Gaming : 8GB vs 4GB system RAM

bledd · 27 Jun 2011 at 19:02

Games are starting to come out now that utilise 8gb

Personally, I don't have any of these games, I didn't notice any performance drop (besides when running virtual machines) from going back to 4gb, so I've stuck at 4gb for the time being

HangTime · 28 Jun 2011 at 00:14

4GB is fine providing you don't run a lot of background apps. Part of the reason is most games use 32bit executables still meaning they never use more than 2GB, leaving 2GB free for everything else.

One thing you can do with loads of RAM is make a RAMdrive, and run games from there, although I'd only recommend this for things where you can gain an advantage from quick loading times (typically online multiplayer where the game is in play as soon as you enter the map).

jamiehavok · 28 Jun 2011 at 16:52

Killerkebab said:
Anyone else smile to themselves and think back to the days of 8 vs. 4 Mb of RAM?

haha i remember when i had 4mb of ram around 1995 and everything started requiring 8 mb's doh, that was like a 300 pound upgrade.

silversurfer · 28 Jun 2011 at 18:43

HangTime said:
Part of the reason is most games use 32bit executables still meaning they never use more than 2GB, leaving 2GB free for everything else.

Games will use more then 2GB if texture memory cannot fit onto the graphics card entirely

Someone with a 1GB card will find more main memory is helpful and definitely if you use AA 8GB could start to be needed as its a lot cheaper then getting on a card

BF3 is going to be 64 bit and use more then 2gb I think

Im not sure 8 is needed but with 6GB its close to using a hard disk for memory and I dont use AA at all

JimAroo · 28 Jun 2011 at 18:54

4GB is fine, only time i need more is if i do something stupid like run 2 games.

Once games start supporting 64 bit and start using > 2GB RAM we'll see a need for 8GB RAM. Until then, 4GB is ample.

Overslop · 28 Jun 2011 at 19:13

6GB here, never come close to fully utilising it.

Vtec9k · 28 Jun 2011 at 19:27

4Gb is enough for 99% of games but 8GB is so cheap these days why not

Overslop · 28 Jun 2011 at 19:54

Because you're probably better off spending the money on something else.

arknor · 28 Jun 2011 at 21:26

sldsmkd said:
A browser with a bunch of tabs open; some on youtube pages + a game going is easily 3-3.5GB. Add in a few Office apps and a couple of open PDFs and there you go, 4GB is used up by stuff that's semi active.

Sure the OS will page stuff to disk that's not needed for what you are doing right now - but swapping that back into RAM just adds latency.

lol...... 8gb wont be nearly enough if i open 8 firefox windows , have atleast 4 office apps open , 20 pdf files and 5 power point presentations running alongside my game, maybe i should go for 16 gb?

OR MAYBE YOU COULD JUST PLAY A GAME AND NOT HAVE EVERYTHING IN THE BACKGROUND AS AN EXCUSE FOR MOAR RAM...

Xelene · 28 Jun 2011 at 21:28

arknor said:
lol...... 8gb wont be nearly enough if i open 8 firefox windows , have atleast 4 office apps open , 20 pdf files and 5 power point presentations running alongside my game, maybe i should go for 16 gb?

OR MAYBE YOU COULD JUST PLAY A GAME AND NOT HAVE EVERYTHING IN THE BACKGROUND AS AN EXCUSE FOR MOAR RAM...

Or maybe you could pony up the price of a game and not have to worry about it

linktoinsanity · 28 Jun 2011 at 21:40

Overslop said:
6GB here, never come close to fully utilising it.

This.

uv · 28 Jun 2011 at 21:49

sldsmkd said:
Or maybe you could pony up the price of a game and not have to worry about it

sure, if you're running DDR3 - for us slow coaches still on DDR2, 8GB costs far more than the price of one game:

8GB DDR3 = £65
8GB DDR2 = £120

arc@css · 28 Jun 2011 at 21:51

Why is ddr2 more expensive than ddr3?

Raumarik · 28 Jun 2011 at 22:08

Probably production costs, everyone is after faster memory these days so prices of older stuff increases as it's not as readily available and chips etc used on it will be harder to obtain for the RAM manufacturers.

arc@css · 28 Jun 2011 at 22:26

Halfmad said:
Probably production costs, everyone is after faster memory these days so prices of older stuff increases as it's not as readily available and chips etc used on it will be harder to obtain for the RAM manufacturers.

Thanks. Yeah, I kind of wondered if it was due to less availablity.

GhostlyPea · 28 Jun 2011 at 22:48

8GB here. Is it ever full...no. Do I use more than 4GB? Yes. Ergo 8GB is best. (Socket 775)

- Pea0n

Phil99 · 28 Jun 2011 at 22:50

uv said:
sure, if you're running DDR3 - for us slow coaches still on DDR2, 8GB costs far more than the price of one game:

8GB DDR3 = £65
8GB DDR2 = £120

I just bought 4GB PC6400 DDR2 brand new for £37.99, it's not that bad unless you want the fancy low latency stuff

WingZero30 · 28 Jun 2011 at 23:15

Phil99 said:
I just bought 4GB PC6400 DDR2 brand new for £37.99, it's not that bad unless you want the fancy low latency stuff

I sold 3GB (3x1GB) Corsair DDR2 PC6400 800MHz for £40!!

J-FRO · 28 Jun 2011 at 23:21

I'm contemplating upping to 8GB, but if I do i'm thinking just grab another 2x2GB XMS3. What's the pro's and con's of running 8GB at 4x2GB?

I've heard it can put a 'strain' on the mobo, but if that's the case why bother putting four RAM slots?

HangTime · 28 Jun 2011 at 23:52

It only puts a 'strain' on the motherboard in the sense that it could limit overclocking a bit - they have four RAM slots because when running at stock speeds there should be no issues.

Personally I see no reason to throw out old memory, just drop some more in and fill all four slots, it won't be as good as having two sticks but not worth the expense. I recently bought 2*4GB and simply installed it next to the 2*2GB already in there for 12GB RAM (in the knowledge that if I did hit any issues with my overclock, I could simply remove the 2GB sticks and drop to 8GB RAM).