Gaming : 8GB vs 4GB system RAM

Relentless81

Relentless81

Relentless81

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I currently have 4GB and was wondering if there was any point in upgrading to 8GB?

There seems to be a lot of systems being built with 8GB currently

I know VRAM is more important but this is particulary about system RAM
 
No point in upgrading really. Consoles have hardly any ram so most new games don't have high ram requirements.
 
I regularly hit 90-95% ram usage when playing Starcraft 2 with everything pushed to max, HL2 Cinematic can also eat up the ram, but other than that I can't think of any games where its been a limiting factor.
 
i have 8gb because it was dirt cheap but tbh i am not sure it makes a difference from 4gb

still running an e8600 @ stock speed (can get it to 4.9ghz stable but no point imo) with an ati 4870X2 on a 1900x1200 screen and haven't had any reason to upgrade. my most demanding games are still crysis 1, age of conan and stalker and they run fine on my system, maybe nott 200fps but I don't really need such high fps. i am happy as long as it around the 40fps marker without any dips below 25fps

i know many have crazy amounts of ram, mega clocked quads etc... but i tend to think it's overkill for gaming unless they are running multiple screen configs, or they just have to play with 200fps. i think games are dominantly console ports and thus not really pushing any PC out there, at least this has been my experience with the games I have.

if you are struggling with a game, i would first look at the GFX card since that is where the biggest gains are usually made or maybe an ssd for quicker loading times

just my 2 cents
 
iviv said:
I regularly hit 90-95% ram usage when playing Starcraft 2 with everything pushed to max, HL2 Cinematic can also eat up the ram, but other than that I can't think of any games where its been a limiting factor.
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SC2 is immensely RAM hungry. It's not really a marker for other games. I don't know why it needs so much, but yeah, with Chrome and a few tabs open on another window I hit 95% of 4GB.
 
8GB vs 4GB doesn't make that much difference for gaming in itself; most games, as stated won't really push the 4GB boundary. It is handy if you do multiple things with your PC though, and some of the others will either push the boundary, or you simply want to leave things open in the background whilst gaming, as it'll resolve a lot of the paging that could come from having to shift over applications out.

Depends on your usage. If you do just game, then probably not worth bothering with.
 
Killerkebab said:
Anyone else smile to themselves and think back to the days of 8 vs. 4 Mb of RAM? :D
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Yep. I remember having 8MB for a very long time, and then stumping out about £130 to upgrade to a whopping 72MB (extra 64MB).

Was lightning at the time :D
Crazy how far things have moved in just over a decade really!
 
8GB of RAM has it's place but it's not exactly essential to run games.

I will be doing it just for the hell of it.
 
For £30 I would be making the jump up to 8Gb. Except that my CPU heatsink is so large that it covers the first two ram slots, so I couldn't upgrade even if I wanted to :(
 
iviv said:
I regularly hit 90-95% ram usage when playing Starcraft 2 with everything pushed to max, HL2 Cinematic can also eat up the ram, but other than that I can't think of any games where its been a limiting factor.
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I can tell you why that is.

The 2gb of ram on your gpu is stealing that amount of ram from your system ram.

I know this is the case as it happens with me.

Its becuase the game is 32bits... roll on 64bit gaming..
 
opethdisciple said:
I can tell you why that is.

The 2gb of ram on your gpu is stealing that amount of ram from your system ram.

I know this is the case as it happens with me.

Its becuase the game is 32bits... roll on 64bit gaming..
Click to expand...

That's not how memory addressing works.

If the OS is 64bit, then all GPU RAM will be addresses without "stealing" system RAM, regardless of whether the game is 16/32/64bit.

It's - simply - because the game uses a lot of RAM. That's all it is.
 
uv said:
That's not how memory addressing works.

If the OS is 64bit, then all GPU RAM will be addresses without "stealing" system RAM, regardless of whether the game is 16/32/64bit.

It's - simply - because the game uses a lot of RAM. That's all it is.
Click to expand...

Im no expert, but if the application is 32bits, regardless where or not its running within a 64bit os, it still has all the limitations of a 32bit application.

Vram also presides over system ram, so the gpu is loading all the data in to vram (2Gb) and due to the 3Gb~ 32bit limitations, the 4Gb of system ram only 1-2Gb of it is addressable.

Thus giving the illusion of 90% ram usage. (Gpu stealing system ram effectively - due to 32bit limitations)

At least thats how I understand it.
 
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