Should I double memory?

[Peelback79]

DDR2 800 just went on sale uber cheap. I've already got 4Gbs in my current system. Would adding another 4Gbs do anything performance wise for me? Can Vista64 use 8Gbs of memory? Or should I save the 80 bucks for something else.

 

[myocardia]

For gaming, right now, 4GB is plenty, even with Vista. About the only thing that can use more than 4GB at the moment is Photoshop, when working with huge pics.

 

[Tweakin]

I recently added 4GB more to my system, Vista 64 and it made no noticable difference. Vista does use more memory now, so I'm sure it's off-loading some internal apps to memory vice the swap file.

I do plan on some serious web development and photoshop work in the future, shich is why I made the jump while it was on sale.

 

[Ratman6161]

Originally posted by: myocardia
For gaming, right now, 4GB is plenty, even with Vista. About the only thing that can use more than 4GB at the moment is Photoshop, when working with huge pics.

Unfortunately there is no 64 bit photoshop. See this article. The article is old (Dec 2006) but the referenced version (photoshop cs3) is still the current version. On my Vista 64 bit system with 8 GB of Ram, Photoshop CS3's setting where it lets you set the maximum system memory it can use will only let me set 3,222 MB or just over 3GB.

So there aren't too many things most people would do where any individual apps can benefit. For me, it helps when running multiple virtual machines, but for most people it doesn't really do much.

 

[n7]

Join the 8 GB club

Even though the benefits won't be huge, you should do it anyway

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: n7
Join the 8 GB club

Even though the benefits won't be huge, you should do it anyway

Is there a secret handshake? Or do we just get a membership card? I'll be there soon enough I think.

 

[Tweakin]

Originally posted by: Ratman6161

Originally posted by: myocardia
For gaming, right now, 4GB is plenty, even with Vista. About the only thing that can use more than 4GB at the moment is Photoshop, when working with huge pics.

Unfortunately there is no 64 bit photoshop. See this article. The article is old (Dec 2006) but the referenced version (photoshop cs3) is still the current version. On my Vista 64 bit system with 8 GB of Ram, Photoshop CS3's setting where it lets you set the maximum system memory it can use will only let me set 3,222 MB or just over 3GB.

So there aren't too many things most people would do where any individual apps can benefit. For me, it helps when running multiple virtual machines, but for most people it doesn't really do much.

While this makes sense to me, please correct me if I'm wrong regarding the following thought. Vistax64, or 64 bit computing computing in general allocates memory to applications in addressable regions, and these spaces are controlled by the OS.

Now, If you had 4GB of memory, and Vista is using 1500MB of it, Photoshop would not be allowed access to the remaining 1500~1800MB of memory (within the limitations of the 32bit address range).

With 8Gb of memory, Vista will consume roughly 2GB and Photoshop would be allowed to access it's maximum allowable memory (32bit address range limitation again), leaving just shy of 3GB of memory addressable for other applications.

I believe this is how it works with VM's, you just keep adding them until you basicly run out of memory and start swapping to the drive. Am I incorrect?

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well, part of the issue with Photoshop not being 64 bit also means it does not have support for 64bit color address space, which is the real issue.

 

[JeremyInMT]

Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Well, part of the issue with Photoshop not being 64 bit also means it does not have support for 64bit color address space, which is the real issue.

The real issue is not 64-bit color address space...it's memory amount available to the application.