RAM requirements for Win7, Win8, and Win10 ?

[GoodEnough]

Are they similar?
Anyone know this off the top of their head?

 

[Ketchup]

I can run each one in a VM with 2 GB of RAM.

 

[JimmiG]

1GB for Win7, Win8 and Win10 according to Microsoft.

Surprisingly, many low-end Win8/10 tablets come with 512MB but are still certified by Microsoft. I've got one of those and it works fine as long as you don't keep too many apps open at once.

 

[GoodEnough]

2GB is not even close to adequate for Win7.
As soon as you open one app, you're pinned over 2GB.
Win 7 needs 3GB minimum for 32-bit.

Which takes more RAM?
7, 8, or 10?

 

[Ketchup]

2GB is not even close to adequate for Win7.
As soon as you open one app, you're pinned over 2GB.
Win 7 needs 3GB minimum for 32-bit.

Which takes more RAM?
7, 8, or 10?

They are all about the same. 4 GB minimum for normal use (outside a VM). Most people (including me) would suggest 8.

 

[escrow4]

8GB for an everyday system. 1/2GB is a joke and won't get you anywhere. 4GB is borderline (just).

 

[Executioner]

x86 = 2 gigs
x64 = 4 gigs

Ideal:
x86 = 3 gigs
x64 = 8 gigs

 

[Iron Woode]

4 GB for 7, 8/8.1 and 10 is just fine for 98% of PC users.

I ran a HTPC with 2 GB of ram and windows 7. WMC worked fine.

you can add more if you can use it but most people don't need it.

I seem to recall that Anandtech did a review of ram requirements of various OS's.

I wonder if I can find that link?

 

[pantsaregood]

Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 will run quite happily on 768 MB of RAM. Just because your computer with 2 GB of RAM shows 100% usage at all times does not mean that 2 GB is not enough for the OS.

Windows NT 6.x and 10 use pretty robust prefetching. If you have 100 GB of programs you frequently use and enough RAM to go around, Windows will gladly preload 100 GB into RAM for you.

 

[GoodEnough]

Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 will run quite happily on 768 MB of RAM. Just because your computer with 2 GB of RAM shows 100% usage at all times does not mean that 2 GB is not enough for the OS.

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. At 2GB, the OS was literally unusable. I would click an app icon and it would take 5 minutes to open. It I tried to resize the window, it would take 1-2 minutes to resize. I would type a letter and it would take 20 seconds for the frozen cursor to print it and start blinking again. Win7 with 2GB RAM is basically one huge hourglass fail. Win7 needs 3GB minimum.

 

[pauldun170]

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. At 2GB, the OS was literally unusable. I would click an app icon and it would take 5 minutes to open. It I tried to resize the window, it would take 1-2 minutes to resize. I would type a letter and it would take 20 seconds for the frozen cursor to print it and start blinking again. Win7 with 2GB RAM is basically one huge hourglass fail. Win7 needs 3GB minimum.

Sounds like you had other issues going on with your install.

Ran Windows 7 with 2GB ram for several years on several devices (laptop, spare PC and VM's) and it was fine.
General usage + microsoft office - version 2007-2013.

 

[pantsaregood]

Don't know what I'm talking about?

I used Windows 7 on 1 GB of RAM for all of 2009. I upgraded to 2 GB in 2010. This was on a Phenom X4 9750.

In 2011, I purchased an i5-2500K with 8 GB of RAM. I'm still on it.

 

[Iron Woode]

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. At 2GB, the OS was literally unusable. I would click an app icon and it would take 5 minutes to open. It I tried to resize the window, it would take 1-2 minutes to resize. I would type a letter and it would take 20 seconds for the frozen cursor to print it and start blinking again. Win7 with 2GB RAM is basically one huge hourglass fail. Win7 needs 3GB minimum.

I already stated that I ran a win 7 x64 system with 2gigs of DDR2 on a MA770-UD3 MB and a Athlon II x2 250 as my HTPC for 2 years and never had the problems you had. Smooth as silk.

EDIT: I even had a patched driver to allow the use of a SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 sound card under win 7.

 

[Ketchup]

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. At 2GB, the OS was literally unusable. I would click an app icon and it would take 5 minutes to open. It I tried to resize the window, it would take 1-2 minutes to resize. I would type a letter and it would take 20 seconds for the frozen cursor to print it and start blinking again. Win7 with 2GB RAM is basically one huge hourglass fail. Win7 needs 3GB minimum.

So, why are you asking the question if you already know the answer? In this case, I think it would be helpful for you to tell us the reason behind the question in the OP.

 

[Raduque]

So, why are you asking the question if you already know the answer? In this case, I think it would be helpful for you to tell us the reason behind the question in the OP.

He just likes riling people up. He asks a question and then immediately stomps on anybody who gives him an answer he doesn't like. He's one of those people who's own experience is the only correct one and anybody that does something different is either wrong or just plain lying. We should probably just start ignoring his threads.

