>4GB ram? Why?

NeilF

NeilF

NeilF

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OK, my 5yr old machine has 4GB in it... To this day I don't think I've ever seen it more than about 70-80% full... and is typically less than that.

That said, I'm not a huge gamer, but I've got a number of recent titles etc so I have played modern (bigger) games. eg: Max Payne 3.

So people with 8GB of 16GB, surely most of it is sitting there unused? Or am I missing something? If I've yet to use anywhere near 4GB how have people made use of 8GB or 16GB?
 
I have 8, but I use mine for 3d modelling / rendering / sculpting etc. Even then I've bluescreened and ran out of usable ram!

For gaming, I cant see the point in loads, it just turns into willy waving, but for actual work, its a god send.
 
Memory is inexpensive. Suspect the imminent next gen console releases will move the ball forward in terms of minimum requirements too.
 
The_Baron said:
Memory is inexpensive. Suspect the imminent next gen console releases will move the ball forward in terms of minimum requirements too.
Click to expand...

Maybe... But at the moment? And last few years?


I recall 4-5yrs ago when I built my machine, it wasn't unusual for folks to put more than 4GB of memory in a PC.

If in 5yrs I've typically used 3GB or less, then what would 8GB of memory have given you with over half of it never used?


I'm just surprised that even now, my 4GB is never close to being filled by modern titles?
 
It all depends on what you use your PC for. For example my PCs/laptops have 24GB or 32gb and I use all of it running multiple VMs so my next machine will have 64GB.

There's no point in buying more than you need, but for some tasks (VMs, rendering etc) you need a lot! For general use I think 8GB is a good figure these days although many people won't see much benefit compared to 4GB.
 
at the settings that your hardware is capable of playing them at, probably yes

it is well known for example that you hit FPS issues running Battlefield 3 on Ultra preset if you have a recent quadcore and 2GB+ GPU but only 4GB of RAM

your 1GB GPU wouldn't be able to play games that use more than 1GB, hence why you don't need more than 4GB in your PC
 
Simon42 said:
It all depends on what you use your PC for. For example my PCs/laptops have 24GB or 32gb and I use all of it running multiple VMs so my next machine will have 64GB.

There's no point in buying more than you need, but for some tasks (VMs, rendering etc) you need a lot! For general use I think 8GB is a good figure these days although many people won't see much benefit compared to 4GB.
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Oh, for specialist use all bets are off :)

But it seems at the moment 4GB is more than enough for all general and gaming requirements. 8GB is fine for future proofing - but nothing is utilising it at the moment!?
 
i only use 4gb of my vengance, buts that because its too tall and won't fit under my cooler the other 4gb is just sitting in the box.
 
andybird123 said:
ignore my post then :D

with everything loaded and something like Crysis 3 on max settings I see close to 8GB of RAM being used
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Really? I'm confused then...

Tell you what, I've just coincidentally upgraded from 4GB to 6GB as I got the extra memory for £10, so (tomorrow) I'll load up Max Payne 3 to see if I still use less than 4GB?

But maybe Crysis 3 uses more ram then if it's available?
 
If I were to buy memory right now, I would probably make do with 8 GB on Z77 or Z87 motherboards. On X79, however, 16 GB is necessary to take advantage of quad-channel memory bandwidth, since most half-decent modules come in multiples of 4 GB and you might as well splash the cash if you have an enthusiast board anyway.
 
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I used to have 16gb of Geil 1600mhz ram, never used more than 40% of it so sold it together with rest of my old rig. Bought 8gb of 2133mhz ram and i think it will be enough for long time, for what I am doing on a pc. And they look great as well (Avexir gold) :D
 
Most games are still 32bit applications ie. their limited to around 2GB RAM

The 'spare' RAM isn't exactly sitting there unused, the operating system will be making use of it to cache data.

I'm not entirely sure of your point? Yes, when you built your PC 4GB was reasonable (and can still be), but if you were building today there's little reason not to go for at least 8GB. With new consoles on the horizon the transition to 64bit only games is going to increase and along with it their memory requirements. [there's been a number of big games within the last week confirmed as 64bit only with memory requirements around 5GB]
 
NeilFawcett said:
Really? I'm confused then...

Tell you what, I've just coincidentally upgraded from 4GB to 6GB as I got the extra memory for £10, so (tomorrow) I'll load up Max Payne 3 to see if I still use less than 4GB?

But maybe Crysis 3 uses more ram then if it's available?
Click to expand...

You still didn't read my first post - on your cpu+gpu you won't be able to run high enough settings anyway for it to make a difference

Run crisis 3 on high on your hardware and you'll get single digit performance regardless of the amount of ram

Get a modern quad core and a this gen gpu and you do need more than 4 to run the settings they are capable of
 
OK, with my 6GB of ram...

Max Payne 3, approx 50% in use.
Bioshock, 44% in use.
Borderlands 2, 45% in use.
WArgame: Airland Battle, 40% in use.


I can't get anything using even close to 4GB (66%) yet, alone more!
 
There is honestly a difference between 4GB and 8GB. Windows deals with the memory dynamically depending on how much is available.

Get to any pressing game and 8GB helps.

There is absolutely no way I'd accept less than 8GB nowadays if building a system.
 
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