Is there really any need for 8gb?

I got 8GB of RAM because it was on special offer at the time I bought the rest of my sandybridge setup. Doubt I'll come close to utilising it as I only play games, but when games come out that due require such amount, I know I won't need to upgrade again.
 
I run 8GB - I regularly fill 6-7 of that, and sometimes end up overflowing to swap file.

Admittedly this is mostly due to Windows 7 and a bad habit of having graphics applications, 20 browser tabs, and WoW open at once - but still, I'm considering upping to 16 so I can continue my decadent virtual lifestyle without hearing the HDD chatter :)
 
I did not think so but took advantage of cheap GEIL to boost my existing 4Gb, did not seem to make much difference, however I took it out to loan to a friend during his build and did notice increased boot times and marginally slower program loads.

Moral: If youve got 8Gb you won't notice it, go back to 4Gb and you probably will.

andy
 
I think it is really dependant on what you are running on your machine.

I currently have 4Gb but am considering moving to 8Gb as it is regularly topping out running the apps and game I use.

One question, using 8Gb, does that limit the OC'ing ability?

Also, how do I sell my current (almost brand new) 4Gb on here?

Regards,

Simpic
 
It depends what you need. I have only topped out once in a year of having 4gb, so there's no point me upgrading yet. I've no idea how people go over it! (Apart from working with big files obviously). I just opened every program I regularly use and it only went up to 3.2gb. This included Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari, Seamonkey, Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, IE Tester, Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, Bridge, InDesign, Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, Publisher, KeepNote, Winamp, Live Messenger, iTunes, Eusing Registry Cleaner, Defraggler, Adobe Reader, Media Player, Samsung Kies, VLC and Winrar. There are others I could have opened too but I got bored. :p

EDIT: Haven't thought this through. Now I have to close everything.
 
Programs themselves don't use that much RAM. It's the project files you work with inside them that do. I.e. a 6000x4000 16-bit PSD with 200 layers will eat up your RAM in seconds. A 1GB 3ds MAX file, the same. Rendering, the same. etc.
 
Personally, I don't think you can have too much, but you can have too little. Current I have an 8Gb ramdrive which Windows uses as a temp drive and works great !
 
I go very close to 4GB at work and at home (even without a 1GB RAMdisk). About to buy another 4GB at home so I can safely use a 1GB RAMdisk, virtualise two servers at once, AND use the host machine without slowdown.

RAM is so cheap these days that it's hardly a concern if you need it.
 
I had a need to buy 8GB of 1600mhz CL9 1.35V DDR3

Because at £52 it wasn't likely to get any cheaper.

Still thinking about what to do with it.
 
if ur on a budget, 4gb is plenty for most things

althou having more has its advantages, u can get lazy and have loadsa things running in the background without causing a problem

althou i often use a lot of VM's especially when making cross platform programs so i tend to max out my 12gb quite often
 
I have 8gb now. I had 4gb for a couple of months on my new rig and I did notice things getting a bit slow with all the applications I run. 8gb is perfect now. Only cost like £50 too :-)
 
I thought 4gb would be plenty, but running games like Crysis I get the odd system message telling me I'm low on RAM. I have just ordered another 4gb. If I was you I would take the opportunity from the start to use 2x4gb sticks rather than the potential headache I might face of trying to get 4x2gb sticks working together.
 
I find 4Gb is fine for gaming, and the Photoshop and Video work I do. More RAM is useful if you work with large video/photo/3D files so it depends entirely on what you do.

As for "future proofing" I find it's better to go for "easily upgradable" over "bleeding edge". A MoBo that supports the latest standards (DDR3, or AM3 slot) means in the future you can get more RAM or GPU, or CPU as they become cheaper. I'm building a new PC for a friend as she bought a "all in one" desktop that's more like a laptop, and has very particular parts which makes it really tricky to upgrade. So she's getting a new machine whose individual parts can be changed out in a jiffy if she wants an upgrade.
 
vertica said:
It completely depends on what you use your pc for.

I use a rig with 48GB of RAM and it isn't enough.
Click to expand...

-=Vect0r=- said:
Wow, that should be a sweet mobo and remaining rig! Care to share some pics & further details?
Click to expand...

Its not as cool as it may sound, the motherboard is an Intel SC5520SC which is fitted out with two X5670's. Our team has 48GB (12x4GB) of RAM fitted and can easily max this for our CFD (computational fluid dynamics) needs. We really need 96GB in the one machine but 8GB dimms were too expensive at the time (our meshing package is a single threaded process with no shared memory facility - the solution runs are executed on a cluster with 384GB RAM).
Accurate CFD solutions will eat RAM as fast as you can install it.
I have played with a single 4U rack that had 0.5TB of RAM in, easy to max with the right applications.

But on topic, 4/6/8GB or less will suit the vast majority of home users needs. 6GB was the sweet spot (for most) with the nehalem/bloomfield/gulftown i7's. 4 or 8 with the sandybridge tech
 
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Im tempted to buy some cheap second hand ddr2 as i frequantly run out of ram with 4gb as I have multi-tab firefox open, bc2cc to control our server while playing bad company 2 with ventrillo open for comms. Definatly going to have 8gb when I upgrade to bulldozer in a couple of months (if its out by then).
 
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