Again. 6GB vs 12GB

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VolvoR

Gawd
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Jan 28, 2004
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Hi, I'm running the rig in the sig (love typing that!!!)....

G.SKILL NQ Series DDR3 1600MHz (PC3-12800) is the RAM....

I'm not doing any photo or video editing, it's mostly for gaming.

Would there be any benefit to running 12GB vs 6GB? If so, what?

Thanks....
 
Directly benefitting games? No. But 12GBs will allow a larger cache, that Windows can use that will speed up the system to an extent. Depends on if you think that's worth the $100 or so 6 more GBs will cost...
 
And to think that a year and a half ago 12GB cost me around $500...

For gaming, you won't really see much of an improvement, but like others have said, with RAM so cheap these days, it would be smart to snatch up an additional 6GB simply because it's so cheap.
 
That's_Corporate said:
It's harder to OC more ram vs. less
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Yup.

Bottom line is that if there is no performance improvement for the applications you run then it's not worth getting another 6GB of RAM. I have thought about doing this same upgrade but can't justify it because I haven't seen any type of benchmarks that show substantial performance with 12GB of ram.

Also I have a very nice OC on my ram and I don't want to disrupt is.
 
That's_Corporate said:
It's harder to OC more ram vs. less
Click to expand...

True. However, the difference is neglible. Maybe a 100mhz difference or so, but the only thing required to get a quality overclock with all dimms populated is to raise the mem. voltage. Example, instead of 1.5v, up it to 1.65v for a stable overclock.:cool:
 
You won't see a difference with more ram in games...

However, if you are doing some video editing or photoshoping...then more ram is better....

for me 8G is good enough for me to do little video and photoshop.
 
Go for it if you got the $. Plus ram prices are cheap these days considering how much GB you can get.

If you plan on upgrading to Sandy Bridge, it wouldn't be wasted either.
 
Best bet?

6GB now, wait until DDR3 prices bottom out (they will rise probably when "DDR4" or something new comes out and itll drive prices up like DDR2 has lately) then buy as much as you possibly can for dirt cheap and max out your system. :D

More than 6GB right now for gaming cannot even be used, correct me if I'm wrong but I seriously doubt you'll notice much after 6GB like others claim as well.
 
I have used 12GB in my last two builds and it definitely helps in the case of Photoshop. However, I do not populate all of my DIMM's.
 
I run 2 VMs in my rig along with Win 7 and more RAM helps. When I had 4 gig I experienced slowdowns. After I added another 4 gigs the slowdowns went away.:D
 
wra18th said:
I run 2 VMs in my rig along with Win 7 and more RAM helps. When I had 4 gig I experienced slowdowns. After I added another 4 gigs the slowdowns went away.:D
Click to expand...

But he is not doing anything but gaming so its worthless. He could even run 4GB just fine but since he has 6 hes perfect. Going to 12 isnt going to do anything at all except sit there & do nothing but collect dust :)
 
I guess you'd see a benefit if you never close your games and just keep them alt-tabbed. Otherwise, there's no reason to get 12GB for gaming at the moment.
 
TheOneKnownAsMe said:
And to think that a year and a half ago 12GB cost me around $500...

For gaming, you won't really see much of an improvement, but like others have said, with RAM so cheap these days, it would be smart to snatch up an additional 6GB simply because it's so cheap.
Click to expand...

my 16gigs of Ripjaw cost me like $584...now I see 4GB modules of the same specs for $54....

technology is such a love-hate relationship...
 
I run 12GB and I routinely end up using 10GB+ due to apps being open, a game perhaps, and 50 to 60 chrome tabs heh. I didn't think I'd be using all 12, but definitely I do.

Also, if you have 12GB ram, then you can throw 2 or even 4 at a ramdisk and point your temp dirs at it. Saves on your SSD wear, speeds things up. Also great for unraring files and whatnot.

My vote is more is always better :)
 
I play BC2 and Black Ops and sometimes I run so low on free memory that the hard drive starts paging like crazy causing the PC to freeze momentarily..
I've got 8GB too. I purchased another 8GB since it was cheap for me, $35 is what I put in, some old DDR2 I traded covered the rest, and then I get the $20 rebate, so $15 in the end is my out of pocket cost for adding another 8GB. It was a no brainer to buy the ram.
 
The way I look at it is It's always better to have more than you need than it is to run out. :) Ram is nice and cheap right now so i say grab yourself another 6gb.
 
I had 4 gb then bought a 8gb kit. Best part is being able to dedicate 4gb to a vm and also not having to worry about logging my family out of their user profiles went I want to game or whatever. 12gb for me means never worrying about ram.
 
randomlychosen said:
I run 12GB and I routinely end up using 10GB+ due to apps being open, a game perhaps, and 50 to 60 chrome tabs heh. I didn't think I'd be using all 12, but definitely I do.

Also, if you have 12GB ram, then you can throw 2 or even 4 at a ramdisk and point your temp dirs at it. Saves on your SSD wear, speeds things up. Also great for unraring files and whatnot.

My vote is more is always better :)
Click to expand...

Moar is always better. And as you pointed out, direct benefit might be negligible, however with tweaks such as ramdisks the benefits are definitely there to be had. Just like with anything, YMMV but there are ways to take advantage of it.
 
Hello forum,first I want to thank you all for your expert opinions.I was reading the last couple of posts on the RAM issue and I have a question that is probably related. I'm upgrading from my last build (LGA 775) from back in the days when Geforce 8800ultra videocard was the top dog in the industry.I'm starting with an Intel dx58SO2 extreme series M.B. and I'm searching for memmory. My question is,With 12gb of RAM, Is it better to populate all memmory banks (in this case six) or three slots?.So it's eather (3x4Gb) or (6x2Gb). I'm not worried with any future upgrading possibilities or any heat from using all slots.I'm a musician so I do a lot of music edditing, before I mix the final draft of the song there is a lot of information that I have to fine tune.accessing that information faster is a big plus for me.Also, I play a lot of games,and spend a lot of time on the web.Thanks.
 
Unless you are maxing out your 6GB, I don't really think there is any point to 12GB. Will it hurt? No... Will it help? Marginal improvement if any.

I don't think it is worth the money even if RAM is cheap, but if you do buy another 6GB anyway, keep in mind (like somebody else said) it may be harder to overclock, and make sure to get matching RAM, so you don't introduce stability issues.

Directed at OP

sry idk the answer to your question yazz
 
randomlychosen said:
I run 12GB and I routinely end up using 10GB+ due to apps being open, a game perhaps, and 50 to 60 chrome tabs heh. I didn't think I'd be using all 12, but definitely I do.

Also, if you have 12GB ram, then you can throw 2 or even 4 at a ramdisk and point your temp dirs at it. Saves on your SSD wear, speeds things up. Also great for unraring files and whatnot.

My vote is more is always better :)
Click to expand...

12gb + ramdrive would be nice. What is a good way to set up a ram drive these days?
 
12GB seems like overkill for most users that don't need it for a specific application. With that said Ram is pretty cheap right now, so for a marginal price difference, I'd get a bit extra. Upgrading from 4gb to 8gb was definitely a nice upgrade for me. I couldn't play Civ 5/ another game(varies) at the same time with just 4gb. My first upgrade was to 8gb and suddenly I could run a game on each monitor despite running an older gpu (ati 4890). I would of upgraded above 8gb, but I ran out of memory slots. Its prob just as well since I haven't found a program combination that uses up more than about 7gb despite having 3 monitors to run stuff.

I'd be fine running 6gb for about 90% of my use time and 4gb for about 75%.
 
For me personally, my current build (still need to update my video card) will have to last me for a few solid years. I have no idea whats on the horizon... but i feel safer knowing that i have enough memory for the foreseeable future that I wont have to worry about it. An extra 6GB of the exact same kind of memory i got a year ago for $200, only cost me $70 AR. You have no idea how fast I jumped on THAT shit!
 
4LC4PON3 said:
There is no need to go above 6GB at all. Your wasting your money now
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+1

i dont get the big memory phase we are going through because typically you guys are really good at identifying a waste of money......we're talking about a group where they will sell their personal info and whore out their credit and do hours of internet research to save $30 on a component purchase but somehow the additional memory which is really typically wasted is kind of a norm around here.....the memory companies are really loving you guys right now

2Gb works fine for 90% of tasks, 3Gb/4Gb covers the 95%, 6Gb/8Gb should cover 99% with a select niche group of people being able to really get any tangible benefits from 12+Gb
 
Quick question, don't you need win 7 business or higher to use more than 7GB's of RAM?
Thanks!
(As for the topic, I mostly game, and 6gb is more than enough, never run into any problems)
 
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