Memory - Do we need more than 6 gig?

Page 1 of 5 123 ... LastLast

  1. Posts : 7,683
    Windows 10 Pro
       #1

    Memory - Do we need more than 6 gig?


    There was a question here - https://www.sevenforums.com/overclock...tml#post893231 as to whether 12gig of RAM was really needed? So as not to hijack the thread there I thought I’d post this article I recently found in my favorites here… Do You Really Need More Than 6 GB Of RAM?

    I’m of the opinion that we don’t need more than six at this point in time, you might even argue that 4 is still a sweet spot.

    From what I’ve seen and read, it seems to me that nearly all games, and most applications are more CPU dependant than memory capacity. Well, that’s what the charts say.

    I know as technology moves forward our systems will be pushed further, but are we there now?

    Thoughts/opinions?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,241
    Windows 7 Profesional x86, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
       #2

    sygnus21 said:
    There was a question here - https://www.sevenforums.com/overclock...tml#post893231 as to whether 12gig of RAM was really needed? So as not to hijack the thread there I thought I’d post this article I recently found in my favorites here… Do You Really Need More Than 6 GB Of RAM?

    I’m of the opinion that we don’t need more than six at this point in time, you might even argue that 4 is still a sweet spot.

    From what I’ve seen and read, it seems to me that nearly all games, and most applications are more CPU dependant than memory capacity. Well, that’s what the charts say.

    I know as technology moves forward our systems will be pushed further, but are we there now?

    Thoughts/opinions?
    All I know is two is not enough for anything anymore (or at least what I use PCs for).

    I hate page files and I can see times when yes 8GB of RAM would be useful (extreme multitasking maybe? with video editing high end gaming HD video streaming all happening at once), but practical uses not really.

    4GB will do me for the time being but in the next 3-4 years I'm pretty sure I'll be going for 8GB .

    Oli
      My Computer


  3. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #3

    Although RAM can be an important factor for certain applications, I think that the average user is still well served with 4GBs (even 3GBs for a 32bit OS). I have both (4GB for 64bit and 3GB for 32bit) and I hardly ever notice a page fault. That leads me to believe that there is enough RAM for what I am doing (which is bread and butter stuff). Even during heavy video editing which keeps all my 4 cores running at about 75%, there are no page faults.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 7,683
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Yeah I haven't seen a page fault since my early days in XP when I barely had 1gig of RAM.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 200
    Vista Business x64
       #5

    Very large Cad models and things alike are the only thing i know of that will eat up more then 6 gigs of ram at this point. No video game even requires 4 yet. FFXIV i believe is recommending 4 but thats the highest iv seen yet for a game.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 7,683
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #6

    This is but one of a few game charts from Tom's test but as you can see, there's virtually no change in performance between 3 and 12gig of memory.

      My Computer


  7. Posts : 7,878
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #7

    I have 8GB of RAM in my home machine and my work desktop. The sole reason is that I run a lot of virtual machines being a sys admin for a living and I like the ability to set things up and test. I often will fire up 2-3 VM's each with 2GB of RAM dedicated to them. Thus, I use the RAM from time to time. But when I am not running VM's...nothing is eating up my RAM.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 2,528
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
       #8

    Editing raws in photoshop will eat as much ram as you have...

    Loading 2 virtual machines and having 4 copies of msvc running will eat up 8 gig easily.

    I hit the 8+ gig mark in usage quite a bit, the rest is cached data/files that would otherwise need to be paged to disk or reloaded next time I needed them, so overall the rest of the machine reponds faster to loading new programs with all that already in memory.

    For all my work 4 was never ever enough, 8 would be ok, 12 is really sweet :)
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 25,847
    Windows 10 Pro. 64/ version 1709 Windows 7 Pro/64
       #9

    Can you find a way to eat up 8 gigs of ram, yes you can. Take a notice of what people are doing to eat up 8 or even 4 gigs of ram. If this is what you plan to do stick the ram in there. If you are like most 4 gigs 64 bit and 3 gigs 32 bit. This is not gospel but it is a good rule of the thumb. One must decide what they want the computer to do and how well. If you had a bunch of VM, CAD, Photo you would not be asking this question. Keep in mind more ram never hurts but some times it doesn't help. If you do things like fseal posted stick as much ram as your system will allow.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 7,683
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       #10

    As a photographer I use photoshop all the time and I still can't see a need for more than 6gig of RAM. And I usually listen to iTunes while I'm working in photoshop.

    Unless you are working with huge (500+meg) files or doing some heavy intensive stuff like layering which can make those files even larger, I still say 6gig is enough for most tasks in photoshop.

    Additionally, in Windows Vista 64-bit, processing very large images is much faster if your computer has large amounts of RAM (6-8 GB).
    Optimize Photoshop performance | CS3 | XP, Vista
      My Computer


 
Page 1 of 5 123 ... LastLast

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 7 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 7" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 22:55.
Find Us