Worth going up to 4gb ram on Vista 32 bit?

_tom_

_tom_

_tom_

Associate
Joined
26 Mar 2008
Posts
161
Location
Leicester & Northants, UK
I have 2gb of ballistix tracer now and it seems quite snappy but as always I like buying new stuff :p I was planning on getting some new ram anyway as I dont like the flashing LEDs on my tracers, might as well go up to 4gb if you reckon I'll notice a difference?

If you think its worth it, what do you reckon of this kit

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-114-OC

I assume it'll be compatible with my stuff (Abit IP35 Pro motherboard). If thats no good/incompatible, what else can you recommend?
 
Last edited:
Depends how much memory your graphics card has. If it's a Radeon HD4870X2 (2GB) then no point, because you wouldn't gain anything from the upgrade.
 
Slight performance improvement here with Vista 32bit. Don't forget even if you only get roughly 3.3GB that's still more than what you currently have. Then you can start saving-up & or focusing on moving to X64 :)
 
I might as well go for it then. Will those OCZ ones I linked to in the OP be fine for me?

can probably make some money back on the ballistix tracers anyway, people always like flashy lights :p
 
Ok cheers. It's been ordered, so I have a Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB set for sale now if anyones interested :)
 
I don't understand why you'd buy 4GB of ram when Vista 32 bit will only ever use 3.12 GB of it?

Now you've bought it, i'd suggest moving to Vista 64 bit because theres near enough 1GB of ram being unused until you do!
 
I have 3.5GB available in Vista 32, and when exiting games etc with 2GB it would crawl, no no problems.
 
I dont understand why people say dont buy 4gb with Vista 32.

I'm not a rocket scientist, but DDR2 is cheap as chips nowadays and 3.2gb is more than 2.0gb
 
Im still on xp32 for the time being and have 4gb installed, with ddr2 being so cheap now it would have been daft not to buy 4gb. I will be changing to vista 64 soon, and id say that ddr2 memory prices will soon start to rise as production slows down, and ddr3 becomes more mainstream. A similair situation occured when ddr1 was being phased out.
 
Agree with the above, memory will never get much cheaper than it is now for DDR2 you may as well load up, I dont "need" 8gb but though I would get it so if I ever do Im ready. Seems like a no brainer at the mo..

2x1gb on offer this week 2.
 
Gone2mars said:
I don't understand why you'd buy 4GB of ram when Vista 32 bit will only ever use 3.12 GB of it?

Now you've bought it, i'd suggest moving to Vista 64 bit because theres near enough 1GB of ram being unused until you do!
Click to expand...

The amount of RAM you can use depends on the graphic/sound card used. 32-bit OSs can theoretically use 4GB RAM, but the amount of RAM you see in system properties is the amount of system RAM you can use minus graphics ram and suchlike.
The benefit you'd get moving to 64-bit is less noticeable than you might think with 4GB RAM though. 64-bit applications, and the OS of course, actually take up more space. Having 3.5GB or so on 32-bit, this is about equivalent to having about 3.8GB RAM on a 64-bit system, so you would only gain a couple of hundred MB by switching to 64-bit - hardly worth the decreased compatibility (with 16-bit apps and suchlike) unless you were reinstalling your OS anyway.

reflux said:
Depends how much memory your graphics card has. If it's a Radeon HD4870X2 (2GB) then no point, because you wouldn't gain anything from the upgrade.
Click to expand...

I didn't see which OS anywhere, and obviously no such limitation with 64-bit!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom