Do I need more than 4 GB of RAM?

[magnetite]

I mainly surf the internet, do maintenance (virus scan, spyware), and maybe play some games (which use up to 1.5-2 GB of RAM).

Could someone give me some situations where I might need more than 4 GB?

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Not so much, but let me just say that ram has fallen in price and I've found that with multitasking and especially photoshoping 8gb's of ram work wonderfully.

 

[StalkeR]

Hello magnetite. If you just surf to internet,and play some games that do not need many ram memory,I think that 4GB is enought for you.
StalkeR

 

[magnetite]

Sounds good. What kinds of things take advantage of more than 4 GB of memory so I can be prepared in the future (if my usage changes)?

 

[pparks1]

Sounds good. What kinds of things take advantage of more than 4 GB of memory so I can be prepared in the future (if my usage changes)?

Simultaneous virtual machines, heavy photoshop use, mixing music, very large databases, etc. Most consumers don't really need more than 4GB of RAM. I have 8GB myself, but only for VM use. This allows me to run 3-4 simultaneous VM's for work testing. Without that, I'd be perfectly content with 4GB of RAM.

 

[magnetite]

Sounds good. What kinds of things take advantage of more than 4 GB of memory so I can be prepared in the future (if my usage changes)?

Simultaneous virtual machines, heavy photoshop use, mixing music, etc.

I certainly don't do any of that.

 

[EzioAuditore]

By taking in consideration the usage you've mentioned, no, you don't need any more than that. Infact, that's just more than enough.

You'll need more ram in cases:
1. You need to run graphic intensive programs (this'll also require a decent graphic card though).
2. You need to use CAD (Computer Aided Designing).
3. You need to use video converter apps, encoding, decoding etc.
4. You want to have multiple OS'es running simultaneously under any virtualization app like VirtualBox, VMWare etc.

That's all I can think of now. Maybe other members have more and better scenarios.

EDIT: Pparks was quicker.