2GB or 4 GB for gaming and vista

Going to order the new sager 5790 w/ vista Home premium (which I hear is a memory hog) I will mainly use this notebook for gaming so should I go with 4 GB or is that overkill?

 

I think 2GB is enough. Most games run fine on 1GB save for a few newer ones such as Battlefield 2, BF2142, Oblivion, etc. that would benefit from 2GB for faster loading times etc. Otherwise, the difference between 1GB and 2GB of memory in terms of framerate is usually under 10% if any. Counter Strike Source and older games would run fine with 1GB.

 

go 3.. if there is the option.

 

Yep.. Go 3. Go for 1x1024, and add a 2Gb aftermarket module. ATM 4 GB isn't really necessary.

 

the reason I pick 2 or 4 is because of dual channel, I don't think 3 gb offers that.

 

seriously, between dual channel and 3gb.. 3gb takes the win.. Vista has some problem with 4gb.. and 2gb is at the limit with vista.. there's a lot of info about it.. search the forum.

 

I say get 1 2GB stick so you have one slot open to upgrade later on.

 

how is 3 gb faster than dual channel? doesn;t dual channel provide more bandwidth?

 

In my experience (using 1.5gb; XP here), more ram > dual channel

Honestly, some people overstate dual channel on here. Depends on your usage, but I know I would much prefer having the extra ram to be there if I ever need it than a 2% or whatever it is the gain with dual channel

 

More ram is always better than dual channel, the gains from dual channel really are a lot worse than people think.

 

Yeah. And Vista supports upto 3.2 GB of Ram I believe.

 

Vista X86 yes...

In order to use full 4gb ram you need 64bit os.

 

in fact, if you have a core 2 duo machine that isn't santa rosa, you dont need dual channel at all. basically, a single ddr2 memory module clocked at 667mhz is already really fast and is fast enough to completely fill the bandwidth of the bus. if you have a santa rosa machine, you have a faster bus, but you do not have faster memory (the bus is hopped up to 800mhz, still using 667mhz memory) - so if you have a santa rosa machine, you actually will see improvements with dual channel memory.

also- more ram is DEFINITELY a more important factor than ram speed. still- if you are going to do a ram upgrade- you might as well shell out for 4 gigs... its not that much more expensive, and that way you will cap out your machine and you wont have to worry about ram anymore for a long time.

if you have windows vista 32 bit, 4 gigs of ram still gets more used than 3- and when the driver/software support develops for 64 bit, you will want to switch to that to take full advantage of your processor anyway.

 

oops double post glitched.