how much ram for VISTA??

[ViperMichael]

should i get 2gb 800mhz, or 4gb 800mhz.

It is vista 32bit as 64bit is a bit dodgy. With a pair of 8800GTX, will i be able to access all 4gb, or is it 1.5gb from gpu's and 2.5 from ram?

 

[Cooler]

~ 3 gigs seems to be the right amout from what i have been told.

 

[mechBgon]

Are there specific issues you're concerned about with 64-bit Vista? Driver availablility or ???

(also, you will get about 3.0-3.25GB of the 4GB available if you use 32-bit Windows, it's not split amongst the CPU and GPUs)

 

[Matthias99]

With a pair of 8800GTX, will i be able to access all 4gb, or is it 1.5gb from gpu's and 2.5 from ram?

...guh? The GPU's memory space doesn't cut into your system RAM (the drivers can dynamically allocate more RAM for a program if needed, but it's not all the time.) Maybe you're just used to low-end shared-memory GPUs, but discrete cards don't usually do this.

With a 32-bit Windows OS you often lose somewhere between 250MB and 1GB to various BIOS/driver things (you can search for various rants in the OS forum about it if you want the gory details.) So you'd probably only see something like 3.25GB in Windows. And any individual 32-bit program can only access 2GB (or 3GB if you do some tweaking).

2GB seems to be plenty for the moment unless you have some specific need for more.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I started with 2gb however when the package arrives next week I'll be up to 4gb. I'm trying to give prefetch more breathing room so my programs will execute even faster.

 

[ViperMichael]

i was going to go for 64 bit vista, but sli drivers and other drivers, i have been told are a bit rubbish. Is this true

 

[corkyg]

Am running Vista Ultimate with 2 GB - absolutely noproblems. All my software runs just as well as it did in XP Pro.

64 bit is the future - and it will happen. As more users have it, then the software people will produce for it and it will be as common as 32 bit is.

 

[w00t]

Why use Vista in the first place?

 

[ViperMichael]

so i get direct x 10 and in a few years it will be the standard so may as well adopt, every one hated xp in the beginning same for vista and the next O/S

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: w00t
Why use Vista in the first place?

Just for starters, how about a huge increase in computer security against present and future threats, compared to WinXP or Win2000. DirectX 10 and support for lots of RAM (on 64-bit, anyway) might be attractive to some people too, especially since Windows Vista has a 10-12 year lifespan ahead of it. Buy the right thing the first time

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Cooler
~ 3 gigs seems to be the right amout from what i have been told.

That doesn't sound right at all. You're going to get better performance with Ram in pairs (with DDR2), and no 1.5 gig sticks exist that I know of. I'd say go for 4 Gb for Vista. You can get 4x 1gb sticks for roughly $170-200, so why not? Heck, 2 sticks of 2gb ram can be had for about $300, which leaves to free slots for even more.

With Superfetch, more programs can be preloaded into RAM, and you'll get an overall smoother feel on your machine.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Cooler
~ 3 gigs seems to be the right amout from what i have been told.

That doesn't sound right at all. You're going to get better performance with Ram in pairs (with DDR2), and no 1.5 gig sticks exist that I know of. I'd say go for 4 Gb for Vista. You can get 4x 1gb sticks for roughly $170-200, so why not? Heck, 2 sticks of 2gb ram can be had for about $300, which leaves to free slots for even more.

With Superfetch, more programs can be preloaded into RAM, and you'll get an overall smoother feel on your machine.

SOme boards can run asynchronous dual channel. Meaning you can run slots 1,2,3 occupied and slots 1 and 3 will be dual channel while slot 2 will function alone.

P965 can do this.

 

[saltedeggman]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Cooler
~ 3 gigs seems to be the right amout from what i have been told.

