8GB RAM - The Final Thread.

Maximos

2[H]4U
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Feb 13, 2006
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Hello guys. With RAM prices what they are, what are the disadvantages to running 8GB of RAM? Obviously, a move to a 64-bit OS would be needed. What else?
 
More RAM means everything will run smoother, because it won't be starved, you can set applications like Photoshop to use more of the memory.

Overclocking could be harder with more RAM.

More to boast about :D

More apps open at a time...
 
More RAM means everything will run smoother, because it won't be starved, you can set applications like Photoshop to use more of the memory.

Overclocking could be harder with more RAM.

More to boast about :D

More apps open at a time...

lamest reasons ever sorry.
 
ram is so cheap id just buy it, personally i wont see much of a difference as i use 4gb and readyboost but still, why not get more? its so cheap and it cant hurt.
 
gaming barely saturates 2 Gigs, 4 Gigs is pushing it, 8, is insane.

Windows XP gaming? I can pass that as an semi-accurate answer.
Windows Vista gaming? ARE YOU FDKED UP OUT OF YOUR MIND ??? HOW CAN U PLAY A GAME ON VERY HIGH SETTINGS WITH JUST 2GB RAM WHEN VISTA CHUGS HALF OF YOUR RAM?


lol caps
 
Windows XP gaming? I can pass that as an semi-accurate answer.
Windows Vista gaming? ARE YOU FDKED UP OUT OF YOUR MIND ??? HOW CAN U PLAY A GAME ON VERY HIGH SETTINGS WITH JUST 2GB RAM WHEN VISTA CHUGS HALF OF YOUR RAM?


lol caps

I had 3 gigs of ram on my vista install. for the most part, the OS, a few apps open, and a game running on top of that takes up about 1.5 gigs of ram. I ended up taking out the extra 1gig because there was really no need for it.

2gigs is just about perfect.
If you want to brag about something, get 3-4gigs, but 8 gigs is totally useless on a desktop pc.
 
Windows XP gaming? I can pass that as an semi-accurate answer.
Windows Vista gaming? ARE YOU FDKED UP OUT OF YOUR MIND ??? HOW CAN U PLAY A GAME ON VERY HIGH SETTINGS WITH JUST 2GB RAM WHEN VISTA CHUGS HALF OF YOUR RAM?


lol caps

Have not had any problems under Vista Home premium32 with only 2 gigs of ram running TF2 or CoD4. Me shrugs.

OP Aside from oc issues and the occasional poorly written drivers or apps that can't figure what to do with that much ram present, I can't think of any good reason not to have 8gigs need it or not. I, on the other hand, would get 4gigs and put the saved money towards a vid card upgrade or another HD or something. But your wants and needs may be different.
 
4gb and you get a large e-penis :cool:
8gb and your e-penis gets so big it dies. :eek:
 
Windows XP gaming? I can pass that as an semi-accurate answer.
Windows Vista gaming? ARE YOU FDKED UP OUT OF YOUR MIND ??? HOW CAN U PLAY A GAME ON VERY HIGH SETTINGS WITH JUST 2GB RAM WHEN VISTA CHUGS HALF OF YOUR RAM?


lol caps

Vista doesn't "chug" half your RAM. It puts it to use WHILE it's NOT being used for other things (e.g. games). I had "only" 1GB or RAM on my desktop with Home Premium 32 for well over 7 months with no ill effects AT ALL. The games that I played during that time (Bioshock, WoW, FS2004 etc) didn't have any problems under 1GB.
 
I've had Company of Heroes and Crysis both actually hit 2GB of RAM mapped just by those processes at 1920x1080 res. That's why I slapped a spare 1GB kit in my gaming rig. Alt-tabing is a lot smoother with 3GB than with 2GB.
 
I've had Company of Heroes and Crysis both actually hit 2GB of RAM mapped just by those processes at 1920x1080 res. That's why I slapped a spare 1GB kit in my gaming rig. Alt-tabing is a lot smoother with 3GB than with 2GB.

Yup. Games like COD4 aren't graphically demanding thus 2gb is more than enough for them. I play Crysis and I had to upgrade to 4GB, but 3GB is just enough for vista.
 
I agree with MrMike. If you're gaming with Vista 2GB just isn't quite enough. My Vista is using 1.2 GB by the time it's booted up and loaded my desktop. 4GB is plenty for gaming though.
 
Another VM user with 8GB here. Apart from developer work, you won't use more than 4GB for quite some time. I'm fairly sure that even though Crysis technically has a 64-bit version, most of the coding is shared with the 32-bit EXE. I'd be surprised if it could really make use of more than 4GB.
 
I don't see anything wrong with having 8 gigs of ram especially now that it's like what, 100 per set of gskill 2x2gb? :)
 
Do you like blowing a hundred bucks on something that you won't use?

How do you know I won't make use of it? And besides, in this case I really wouldn't mind spending extra to have double the ram. It's like how I would definitely take a quad core over a dual core, just having the extra power never hurt anyone.
 
Do you like blowing a hundred bucks on something that you won't use?

Won't use? I don't think so. :D:D:cool: I have a mini virtual version of my works network on my home PC that I can use to test. I was working on the Exchange 2007 SP1 test so I had all my virtual machines for work were up and running. 2 exchange server, (2gb ram each) 1 DC, (1gb ram) and an XP machine (1gb ram). The rest was used up by Vista on the host machine.

ram.jpg


To the OP, I suggest you give virtual machines a try. Besides my work VMs, I have several personal ones. I have a win98, which comes in handy more often than you would think. I also have a VM that I use for all my Torrents. Saved me more than once from infecting my main PC with the bonus material that Torrents sometimes carry. Finally I have a 2nd XP VM for running non-Vista compatible software. Much easier than dual booting. It also works great for playing around with Linux without dedicating a machine or taking the risk of dual booting.
 
Won't use? I don't think so. :D:D:cool: I have a mini virtual version of my works network on my home PC that I can use to test. I was working on the Exchange 2007 SP1 test so I had all my virtual machines for work were up and running. 2 exchange server, (2gb ram each) 1 DC, (1gb ram) and an XP machine (1gb ram). The rest was used up by Vista on the host machine.

ram.jpg


To the OP, I suggest you give virtual machines a try. Besides my work VMs, I have several personal ones. I have a win98, which comes in handy more often than you would think. I also have a VM that I use for all my Torrents. Saved me more than once from infecting my main PC with the bonus material that Torrents sometimes carry. Finally I have a 2nd XP VM for running non-Vista compatible software. Much easier than dual booting. It also works great for playing around with Linux without dedicating a machine or taking the risk of dual booting.

That's a great example of why 8GB could come in handy. Vista 64 will enable all eight gigs, and with a little work and maybe some third party apps you can do even more with that memory. I will try to find the link, but I read an article where some people with 64-bit OS and 8GB of ram will make a 4GB ramdisk. They can read it just like a flash or hard drive, install a program on it, and BOOM. Guess how fast your load times are? If you have a game under 4GB or want to use the 4GB ramdisk as a scratch disk you could be looking at insane load/process/rendering times. HOLY CRAP! By the way, Photoshop CS3 will only use just over 3GB of your memory in Windows, no matter how much you have, but setting the other chunk of your ram as a scratch disk will MAKE IT FLY. I think I will do some more research on this. I know my system flies with the quad core and 4GB installed under my Vista 64. I multitask a lot, and I have filled my four gigs with different processes working at the same time. I agree that prices are so good, and software that will utilize your full 8GB is just around the corner. Vista 64 is set up to use it for multitasking already. We'll see more games use it, just like games are starting to be 64-bit as well as 32 more frequently now. Windows is pushing 64 bit big time (for once something they should be pushing...). My 64 bit rig is noticeably faster than my 32 bit Vista rig, even though there is only 1 GB difference in ram. Load times are so much shorter, the thing boots in about a third of the time, and I doubt all that is attributed solely to the better quad core I have now...

For those of you that need to spend the money on something else, be my guest, but going with 8GB is just preparing for the future, or making your machine a multitasking monster, provided your processor deals with multiple threads. For most users 2GB really is fine, but not for hardcore enthusiasts that like to multitask, video edit, photo edit, or run VM ware. I guarantee when I get 8GB of ram, I can be rendering out Photoshop and Premiere projects in the background with half my ram and half my cores while I use the other half to play BF 2142 online... a dual core with 2-4GB of ram probably won't even come close to the performance that the QC with 8GB (64-bit provided) will provide. The extra ram will only become more useful as time goes on, too.
 
I can see it for running multiple virtual machines at the same time, or running a server, but the fact of the matter is... for most desktops and gaming rigs 2-4gigs is more then enough.

Too bad vista doesn't have compiz (linux) style virtual desktops.
 
My Vista is using 1.2 GB by the time it's booted up and loaded my desktop.QUOTE]

What programs are you running on that thing? There is no way Vista could be using 1.2GB by itself. You must be referring to the Superfetch memory. It is called "cached" memory in Task Manager and is available for programs to use just like "free" memory.
 
out of curiosity, what are you using win98 for?

