Why are 4GB sticks so hard to find?

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Whipsmack

Gawd
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Oct 17, 2005
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Memory DDR2 800 Memory prices have dropped so much they are dirt cheap, yet I can't find anything in the 4GB department, except for Gskill and its double the price. You'd think with prices as low as they are more companies would start selling bigger chips for higher profit margins?

I want to really future proof my system so that someday I can go to 16GB, and 2gb sticks just aren't big enough for that :(
 
Whipsmack said:
Memory DDR2 800 Memory prices have dropped so much they are dirt cheap, yet I can't find anything in the 4GB department, except for Gskill and its double the price. You'd think with prices as low as they are more companies would start selling bigger chips for higher profit margins?

I want to really future proof my system so that someday I can go to 16GB, and 2gb sticks just aren't big enough for that :(
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Honestly, I think the days where 16GB could offer any performance improvement over 8GB, or 4GB depending on what the system is used for, are a LONG way away. You'd probably build an entire new PC before you'll see any benefit.
 
Well, seeing how so many people are still using 32-bit OSes and cant make use of even 4GB it does not shock me, and mobo's for the most part support 4-8GB. You can make use of the RAM in many ways (RAMDISKs etc) such as I use for photoshop, and when photoshop comes out in 64-bit I'm sure it will gladly eat up lots more RAM.

But as far as price, doesn't seem many people want them, and you are looking at slower speeds, bad timings and who knows how they OC. But you are looking at making denser chips, and that always cost more.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Well, seeing how so many people are still using 32-bit OSes and cant make use of even 4GB it does not shock me, and mobo's for the most part support 4-8GB. You can make use of the RAM in many ways (RAMDISKs etc) such as I use for photoshop, and when photoshop comes out in 64-bit I'm sure it will gladly eat up lots more RAM.

But as far as price, doesn't seem many people want them, and you are looking at slower speeds, bad timings and who knows how they OC. But you are looking at making denser chips, and that always cost more.
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Actually everyone is switching to 64 bit very soon.

The reason I say that is all of the new computers coming in at staples (where i work) come with 3 or 4 gigs and Vista 64bit.
 
Without a doubt that is where its going, but it is far from it now. I spent the last week shopping around with my cousin trying to help her pick a good laptop, and I looked at every pc from all the big box stores and unless they came with 4GB of RAM they had a 32-bit OS.

And even then, just because you have a 64-bit OS like windows doesn't mean you can use 16GB of RAM, as Home Basic is limited to 8GB, Home Premium is limited to 16GB.

I also wouldn't say "everyone is switching to 64 bit very soon" as I know many people still running 512mb and XP. With the price of RAM dropping and 4GB becoming more common from your big box stores you will be seeing 64-bit coming preloaded more and more, but I don't see some big wave of everyone switching to 64-bit over night.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Without a doubt that is where its going, but it is far from it now. I spent the last week shopping around with my cousin trying to help her pick a good laptop, and I looked at every pc from all the big box stores and unless they came with 4GB of RAM they had a 32-bit OS.

And even then, just because you have a 64-bit OS like windows doesn't mean you can use 16GB of RAM, as Home Basic is limited to 8GB, Home Premium is limited to 16GB.

I also wouldn't say "everyone is switching to 64 bit very soon" as I know many people still running 512mb and XP. With the price of RAM dropping and 4GB becoming more common from your big box stores you will be seeing 64-bit coming preloaded more and more, but I don't see some big wave of everyone switching to 64-bit over night.
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Well in the server market if you want M$ support in a production enviroment you are pratically forced to go 64bit.

I see M$ phasing out 32bit in the next two releases personally.
 
jnex26 said:
Well in the server market if you want M$ support in a production enviroment you are pratically forced to go 64bit.

I see M$ phasing out 32bit in the next two releases personally.
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Yes, but the OP is talking about personal systems and not servers, as server RAM is going to be FB-DIMM and 4GB sticks are not hard to find there. Wile for desktop systems you are looking at G.SKILL and that's about it.

And yes 32-bit is on its way out, but there is no reason for most people to switch unless they are buying a new PC. I'm talking about the masses here.
 
Demand is low and the higher density chips are not as fast or as mature as the chips used in our 1GB/2GB sticks. I don't know if you need P45 for 4GB sticks or if you need it to have more than 8GB total, but one of those is true at least.
 
Monkey God said:
Vista 64 will use more than 4gb very well also.
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The OS will make use of the RAM, but unless a game is written to specifically make use of that much RAM, it won't see a performance boost. Unless of course, you like to have 10 programs running in the background while gaming.
 
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