Vista 64 ram question

[JLCollier2005]

I have 4gigs of ram (2x2gig) and was wondering if it would make a huge difference if I upgraded to 8gigs? I know that vista takes a lot, and I think vista 64 takes even more, but would I see a performance upgrade by getting the additional 4 gigs in there?

 

[TheStu]

You will only see a performance improvement if you are currently swapping due to not having enough RAM.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: JLCollier2005
I have 4gigs of ram (2x2gig) and was wondering if it would make a huge difference if I upgraded to 8gigs? I know that vista takes a lot, and I think vista 64 takes even more, but would I see a performance upgrade by getting the additional 4 gigs in there?

How much ram are you currently using? If more than you 4 gig, yes, if less, no not really.

 

[VinDSL]

Put yet another way:

Depending on your hardware and usage, 8 GB RAM in the x64 Edition could be faster and show better performance than 4 GB RAM (x64 or x32 Edition), but...

There is NO simple, definitive answer - it depends on too many factors!!

For instance, I multiboot x64 and x32 software on this 4 GB lappy. Why? Because I can - that's all. Call it for 'bragging rights'.

Does x64 make a "huge difference"? No! I haven't run any benchmarks (other than ones built into Vista and W7 aka Windows Experience), but I cannot *feel* any difference at all between x64 and x32 OSs in this machine - not even enough for a placebo effect. My HD, integrated ATI chipset, and BIOS are the bottleneck(s) to performance in this machine. 4 GB RAM vs 2 GB *seemed* to make a difference, but I'm not even sure about that.

Personally, I don't think x64 vs x32 makes any difference (for the average user), nor 8 GB vs 4 GB, but once again - it all depends!

If all you do is email, social networking, and watch YouTube videos - certainly not! Conversely, if you're running a mail server, hosting a social networking web site, or making YouTube videos (especially if you're doing it all at the same time - on the same machine) that's a whole different ballgame - you know what I mean?

Really, all you can do is bite the bullet and tell US if it makes any difference... 😉

 

[lxskllr]

The ram probably won't make a difference, but it's so cheap now, why not get it? I went to 8gb so I could have the ram on hand when I build a server. It's currently passing time in my rig(not really a difference from 4gb), but I'll have the extra ram when I need it for another project.

 

[dguy6789]

Everyone seems to be forgetting about super fetch. Going to 8GB likely won't improve too many specific applications by a very measurable amount, but it will increase system responsiveness by a noticeable margin. An additional 4GB of the user's commonly used programs will be in ram already, so when he goes to use said programs they will load significantly faster. Some games, web browser, photoshop, media player, office programs, etc... Anything the OP commonly uses will snap open much faster.

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: dguy6789
Everyone seems to be forgetting about super fetch. Going to 8GB likely won't improve too many specific applications by a very measurable amount, but it will increase system responsiveness by a noticeable margin. An additional 4GB of the user's commonly used programs will be in ram already, so when he goes to use said programs they will load significantly faster. Some games, web browser, photoshop, media player, office programs, etc... Anything the OP commonly uses will snap open much faster.

Even with Superfetch I don't think he'd notice a difference as he'd have to use so many different programs that even the 4GB Superfetch wouldn't use.

 

[dguy6789]

Just play a few games regularly and superfetch has no problem filling out the 8GB.