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is 8GB enough for windows 7?

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Red Squirrel said:
I don't know what some of you guy's version of "running fine" is if you were only using 2GB. Even with XP 2GB is barely good enough. With AV software and typical background apps, bunch of apps open, things get ugly pretty quick.

But anyways, I managed to fit in the extra stick so I'm good either way. At the price of ram I like having the extra buffer. Right now I'm only using 3.65GB according to task manager so I have tons left over. I'm guessing part of that 3.65GB is some caching stuff too.
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I have 1GB and my Memory usage is usually only around 25%-30% normally in Windows 7 (40%-60% when I have like 12 Firefox tabs open). Never once had a problem where it crashed or seemed too slow to do anything.

3.65GB of ram being used normally doesn't sound like "running fine" to me. 😀
 
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ninaholic37 said:
I have 1GB and my Memory usage is usually only around 25%-30% normally in Windows 7 (40%-60% when I have like 12 Firefox tabs open). Never once had a problem where it crashed or seemed too slow to do anything.

3.65GB of ram being used normally doesn't sound like "running fine" to me. 😀
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Depends what you do with it. If you only have a single instance of IE open with facebook, sure, but most people, like me will have multiple instances of Firefox (that's nearly a gig of ram right there), couple instances of explorer possibly if working on any files, 20+ code files open in a text editor of choice such as notepad++, possibly excel,word or other office app, email client, in the case of work, Outlook which is a huge hog.... it adds up. That's not even gaming.

But yeah I would have been fine with 8GB, but the extra buffer of 12GB is better if I decide to play more games.
 
ninaholic37 said:
I have 1GB and my Memory usage is usually only around 25%-30% normally in Windows 7 (40%-60% when I have like 12 Firefox tabs open). Never once had a problem where it crashed or seemed too slow to do anything.

3.65GB of ram being used normally doesn't sound like "running fine" to me. 😀
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Windows Vista and 7 will try not to use up all the RAM and will swap out as much as possible in order to try and deliver the best performance possible in the circumstances.

For example, Vista and 7 on 1GB RAM will typically look like they're using 400 - 600MB RAM. Put another gig in there and that will instantly jump to about 1GB. You can see a bit of that behaviour yourself on 1GB RAM by starting Task Manager as quickly as possible in the startup routine, and watch the memory usage - it will spike at probably 99% RAM (if you have 1GB) and then slide down to 40-60%. You'll definitely see an increase in performance on Win7 by upgrading to 2GB. On Vista, performance is dire on 1GB RAM. On Win7 (1GB), it's not anywhere near as bad, but it's a bit sluggish. Once you've got 2GB RAM, you won't see that sort of spike any more because it isn't trying to compensate for low RAM.

Unless you're actually doing enough to use up nearly another gig of RAM, you wouldn't notice any difference by upgrading to more than 2GB.

To the person who said that WinXP needs 2GB RAM - a fresh install of WinXP plus drivers and the latest updates uses between 150 - 250MB RAM (with a bit of performance tweaking this can be brought down about 50MB, depending on your requirements). Microsoft Security Essentials + Microsoft Update (the more comprehensive MS update system rather than just Windows Update - needed to download MSE updates), the memory usage increases to somewhere between 350 - 500MB (allowing for memory usage spikes during update cycles, for example). So what are you doing with the extra ~1.5GB RAM?
 
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Red Squirrel said:
Depends what you do with it. If you only have a single instance of IE open with facebook, sure, but most people, like me will have multiple instances of Firefox (that's nearly a gig of ram right there), couple instances of explorer possibly if working on any files, 20+ code files open in a text editor of choice such as notepad++, possibly excel,word or other office app, email client, in the case of work, Outlook which is a huge hog.... it adds up. That's not even gaming.

But yeah I would have been fine with 8GB, but the extra buffer of 12GB is better if I decide to play more games.
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You are not "most people". Perhaps your usage is more commonplace if you restrict the arena of people to those on the anandtech forums, but definitely not "most people".

