Does one need to 4GB of RAM with a SSD?

[DougoMan]

Is there still an adavantage in Windows 7 w/ 4GB of Ram over 2GB when you have a SSD?

 

[sub.mesa]

Sure, but having lots of RAM is more important when you only have a HDD.

having at least 4GB means that you use 2GB for applications and the other 2GB for filecache (including metadata) for example.

 

[FishAk]

The fastest SSDs are measured in the hundreds of Mb/s, while your memory is measured in the thousands of Mb/s. And that's just for large sequential transfers. The difference with small files is much greater. Using W7 Superfetch is much faster than even the best of today's SSDs, and W7x64 will use all extra RAM for Superfetch.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Of course I agree with the 2 replies above. But, I would also address this based on usage. If you only check email and surf the web, 2GB is plenty, regardless of OS. But, IMO, to a point RAM is like horsepower and bullets; you can't have too much.

 

[Tsavo]

. But, IMO, to a point RAM is like ... bullets; you can't have too much.

Depends if they are coming or going!

 

[Sahakiel]

OS uses about 1GB, plus or minus a few hundred, just idling at the desktop. Depends on what you have installed and what features you have enabled.

SC2 takes about 2GB or more on larger/busier maps.

Browsers take about 0.5-1.5GB, depending on addons, number of open windows, and private mode use.

Basically, if you're like me and disabled the page file (or dropped it to the minimum 16MB) you'll see a huge benefit: you'll actually be able to run a single program without out-of-memory errors.
If you have the page file extended on a spindle drive, you'll only really notice a performance bump on programs that use a couple GB at a time (mainly games or professional) or you're a multi-tasking fiend who is intimately familiar with the open window limit (about 50 in XP, 7 is higher).

 

[anishannayya]

Why not just cough up the $50? It can't harm anything, and depending on how long you keep your equipment, you'll probably end up upgrading anyways.

 

[DougoMan]

Why not just cough up the $50? It can't harm anything, and depending on how long you keep your equipment, you'll probably end up upgrading anyways.

Well so far it feels pretty damn fast with 2GB of RAM. I've been able to use my multi-gigabyte piano samples without any stuttering which I had with a regular hard drive.

I just hate to buy DDR2 RAM. It seems so out of date.

 

[jvroig]

Well so far it feels pretty damn fast with 2GB of RAM. I've been able to use my multi-gigabyte piano samples without any stuttering which I had with a regular hard drive.

If you are not having any problems, then leave well enough alone. It seems that for your purposes, 2GB and an SSD is enough.

 

[poohbear]

I just hate to buy DDR2 RAM. It seems so out of date.

really? Its still pretty much mainstream. DDR3 is gonna be staying until 2015 atleast, and there's no real performance improvement between the DDR2 & DDR3

 

[0roo0roo]

if you can't afford 2gb more ram, you can't afford the ssd

 

[anishannayya]

if you can't afford 2gb more ram, you can't afford the ssd

Lol

 

[GlacierFreeze]

With an SSD, you really want to limit how much disk thrashing (page file) you do. Definitely want as much RAM as you can get to do that. 64-bit OS with 4GB RAM should be a minimum these days.