Windows 7 Gaming

[Skott]

Okay, did a search and not finding what I'm looking for so here goes...

Going to upgrade one of my SFF gaming rigs to a i5 750 and W7 Home Premium. Probably get a GA P55M-UD2 mobo but still researching. Anyway, I figure 4GB RAM is sufficient no matter what I get but I'm curious about 6GB and 8GB as opposed to 4GB. I know as far as rendering, photo shop, heavy multitasking, etc., goes the more RAM the better/faster but I'm hearing conflicting reports about the gaming side. Some are saying Most games don't take advantage of more than 2-3GB RAM and others say can't hurt to have more. So anyone here having actually tried 4, 6, and 8 GB RAM setups with W7? Curious what the real world gaming differences are, if any.

 

[KeithTalent]

There is some discussion going on here. Every other thread is a W7 thread it seems, so you may get better responses over there.

KT

 

[mwmorph]

I've found all my games are being installed in the the Program Files (x86) folder which would mean they're 32 bit and not 64bit executable right? I think that means that games can't go above 1.5gigs of ram usage anyways.

 

[MStele]

I'd go with 6GB ram. If you running 64-bit (as I hope you are), memory requirements are higher. I say run 6 because then your system will utilize 1-2GB which will leave 4GB left over for games. It is true that 32-bit games use <2GB, however there are already a slew of 64-bit games due down the pipe and that way you'll be ready for them. In the short term there won't be a big difference in performacne from 4 to 6 GB, but in a year or two it will. I myself went from 4 to 6 in Vista-64 and it felt lighter on its feet. I can only imagine it will be the same in Win7.

 

[Vampirrella]

I would just go with 4GB+ no matter if you're running 32 or 64 bit OS. Ram is dirt cheap now and so there simply isn't a reason not to go for at least 4GB these days. That way, you're covered either way.

 

[zerocool84]

I have 4GB and everything runs fine with it. There isn't a game coming out that'll use that much for a while. It doesn't hurt to use more than that of course.

 

[KeypoX]

id be interested to see that too OP. Let me know if you find such a benchmark. I would imagine having more than 4GB wouldnt hurt performance. But i do remember benchmarks back when the big topic of gaming was 1gb vs 2gb. And in some games 2gb was a tad bit slower.

 

[schneiderguy]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
I've found all my games are being installed in the the Program Files (x86) folder which would mean they're 32 bit and not 64bit executable right? I think that means that games can't go above 1.5gigs of ram usage anyways.

Not necessarily, Crysis has a 64bit executable and it installs in my Program Files (x86) directory.


4gb is plenty though, since most games don't use over 2gb by themselves.

 

[Maximilian]

2GB minimum 4GB recommended.

 

[Skott]

Originally posted by: MStele
I'd go with 6GB ram. If you running 64-bit (as I hope you are), memory requirements are higher. I say run 6 because then your system will utilize 1-2GB which will leave 4GB left over for games. It is true that 32-bit games use <2GB, however there are already a slew of 64-bit games due down the pipe and that way you'll be ready for them. In the short term there won't be a big difference in performacne from 4 to 6 GB, but in a year or two it will. I myself went from 4 to 6 in Vista-64 and it felt lighter on its feet. I can only imagine it will be the same in Win7.

It will be 64 bit, yes.

 

[ComputerDude67]

I wish I could post a Task Manager screen shot that I have when running Crysis Warhead 64bit. What it shows is memory usage on my rig (when I had 4GB) goes from 1.2GB ram usage to 3.9GB ram usage when running Vista 64bit with Crysis Warhead 64bit. After I saw this I went to 8GB ram. 4GB would probably be fine but when I can install 8GB ram for $90 I could not pass it up.

 

[Skott]

My thoughts is just to buy a 4GB kit and if thats not enough to keep me happy I can go out and buy another 4GB kit later on. The RAM kit I been eyeballing is just a tad over $100 so its not a huge amount of money but the question is the gain worth $100? If its not I could put that $100 to better use like a better GPU or just pocket it. I got time yet. Not doing my upgrade until middle of next month. Doing the research now.

 

[mb]

Unless you're a dumb schmuck who buys RAM from best buy, memory is so cheap now and there's little reason not to at least go with 4GB. You can easily get high performance, brand-name 4GB DDR2 for ~$75 and ~$80 for DDR3 (or less with rebates).

Shit, you can even get value ram from best buy for that much now.

 

[ComputerDude67]

I guess they are charging much more for DDR2. I bought this at NewEgg 6 months ago for $44 and free shipping. 8GB cost me ~$90.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145

 

[minmaster]

man i should've got in on more DDR2 when it was much cheaper

 

[coldmeat]

Just bought 2 more GB to add to my 2 to prepare for Windows 7.

 

[Skott]

I was reading in the latest edition (arrived today) of MaximumPC that all DDR2 and DDR3 RAM is expected to go up even more in the near future. I guess if you plan to buy RAM better to do it sooner rather than later. I was thinking of waiting to see what Black Friday offered but maybe I should rethink that now?

 

[jlee]

Originally posted by: minmaster
man i should've got in on more DDR2 when it was much cheaper

You and me both..$2.50/Gb is hard to beat now!

 

[hooflung]

4G is what you want. 2G will still run though. Win7 isn't Vista, and it will run solid on 1G ram. If you have games that will run with 1G then it will work without you being too fustrated. But if possible, have 4. I have 4 on one machine and 8 on my main machine... and 8 is stellar fyiw.

 

[nemesismk2]

I have 4GB because I do a lot of high res gaming and Windows 7 has been excellent so far.

 

[morkman100]

the next question.... Windows 7 64bit with 4GB of RAM?

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Skott
Okay, did a search and not finding what I'm looking for so here goes...

Going to upgrade one of my SFF gaming rigs to a i5 750 and W7 Home Premium. Probably get a GA P55M-UD2 mobo but still researching. Anyway, I figure 4GB RAM is sufficient no matter what I get but I'm curious about 6GB and 8GB as opposed to 4GB. I know as far as rendering, photo shop, heavy multitasking, etc., goes the more RAM the better/faster but I'm hearing conflicting reports about the gaming side. Some are saying Most games don't take advantage of more than 2-3GB RAM and others say can't hurt to have more. So anyone here having actually tried 4, 6, and 8 GB RAM setups with W7? Curious what the real world gaming differences are, if any.

I have 8GB, love it, everything opens super snappy (7 precaches everything I use frequently). DDR2 is so cheap you might as well if you go with an AMD board like me.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

2GB as a bare minimum, 4GB and 64 bit as an ideal minimum, with 6-8GB as a sweet spot. Anything more and you're in the upper echelon of hardware enthusiasm (or should we say overkill) .

Originally posted by: Skott
I was reading in the latest edition (arrived today) of MaximumPC that all DDR2 and DDR3 RAM is expected to go up even more in the near future. I guess if you plan to buy RAM better to do it sooner rather than later. I was thinking of waiting to see what Black Friday offered but maybe I should rethink that now?

I wouldn't be surprised to see DDR2 prices go up as DDR3 is starting to fully take over now, but for DDR3 prices to go up as well doesn't make too much sense unless its taking over DDR2 too quickly that supply won't be able to meet the demand. Although I'd imagine that to rectify itself in relatively short order.