Win7 64-bit running with 2GB RAM - quick question

jmp_78 · 15 Feb 2010 at 22:03

I have an Intel Dual-Core E5200 running at 3.72GHz along with 2GB DDR2 memory, and have recently upgraded from Windows XP 32-bit to Windows 7 64-bit.

I had heard that 4GB was pretty much the recommended amount for my new OS, and I was going to upgrade. However, I'm now not sure if I need to. After running game benchmarks, alongside internet browsing, MS Office, etc, it appears that my 'Memory Usage' never exceeds 1.5ish GB in Windows Task Manager.

I guess that I am either pleasantly suprised... or missing something obvious! Is it really as simple as my needs don't need anymore than 2GB memory?

Comments welcomed

whitecrook · 15 Feb 2010 at 22:05

I put Win7 on a E2140 with 2GB ram w/ raid 0 sata and 7800 gtx. Get's good scores in the experience index (CPU brings it down unless I o/c it) and seems pretty decent tbh.

Makhaira · 15 Feb 2010 at 22:09

If you find it runs well with 2Gb matey, then stick with 2Gb

. A lot of people go with 4Gb since at present there is very little improvement with going to 8Gb, so 4Gb is the "sensible" performance compromise. All said and done though, if you are not struggling with 2Gb, then I'd stick with 2 and pocket the cash

jmp_78 · 15 Feb 2010 at 22:12

Makhaira said:
If you find it runs well with 2Gb matey, then stick with 2Gb . A lot of people go with 4Gb since at present there is very little improvement with going to 8Gb, so 4Gb is the "sensible" performance compromise. All said and done though, if you are not struggling with 2Gb, then I'd stick with 2 and pocket the cash

Simple answer, I like it! Kinda gettin the upgrade itch TBH and wanting something new... perhaps I shall think elsewhere. SSD methinks

PhoenixUK · 15 Feb 2010 at 22:20

You haven't checked how much of a pagefile it eats tho ;-)

.
But yeh, 2gb is still doable and runs most stuff fine but there is a noticeable difference with 4gb over 2 if you play more demanding games at 1680x1050 or higher games alone can eat up to 1.5-2gb of ram on longer sessions.

jmp_78 · 15 Feb 2010 at 22:51

Hmmm, this has me worried now!

I play all games at a minimum of 1680x1050, and preferrably at 1920x1080. You therefore think that 4GB WOULD be beneficial to gaming? My video card is an Asus HD4870 1GB Dark Knight OC'd to 825MHz.

Azuse05 · 15 Feb 2010 at 23:40

Having RMAed half my ram I'm stuck with 2, and dear god I hope they hurry up

Last in game, last out, windows chewing the drive all the way.

You run a game on the "minimum" hardware you don't expect it to run well, why would an os be any different?

Xon · 16 Feb 2010 at 13:24

I do notice a diff between 2gb and 4gb... that's not to say 2gb is unusable but I wouldn't want to stay with 2gb

PhoenixUK · 16 Feb 2010 at 13:58

jmp_78 said:
Hmmm, this has me worried now!

I play all games at a minimum of 1680x1050, and preferrably at 1920x1080. You therefore think that 4GB WOULD be beneficial to gaming? My video card is an Asus HD4870 1GB Dark Knight OC'd to 825MHz.

There will be difference because when it starts running out of resources it will start bumping it all into pagefile and then read/write from/to HDD instead of RAM which is a lot slower.

On this high res you'll see a lot of improvement, especially if you play fps/mmorpg where you can look far away into terrain, all that graphics get stored a lot in ram and when they get onto HDD there is a noticeable performance drop.

Not to mention everything will load faster and will be smoother.

2gb is OK for htpc or gaming on low res/ old games but nothing more than that anymore.

thingemajib · 16 Feb 2010 at 14:10

i had 1.5gb ddr 400 up till last christmas. even when gaming this never went over 1.1gig, so i thought id save some money on the upgrade and get 2gig ddr3. i just happened to get a bargain on a 4gig kit, that i decided would save me money in the long run.
now windows generally idles with about a gig being used and hits around 1.8gig in games.

seing as just about every component is significantly faster than my old setup, i cant really comment on how much performance was affected by this (i guess i could remove a stick for a bit and see what happens ... but cba..), but i guess thats 700mb less hard drive thrashing done by the page file...

Corasik · 16 Feb 2010 at 14:21

A bare install of Win7 Home Premium 64bit edition takes 700-800meg before driver installation, and with soundcard + graphics drivers, antivirus/spyware scanners etc, hitting 1Gb ram when doing nothing at all is not hard at all.

I requently sit at 3Gb in use just with windows + world of warcraft running. 2GB will be swapping a lot with a 64 bit version of Windows 7.