How much RAM is too much RAM?

[contemplate]

I'm just a rookie at this game!

My question is regarding RAM. At what point does it become pointless to have too much RAM. I'm aware that my IS7 mobo allows for up to 4 GB ram, if I'm not mistaken? How much is too much? I use my system mainly for rendering and I'm curious if this 2GB or 4GB will help rendering times?

Secondly, does 3 modules instead of 2 hinder performance (given that they are exactly same manufacturer, bandwidth, speed, size etc.)

I'm thinking about buying new modules (mushkin or OCZ) completely, because I believe my RAM sucks!

Help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[InlineFive]

For most applications you won't need over 512MB, unless you play a MMORPG game then you might want 1GB. Having more sticks of memory will limit your overclock (if you do stuff like that) so you might want to keep that in mind.

I know for rendering you need a lot but I have never done that so I can't give you an opinion backed by experience. Sorry.

-Por

 

[Corporate Thug]

anything over a gig is useless IMO

 

[JustAnAverageGuy]

It's nearly impossible to have TOO MUCH of a good thing

 

[PCHPlayer]

Remember Bill Gates said that no one needs more than 640K of memory.... Get as much as you can afford because you always need more in the future. At today's prices 2x512 is a nice sweet spot.

 

[Ladybug7709]

having 4GB is only pointless if you cant afford it

 

[dguy6789]

Bill gates said you will not need more then 640K of ram on that old operating system at THAT time. he never said you will never need more. This is commonly mis interpretted. Get as much as you want, the more you have, the more future proof you will be. there is no such thing as 2 much, 3 years from now 4GB of ram will be what 32MB is today.

 

[BudAshes]

Rendering uses the cpu mostly doesnt it? I would say you need no more than a gig. And the is7 is a dual channel motherboard, so you could see a decrease in preformance if you do not use your ram in dual channel form, ie have matching ram in slots 1 and 3, or 2 and 4.

 

[contemplate]

thanks, helps out a lot!

 

[Twista]

Since we've been talking about optimizing your computer's performance, and
ultimately getting your memory to work the way you want, this week's contest
winner will receive a copy of FreeMem Pro. I have 2 copies to give out.
The contest is this... What is the most erroneous technology forecast you
have heard? For instance, a long time ago, Bill Gates said no one would ever
need more than 640k of memory. Now his own operating systems need many MB of
memory. Dead wrong? What other horrible predictions have you heard?

 

[IncredibleHutch]

Who cares about dead wrong predictions... Who would have thought we'd have smoke screen tvs... well, they're in works. There's a lot of things that may have been said back in the past that were true based on what we thought (key word thought). As for the RAM, too much can be a bad thing... you slow down your overall RAM access with the more you add. Your CPU talks to all those sticks and the more you have, obviously the more talk you have. You try to successfully operate 1 warehouse and how and where everything goes... Now add 3 more to what you have to work with... It adds that many more algorithms to the whole process. As a whole it has to think about where it's gonna store stuff, has to look at how much is being used on each one, talks to them all at the same time. Phone calls with multiple people become harder the more people you talk to. Yadda yadda yadda... anyway... I've read articles showing that 1GB Vs 2GB of RAM leaves you with a 30% performance gain with just 1GB than you'd have with 2GBs in applications that use less than 1GB of RAM. Unless your app needs 2GBs then stick with 1. 1 is more than enough for most any situation.

 

[EstoyLoco]

well lets see
I could have bought...
2x256 at $75 each
but I opted to buy 2x512 at $86 each... whoopie a whole 22 dollars for 512MB more

just shop around and see whats good for you...
btw I had 2 sticks, cause I wanted to use DualDDR

 

[eofeapr]

Originally posted by: IncredibleHutch
As for the RAM, too much can be a bad thing... you slow down your overall RAM access with the more you add. Your CPU talks to all those sticks and the more you have, obviously the more talk you have. You try to successfully operate 1 warehouse and how and where everything goes... Now add 3 more to what you have to work with... It adds that many more algorithms to the whole process..