Also, Firefox uses up to a percentage of available memory for caching.

I wouldn't consider my computer usage to be like "most peoples'" either, but for example on average I tend to have about 6 Firefox tabs open (it goes up to multiple windows with maybe 25 tabs open total, but I also close Firefox completely quite often), Thunderbird, Sunbird, maybe LibreOffice. I think I've seen physical memory usage exceed 1.6GB (Win7 64, 4GB RAM). The only time I need more is when playing 3D games like StarCraft 2.

My wife on the other hand would, if left to her own devices, would leave Firefox open for weeks on end with probably 25 tabs open minimum, then complain that her system is running slowly. XP, 2GB RAM... of which Firefox is using ~1.5GB. Admittedly we plan to replace her ageing Athlon XP setup, but as far as my wife is concerned, no amount of RAM is safe 😛
 
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KAZANI said:
Yeah...TODAY! I plan on keeping my next upgrade for ~5 years and I still haven't figured if I need to go with more than 8GB.
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Unless they come out with something drastic in an update or you are using a memory hungry program than I still see 4GB being the most recommended.
 
4GB to get you through the next 5(-ish) years? No way, unless of course you only use the PC for browsing/e-mailing.
 
2 gigs is all you really NEED (thats what I had when I first switched and it was more than fine). But if you wanna work with large videos and such, more is better. I'd say for most tasks 8 gigs is excessive. Thats what I have and damned if I've ever truly needed it.
 
2gb is the minimum for Windows 7 and if you are an 'email and web browse with occasional video\playlist' 2gb in windows 7 is all you need.

4gb is the happy place where its cheap and good for gamees and 'extra's'

8gb is happy place plus confort that you can say "I have double happy place". If you do actual "work" on your PC where the apps you use hog up ram or you need to have a vm running then 8gb is a safe bet.

16gb is for those who have special needs such as multiple VM's. Also common among those who declared they want 'fill er up' and e-penis all the 8gb havers

32gb is for people who are bored and just want to see the world burn
 
All you need for XP is 512mb with 1gb being the happy place. If you need more than 1gb on XP then you need to stop being a cheap bastard and first upgrade to a modern OS then start adding in the memory.
 
pauldun170 said:
2gb is the minimum for Windows 7 and if you are an 'email and web browse with occasional video\playlist' 2gb in windows 7 is all you need.

4gb is the happy place where its cheap and good for gamees and 'extra's'

8gb is happy place plus confort that you can say "I have double happy place". If you do actual "work" on your PC where the apps you use hog up ram or you need to have a vm running then 8gb is a safe bet.

16gb is for those who have special needs such as multiple VM's. Also common among those who declared they want 'fill er up' and e-penis all the 8gb havers

32gb is for people who are bored and just want to see the world burn
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joker-the-joker-27923466-300-360.jpg
 
win71gb.png

This is one of my file servers- plugging away for months on end with 1GB of RAM. It's serving files to my whole household, recording the occasional TV show, running a subsonic music server, a calibre ebook server, and it regularly backs up my home PCs with Cobain. (System is headless- screencap is actually of a VNC window). It never uses more than 688MB of the installed 1GB or DDR1.

This is one of the boxes I used to run Linux on for same/similar tasks, but just got sick of Linux and switched it to plain ol' Windows 7 with the idea I'd put more RAM in it ASAP. But I haven't bothered in six months, haven't seen the need, and it's been running nearly that long.

Believe me though, I'm a big proponent of more RAM in most cases. I wouldn't actually use a system like this for any usual desktop tasks.

8GB is plenty for most people. 16GB is probably overkill. I do video editing, some 3D rendering, audio etc. with my PCs and taxing even 16GB is a rare occurrence, though it does happen. (I have no idea about gaming- I thought most games would rely more on GPU than system RAM, but I dunno.)

32GB- if you do a lot of heavy lifting with the PC, then why not? These days it doesn't cost that much. That said, I doubt there's a single situation where 99.999% of computer users (and a system that's actually running properly, not bleeding memory) will ever even come close to using all 32GB -in fact, barely over half that much for even the most demanding tasks- but if it's cheap and gives the user some sort of peace of mind.. eh.. why not?
 
