6gb DDR3 or 12gb DDR3, which is better?

danceMB

danceMB

danceMB

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Pretty much as the title says really. In early June I will be buying a whole new system based on the i7 core, GTX 295, Windows Vista x64.

What I want to know is that the system comes with 6gb DDR3 ram, is that good enough, or would having 12gb DDR3 ram be a lot better? If it is when I will buy an extra 6gb and install myself, as the mobo will be the ASUS Rampage II, so it has the available slots for me to go upto 12gb if I really wanted to.
 
There are one or two reviews about this.

So the 6GB kit gives the perfect happy medium. The gains 12GB had over the 6GB kit were minimal overall and this time there was minimal difference in Vista's performance as opposed to the 3GB kit. The 6GB kit did not appear to put anywhere near as much stress on the CPU, given that we achieved 200 MHz more. Once the 6GB threshold is exceeded, performance differences seemed to diminish. There were simply not enough differences between the 2 kits to warrant the extra cash injection needed.
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It might be slightly different if you're doing some really heavy rendering or video work, but if not it doesn't look like there's much point.
 
From what I could see, the 6gb of ram seems to be enough for now, but that could change when Windows 7 is introduced, but nobody knows yet until this is optimised and placed for general release.

The general ideas is stick with 6gb for this year, as nobody needs more than this level
 
danceMB said:
Pretty much as the title says really. In early June I will be buying a whole new system based on the i7 core, GTX 295, Windows Vista x64.

What I want to know is that the system comes with 6gb DDR3 ram, is that good enough, or would having 12gb DDR3 ram be a lot better? If it is when I will buy an extra 6gb and install myself, as the mobo will be the ASUS Rampage II, so it has the available slots for me to go upto 12gb if I really wanted to.
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To be quite honest 12GB would be overkill for now, if you was to get 6GB you'd be safe to run a lot of things, and in the future if there are very power hungry, you could get more, as for now 6GB would be plenty.
 
I think I will just stick with the 6gb then, and then upgrade when the time comes for the 12gb to be justified, at least it doesnt cost too much for an extra 6gb to be installed, and if I did fancy it, Vista will love me for it lol
 
Unless you are running MANY virtual machines, doing crazy graphics and video work, etc you will never even use up 6GB, much less 12GB. Also, if you intend to OC you should get better results with 3 modules. And, 3 modules is less load on the memory controller, less heat, fewer overall parts to fail, etc etc.
 
I will mainly be listening to music and playing games really, especially The Sims 3 (which my new machine will be built around the same time lol)

I am hoping that 6gb will be plenty for everything, even though the OCZ 6gb looks very tempting for the price, and also its at the top DDR 3 speed of 16000+, as my new machine will be equipped with 14400+
 
I have gone for 12GB but only so i can play with ramdisks. Agree with everyone that 6GB is more than enough for 99% of people and uses.

My comments are... 12GB is much harder on the CPU and general system. 3 sticks will overclock better and can take advantage of 1T where as all 6 sticks will not overclock and have been a pain to get running at stock. This may just be the combination I have (patriot 1600 LLK).

So in summary unless you are happy to spend out on 12GB for fun it's not worth it
 
Maybe I will just stick with the 6gb ram after the reviews I have seen, as that seems enough for the time being.

After they release Windows 7 and they fix the early problems that all releases have had, maybe then we will see an increase from more, but at least the next year I wont need to add more ram yet
 
Having a look at quite a few reviews, it appears that in terms of the triple-channel ram, the 6gb version is just about enough, and the 12gb version to fill all 6 slots is not needed at all, as there is no speed difference or anything that makes the upgrade worthwhile, which I have now figured out.

Im not the only one who has thought about this, as the guides were created after many questions very much the same as mine
 
danceMB said:
I cant imagine myself doing much more than music, internet and gaming, with the emphasis heavily on the gaming side of things.
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6GB will be more than you'll ever need for the listed uses above during the lifespan of this computer. By the time you need more memory than 6GB, this rig will be obsolete.
 
I dont think that my rig will become obsolete when the time comes for more ram, as im sure in the next 12 months or so, we will start to see games that can utilise more than 6gb, at the moment none of the games take this into account, due to the long production time to make a big title, but it wouldnt surprise me if people start adding more within the next 2 years at the most, due to the triple-channel its either 6gb or 12gb, which is a huge jump in the numbers
 
The only reason to need 6GB (or 4GB for 99% of people) is if you are running things like Vmware workstation. For gaming you'd get a much better return by buying another graphics card/better processor/SSD or even a nicer monitor.
 
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