Plus, as in the past, we end up outgrowing the OS limits. In this case, the prior OS versions, memory sizes kept increasing. We use to be able to run Windows 95 with 64 megs of ram, and kept pushing it up to 512. Win98, we could run at 128, but pushing up to a gig. Windows XP, we could run at 256, but now we push up to 2 gigs to run reasonably.
I say 2 gigs, even though we have others who pushed it to 4 gigs or higher. The simple fact is, back in the day, coding required assembly to do a fair deal of things with as tight as code as possible. With Visual .net Programming, or high level coding, the old way of tight coding has become less and less, and at the same time, more and more 'bloat' in programs and the need for memory. Not just in OS, but in general applications.
Another good example is this:
At my place of work, I inherited the legacy of another group's incompetent IT planning. 20 users, about half of them running on 5 to 7 year old machines, most of them running with 512 megs of ram. Lots of complaints of performance. Performance impacted due to running lots of program, but no plan or budget to get more memory to improve the situation.
When my division's IT department got absorbed by another division's IT, and the issue of performance came up... One of the users was given more memory, per my recommendation. Suddenly, performance increased. Reason - I diagnosed the issue of heavy disk activity == Virtual Memory swapping. Virtual Memory swapping due to low memory and programs like Microsoft Office's Access, Outlook and Word running when before, they would only use Access on occasion and Word and use another client for mail.
A prime example of poor planning on the previous IT department on skimming on certain things. But eventually, the necessity to go past 4 gigs of RAM will come mostly due to computer usage habits which will also mean people will be having more programs running or programs that will eat up more memory over time. Performance is directly related to Memory as well as CPU, and as more and more programs decide 'Hey, I want more memory...' The more impact the system suffers due to having to virtual memory swap to accommodate the lack of memory.
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