Will 4gb of ram really be necessary?

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z3r0-

[H]ard|Gawd
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I've been reading about how much of a memory hog vista is and how 4gb of ram would be a good idea but really... Is it necessary? I have a 4gb gskill kit here that I got for free but OC wise it's crap and holds back my CPU speed. I've also read that the 64 bit version seems to eat more memory than the 32 bit version, but Intel is still stuck in 2003 and their 64 bit instructions are slower than 32 bit, so running 64 bit vista is useless. Would 2gb ram + 2gb flash drive on 32 bit vista allow as smooth a gaming and multi tasking experience as XP on 2gb ram?
 
This must stop. Vista doesn't take 4GB to run. Yes it does have a higher memory footprint but reports of excessive memory use are false and misleading. Vista uses a different caching scheme and people think it's application used. You can verify this by opening up X # of applications on XP and Vista (the same obviously) and analyze the memory use. You will see a small difference.
 
Vista is not a memory hog, it just does something unexpected of previous versions of Windows: It actually caches your ram so if you open a program frequently during a session eg. Firefox the entire program will be loaded from memory instead of from your hard drive.

The 64-bit uses more memory because the compiled filesizes are bigger as well. Even now the difference is negligible if you have 2GB of ram to spare.

Upgrading to 4GB at this time is pointless, even for Vista. Others might complain about how slow Vista is compared to XP, but I think it's the immature drivers *cough* nvidia *cough* that are holding back their systems at the moment. My laptop has 2GB ram and even with After Effects rendering in the background I can still open Audition to edit my audio files with a slight increase in loading time.

The 2GB ram + 2GB flash drive method will not help you much, if at all, unless you're already utilizing all 2GB of your ram, which I doubt. ReadyBoost is more for the 512MB/1GB crowd, imo.
 
Soujiro said:
The 2GB ram + 2GB flash drive method will not help you much, if at all, unless you're already utilizing all 2GB of your ram, which I doubt. ReadyBoost is more for the 512MB/1GB crowd, imo.
Click to expand...

QFT.

Especially the last bit, which is the precise reason ReadyBoost exists: to allow people with low memory machines that don't or can't get more RAM for whatever reason(s), or people that simply must try to run Vista on hardware that either matches the recommended system configuration minimums or is just below it.

I remember when XP first came out that I ended up doing about 1200 different systems of various kinds from people that jumped on that bleeding edge and bought the upgrade edition of XP Home and man, what a nightmare that was. Upgrades are bad, M'kay... but they simply would not let me or anyone else wipe their machines and start them with a nice fresh copy of XP Home all by itself.

Vista is fine, and actually the 64 bit version barely uses more RAM than the 32 bit version in my testing, which has been going on for 2 months or so now. I run Ultimate 64 sometimes, most of the time I stick with Business 64 since that's what I'm getting for free from the PowerNow campaign at some point when they mail it.

If you find a great deal on good RAM and wanna max your machine out at 4GB, I say go for it. I'd rather have more now than not enough later when the price might shoot back up.

It's not a question of do you need 4GB of RAM; it's a question of do you want it? Do you need to drive a Ferrari 185 MPH? No, but it's nice to know you have that capability if you want it. I'd rather have potential than none at all.
 
Vista is not a memory hog, it just does something unexpected of previous versions of Windows: It actually caches your ram so if you open a program frequently during a session eg. Firefox the entire program will be loaded from memory instead of from your hard drive.
Click to expand...

Ah so vistas memory managment system is similar to that of OS X's. That would explain people saying it takes so much more. Thanks for clearing that up :)
 
If you don't like how much RAM Vista uses, don't give it more! The more RAM you give it, the more it uses... :p
 
"Will 4GB of Ram really be necessary?" - Eventually im sure... but not right now.

I think Vista calls for a 512MB Ram minimum, with 1GB being "Premium" or whatever.

Now, The more ram you have the better. I am running 2GB right now with XP MCE2K5 and I like it.... 2GB is where my comfort zone is at. Now when I buy Vista, I will be purchasing an Additional 2GB or Ram. I feel that 4GB will be good to run Vista Ultimate 64-Bit, at the level of Speed I am use to running.

I dont think 4GB is neccassary, but it wont hurt.
 
Right now I'm running Vista Business on both my Laptop and Desktop. Laptop is a Core Duo with 2 gigs of ram and is running vista 32 bit. Desktop is Core 2 Duo e6300 with 2 gigs of ram (in sig) running vista 64 bit. I will tell you that both 32 and 64 bit versions use about the same amount of ram. Neither system is ever starving for ram, 2 gigs is tons.

That is not to say that I wouldn't mind 4 gigs of ram though (but thats just because I like to run virtual machines :D)
 
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