8gb worth it (over 4gb)

Not a lot to be gained unless you are using very memory hungry programs. And make sure your motherboard will actually run 8GB of what you intend to buy - by no means a given.
For me, Vista X64 still merrily works the hard drive for no apparent reason whatsoever, still lots of page file activity which I had hoped would reduce but it hasn't. A slight improvement, but nothing to write home about
 
Metalface Mark said:
With this week only, its only £63 to upgrade to 8gb, does it make windows nippier all round, or is there no real gains (using vista 64).
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Gets asked about 1x per week same as the 2GB v 4GB and 32bit with 4GB.

If you use SEARCH you can see its not just for heavy Pro Cad etc work now, so that's a myth right now, was the case back with XP 64 but Vista uses Memory different and I really don't think many in here understand how it works.

Advise you look at the THG 8GB guide and how it uses the HDD (the slowest prehistoric part of any PC) less so its faster.

For the cost of 8GB now I see no Con's and I will either be on 4GB of DDR3 or 8GB of DDR2 real soon.
 
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if cost isnt an issue I say go for it. with mem being as cheap as it is now, you never have to worry about memory running out ;). Maybe set up a ram disk in memory for the page file which vista seems to prefure over real mem im sure .
 
I would have thought it would be a good idea.

Although upgrading your memory from 2Gb to 4Gb increases the physical RAM your applications use, the 64-bit addressing of a 64-bit OS conversly uses up more RAM of that of an 32-bit os. Therefore, a further 4GB (8GB) would provide the 64-bit OS with more breathing space, so to speak. This was what I was meant to believe anyway.

Could be wrong and I may stand corrected.
 
I certainly don't regret moving to 8GB, and it may be useful in future. Good to do it while DDR2 RAM is cheap. I did feel that sometimes I was reaching the limit with 4GB so even now the extra headroom is appreciated
 
In the latest PC Format mag. they say that Vista uses 700MB when idle; that 2GB is NOT enough & 4GB should be standard even with 32bit. Therefore 8GB if you can afford it will stand you in good stead for the future. I see OCZ has got an 8GB kit 2 x 4 out soon thus making a move to 16GB easier:)
 
I built a new PC a few of months ago and bought 8GB as it was a good price. I'm running Vista 64 and it will sit all day long at around 1.5GB. I think the most it has ever used is about 3GB.
 
Ive never seen my memory usage go above 3GB, it barely gets over 2.5GB when playing games. Wouldnt have thought you would be able to tell the difference - would be better to spend your money on a faster gfx card or cpu
 
stealthgeek said:
Ive never seen my memory usage go above 3GB, it barely gets over 2.5GB when playing games. Wouldnt have thought you would be able to tell the difference - would be better to spend your money on a faster gfx card or cpu
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Then you have not used a 3D program where after wasting time waiting for an object to render you get the dreaded "Out of Memory" message.
 
You're probably better off spending the extra money on getting a better HDD if you want to make the system snappier (e.g. VelociRaptor).
 
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