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8GB vs 4GB

B

boozie

Senior member
The general consensus to my understanding is 8GB isn't necessary. I'd like to get an understanding on whether or not I will see benefits for my particular use.

Typical use would be multiple browser tabs + ventrilo + game (easy 4GB decision). I'm wondering if I did go to 8 GB instead of 4 if I would be able to have two games open without much issue. I.e. I could have HoN and SC2 open at the same time. Playing one while keeping the other one open to monitor who is online. Is this something 4 might struggle with? What if it's with two games that come out 2 years from now?

I've also read 8GB + disable page file is a good way to go. Is that for non SSD setups? Is that even a good idea in general?
 
4gig is the sweet spot. 8gig is cheap enough to not be a hugh cost burden but I doubt you will notice any differance.

If you want to run dual games I would think having 2 gig of video memory would help more in that area?
 
Lets say your system has 4 gigs of memory:

Windows usually reserves the same amount of system memory as your video card has. Lets say that you have a video card with 1 gig of memory. Windows will usually set aside 1 gig of system memory.

This leaves 3 gigs to play with.

Windows 7 (64 bit) + everything else takes up around 900 - 950 megs on my system.

That leaves 2 gigs to play with.

For most applications 2 gigs of system memory might be fine - depending on what your doing.

Personally, my ideal amount of memory is between 6 - 8 gigs using windows 7 - 64 bit. With something like 32 bit XP, all your gonna get is 4 gigs anyway.
 
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If RAM was expensive, it'd be worth debating but with prices around $30 for 4GB DDR3 and continuing to drop, I'd just get 8GB.
 
I agree with Marlin1975, the demands on the RAM would be much less than the demands on the video memory. You would more than likely not notice any performance difference with just a RAM upgrade. Not taking into account RAM speed difference between what you have, what you would get and what you Mobo can support, or the OS (I presume is 64 bit).

On the other hand iluvdeal makes a good point, at that price why not go 8GB? RAM requirements are not going to ever go down... And he with the most RAM win's right?
 
Nintendesert said:
Why stop at 8 when Newegg has 15% off on desktop memory, go 16!
Click to expand...

Without knowing the motherboard make and model, we do not know how much memory the board will support.

The 2 systems I built my son and daughter only support up to 8 gigs. So it would not do any good to put 12 or 16 gigs in those systems.
 
Texashiker said:
Without knowing the motherboard make and model, we do not know how much memory the board will support.

The 2 systems I built my son and daughter only support up to 8 gigs. So it would not do any good to put 12 or 16 gigs in those systems.
Click to expand...

Sure, but Nintendesert is on the right track. Now that they are almost giving memory away, I had thought (hoped!) these threads would go away!

This question is asked many, many times. I'm not the type to chirp "use the search feature", but this one wouldn't even need a search!
 
I'd go with 8 gb personally, especially given prices now. I sometimes have Outlook, Vent, a game or two, several websites, sometimes Netflix/Hulu on the 2nd screen all going and I'd say I average around 5-7gb used. Video editing is the only time I've maxed it out.
 
ViviTheMage said:
I have 16GB now, glad I have it.

VMWare runs nice 😀
Click to expand...

Same. I got 16GB recently since I just upgraded to SB. It wasn't a smart or rational decision but rather influenced by current Ram prices being so low there's really no need to argue the point.

Now if only SSD's would drop by $100 across the board, we'll be in business.
 
if you're gonna open 2 games at once go with 8. i open 2 everquest 2 instances all the time on my comp and easily go over 6.5GB used, i'd think that newer games might impact this even more. the 2GB of video memory might help as well but since eq2 is older i dont see this impacting it as much as the extra system ram does. im starting with 2x4 on my sandy bridge build, but i may hop to 16gb if the price is right
 
I notice a difference in going from 4gb to 12gb of DDR3. I find things are considerably more "snappy" in Windows, especially after opening and closing a game. My web browser opens up instantaneously all the time now aside from after a cold boot.

If you run any serious workstation apps you will notice a huge difference as well. They also say that it helps with the minimum frame rate in games.
 
I have 4 (corsair ddr2-800) and it's really fast, it of course depends what the usage is. Were I building a completely new build today, I'd probably get 8GB since RAM is so CHEAP right now. I couldn't justify going with 4 to save $20 or whatever. When I built this computer however, I didn't have much choice since the motherboard I went with had a maximum of 4GB hehe.

Oh well... I will keep my upgrade illness in check for as long as I can.
 
I went with 8 Gb for my 1155 build. EVERYTHING is lightning quick...(of course, going from a P4 3.06 to an i5-760 has nothing to do with that) 🙄 😛
 
BoomerD said:
I went with 8 Gb for my 1155 build. EVERYTHING is lightning quick...(of course, going from a P4 3.06 to an i5-760 has nothing to do with that) 🙄 😛
Click to expand...

Yeah it brings a tear to my eye every time I see Opera load up instantaneously with 50 tabs full of content.
 
Anubis said:
go with 8

i have 6, wish i had 12
Click to expand...

Go with 8GB's ram is cheap.

also in the same boat I have 6GB's of ram and adding another 6GB's. Ram prices change quite abit within a year based on previous years. Do it now and don't get caught paying more for it later.
 
Texashiker said:
Lets say your system has 4 gigs of memory:

Windows usually reserves the same amount of system memory as your video card has. Lets say that you have a video card with 1 gig of memory. Windows will usually set aside 1 gig of system memory.
Click to expand...
First of all the PCI aperture and physical memory windows for the GPU is much smaller than the vid card memory (at least for cards with such large memory; the aperture is dynamic so it depends a bit) and second we're talking about a 64bit OS so there's no reason to map it that way. I'm sure somewhere someone already tried using a 32bit OS with SLI/CF of 2 2gb cards which should show that just fine 😉
 
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With RAM being so cheap and the 15% discount Newegg is offering on memory I just ordered 8GB. Never know if prices might go up again.
 
boozie said:
The general consensus to my understanding is 8GB isn't necessary. I'd like to get an understanding on whether or not I will see benefits for my particular use.

Typical use would be multiple browser tabs + ventrilo + game (easy 4GB decision). I'm wondering if I did go to 8 GB instead of 4 if I would be able to have two games open without much issue. I.e. I could have HoN and SC2 open at the same time. Playing one while keeping the other one open to monitor who is online. Is this something 4 might struggle with? What if it's with two games that come out 2 years from now?

I've also read 8GB + disable page file is a good way to go. Is that for non SSD setups? Is that even a good idea in general?
Click to expand...

I use Gentoo Linux with 8GB of RAM. I had 4GB, but I could not compile all of my operating system updates in a tmpfs with it, so I went with 8GB and I have been much happier. To be honest, I wish I had 16GB; unfortunately, my motherboard does not support it.

Anyway, I have an 80GB Intel X25-M SSD and I have an 8GB swap partition. It is always a good idea to have as much swap as you have RAM so that you can suspend to disk. Otherwise, there is no designated place on the disk to store the data in memory.
 
I have 4 in my current HTPC, 6 in my main rig, and ordered 16 for my SB upgrade 🙂 Would have done 32 if I could have found it.
 
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