KAZANI said:
4GB to get you through the next 5(-ish) years? No way, unless of course you only use the PC for browsing/e-mailing.
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Agreed. One thing that I like to think about is the fact that RAM is INCREDIBLY cheap right now, and if they start transitioning over to another standard that isn't DDR3, then those prices will start to rise. If you're the type of person that likes to upgrade his/her machine every 5 years or whatever, then throw the ram in now while its cheap, as you're basically talking 40 dollars per 4gb.

On the other hand, if you like to upgrade frequently, then maybe hold off and get it as you need it.
 
KAZANI said:
4GB to get you through the next 5(-ish) years? No way, unless of course you only use the PC for browsing/e-mailing.
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In other words, yes it will be just fine as long as your usage patterns don't change much over the next 5 years.
 
I am still only having 4GB and i am totally fine, even with multi-tasking apps and gaming. I am using my PC for work, often with graphic editors, FTP, shells and HTML editors etc. in the background. I know RAM is cheap, but still didn't see a reason to buy more. As for gaming, i am only gaming at 1680x1050, i haven't had problems with eg. BF3 although putting BF3 entirely on the SSD sped things up a lot. To be honest, in my personal opinion i cant see you putting 8GB in and running into troubles - if i can do well with 4GB.
 
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Chapbass said:
If you're the type of person that likes to upgrade his/her machine every 5 years or whatever, then throw the ram in now while its cheap, as you're basically talking 40 dollars per 4gb.
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WAT? $40 per 4GB? When I stocked up on DDR3-1333 1.5v, it was $30 for an 8GB kit. For that price, it was a definite no-brainier to fill up all of the RAM slots on the mobo.
 
I've ran into the 8gb barrier more than a few times. But for what you want to do, it should be fine. Windows 7 also manages memory much better than XP.
 
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I don't understand people that say "go 16GB, memory is cheap". So what if it is cheap? It is still a cost that you don't need. Hardly anyone will be using that much memory if all you do is game and do MS Office work, play flash games etc. Sure if you're using huge photoshop images or loading massive databases into memory then of course you need it, but I think a lot of people that get 16+ gigs of memory are just wasting their money.

95% of people can get away with 4 gigs of ram....hell many even 2 gigs. If you're going to use your PC for 5 years, then it would be prudent to get 8 gigs, but 16 gigs is complete overkill unless you're some hardcore photoshopper or something similar.
 
StinkyPinky said:
I don't understand people that say "go 16GB, memory is cheap". So what if it is cheap? It is still a cost that you don't need. Hardly anyone will be using that much memory if all you do is game and do MS Office work, play flash games etc. Sure if you're using huge photoshop images or loading massive databases into memory then of course you need it, but I think a lot of people that get 16+ gigs of memory are just wasting their money.

95% of people can get away with 4 gigs of ram....hell many even 2 gigs. If you're going to use your PC for 5 years, then it would be prudent to get 8 gigs, but 16 gigs is complete overkill unless you're some hardcore photoshopper or something similar.
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It's like if you're buying a 30k truck, and it's 5k extra to go with the 4x4 model. Even if you only plan to use it in town, for only 5k more may as well go 4x4.
 
Doing more than fine with 4gb. No need to waste money on something thats not going to be used. Now if I ever find a need for more I'll add more. But I dont see the point in buying just cause it's cheap. That money can be put to better use on more games and music. Or set aside for the next upgrade
 
Red Squirrel said:
It's like if you're buying a 30k truck, and it's 5k extra to go with the 4x4 model. Even if you only plan to use it in town, for only 5k more may as well go 4x4.
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And if the 4x4 is worse on gas you're then out an extra 5K plus the extra cost of gas which is recurring the entire time you own the vehicle. The extra electricity required to run either more or more dense modules is going to be fractions of a penny and isn't even a consideration.

PC to car analogies never work, just say no.
 
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