As for the RAM discussion, I used Windows Vista for many years on 2gb ram - and it ran fine. I ran it from the betas onward on my great-at-the-time Dell Inspiron 6000 with a Pentium M 1.7 (overclocked via BSEL pin to 2.6) with 2gb (and much later 4, I think) and Radeon X300 GPU. I had no issues with performance when scrolling, resizing or anything of the sort.

I ran Windows 7 on an ancient AMD X2 4400+ with 2gb DDR till something died in it earlier this week. There weren't any performance issues till ram sticks started dying.

Windows 10 runs just fine on 4gb on my Surface 3. As it did on my previous Surface Pro 2.

The OP is a troll.

 

[Zodiark1593]

For everyday non-demanding use, 4 GB is a decent enough starting point. You could get away with lower, though I wouldn't recommend such a config for non-power users as they're unlikely ever to keep tabs on RAM.

8 GB would be the starting point for demanding applications and heavy multi-tasking such as gaming loads. Again, one could probably get away with lower, though you won't be able to be as care-free with it.

 

[Ketchup]

For everyday non-demanding use, 4 GB is a decent enough starting point. You could get away with lower, though I wouldn't recommend such a config for non-power users as they're unlikely ever to keep tabs on RAM.

8 GB would be the starting point for demanding applications and heavy multi-tasking such as gaming loads. Again, one could probably get away with lower, though you won't be able to be as care-free with it.

Agreed. If I didn't regularly run multiple VMs at once, 8 GB would be plenty, as it was in my last rig. I will say that with 7 and up, and having machines going weeks between reboots, having the apps and data right there in RAM is a nice thing to have.

 

[Z15CAM]

EDIT: I even had a patched driver to allow the use of a SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 sound card under win 7.

Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1was a Wn98-SE XP Card - Even with the patch could never get the full potential of all its Options under Win7 32-Bit and forget 64-Bit.

Great Audio Card, too bad Creative never followed up its drivers.

 

[Raduque]

Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1was a Wn98-SE XP Card - Even with the patch could never get the full potential of all its Options under Win7 32-Bit and forget 64-Bit.

Great Audio Card, too bad Creative never followed up its drivers.

I think the SB Live! was the last Creative card I used. I switched to the Chaintech AV-710 with it's Wolfson DACs for analog multi-channel on my old gaming rig. I use the built-in audio on my laptops now.

 

[thewhat]

In my experience, Windows 8 uses a bit less than 7 and 10 uses a bit more than 7. But they're all very close and it's hard to give a proper evaluation, especially with 10 which is a very "busy" OS with lots of stuff running at all times.

2GB is not even close to adequate for Win7.
As soon as you open one app, you're pinned over 2GB.
Win 7 needs 3GB minimum for 32-bit.

I used 7 with 2GB of RAM for a long time. It was alright and rarely an issue with regular tasks. If I left it idle for a few minutes the RAM usage would drop below 500MB. This is W7 Ultimate 64bit with all updates.
(When you have more RAM Windows automatically uses more.)

Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1was a Wn98-SE XP Card - Even with the patch could never get the full potential of all its Options under Win7 32-Bit and forget 64-Bit.

Great Audio Card, too bad Creative never followed up its drivers.

It still works fine with kx drivers, even in Windows 7 and 8 64bit (probably 10 too), and with more options than Creative drivers ever had.
Not super easy to setup, but lots of tweaking potential if you're into that.

 

[Iron Woode]

Creative SoundBlaster Live! 5.1was a Wn98-SE XP Card - Even with the patch could never get the full potential of all its Options under Win7 32-Bit and forget 64-Bit.

Great Audio Card, too bad Creative never followed up its drivers.

it worked fine under win 7 x64.

I made a thread about it back in 2010, I think.

the driver had limitations like system ram had to be 2gb or less.

 

[John Connor]

2 GB minimum for Win 7. My parent's computer has 2GB and it runs just fine if you just do office and Internet stuff.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Sorry, but you have no idea what you're talking about. At 2GB, the OS was literally unusable. I would click an app icon and it would take 5 minutes to open. It I tried to resize the window, it would take 1-2 minutes to resize. I would type a letter and it would take 20 seconds for the frozen cursor to print it and start blinking again. Win7 with 2GB RAM is basically one huge hourglass fail. Win7 needs 3GB minimum.

As someone that has installed Win7 64-bit HP SP1, on both a 1GB, and a 2GB rig, otherwise identical S775 2.5Ghz systems with smaller SSDs, I can tell you that you're largely incorrect.

However, running Windows Update was painful. Perhaps that was your problem?

Edit: Or your HDD is going bad.

 

[tidy]

.

 

[postmortemIA]

As someone that has installed Win7 64-bit HP SP1, on both a 1GB, and a 2GB rig, otherwise identical S775 2.5Ghz systems with smaller SSDs, I can tell you that you're largely incorrect.

However, running Windows Update was painful. Perhaps that was your problem?

Edit: Or your HDD is going bad.

Yes, right on all counts. OS and few apps will take little over 1GB of RAM. If you have too much stuff in background, or multiple users, then it gets worse to unusable. Big help is SSD.

And Windows 7 WU is horrible with 2GB systems. But Windows 10 WU works fine there... all these cheap Windows 10 tablets work OK with 2GB RAM.