Is 2 GB RAM really worth it?

[The Green Bean]

Ive seen so many people get 2GBs, but whats the point. I never noticed much of a difference in an upgrade to 1GB from 512. I presume this would be even lesser.

 

[Arcanedeath]

It totaly depends on your usage patterns for some people its more than worth it, for most uses 1GB is still plenty at the moment, but if you do A/V editing, Photoshop, or some other specialized apps then 2GB can come in handy and w/ memory so cheap atm its not a bad time to upgrade and be a bit ahead of the curve.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Advanced Search "2GB" and "2 GB" for a bunch of threads on this.

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

You'd have to look at benchmarks, and I'm not sure they exist. 1 GB vs 2 GB? Who knows?

Since a GB of decent quality DDR memory usually costs about $80 (premium grade is about $120/GB), you'd have to look at your budget. For example, let's say you have $300 for a CPU and RAM, together. For that money, you could get 2.0 GB RAM and a Sempron 2800+ (s754), or 1.0 GB RAM and an Athlon 64 3400+. Clearly, the Athlon 64 3400+ will blow away the Sempron, even with half the RAM. On the other hand, an Athlon 64 3800+ with 2.0 GB RAM is roughly the same price as an Athlon 64 4000+ with 2.0 GB. Matched against eachother, it's difficult to say which would perform better.

For the most part, you're better off sticking with 1.0 GB (or 512MB, even). However, some situations may warrant 2GB.

 

[daniel1113]

Not unless you do a lot of photo or video compositing. You will appreciate the extra RAM if you ever render/composite/edit HD footage, though.

 

[n7]

I just moved from 1 to 2 GB.

For me it was worth it since i like to run lots of background stuff while playing games, but mileage will vary.

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: hatim
Ive seen so many people get 2GBs, but whats the point. I never noticed much of a difference in an upgrade to 1GB from 512. I presume this would be even lesser.

If you didn't notice a difference from 512 MBs to 1 GB, then you'll notice no difference from 1 GB to 2 GBs. For me, there was a huge difference from 512 MBs to 1 GB, and I noticed a slight improvement in only a few instances when going from 1 GB to 2 GBs. For example, HL2 took over 10 seconds to fully exit with 1 GB, but now it's nearly instant. Also, I can alt-tab out of HL2 and similar games much quicker now and keep more programs running without seeing any slow downs.

However, I only upgraded to 2x1 GBs because I don't plan to upgrade for another 4 years. By then, I will need it, and I won't have $ to spend during that time. Therefore, I had a better reason to upgrade now. For anyone else, I recommend sticking with 1 GB unless you're an avid video/photo editor, programmer, or other professional requiring massive amounts of RAM.

 

[oog]

probably not.

 

[stevty2889]

I went to 2gb for star wars galaxies because it was frequently using the page file with 1gig. For any other game, it made no differance, as they weren't using that much memory, so there really isn't much need for it unless like others said, you are doing photoshop, or video encoding, or playing an MMORPG that can actualy use the extra ram.

 

[imported_rod]

The only reason you would want 2GB is if you either do audio/video/photo editing or multitask alot. Otherwise 1GB is plenty.

The minimum requirement for games these days is generally 256MB (Half-Life 2, Doom 3), so 1GB is plenty for them.

RoD

 

[PhlashFoto]

I have 4x 512MB (2GB) of ram in my system. Usually with a few apps open I am down to almost a gig free. If I run Virtual PC. then I am down to sometimes less than 512MB if not less.

I am thinking of selling off my ram and getting 4 sticks of 1GB through Crucial @ 129 ea. (I use PC3200 ECC, unreg).

 

[Blain]

Does the performance bump for 2GB over 1GB depend on configuration?

* 2 x 1GB DIMMs?
* 4 x 512MB DIMMs?
* Dual channel?


hurtstotalktoyou... "You'd have to look at benchmarks, and I'm not sure they exist. 1 GB vs 2 GB?"

hurtstotalktoyou... People just can't/won't link you up with those benchmarks.
I've wanted to see them forever...

 

[Baked]

Total waste of money for personal computing. 1GB will be more than enough. 768MB is actually plenty.

 

[Yanagi]

<---- Running 768 MB in his rig now.

New rig will be here monday though and will have 1GB

 

[Gerbil333]

Originally posted by: Baked
Total waste of money for personal computing. 1GB will be more than enough. 768MB is actually plenty.

768 MBs is not enough. UT2k4 and HL2 can easily consume 950-1050 MBs on my machine. 1 GB is enough for now. It takes a few hours and many maps to hit 1050 MBs.

