Does more and faster RAM improve game performance?

neoglow

neoglow

neoglow

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I've got 4gb RAM on my rig and running Vista 64 bit OS.

I use my rig for gaming but wondered if more RAM (eg, 6gb or 8gb) and faster RAM would make a difference in games. I find I get some stuttering or slowdown in some games like BF3 and GTA4.
 
In most games 8GB over 4GB (1-2 exceptions aside) will only make a difference if you've got quite a lot of stuff running in the background on the PC, if you keep your OS fairly tidy and close unnecessary programs before gaming it won't make much odds.

I've not tested in awhile but when I used to benchmark RAM back in the late LGA775/early i7 days the performance difference (in terms of average framerate) between the slower generic brand sticks and the fastest high performance RAM was only 5-6%. (Even then you had to take the slowest of the lower tier RAM and the fastest of the higher tier to see a few percent difference).

EDIT: Theres a good chance that stutter/slowdown is due to Vista - I never found Vista even half as smooth for gaming, even after they patched it so it didn't thrash the HDD as much in normal operation, as Windows XP or Windows 7/8.
 
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I found vista was fine for gaming....with 8gb of ram :P

Actual in game difference I noticed was negligible, I couldn't tell tbh. Any stutters I got was all due to quad SLI before drivers fixed issues/I spent ages testing our settings. Except for the slideshow background causing a stutter every x minutes lol.

Outside of games I noticed a marginal speed increase in desktop use (didn't have an sdd then, wouldn't notice it now). I did how ever notice nicer load times on games, which in battlefields meant I could watch the countdown timer telling me I can't move as I have to wait for other slower PC's to load...so, I guess that was useful. Other than that, only benefits were for CAD/rendering stuffs.

I think my front room pc is now only running 4gb as it didn't make enough difference, and thats using my old copy of vista, with a q6600, 470 gtx and an el cheapo mobo. That doesnt stutter beyond of not being good enough for certain games @ max.

Rroff, wouldn't having more RAM mean it thrashes the hdd a little less after its initial pre fetching as it doesn't have to swap out data so much? Not for me, for him - my vista box will be going miniature when I upgrade it so its all got to change lol.
 
ive only got 12 now because its triple channel, otherwise it would be 8gb most likely. Pretty sure more than 8 hasn't affected the work im doing but i haven't tested this machine with 8 and 12, then tried doing stuff as there is no point. Only tested the old rig out since it dropped my oc to basically nothing have 4 x 2gb sticks in it.


Whenever I get round to moving to x79- or whatever it is on the new socket if I wait that long - I am considering 32 or 64, purely for a RAM drive. Need to explore the option and test out stuff more to see if its worth it over SSD speeds or not, for my uses anyway. The fact that I had forgotten about it, and now can't remember the super important thing I wanted to test out on it, makes me think its not so important lol.
 
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