How much difference does 4gig+ make to a system?

[xenole99]

Got an older system here with a Quad core cpu Q6600 @ 2.40GHz and 2 gig of DDR2 ram (2 x 1gig dual channel).
May at some point upgrade pretty much everything but at present it does exactly what I want.

One thing I've noticed is that most people eem to have 4, 6 or 8gigs of ram.
Does it make any difference to have 4gig over 2 gig and so on?

The only time I can say I've noticed any real change in adding memory was when I had 1gig and increased to 2 gig and one game in particular loaded about 5-10x faster.

 

[Ch3m1c4L]

depends on OS tbh, vista/win 7 benefit massively from having 4gb over 2gb. moving from 4-8 isnt nearly so noticeable but there is a difference if you like to have lots of things loaded at once.

6 is just because that gives you triple channel (so standard amount) in a 6 slot board.
Also, DDR3 pricing means that 4gb is a normal amount to buy now

 

[eddiew]

As above, going 2-4 on Vista or Win 7 is noticeable. Upping to 8, that depends what you do. Graphics work is notoriously memory intensive, but most games won't use vast amounts of memory.

Of note, beware putting 4 sticks of memory into a 775 board - many people, including myself, have found that it knackers your overclock and/or system stability and makes you pump up voltages that really shouldn't need it.

 

[Ch3m1c4L]

yea, my OC doesnt work AT ALL with 4 sticks of ram in it, although I think thats cause of ****ty thermal paste on my northbridge and me being too lazy to take verything out my pc to get at the block.

You will prob have to up your northbridge volts from say, 1.3 to 1.35 or somthing to make it stable if you max out a boards rams slots.