is 1Gb of ram a good bare minimum?

Toryglen-boy · 28 Jun 2006 at 10:00

is it? if so why? is there much of a change wiht 2 or even 4Gb ?

ta

Explicit · 28 Jun 2006 at 10:24

Yes, 1GB is the absolute bare minimum today. For general use, it should be enough. But for gaming/photoshop etc 2GB is highly recommended as it can give quite a boost in performance. 4GB is not worth it at the moment, unless you're into graphics design.

k3v · 28 Jun 2006 at 10:29

I've got 1gb and use my computer for general stuff and I never use it all, so I wouldn't say its a bare minimum, in that respect, if I was buying a computer I would make sure it had min 1gb

Cyber-Mav · 28 Jun 2006 at 10:37

4 gig is cheapo, cost me only £85 for 2 gig from crucial all in.

Explicit · 28 Jun 2006 at 11:07

k3v said:
I've got 1gb and use my computer for general stuff and I never use it all, so I wouldn't say its a bare minimum, in that respect, if I was buying a computer I would make sure it had min 1gb

Indeed, 1GB will rarely get used for general tasks, but Windows will feel slightly more responsive and quicker when you have 1GB of RAM compared to 512MB or 256MB. However, when it comes to gaming the latter statement is not true. 1GB will get used and is the recommended minimum if you want decent gaming performance. Furthermore, price should also be taken into account. It does not cost a great deal more to buy 1GB of RAM than, say, 512MB. In addition, for "future-proofing" reasons and with Windows Vista on the horizon (which will be quite a resource hog) 1GB is a must. I therefore stand by my original opinion of 1GB being the bare minimum.

Minstadave · 28 Jun 2006 at 13:57

Cyber-Mav said:
4 gig is cheapo, cost me only £85 for 2 gig from crucial all in.

You're determined to pimp 4 gigs aren't you

k3v · 28 Jun 2006 at 14:01

he's brain washing me into wanting 4gb! and I don't even use 1gb

Curiosityx · 29 Jun 2006 at 23:42

Explicit said:
Yes, 1GB is the absolute bare minimum today.

You say that like it grows on tree's not everyone is a performance enthusiast, youll do just find with 512Mb.

Having more than 1Gb of memory only comes into its own if you are running an x64 system that can fully utilize the extra address space.

Minstadave · 29 Jun 2006 at 23:55

Curiosityx said:
Having more than 1Gb of memory only comes into its own if you are running an x64 system that can fully utilize the extra address space.

I don't think I agree with that to be honest, the benefit of 2Gb over 1Gb can easily be seen in 32bit XP running BF2 and Oblivion.

Address space doesn't become an issue until 3Gb+ where 32bit XP is no longer able to recognise all of the RAM available.

jellybeard999 · 30 Jun 2006 at 10:44

Minumum :

256mb - Someone who doesnt really want a computer but needs to use MS Word, Excel, Internet, Email etc
512mb - Someone who is trying to understand computers and wants to useMS Word, Excel, Internet, Email etc
1gb - Someone who uses computers for games and general use
2gb - Enthusiasts

thats what i'd say.... my mother has a duron 1.6 and 256mb and thinks it flies :rolleyes:

im gonna put a spare 256mb in over the weekend, bet she doesnt even notice

some people just dont care, so long as it works, so in that respect, you can get away with it... look at Dells, they come with 256mb and people are happy...

Minstadave · 30 Jun 2006 at 10:45

jellybeard999 said:
256mb - Someone who doesnt really want a computer but needs to use MS Word, Excel, Internet, Email etc
512mb - Someone who is trying to understand computers and wants to useMS Word, Excel, Internet, Email etc
1gb - Someone who uses computers for games and general use
2gb - Enthusiasts
4gb - Cyber-Mav showing us the way forwards

Cyber-Mav · 30 Jun 2006 at 10:52

4 gigs is worth it if you got the cash spare. it costs £85 for crucial 2 gig kit. that gets you 4 gigs for £170 all in. very cheapo and atleast your covered for future memory price hikes on ddr when it gets phased out over ddr2.