I'd like to know if by using a set of 2 1gig strips as opposed to 4 512 to achieve 2 gigs of RAM

am I supplying my RAM more effectively this way

or

am I still at risk of reduced efficiency by vertue of an algorythm shift..???

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: Twista
Since we've been talking about optimizing your computer's performance, and
ultimately getting your memory to work the way you want, this week's contest
winner will receive a copy of FreeMem Pro. I have 2 copies to give out.
The contest is this... What is the most erroneous technology forecast you
have heard? For instance, a long time ago, Bill Gates said no one would ever
need more than 640k of memory. Now his own operating systems need many MB of
memory. Dead wrong? What other horrible predictions have you heard?

Memory "Enhancing" programs are usless in my opinion. The basically shove what it thinks is unneeded information to the hard drive, acutually degrading performance after a while. If you have at least 512MB this isn't worth it.

 

[IncredibleHutch]

Originally posted by: eofeapr

Originally posted by: IncredibleHutch
As for the RAM, too much can be a bad thing... you slow down your overall RAM access with the more you add. Your CPU talks to all those sticks and the more you have, obviously the more talk you have. You try to successfully operate 1 warehouse and how and where everything goes... Now add 3 more to what you have to work with... It adds that many more algorithms to the whole process..

I'd like to know if by using a set of 2 1gig strips as opposed to 4 512 to achieve 2 gigs of RAM

am I supplying my RAM more effectively this way

or

am I still at risk of reduced efficiency by vertue of an algorythm shift..???

Excuse me... sorry about that... If you had two sticks of 1GB RAM I see no reason for the 30 percent slow down. The reason behind the slow down is more pertaining to the amount of sticks you have vs the amount of RAM you have. I'll try to find an article on that.

 

[IncredibleHutch]

Alright... a mistake I must correct.



link

This link if you read all of it... lol. Shows the performance gains more like 5-10 percent difference between 4x256MB sticks vs 2 512 sticks. I didn't take the time to really look into it but I did find a link that from glancing, proves the idea at least that more isn't always better... Granted... in my opinion... from this article... I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Sunny129]

yeah you'd have to be pretty heavily into rendering (autoCAD, Brice 3D, etc.) to justify having more than 1GB or memory. you're probably safe w/ 512MB, and if you don't plan on upgrading again for quite a while, 1GB will keep you safe for another year or so...

 

[Sid59]

40 gigs of memory is too much.

 

[magomago]

I wouldn't mind having 2 gigs of ram...that'd be nice Recently i've noticed with all my crap open i'm hitting like 800-900 megs of crap @ once

 

[GTaudiophile]

I find that 512MB is not enough for Desert Combat (mod for BF1942). I'm going to add another 512MB to help curtail all the cacheing being done.

 

[TerryMathews]

With modern PCs, there's no such thing as too much RAM. Your processor's got enough cache to TAG it, Windows understands how to adjust the page file to suit it. You start multitasking, copying, etc and you will start to utilize that extra RAM.

Is it worthwhile? That's an entirely different question. A few minutes in Task Manager will help you to determine just how much memory you actually use.

 

[Jeff7181]

For rendering you'd probably want faster RAM as opposed to more RAM. 1 GB would probably be pleanty, so spend some extra money and get some PC3200 if you intend on keeping the processor at stock speeds, and get low latency stuff that'll run 2-2-2-5. If you plan to overclock, you might consider some of the PC3700-4000 in the reviews here on AT.

 

[Nebor]

2 gigabytes of ram killed my father.

 

[0roo0roo]

xp with gaming easily 1gb is what u should have. 2gb is probably getting a little absurd for average user. although heavy heavy scanning/photoshop vid editing might benifit. i easily go over 512 usage with apps and games, so 1gb for me.

 

[The Green Bean]

Originally posted by: Ladybug7709
having 4GB is only pointless if you cant afford it

HAving anything u cant afford is pointless