 

[imported_K]

in light of this, 2gb won't be enough!: http://www.tomshardware.com/hardnews/20050601_115506.html

 

[Blain]

:laugh: >> BENCHMARKS << :laugh:

Yes, I have run some benchmarks! :thumbsup:

Here's where I started...
XP Pro, IC7-G (875PE), 3.4C Northwood P4, 9800AIW,
All are PC3200 DIMMs, timings were handled @ SPD default, dual channel enabled 1-1.

512MB (256x2) @ Default 3400MHz
1GB (512x2) @ Default 3400MHz
1GB (512x2) @ 3% OC 3502MHz
1.5GB (512x2 & 256x2) @ Default 3400MHz
1.5GB (512x2 & 256x2) @ 3% OC 3502MHz
2GB (512x4) @ Default 3400MHz
2GB (512x4) @ 3% OC 3502MHz

>> Click Here To See The Results <<



BTW, I used the PassMark PerformanceTest V5.0 to run the tests.

 

[bluemax]

In short, unless you KNOW your specialty app NEEDS more than 1GB, it's not currently necessary.

Me, I need more than 1GB because the Garritan Personal Orchestra takes 1GB to hold all its instrument samples. 1.5GB if I inlcude pipe organs and pianos.

 

[Vegito]

ram is so cheap, all my system has minimum of 2gb, except the notebook which cost like 5x more than desktop ram. This stuff is so cheap, i dont know why you guys are still buying 512 sticks..


home file server - 2gb rdram since 2001 - 2gb max

adobe premiere workstation - 4gb ddr since 2 weeks ago, was 2gb

web surfing machine aka adobe premiere backup - 2gb ddr since 2 weeks ago, was 1gb

spare workstation surfer - 2gb

notebook aka adobe premiere on the go - 1gb

 

[bluemax]

Originally posted by: forcesho
ram is so cheap, all my system has minimum of 2gb, except the notebook which cost like 5x more than desktop ram. This stuff is so cheap, i dont know why you guys are still buying 512 sticks..

Because the price per megabyte is HIGHER on a 1GB stick than on 512MB.

512MB = $50 CDN
1024MB = $140 CDN

 

[Valkerie]

$120 will get you value RAM upto 2GB (pricegrabber.com)

but you have to remember that RAM comes in many different types

I'd say get 2GB if you're an advanced user, like developing with CAD, Adobe programs, and all sorts of multitasking with multiple programs that are more memory intensive (assuming that your CPU can handle threads well enough)
Also, if you're an intense gamer, 2GB wouldn't be a bad idea

if you have buffering and ECC enabled for memory of 2GB, it's exciting (isn't it...)

If you do an OS x64, then go for it, because x64 will handle memory technology much better than x32 can ever imagine

don't go 2GB if you want peformance with music players 'n office aps, or just the numbers to boast your coolness of computer systems, it will be utterly worthless and a waste of money

 

[aka1nas]

I had 1GB on my last rig and 2GB on my current A64 rig and it does come in handy sometimes. I do occasionaly capture video as well as multitask heavily, so I guess I fall in that power user category. There have been a few recent games that have well exceeded 1GB of RAM on my system. Vampire Bloodlines actually broke 1.5GB(it is a memory hog), but in general having a little more than 1GB is nice if you really don't want to hit your page file whil gaming.

 

[RussianSensation]

By the time 2 gigs of ram gives any tangible benefit in games, 6800GT and A64 2.6ghz will be like Intel 1.7 and Geforce MX440. For games you'd get much more benefit getting an Audigy 2 to offload the cpu further.

 

[Regulator07]

with my set up, if i throw another 2 512 sticks in there to make a total of 2g, i know i have to lower my divider to ddr-333, but do i lose dual channel and would i have to relax my timings or can i keep them at 2-2-2-5?

 

[imported_Starman]

Originally posted by: RussianSensation
By the time 2 gigs of ram gives any tangible benefit in games, 6800GT and A64 2.6ghz will be like Intel 1.7 and Geforce MX440. For games you'd get much more benefit getting an Audigy 2 to offload the cpu further.

Excuse me, but that's insane. Obviously you don't play MMORPGs. Give EQII a try and compare the difference between 1 and 2 GBs. Battlefield 2, coming out this month, is going to run best with 2GBs. Pa-lease. Those are just a couple of popular examples. You really are off the mark if you think games aren't going to take advantage of more than 1GB of RAM or are not currently doing so. Lastly, adding an Audigy2 will net some extra FPS, but it's nothing compared to what extra RAM will deliver to a system starved for memory.