Curiosityx · 30 Jun 2006 at 13:35

Cyber-Mav said:
4 gigs is worth it if you got the cash spare. it costs £85 for crucial 2 gig kit. that gets you 4 gigs for £170 all in. very cheapo and atleast your covered for future memory price hikes on ddr when it gets phased out over ddr2.

Completley agree from a pricing perspective.

256mb - Someone who doesnt really want a computer but needs to use MS Word, Excel, Internet, Email etc
512mb - Someone who is trying to understand computers and wants to useMS Word, Excel, Internet, Email etc
1gb - Someone who uses computers for games and general use
2gb - Enthusiasts

I consider the word enthusiast a very generalised term, i consider myself an enthusiast, its what i do for a living, but i dont feel the need to have several Gb's of memory in my machine that will at present happily load several firefox windows, have outlook open, burn a dvd and run a vmware session at the same time.

If you refer to an enthusiast being a hardened gamer who demands the most out of there prefered title i could understand it but would still thinks it's OTT.

Cyber-Mav · 30 Jun 2006 at 13:43

the way i see it:

256mb: good enough to run word
512mb: good enough to run winamp and word at the same time
1gb: good enough to run basic games like tombraider 1, doom 2, films, half life 1.
2gb: good enough to run battle field 2, doom3, quake 4, tomb raider legend.
4gb: good enough to run oblivion, lots of photoshop work, video rendering, etc.

split · 30 Jun 2006 at 14:07

How times have changed.

<goes into old man mood>

I can remember when the released a patch for Counter Strike that wouldn't run on PC's with 32 MBs of ram.
Lots had to upgrade to 64 as 32 was what a lot of people had back then.

Thinking....I excpect most of them ran Office 97 as well.

You can do a huge amount with 256, just not as smoothly as 512 on XP.

Indy500 · 30 Jun 2006 at 14:09

I used to run XP with 256MB (and game) just fine. Of course, this was a few years back when XP was new and games werent so demanding. I'd say the minimum is 512 now. 1GB if you're not on a tight budget, and 2GB for intensive use (games, heavy multitasking, photoshop, video editing etc).

axe · 30 Jun 2006 at 20:04

Cyber-Mav said:
the way i see it:

256mb: good enough to run word
512mb: good enough to run winamp and word at the same time
1gb: good enough to run basic games like tombraider 1, doom 2, films, half life 1.
2gb: good enough to run battle field 2, doom3, quake 4, tomb raider legend.
4gb: good enough to run oblivion, lots of photoshop work, video rendering, etc.

you tool

I Can play all the Games you have said there with 1GB ram just fine and also Photoshop / Premiere

I will be upgrading to 2GB for the extra performance increase but 1GB is still very capable with 512mb being the minimum now days

Minstadave · 30 Jun 2006 at 21:13

Cyber-Mav said:
the way i see it:

256mb: good enough to run word
512mb: good enough to run winamp and word at the same time
1gb: good enough to run basic games like tombraider 1, doom 2, films, half life 1.
2gb: good enough to run battle field 2, doom3, quake 4, tomb raider legend.
4gb: good enough to run oblivion, lots of photoshop work, video rendering, etc.

Has anyone seen Oblivion use more than 2Gbs? I've never heard of that.

Curiosityx · 1 Jul 2006 at 01:04

axe said:
I will be upgrading to 2GB for the extra performance increase but 1GB is still very capable with 512mb being the minimum now days

Im glad someone has a similar point of view.

WotDa · 2 Jul 2006 at 08:02

I've got 1gb atm. Will prolly get another 1gb asap.

I dislike the way that WoW gradually munches it up the longer I play, sometimes using half my ram, and as I often have other stuff munching at the other half this isn't a good combo.