Do you recommend having more than 4gb of ram in a 64bit system?

Kroze

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2001
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I'm building a new pc with 8gb of ram but I keep hearing people say that having 4gb is enough :hmm: and it's useless to go over that amount
 

toad096

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Apr 28, 2011
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Depends completely on what OS and apps you run. For WIN7-64bit, as a general guideline 4GB is enough for surfing, email, ms-office etc. For photoshop I would go with 8GB. Personally I would go with 8GB immediately, given the relatively low ram prices (assuming your budget allows it), and that WIN7 is pretty good in using all ram (free ram is used as diskcache).

On an unrelated note, an SSD is well worth it if you can afford it.
 

Voo

Golden Member
Feb 27, 2009
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For photoshop I would go with 8GB.
And that again depends completely on what you're doing. Having a 8gb PS workingset is quite out of the norm for most uses though - that must be quite a large file (postersize?) with some of the more complex filters.
 

aigomorla

CPU, Cases&Cooling Mod PC Gaming Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 28, 2005
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I'm building a new pc with 8gb of ram but I keep hearing people say that having 4gb is enough :hmm: and it's useless to go over that amount

right now with all my software running that i need, along with all my diag tools, i am using 17% of 12gigs of DDR3.

When i game, i see that number gp up to 30% at times, and when i do other stuff it goes up even higher.

The most ive used is probably 8/12gigs at one time.

So id have to say its up to your usage.
Check out windows task bar... and see how much ram you use.
 

dma0991

Platinum Member
Mar 17, 2011
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4GB is more than enough for basic office tasks. 8GB is the way to go as you don't have to worry too much about having not enough space and it is pretty cheap as well. More RAM comes in handy if you're running a VM.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
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With prices this low for DDR3, get 2x4GB just for fun. I put 4x2GB DDR2 in my two desktops. Win7 uses, at most so far, around 3.20GB of RAM. It caches like 4GB of RAM.
 

nanaki333

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2002
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ram is like a condom... better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it :)
 

GarfieldtheCat

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2005
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Depends completely on what OS and apps you run. For WIN7-64bit, as a general guideline 4GB is enough for surfing, email, ms-office etc. For photoshop I would go with 8GB. Personally I would go with 8GB immediately, given the relatively low ram prices (assuming your budget allows it), and that WIN7 is pretty good in using all ram (free ram is used as diskcache).

On an unrelated note, an SSD is well worth it if you can afford it.

Basically this.
 

Burner27

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2001
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I have 4 x 4GB modules in my machine because the price was dirt cheap and i run multiple VMs. Yeah, i use it all (almost) most of the time.
 

nanaki333

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2002
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I have 4 x 4GB modules in my machine because the price was dirt cheap and i run multiple VMs. Yeah, i use it all (almost) most of the time.

yeah. when i fire up my own mini domain on my work computer, my 16GB of memory comes in handy.
 

Kroze

Diamond Member
Apr 9, 2001
4,052
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Well I use my pc for gaming (Modern Warfare/Black Ops, Battlefield 3) & general browsing/watching videos.

I should upgrade to 8gb instead of 4gb shouldn't I?
 

GarfieldtheCat

Diamond Member
Jan 7, 2005
3,708
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Well I use my pc for gaming (Modern Warfare/Black Ops, Battlefield 3) & general browsing/watching videos.

I should upgrade to 8gb instead of 4gb shouldn't I?

Will it help a little? Yes
Will it really make a noticeable difference in your usage? Most likely no.

Is it cheap enough an upgrade to do it? IMHO, yes, but everyone perceives value differently.

If you don't have an SSD, I would certainly rather have 4gig RAM + SSD vs 8Gig + spinning disk.
 

Joseph F

Diamond Member
Jul 12, 2010
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I'm gonna hijack your thread if you don't (or do :p) mind.
I just recently picked up 8GB of G.Skill DDR3 for $63.74 for a future setup. (I'm currently using socket AM2+) How long would you all figure that amount would last? The most memory-intensive task I would be doing is probably gaming.