any acronis software installed see the following page for a link to a compatibility fix http://kb.acronis.com/content/15097 .
Setup whatever size ramdisk you want up to 4GB. You can set it to save to hard drive when shutting down or not. If you set your internet cache to use the ramdisk you will see a noticeable speed increase if it saves on each shutdown. For security you may not want it not to save. You can install programs or whatever you like to it. It does increase startup and shutdown times when it loads or saves. I think it is well worth using, especially with having that much ram. I prefer to use ramdisk+ but it isn't free. Dataram is faster but user interface is better on ramdisk+ and you can have multiple ramdisks (some save, some don't).

Thanks dude, I'll check it out

 

[nanaki333]

well, if you upgrade in the future, you can always go hybrid with raptors

 

[john3850]

Running two pc with Dataram ramdisk for the pagefiles for six months.
On my 930 I only use a 2 GB ramdisk do to 3x2 of total ram and never ran out of memory yet.
I also stuck a cheap ssd in my 930 which left 44gb free after windows.
Now I hate to use my pc with a windows spindle drive.

 

[Golgatha]

Dataram ramdisk is free to use for personal use and up to a 4 GB ramdisk. http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk
If you have any acronis software installed see the following page for a link to a compatibility fix http://kb.acronis.com/content/15097 .
Setup whatever size ramdisk you want up to 4GB. You can set it to save to hard drive when shutting down or not. If you set your internet cache to use the ramdisk you will see a noticeable speed increase if it saves on each shutdown. For security you may not want it not to save. You can install programs or whatever you like to it. It does increase startup and shutdown times when it loads or saves. I think it is well worth using, especially with having that much ram. I prefer to use ramdisk+ but it isn't free. Dataram is faster but user interface is better on ramdisk+ and you can have multiple ramdisks (some save, some don't).

Marked for later tinkering.

 

[tommylommykins]

12 gigabytes of ram is massive amounts. I have 4, and unless I'm doing something stupid, I almost never hit the pagefile.

Assuming you're in the same situation, you're always going to have at least 8gb free for caches. That's enormous amounts... As much as it's a good thing that that space will always get used by your OS, I don't think having that much memory will give you much benefit.

That means you might want to spend the money on something that will give you a more noticable upgrade... An SSD would be a good choice

----

Also, what's the point of putting the pagefile on a ramdisk? Isn't that sorta like buying a massive mansion just so you can pitch a tent and live in the back garden?

 

[Carfax83]

12 gigabytes of ram is massive amounts. I have 4, and unless I'm doing something stupid, I almost never hit the pagefile.

Assuming you're in the same situation, you're always going to have at least 8gb free for caches. That's enormous amounts... As much as it's a good thing that that space will always get used by your OS, I don't think having that much memory will give you much benefit.

But having a large system cache is in and of itself, very beneficial to system performance.. Once you load, or open something, it stays in the memory until you reboot the computer.

The Witcher 2 is one of the most memory intensive game out there right now since the engine streams damn near everything without using a loading screen, and the areas in the game are very large and diverse.

Before I upgraded to 12GB, I would always CTD in Flotsam when Geralt visited all the areas and locations consecutively, because with each area visited, the game would store the textures in the memory until it practically used up all available memory causing a crash.

Now I don't have to worry about that anymore. In fact, I can load up all the major areas of the game (not just Flotsam) in the memory and not have to worry about crashing or hardrive thrashing.

The fact is, games are getting bigger and bigger. Battlefield 3 will require a 64 bit operating system to run properly, so that goes to show that it too will require lots of memory.

Batman Arkham city may be another one as well, as it's reputed to be 5 times the size of the first game.

 

[hardboy]

anything over 8gb ram will probably not help much for gaming, but with a 9xx, 12gb is the way to go. get the fastest ram you can get

 

[Auric]

If you set your internet cache to use the ramdisk you will see a noticeable speed increase if it saves on each shutdown. For security you may not want it not to save.

If not saving then disable browser disk cache instead in which case it will store in memory without needing a ramdisk. I suppose another option would be to encrypt the ramdisk location. Or, simply use an SSD with integrated encryption.

 

[boochi]

Few browsers will cache only to memory. Cache on a ramdrive will persist untill the next reboot when not saving. Cache in memory is lost when the browser is closed.