Is there any difference...

[error8]

I'm thinking of adding 4 more gb to have a total of 8 gb and I was wondering if there is any performance difference. I'm mostly gaming and using Autocad 2d and 3d and I'm on Vista X64.

I know that superfetch would love the extra ram, but I don't know if it really makes a difference. What do you think?

 

[Gillbot]

What OS?

In my limited experience with AutoCAD, the more ram the better as long as the OS can support it.

 

[DSF]

He's using Vista 64. No, I'm not psychic. I can just read.
(Just giving you a hard time, Gillbot.)

The benchies I've seen haven't shown any improvement in gaming with 8GB in Vista. I don't know about AutoCad.

 

[error8]

But what about Vista? Will it become snappier or something?

 

[Gillbot]

Originally posted by: DSF
He's using Vista 64. No, I'm not psychic. I can just read.
(Just giving you a hard time, Gillbot.)

The benchies I've seen haven't shown any improvement in gaming with 8GB in Vista. I don't know about AutoCad.

I skimmed his OP twice too!

IMHO, with cad, give it all the ram you can. As for vista, no idea.

 

[DSF]

Does Vista really seem slow to you with 4GB? I doubt 8GB will make much difference in that department. If you really want to make Vista snappier you're probably looking at getting a VelociRaptor or SSD, but that's not an upgrade I'd personally pay for.

 

[error8]

Vista doesn't feel slow at all. It's lightning fast, actually. But I was thinking that with the extra ram, there would probably be more programs memorized in it, so that would speed up the loading times?

A SSD would probably give the biggest boost possible as Vista is concerned, DSF, but it's amazingly expensive for just a couple of gigabytes it offers. It's not a viable solution, today.

So, if Autocad likes ram, then I should probably feed it with some more. So, I should get going and order it, no?

 

[California Roll]

Consider how cheap RAM is these days, I'd go for 8 with Vista 64. It can't hurt.

 

[Jeff7181]

I just ordered another 4 GB to bring me up to 8. I'm in the habit of running multiple virtual machines now so this'll keep me from having to shut them down when I play a game or something.

 

[The Keeper]

Vista, unlike XP actually knows how to use available RAM as cache. So yes, 8GB will give you some benefit over 4GB. I haven't regretted of getting 8GB for my Vista x64 system. If you put your Vista computer to sleep instead of turning it off, it doesn't lose data stored to the RAM, then Vista doesn't need to preload stuff into the RAM again. The less you restart or turn off your computer, the better.

 

[error8]

Ok, so I ordered it. Thank you all for your advices.

 

[Rabbits]

Have fun with your 8GB, I only have a quarter of that.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: The Keeper
The less you restart or turn off your computer, the better.

Why do you say that?

 

[Adam8281]

About a month ago I upped my Vista x64 system from 4GB to 8GB RAM. I can't say I have noticed a difference - Vista was snappy before, and it's snappy after - but I CAN say that my e-peen has grown proportionately , and that with the price of RAM these days, why the heck not upgrade to 8GB if your system can take it?

 

[Flipped Gazelle]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: The Keeper
The less you restart or turn off your computer, the better.

Why do you say that?

Relic from the days when PC components were lower-quality than they are now, perhaps.

Not really relevant anymore if you built a decent machine.

 

[Adam8281]

I think he's saying it because the primary advantage of having gargantuan amounts of RAM in Vista x64 is that SuperFetch will cache up tons of files based on past system activity, predictive algorithms, etc., so that any file you are "likely" to need will already be in RAM before you call it up. If you restart your computer, you empty the files that Vista has been caching, and so you have to "start all over" with the SuperFetch caching.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Adam8281
I think he's saying it because the primary advantage of having gargantuan amounts of RAM in Vista x64 is that SuperFetch will cache up tons of files based on past system activity, predictive algorithms, etc., so that any file you are "likely" to need will already be in RAM before you call it up. If you restart your computer, you empty the files that Vista has been caching, and so you have to "start all over" with the SuperFetch caching.

Bingo. SuperFetch is my friend.

 

[error8]

OK, just received my 4gb of A-data. It scared me, since it didn't worked from the first time. It did some never ending restarts without even having anything shown on the screen. I removed one stick, did a bios reset and then I've increased my NB, SB and ram voltage. I don't know which one of them did the trick, but now it's stable with all 8 gb and my oc. So, I'll see if I notice any difference from my old setup, because until now, I didn't see any improvement whatsoever.

 

[evident]

oh god, you guys are making me want to upgrade from 4 to 8 gigs to satisfy my e-peen. damn you all!!!!! damn you alll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[bigblockchevy]

let us know if it works out. i got a xp64 box and a vista 64 box and they are running 4x1gig. i was thinking the same thing might get a nice little bump with 4x2gig sticks for 8gigs over the old 4gig set up.

although i will say they seem very fast with the 4 gig--

 

[Tullphan]

Assuming one does fill up ones 4 available slots with 2 gigs each to make a grand total of 8 gb, would that affect one's overclock?

 

[Denithor]

It might, some motherboards don't do as well with all four RAM slots filled as with just two occupied. Before you spend the bucks, look around for people's experiences with your motherboard and see if there are comments to that effect.