4 gigs of RAM Vs 6?

I currently have Vista x64 with 3 gigs of RAM. Obviously part of my reason for upgrading was to install more RAM. Should I go with 4 gigs meaning I only buy one 2 gig stick or go with 6 and buy a single 4 gig stick? Does the difference between dual channel matter if I go with 6 or will it just be more cost affective and faster to go with 4?

 

4 gigs of RAM should be more than enough.

I had a buddy that had 8 gigs of RAM in his desktop. He swore that, on his 30" monitor, when he opened a 30,000 pixel by 30,000 pixel workspace in photoshop, it used all 8 gigs of RAM. He opened one, we monitored his RAM usage, and it peaked just a little over 3 gigs.

Then he opened a bunch of different movies playing at the same time.. still couldn't use more then 3-3.5 gigs of RAM.

Dual channel is arguable on whether or not it provides any real world performance increase. I've heard increases from nothing, to about 3%... but I think most people tend to see about a 1% performance increase.

 

Depends upon the tasks you are running, and how much memory you will use up.... ?

 

I'd say that 4 gigs would be more than enough, for most things.

 

Alright, based upon that I think I will take a look at what I can find for 2 gig RAM sticks! Any other thoughts and opinions are more than welcome, I don't want a raw deal.

 

I have 8 gbs in my desktop and i have gotten my ram usage up to 5gbs so i feel its worth it.

 

Make sure you have a 64bit operating systerm

 

Read the OP.

 

You need to make sure that your laptop will support 6GB of ram before you splurge on a 4GB stick. Many laptops have trouble supporting over 4GB due to BIOS limitations. As far as dual channel goes, Intel Santa Rosa based systems and newer systems can run unbalanced sticks in "Symmetrical Dual Channel". Run CPU-Z (@ CPUID.com) and see if your current 3GB is running in this mode.

-J.B.

 

I would stay away from buying a 4GB stick, as they are going to be horridly expensive. Only get that much if you do not want a pagefile.

 

Is US$ 169,99 or EUR 129,- horrible expensive for a single 4GB SODIMM?

The question is not whether the M1530 he uses does support 6GB (because it does), but whether it helps him.

Neither for gaming nor for general purpose office work you gain something with 6GB (at the moment - Windows 7 will most likely change that). However virtulization applications gain a lot.

 

6GB will only help if running virtualization apps ^.
For General Purpose stuff, you'll barely use up 2-3GB even when running games, or encoding tools.

2+4GB will run in Asymmetrical DC, which causes a 20% boost in bandwidth, as compared to the >23% of 'true' DC.

Unless the total Virtual Memory usage is less than the total size of the Physical Memory, the paging file won't be really used / the HDD will not be used for cache. Disabling the pagefile won't really improve performance as such....

Stick with 2x2GB. By the time Windows 7 comes out, you'll get 8GB kits for 100 Bux.

 

No such thing as "this is more than enough". 1GB used to be enough, then 2GB then 4GB. In a couple of years 8-16GB will probably be a norm.

In computing, the more RAM the better.

 

Alright, I will go with a 4 gigs of RAM total! That should be more than enough.

 

YES, IT`s A LOT !
4 gigs can be had for as little as 50$ in 2x2gb sticks...

At this point,you won`t really need more. There is no common application that demands 6 gb...
I`ve never peaked over 2.5 Gb, as hard as I`ve tried...

 

Why would you get 6GB of RAM if you are only going to use only half of that? Sure more is better, but it's not very clever if you are going to a get a 4GB stick at the current price sitting there doing nothing. Might as well let it depreciate in the shop and buy it when you ll use it.

Future proofing too much isn't really the thing to do any more.

 

It depends upon the task. If you're running only MsPaint, there is no sense having 6GB of physical memory installed. Paint is only going to use 3MB, and the rest of the 4997MB is gonna go waste (Considering Vista's system processes eat up 1GB).

Windows will only use/cache as much it needs, the rest of the memory is gonna go waste. The whole 6GB is not going to get used up unless one actually runs memory-intensive tasks.

You're missing one important point. With the development of larger memory chips, there were software upgrades/updates released that actually needed that much memory to run smoothly. In a couple of years 8-16GB will probably be a norm, but there will also be software/apps that would actually need that much memory without causing your OS to stall....

Memory and CPU usage have a limit, but upgrading an HDD (and HDD usage) has no limits. Faster the HDD, faster windows is going to run.

 

Well i cant say much about the difference between DC or SC. i think the previous posts will help you out more about it....

Im working with vista 64 loaded with 4gb. I have my OS optimizes with all unused services and some more things... but i loaded up with some eye candy things which make my usage jumps.

all together my system eats 1.7gb from my 4gb.

I my usage includes some old games (warcraft 3) basic photoshop (12mp images) basic video editing (just ripping dvds), watching videos 1080p, and again basic sound edit (just duo channel), ive NEVER had my memory run out. and i do have a system monitoring included on my eye candies so i would notice if the system had run out.

But its true... if money is not a concern, man RAM is never enough just make sure your bios support the new memory sticks otherwise is a completely waste of money

in my view for money/performance factor at least for a basic/advantage usage 4gb is more then enough

but if you re a crazy designer that works with **** big images like 30mp images, edit HD videos, or deals with 3d programs (not games), virtualization (it uses a LOT of memory), go for it, ram is never enough specially on the last case

just have in your mind that for now 4gb stick are pretty expansive and as all technologies later the price will comes down

 

Well you might want to get the 6 gigs because next year the standards will be 3 gigs and 6 gigs anyway. Nehalem systems are tri chanel and I'm sure people will start designing software that will use up more and more ram since they'll be expecting people to have more just like Vista ate up a lot more ram than XP because ram prices were 1/4 the prices they used to be but you were getting 2 times the amount.

 

Personally, I think it really depends on how long you are planning on keeping this laptop.

I go through a laptop in 1-2 years, and considering that it will take that long to really see a purpose in having 6gb of ram in a laptop, it wouldn't really be worth the 4gb stick price.

If you are planning on keeping the laptop for 3-5 years, sure, go for it, but you will probably see benefits of having the extra ram in the latter stages where you would be retiring the machine anyway.

That's just how I see it anyway.

 

$135.34

http://www.memoryc.com/products/des...y_module_single-5_5_5_15-SQ_Series/index.html

 

Every 1-2 years? Wow, you must have some cash!

 

not necessary. sometimes he just needs the laptop for the work... so you need the high end laptop for your work... after all you can also sell it and just keep upgrading not buying one after other

 

I will be changing over to vista 64 as soon it arrives in the mail from dell. Once I do that I will being working on some very complex CAD models in SolidWorks to see how much of the 4gb I have actually gets utilized.

I will post the outcome.