4 or 8gb of ram

[Kennysevenfold]

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

 

[Mattus]

4GB is sufficient for most power-users and gamers.

I'd agree with that. I have 4GB of RAM and as long as I don't run VMs, it's pretty hard to use up 4GB unless I specifically try to!

One thing that people don't realise is that a single 32-bit process on Windows can't use more than 2GB of memory without some special settings. So if your games are 32-bit, they can't use more than 2GB of RAM, even if you're running 64-bit Windows.

 

[Big.Wayne]

So if your games are 32-bit, they can't use more than 2GB of RAM, even if you're running 64-bit Windows.

Hey Mattus,

I'm a bit confused about this whole 32-bit app running under a 64-bit OS?

I'm doing some memory testing on a Wolfdale-Windows 7 (64-bit) machine at the moment using Windows Memtest v3.8 which as far as I know is a 32-bit app but it appears to be using about 3.2GB of ram?

I'm not sure if this app is doing something special that a game can't do to address a larger amount of memory, any thoughts?

 

[Stonedofmoo]

You can compile or modify existing 32bit executables to be able to use more than 2Gb using the /LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag.
Theres some useful guides showing you how on the internet, but I've never tried it myself and a 32bit application may benefit, but equally it may not. It's no substitute for a 64bit version of the executable

Edit: Here's the one I read a while back. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/64-bit-vista-gaming,2250-5.html

 

[BeeP]

Part of me says to put in 4gb then if you have to you can always upgrade later, the other part of me says that RAM is about as cheap now as it ever will be so buy now & one day it will be needed.

Personally if I was building right now I would put in 8......just because it's so cheap.

 

[Big.Wayne]

remember that a 32-bit application without /LAA enabled is still limited to 2 GB of virtual address space, even in a 64-bit environment. However, we’ve seen plenty of examples of technical gamers modifying executables to turn the large address aware flag on.

Thanks for the link Stonedofmoo, that seems to confirm what Mattus said!

 

[Big.Wayne]

Personally if I was building right now I would put in 8......just because it's so cheap.

Yeah I know what you mean, the prices are amazing!

I would be closer to considering 8GB if there were lots of 2x4GB kits knocking about, as it stands your looking at 4x2GB sticks, more cost, more heat, more power, more strain on the Northbridge and a *possible* harder time when overclocking . . . they are all factors which you can just brush aside and even though none of them are showstoppers they do offset the advantages somewhat

Having said that I can't see any advantages going from 4GB to 8GB for most of us so weighing the pros and cons up the 4GB(2x2GB) Dual-Channel seems to come out on top?

I wouldn't mind hearing from anyone who in fact has got superb results from running 8GB(4x2GB) machine that are overclocked etc . . . .

 

[Stonedofmoo]

I went from 4x1Gb modules to 4x2Gb modules and found the 8gb setup could not overclock anywhere near as well, although it could run it's native timings of 12-4-4-4 at DDR800.

I'm not overclocking anymore. That's actually your fault Big.Wayne and my power meter lol. I have the overclocked profile setup in my BIOS but I've not loaded it in 4-5 months.

 

[feriso]

IS that £28 for 8Gb from ocuk? if it is I can't find it anywhere as it might be useful for me as I'm doing some heavy editing of HD footage and I wonder if a bit more might help.

 

[Greebo]

In reviews it has being shown that 6gb is the sweet spot.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/64-bit-vista-gaming,2250-11.html

In fact, it doesn't give you an increase in speed over 32-bit in games but you need 6gb in 64 bit vista to get your framerates back to the same speed as 4gb in vista 32 bit.

Whether 8gb improves it further is unkown

 

[dUcKy]

On 64 bit OS? Yeah 4GB.

8 GB wont bbe used, but 6GB should be considered an upper limit atm according to THG.

 

[Dicehunter]

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

I have 8GB mainly because it was on offer and cheap at the time so i thought, why not ?

 

[cavemanoc]

2Gb for the OS, 6Gb for the RAMDrive - sweeeeeeeeet! Definitely worth £28 if you can be bothered to set it up properly!

 

[TheMorningStar]

things just seem smoother with 8gb. and running 4x2gb sticks of pc8500 which the phenomIIs dont actually support is a nice challange

 

[JonJ678]

Virtual machines. Ramdisks. Virtual machines in ramdisks if you're really keen. I will go back to 8gb at some point in the future, changing down to 4 was a mistake.

I really miss having a very fast 6gb /tmp volume available. Move data into it, work on it as you wish at ludicrous speed, move the data back out. Really good for manipulating backups, combining rar files, splitting files into rar for remote backup. Also good for all the other things you might use a scratch directory for, as it cleans itself every reboot.

Running a copy of firefox from within one is amazing, though it tends to forget bookmarks. Spreadsheets sat in one can be enormous and still function so quickly. I suspect the gimp / photoshop would love it.

Beyond these exciting (to me) uses, I'm pretty sure solid edge under 64 bit windows managed to use up all 8gb. I tried to model an articulated chain moving around sprokets, and my computer may as well have fallen to its knees and wept.

 

[Well Splattered]

2Gb for the OS, 6Gb for the RAMDrive - sweeeeeeeeet! Definitely worth £28 if you can be bothered to set it up properly!

+1 Every gamers dream a RAMdrive

 

[Efour]

Totaly worth it for 8gb if using a 64bit oS

I had 8gb for a week before a stick went wrong and i had to RMA - found out Mobo has bad issues with 4 sticks so now im back on 4gb.

Difference was noticeable - Turn off the pagefile

 

[Schizo]

because it's a waste of 28 quid

i beg to differ,i have got 8 gig of ram and i do see a difference in the extra 4gb.

the price of ram these day's it would be silly not to spend another £28.

i would say buy it because it's cheap and the extra ram does make a difference.

 

[Greebo]

Look it's simple.

If running a 64 bit op system then worth it especially if running vista.

As my early post showed, you need 6gb of ram in vista to run your system at the same speed as 4gb in xp.

You would be mad just to put 6gb in unless running i7, so you may as well put 8gb in just to run as fast as your did in xp.

Lastly, as said, making ram drives, turning off pagefiles etc all can then add another major boost to your system.

Of course the first part is irrelevant if you're running xp 64. Not sure how windows 7 performs yet but we wait and see.

If you read my link, in some games like left for dead, upping the memory to 6gb gives you a 10% increase.

 

[Farore]

Over 4 is a waste for now