Is 8GB of RAM simply...overkill?

M

MoreDents

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 9, 2008
Messages
294
Let's say you're using Vista

Would I be able to tell the difference between a 4GB vs 8GB in Photoshop?

Are programs these days even designed to utilize 8GB of RAM?

Thanks :)
 
In Photoshop? You'd probably notice a pretty big difference when working with very large images. 8GB is mostly handy for those who like to tinker with VMs, though. But there are a few misc apps out there that can benefit.

And lets face it, if you're using DDR2, and not overclocking, RAM is so cheap that there is no reason not to get 8GB other than perhaps having a motherboard that doesn't like the 4x2GB configuration.
 
Ok, 8GB it is! I do work on files that get to sizes around 100MB easy

What's VM's?
 
MoreDents said:
Ok, 8GB it is! I do work on files that get to sizes around 100MB easy

What's VM's?
Click to expand...

Virtual Machines. Basically you run a little virtual computer and install an operating system on it. Like Windows, or Linux, etc. Its like running another computer inside your computer. You can typically assign each one to get access to a portion of your RAM and hard disk space, so the more the better, in these cases.
 
you'll probably have some gain regardless of what you use simply because of vistas Superfetch (edit: sorry, I'm assuming Vista here) having more memory to load more things into memory in the background. That said, you'll have the biggest gain from memory intensive apps like VM's, certain editing tools ect.
 
I have 8gb ddr2 800 ram, In Photo Shop its nearly instant when loading pictures. First i had just 4b, was fast with Photoshop since it used about 3.5gb, when i went to 8gb, I noticed a difference in loading speeds. So to me its worth it since i do use my rig for gaming and other uses such as photo shop and video editing. my Patriot DDR2 800 cost me about $180 including shipping.

https://shop1.outpost.com/product/5200607?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG
 
if it was only utilizing 3.5, how would 8gb make it utilize more? can you do a benchmark on 4gb and 8gb? this isnt making sense to me.
 
Because if he only had 4gb total and Photoshop was using up 3.5, that only leaves 500mb for other programs including the operating system...that's not nearly enough...and will slow down his system because it's constantly writing info or reading info to his pagefile.
 
Since the OP is a heavy Photoshop user and is posting here, I would expect that he is using Windows, so XP x64 or Vista x64. I suppose Photoshop probably works under WINE in Linux, but I doubt it's a common way of doing it!

Made me think though, is Photoshop 64-bit? From what I can find, it's not, which is going to rather diminish the improvements you'd get from 4->8GB, since it can't use more than 2/3GB anyway.
 
MoreDents said:
Let's say you're using Vista

Would I be able to tell the difference between a 4GB vs 8GB in Photoshop?

Are programs these days even designed to utilize 8GB of RAM?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

I don't know about PS, but there are programs that will chew up 4gb and more with ease.

Take Visual Studio 2008. I was having a hell of a time at work yesterday chasing a bug in a multi threaded program I am working on. While in another thread every time I stepped through the program VS would grab about 50 mb and throw it into private use.

I showed the guy next to me, and we just watch in process explorer as VS went from about 160 mb to 1.8 gb...and then nothing...it would just sit there (I think it was going for the page file).

I killed my work computer about 10 times trying to find the damn bug...8gb would have let me step ALL the way through with out running out of memory.

I eventually just kept pushing my break points back until I found it...but it ended up taking me about 2hrs for what should have been a 15 minute bug...
 
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