AMD X2 3800+ and amount of memory

[Wisey]

The optimal amount of memory used to be 1 Gb...

Now that we have the dual core X2 and assuming you will be running lots of apps concurrently, does it mean that going beyond 1 Gb will be better?

Let's just say you run about 6 to 7 office apps at the same time?

 

[evilharp]

I have an X2, and 1gb is great for multitasking.

2gb may offer some advantages if you work with enormous files (video editing/photoshop) or if you hate the "stutter" in BF2.

X2 doesn't require more RAM than the single core version, so don't feel that your are obligated to upgrade. As it is, 2gb of Ram is super expensive, and the 2x1gb kits usually have loose timings (cas 3). If you want tight timings (cas 2) you pay an enormous premium to get it. Of course you could run 4x512, but you would have to run a 2t command rate to do so.

Personally, I'd wait a while to go 2x1gb. It is still a relatively new product niche, and the Ram companys are slowly starting to make a range of products for it. 2x512 used to be really expensive, but now it is cheap.

 

[RichUK]

More RAM just means less use of the swap file (Virtual memory, page file what ever you wanna call it ), Windows xp Home/Pro can only address to 4Gb's (or 4096Mb's ) of physical/virtual memory as an absolute max.

So if you requirements exceed the use of 1 gig of RAM (Usaully CAD users), this means that you will have to use the swap file more which means using the vastly slower Hard Drive (Unless you use SCSI goodness ), if you had 4gigs of RAM you could just disable the paging file and thus cut out the HDD as the bottle neck, but would you ever use more than 2 or 4Gigs of RAM, this is the question.

It all boils down to your needs, if your general use of your PC exceeds 1Gb of RAM storage for the amount of programs that you are running, and you can see slow downs and alot of HDD action, well in that case YES.. if you dont see any lag with what programs you use then NO .. if you love BF2 and hate the choppy game play at the start of the game and the map load times, then it is a HELL YES captain

If you are into Overclocking your RAM, the (2x1Gb) RAM modules at the moment are not that well developed, and do not overclock as well as the 2x512Mb modules currently available.. but soon when they are a necessity for everyday use, they will be better developed by the various manufacturers.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Just wondering...

But i know on the Opteron Dual CPU machine, each core has its equal amount of ram. Say you have 2 2xx Opterons with 2GB of ram. Each CPU will get 1GB.

Does windows know how to realocate this? I mean if you run a single thread task will it only take up 1Gb or 2GB? Just a guess but i am thinking it will use the 2GB in the say way task manager says it uses 50% per core.

Anyway one anything abou this?

 

[RichUK]

Originally posted by: Lord Banshee
Just wondering...

But i know on the Opteron Dual CPU machine, each core has its equal amount of ram. Say you have 2 2xx Opterons with 2GB of ram. Each CPU will get 1GB.

Does windows know how to realocate this? I mean if you run a single thread task will it only take up 1Gb or 2GB? Just a guess but i am thinking it will use the 2GB in the say way task manager says it uses 50% per core.

Anyway one anything abou this?

well each core has its own memory that is correct, in the respect that it has its own memory banks which the memory controllers communicates with.

However using their Hyper-Transport (HT) links the opterons are able to address to, and share all of the memory available on the motherboard, if you had a dual opteron board (dual socket), and one opteron wanted to use the other opterons memory, they would use their HT links and source the memory through the other opteron(s) memory controller, and transfer the info through the HyperTransport links .. thats why the higher number series opterons (2xx, 8xx), have more HT links so that they can communicate with more opterons ..

so in short they use there HT links as sort of network in which to share memory, and no windows is not capable to evenly allocate the memory to each core, as you have stated, it just sees it as a whole, as this is how the BIOS relays it ..

This diagram might help you understand

Also check this page this might help aswell