One of the biggest things is for support. My brother has a really old laptop that he plugs into his Grand National that allows him to get real time charts for his car, tweak its settings, etc. The program he uses works best in windows 9X. So when he gives me a call because there is a problem with it, it is 10x easier to walk him through something with a 98 machine running in front of me.

Another time I needed to update the firmware on a really old piece of hardware. The software would only run on a computer that had the 9X kernel. In XP it would error out saying it doesn't support Windows NT. I just mapped my serial port to my 98 VM and flashed it without any problems. :cool:
 
One reason not to get 8gb, is that it might not work properly. I have just gotten a new motherboard and I decided to go ahead and get 8gb.

I'm just in the process of getting everything installed and working still, so I think I'll be able to resolve it somehow, but what I found is that with 2 sticks (2x2=4gb), it works just fine. With the other two sticks, same timings, it works just fine. Fully populated, it doesn't post.

I've been looking around and have found some references to dual-sided memory as being an issue, a 680i chipset being an issue, but I'm not clear how to fix it yet.

Bear in mind that I'm somewhat out-of-date on memory and upgrading, and maybe the rest of you know exactly what to do. Feel free to say.

Anyway, one reason not to get 8gb may be issues getting to work in the first place.
 
One reason not to get 8gb, is that it might not work properly. I have just gotten a new motherboard and I decided to go ahead and get 8gb.

I'm just in the process of getting everything installed and working still, so I think I'll be able to resolve it somehow, but what I found is that with 2 sticks (2x2=4gb), it works just fine. With the other two sticks, same timings, it works just fine. Fully populated, it doesn't post.

I've been looking around and have found some references to dual-sided memory as being an issue, a 680i chipset being an issue, but I'm not clear how to fix it yet.

Bear in mind that I'm somewhat out-of-date on memory and upgrading, and maybe the rest of you know exactly what to do. Feel free to say.

Anyway, one reason not to get 8gb may be issues getting to work in the first place.

Will be difficult to figure out what's up without your specs.... Can you post them or add them to your sig. so we know what you're dealing with? Which 680i board do you have, and what kind of memory at least... Vista 64?
 
I been running on 2GB for about 2 years now, but I am starting to push the limits of my memory availability. My system uses DDR memory and the cost for DDR is to much compared to DDR2. just this week-end I seen these prices at my local fry's for DDR2 memory

2x1GB DDR2 1066MHz 39.99 AR
2x2GB DDR2 800MHz 89.99 AR

I have to get DDR500 memory for my current system and the cost for 4GB is like 400 bucks alone just for the memory, so soon I am going to go to quad core new motherboard and hoping 8GB memory. and prolly only cost around 600ish bucks and be a huge upgrade.

anyway my point here. 4GB is going to be good for most people now days. I am sure most people don't use a system like I do, and I feel that 4GB even now for me might not be enough with some of the VM stuff and other power user stuff I do.I been feeling 2GB Limit for the past weeks and need to do something about it soon....
 
Will be difficult to figure out what's up without your specs.... Can you post them or add them to your sig. so we know what you're dealing with? Which 680i board do you have, and what kind of memory at least... Vista 64?

Thanks for responding. Specs probably do help. I was thinking it was a more of a chipset problem. MSI P6N Diamond motherboard using 2 sets of Geil 2x2GB DDR800 5-4-4-12 Ram.

I'm not using Vista 64, rather this is for Linux and that install portion has gone pretty smoothly.

Also, if this is too much of threadjack I can just start another one.
 
I moved from a pair of 2x1GB firestix ddr2 to 2x2GB patriot extreme memory ddr2 and I noticed a difference from boot load, to startup being a lot snappier. under vista ult x64

Also, something cool is that my entire system doesn't go to a halt when I run prime95 (4 cores). It uses like 2.7GB I believe and I can load up firefox, browse desktop, etc really easily while prime95 is running in the background.. couldnt use to do that before :)
 
You can even tweak Windows 2000 Advanced Server for more than 4GB of RAM:
[]http://mercury.made2own.com/~eiiisol/5gb.png[]

But no program can use more than 4GB (Well, 2GB due to kernerl address space using the other 2GB). You can just have more programs running in an almost bank swapping type fashion.
 
"It's called a RAMdisk, and it can make your machine run circles around anything..."

8GB... yeah, that would be the bare minimum if I were building a "Godbox" anytime soon. 4GB is so passe anymore... 2GB, why bother. You can get 8GB for under $200 these days, sometimes under $150 if you catch the offers at the right time.

Why not...
 
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