4 or 8gb of ram

artus · 16 Jun 2009 at 17:10

I am just about to put my order in at OcUK im going for the amd x3 720 black edition with a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P what I want to know is 4gb of memory enough or should I get 8gb will be running vista 64 ultimate System is going to be a gaming machine

Thanks

Venares · 16 Jun 2009 at 17:13

Absoulutly no point in 8GB what so ever, save your pennys.

reflux · 16 Jun 2009 at 17:21

4GB is only necessary if you're running heavy duty stuff; ie lots of VMs, rendering, that kind of thing.

8GB is not worth it just for gaming.

Stonedofmoo · 16 Jun 2009 at 17:24

8Gb is like ... £28. Why even consider running less at that price.

If you run 64bit windows with 4Gb you will actually be no better off in turns of memory use than 32bit windows with 4Gb and only about 3.2Gb available because 64bit windows uses 64bit files which are about 30% larger than 32bit files

So basically bottom line is 64bit Windows only really starts to stretch it's legs after above 4Gb.

gurusan · 16 Jun 2009 at 17:32

Stonedofmoo said:
8Gb is like ... £28. Why even consider running less at that price.

because it's a waste of 28 quid

iNPUt · 16 Jun 2009 at 23:08

Ive got 8gb because im lazy and love keeping firefox and memory whoring applications open, ive rarely see it go past the 4 mark the to be honest, when Im running gta think its got a memory leak somewhere and was at 5gb but thats what virtual memory is for no?

Gilbert Coquard · 16 Jun 2009 at 23:32

you could have put the 28quid towards a nice new moose or summit.

Aod · 17 Jun 2009 at 00:41

gurusan said:
because it's a waste of 28 quid

yes, but £28 is what? 2% of the total cost of the build? i think that it's worth the extra.

gareth170 · 17 Jun 2009 at 00:44

i have 8GB , vista is more smoother and loading of programs is quicker , also u can have a lot more heavy programs running at the same time..

Happy · 17 Jun 2009 at 00:53

If I was starting a fresh with ram, then I'd be getting 8GB without a doubt. Using the main OS and a couple of VMs at the same time on 4GB sucks big time.

However I don't think it's worth it really for a gaming on system.

asim18 · 17 Jun 2009 at 03:50

No, not for a gaming system.

I'm currently using 850MB in Windows 7 x64 with several FF tabs, WMP and AV running.

Even working with over 5 RAW files in photoshop and playing two 1080p movies at the same time it's still well under 2 gb.

If you're on a budget, put the extra £30 quid or so into something else you like.

Big.Wayne · 17 Jun 2009 at 05:49

It's very hard for people to agree on what is a *nice* amount of RAM

I think the potential for disagreement is *huge* as people tend to view things from there own viewpoint and maybe don't take the time to consider that not one of us use a computer in the same way

There is definitely pro's and con's for 2GB/4GB/8GB configs although I suspect most enthusiasts tend to go overboard due to ePeen or perhaps not knowing any better, it's easily done and the manufacturers are very grateful for your purchases!

My pennies worth is 2GB sees most general users good and 4GB is sufficient for most power-users and gamers. Personally I see anything more than 4GB as Specialist and confined to Multimedia-Professionals, Virtualizers and those folks that like to dabble with Ram-Disks and the like (it's smokes SSDs apparently! :eek:

)

The thing I don't like about having toooo much memory is it just takes so much longer to run stability testing programs heh!

gurusan · 17 Jun 2009 at 08:09

Aod said:
yes, but £28 is what? 2% of the total cost of the build? i think that it's worth the extra.

A 1400 quid amd build? :confused:

Unless you have a lot of VMs running then it's just a waste of money.

Sash · 17 Jun 2009 at 08:49

I had 8gig until one stick died so was using 6gig. Then my proper mobo died and I am having to use a temporary mobo (which is becoming more permanent since I am broke!) and it is running at 4gig. I do notice a difference from 6 and 8 it doesnt seem to be as snappy, however due to the other changes in my rig over the past few months it could be anything thats caused the lag.

If you have the money go for it.

Trifid · 17 Jun 2009 at 09:01

asim18 said:
No, not for a gaming system.

I'm currently using 850MB in Windows 7 x64 with several FF tabs, WMP and AV running.

Even working with over 5 RAW files in photoshop and playing two 1080p movies at the same time it's still well under 2 gb.

If you're on a budget, put the extra £30 quid or so into something else you like.

My Windows 7 machine is using 1.8GB with just firefox open (with 12GB of ram.) Had it upto 11.1GB so far.

rixarena · 17 Jun 2009 at 09:05

I think it also depends on if you care about timings or not, its hard to get speed and size so usually 8gb is not as fast as 4gb so really depends what your doing with it.

Regards Sam

!TIMMY! · 17 Jun 2009 at 11:03

Also depends if the mobo can handle 4 sticks of ram @ high speeds.

artus · 17 Jun 2009 at 11:47

Just want to say thanks for everyones input and decided to go with 4gb of OCZ Platinum AMD Edition DDR3 PC3-12800C7 1600MHz Dual Channel I can always buy more when and if needed

Stonedofmoo · 17 Jun 2009 at 11:59

Should have got the cheaper DDR2, DDR3 doesn't really have any benefit yet on AMD systems.

samhain · 18 Jun 2009 at 00:01

I opted for 6 since that's what came from the bundle here. I like the thought of 6gb. The i7 W7 64 bit simply flies. The system uses CAD mind you