Any Advantages Of Going To 32Gb Ram For This i7-3770K 3.50GHz System

[muskyx1]

Any Advantages Of Going To 32Gb Ram For This i7-3770K 3.50GHz System

Intel Core i7-3770K Socket 1155, 3.50Ghz, 8MB L3 Cache, 22nm (Retail Boxed) Gen3
Sapphire (11196-01-40G) AMD Radeon HD 7950
Enermax TB Silence Heat Pipe CPU Cooler for Intel LGA 775/1155
OCZ Agility 3 240GB SATA3 6GB/s 2.5" Solid State Drive (SSD) (AGT3-25SAT3-240G)
Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H Socket 1155 Intel Z77

Mostly for gaming and video authoring. Might even go cross-fire.

 

[Blain]

What OS are you running?

 

[BFG10K]

If you have to ask, the answer’s probably “no”.

 

[muskyx1]

What OS are you running?

Windows 7 64-bit maybe Windows 8 later on.

If you have to ask, the answer’s probably “no”.

My current setup is an i7-920 system where I often run some video encoding in the background while gaming. Once in a while when this is happening, the system feels a bit sluggish.

 

[BFG10K]

Once in a while when this is happening, the system feels a bit sluggish.

So fire up Task Manager/Resource Manager and check your memory status.

Again, if you have to ask, the answer's probably "no".

 

[lambchops511]

I say why not, if you have to ask you don't mind the money.

I'm sure you can use it.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Most people don't need more than 8GBs of RAM. This includes people who game and encode videos with something like handbrake (x264).

Most people asking if 16GBs is right for them would be met with a very similar response: "If you have to ask, you probably don't"

RAM isn't that expensive; it's difficult for me, personally, to fault someone for going with 16GBs even if they don't really need it. 32GBs on the other hand, is a little absurd unless you know you need it, in which case, you wouldn't be asking.

 

[el-Capitan]

I'd rather put that money into a better SSD. The Agility 3 is dated, slower than its peers and from OCZ.

 

[philipma1957]

I'd rather put that money into a better SSD. The Agility 3 is dated, slower than its peers and from OCZ.

WELL I don't like any OCZ ssds.

But if he is bogging down his current system when he encodes. he should buy 2 sticks of 8gb ram for his new sysytem. if the system bogs down he can add 2 more sticks of the same 8gb ram. if it does not bog down he is good to go. there are a few good 1600mhz 8gb sticks of ram out there that he can choose from. Then if the 2 sticks are good he can get a different ssd.

 

[Silenus]

WELL I don't like any OCZ ssds.

But if he is bogging down his current system when he encodes. he should buy 2 sticks of 8gb ram for his new sysytem. if the system bogs down he can add 2 more sticks of the same 8gb ram. if it does not bog down he is good to go. there are a few good 1600mhz 8gb sticks of ram out there that he can choose from. Then if the 2 sticks are good he can get a different ssd.

Ok but we don't really know what "bogs down" means in his context. With the assumption he is video encoding on the CPU that could easily mean he is maxing out the processor which causes other processes on the machine to become sluggish. In that case he is simply CPU limited. If he isn't maxing his current memory usage then getting more won't make any difference whatsoever.

All the OP needs to do is simply get some data about his memory usage and the question is answered. That is as simple as looking at task manager during one of his worst case usages and seeing what memory consumption looks like.

 

[snoylekim]

Probably Not ...32G ( and up) put one in the 'multi-user/multi-session' land.. if you running a lot of VMs and doing heavy DB development ( or hosting a server) , maybe.. Some of the Adobe and other apps might leverage it if your workflow required it ..Windows 7 does do caching/buffering, but not sure where that stops .. It won't hurt , but ..

 

[Blain]

Windows 7 64-bit maybe Windows 8 later on.

64-bit is a given based on your question.
Are you running Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate?

 

[hhhd1]

My current setup is an i7-920 system where I often run some video encoding in the background while gaming. Once in a while when this is happening, the system feels a bit sluggish.

Could be the processor or the graphics card has reached its limit.
Open up the task manager and/or the resource monitor, it could tell you if the ram or if the cpu that has reached its limit.

 

[Skott]

Unless you are doing rendering, animation, or serious photo editing the extra ram is just money wasted.

 

[muskyx1]

Thanks for all the input everyone.

I'd be playing Borderlands2 or BF3 while Nero Video is converting mkv's or avi's to burn on a DVD. Every so often, the game will freeze up. I tried replicating the problem but was unsuccessful.

anyway, here are additional specs of my current setup.

Got the system back in the spring of 2009, just weeks before getting laid off as an engineer with one of the Big 3 Car Makers.

Been trying to get over a phobia of buying new system because of that. Thought I'd start with this system after seeing the i7-3770K 3.50GHz and the Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H on sale yesterday.

 

[tweakboy]

You cant render a video and play a game. Get that out of your mind.

Games need 4Gb only. 8GB is fine you will never use it all up and recieve a windows memory error.

32GB ? For what, I need 64GB for my DAW . To load sound templates and real time stuff. Not ness. tho. I would be ok with 16GB to 32GB I will use it up. Where yours will be idle,,, youll never use 8GB and when you do and get a memory error message you can say ok time to go to 32GB kit. gl

 

[HutchinsonJC]

You cant render a video and play a game. Get that out of your mind.

He can, in fact, convert/encode videos (what he's talking about doing) and play games at the same time. Nero Recode along with x264 and probably many other encoders come default "Below Normal" in priority.

Even my old laptop from 2007 will play a lot of games on moderate settings while encoding videos with handbrake, and it's just a core 2 duo with 4GBs of RAM. It might take a little bit longer to encode if you're gaming at the same time, but it's certainly possible.

i7-3770K is a quad core and while BF3 might be able to take advantage of that fact, something like Nero Recode will be perfectly happy running in the background on a "Below Normal" priority. Depending on his settings in Recode, he'll probably even have a full length movie encoded before he's done gaming.

 

[muskyx1]

He can, in fact, convert/encode videos (what he's talking about doing) and play games at the same time. Nero Recode along with x264 and probably many other encoders come default "Below Normal" in priority.

Even my old laptop from 2007 will play a lot of games on moderate settings while encoding videos with handbrake, and it's just a core 2 duo with 4GBs of RAM. It might take a little bit longer to encode if you're gaming at the same time, but it's certainly possible.

i7-3770K is a quad core and while BF3 might be able to take advantage of that fact, something like Nero Recode will be perfectly happy running in the background on a "Below Normal" priority. Depending on his settings in Recode, he'll probably even have a full length movie encoded before he's done gaming.

I actually have Nero running at normal priority when gaming. This seems to hiccup only when I have multiple files in a batch. I don't ever recall this occurring when there's just a single video file being processed. Maybe the transition between files is what's causing it.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

It might not be your issue, but assigning something like a video encoding tool normal priority, a tool that has generally adapted to multi-core systems faster than games have, is asking for issues while trying to do something else that needs a relatively large amount of resources at the same time.

Nero Recode should probably always be left at a "Below Normal" priority setting. It will use 100% CPU when 100% CPU is available to be used and it will hide in a corner eating up whatever CPU cycles are available if something else comes along and tries to claim resources.

If you're using a mechanical drive, the issue you're seeing between files could very well be where the hiccup is coming from. I would imagine something like that would depend on the interface, the type of drive/s, where the game is installed, the type of game, where the video files are that you're reading from and where the video files are being saved.

 

[mlody]

I am considering to jump from 16 gb to 32 gb, but my use case is different then yours. I use my system mainly for VMware Workstation lab running constantly several virtual machines at the same time. 16 gb cuts for me right now, but on several occasions, i could definitely see using more then 16 gb, perhaps closer the 20-22 gb given the workloads, so that is why i am evaluating if i want to make the jump to 32 gb now, or perhaps wait a little longer.

 

[tweakboy]

He can, in fact, convert/encode videos (what he's talking about doing) and play games at the same time. Nero Recode along with x264 and probably many other encoders come default "Below Normal" in priority.

Even my old laptop from 2007 will play a lot of games on moderate settings while encoding videos with handbrake, and it's just a core 2 duo with 4GBs of RAM. It might take a little bit longer to encode if you're gaming at the same time, but it's certainly possible.

i7-3770K is a quad core and while BF3 might be able to take advantage of that fact, something like Nero Recode will be perfectly happy running in the background on a "Below Normal" priority. Depending on his settings in Recode, he'll probably even have a full length movie encoded before he's done gaming.

Play smoothly at high frame rate ,, I doubt that. Low framerates.. do rendering at night and gaming the other time. If you had a Xeon 16 thread and 64GB ram then you can play 2 games and render at the same time imo.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Play smoothly at high frame rate ,, I doubt that. Low framerates.. do rendering at night and gaming the other time. If you had a Xeon 16 thread and 64GB ram then you can play 2 games and render at the same time imo.

Doubt it all you want; you obviously don't know a whole lot about x264, Nero Recode and how it behaves when run on a Below Normal priority.

And what in the world do you need 64GBs of ram to play two games and encode at the same time for? You do realize x264 and Nero Recode don't need 1GB to themselves for most HD video encoding on retard settings, right?

Edit:
You could run two of the most RAM intensive games (8GBs each), and run ~10 HD encodes on x264 or Nero Recode and still be below 32GBs of used RAM. Who would do something like that? I don't know, but you don't need 64GBs of RAM to do it.

 

[yhelothar]

Try turning off your page file. If you ever get any out of ram errors, then you can benefit from extra ram. If not, then there's no point.

 

[Mars999]

I have 32GB and love it!!!

RAM disk, and all baby!!!

Why not 32GB is dirt cheap, $130 GSkill look at my Signature. I have the rig you are looking at building... Love it!!!!

 

[kmmatney]

If you are encoding videos, then at some point it may have to read/write a large information to the hard disk, and I would expect there to be some pauses on occasion. I think more RAM may make these more infrequent, but that assumes the programs can take advantage of that much RAM.

If the encoding programs are constantly writing to hard disk as they go, then I don't see how more RAM will help at all.

I think going with 16GB makes the most sense. It will be more than enough, and you can spend more money elsewhere.