That doesn't sound right at all. You're going to get better performance with Ram in pairs (with DDR2), and no 1.5 gig sticks exist that I know of. I'd say go for 4 Gb for Vista. You can get 4x 1gb sticks for roughly $170-200, so why not? Heck, 2 sticks of 2gb ram can be had for about $300, which leaves to free slots for even more.

With Superfetch, more programs can be preloaded into RAM, and you'll get an overall smoother feel on your machine.

You can still get Dual Channel functionality if you run 1gb x 2 AND 512mb x 2 to achieve 3 gig

 

[jkresh]

Vista 64 runs fine (look at operating systems board to see), unless you have some programs that contian their own drivers or some 16bit programs you should consider going 64. 2gigs should be enough for most users (even most power users) but I am probably going to be adding another 2-4 gigs in the next week or so as I do enough multitasking to justify it.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: saltedeggman

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Cooler
~ 3 gigs seems to be the right amout from what i have been told.

That doesn't sound right at all. You're going to get better performance with Ram in pairs (with DDR2), and no 1.5 gig sticks exist that I know of. I'd say go for 4 Gb for Vista. You can get 4x 1gb sticks for roughly $170-200, so why not? Heck, 2 sticks of 2gb ram can be had for about $300, which leaves to free slots for even more.

With Superfetch, more programs can be preloaded into RAM, and you'll get an overall smoother feel on your machine.

You can still get Dual Channel functionality if you run 1gb x 2 AND 512mb x 2 to achieve 3 gig

Learned something today. Anyways, for a tiny bit more, why not go with 4gb? I can't accept any number not in the doubling scheme. Ie. 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, etc.

My windows xp machine has 1gb. My Vista laptop has 2gb, and my next build will have 4gb

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: saltedeggman

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Cooler
~ 3 gigs seems to be the right amout from what i have been told.

That doesn't sound right at all. You're going to get better performance with Ram in pairs (with DDR2), and no 1.5 gig sticks exist that I know of. I'd say go for 4 Gb for Vista. You can get 4x 1gb sticks for roughly $170-200, so why not? Heck, 2 sticks of 2gb ram can be had for about $300, which leaves to free slots for even more.

With Superfetch, more programs can be preloaded into RAM, and you'll get an overall smoother feel on your machine.

You can still get Dual Channel functionality if you run 1gb x 2 AND 512mb x 2 to achieve 3 gig

Learned something today. Anyways, for a tiny bit more, why not go with 4gb? I can't accept any number not in the doubling scheme. Ie. 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, etc.

My windows xp machine has 1gb. My Vista laptop has 2gb, and my next build will have 4gb

Yeash it's almost a no brainer at about $90 per 2GB depending on brand and speed you want. Heck right now $133 for G.Skill HZ (Micron D9) is a steal. It was better a few weeks ago but it's ALOT better than the $350-$400 they wanted for the same sticks in november.

 

[korgan844]

64 bit --> 4 gb
32 bit --> 2 gb it's enought

 

[BucNews]

Unless you go 64bit you will only be able to use 3gb of ram. You may want to get 4gb of ram and plan on upgrading to 64bit Vista in the next 6 months. I may be adding another 2gb of ram to my new rig for that reason -- I can say that I have not seen more than 60% of my ram used while playing the games I have.

Guild Wars
Neverwinter Nights 2
Supreme Commander
Titan Quest
Europa Universalis

I am currently running Vista 32bit.

 

[Acanthus]

All of my games run great with 2GB on 32bit vista ultimate.

Ive finally cured the upgrade itch for a while.

 

[crisscross]

not to hijack your thread... but I have 1.4GB of RAM dont game much.. would Vista x64 run ok? Processor -Athlon 64 3000.

 

[Brian48]

Running with 2gb on 32bit Vista. Seems plenty to me.

 

[Stump1000]

Originally posted by: Brian48
Running with 2gb on 32bit Vista. Seems plenty to me.

I would agree. I ordered 2gb for my laptop yesterday. I'm only running 512mb right now and it sucks!