The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    How much ram do you really need?

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by llmercll, Nov 18, 2009.

  1. llmercll

    llmercll Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    331
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Is there a noticeable fps or loading time difference between having 4 gigs or 3.2 gigs of ddr2 memory?

    Does it really matter, or once you have so much ram it doesn't affect gaming performance?

    Just wondering, thanks =)
     
    llmercll, Nov 18, 2009
    #1
  2. tetutato

    tetutato NBR Troll

    Reputations:
    296
    Messages:
    1,398
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    56
    whats your os? if its xp, 3gb is plenty.
     
    tetutato, Nov 18, 2009
    #2
  3. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,389
    Messages:
    10,552
    Likes Received:
    7
    Trophy Points:
    456
    Even in Vista or 7, the difference btw 3.2GB and 4GB is pretty much none. The OP is probably comparing 4GB in a 32-bit vs. 64-bit OS.
     
    sgogeta4, Nov 18, 2009
    #3
  4. unknown555525

    unknown555525 rawr

    Reputations:
    451
    Messages:
    1,630
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    Performance is only affected if you've run out, or come close to running out. Then the system starts paging to the hard drive which can severely affect performance. Unless your getting severe FPS drops or huge lag spikes in games where the FPS will die to under 4fps or the game will freeze, adding more ram won't really increase fps. It will however remedy these issues.
     
    unknown555525, Nov 18, 2009
    #4
  5. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

    Reputations:
    2,637
    Messages:
    6,370
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    In the case of FPS games, the difference between 3.2 and 4GB is negligible.
     
    surfasb, Nov 18, 2009
    #5
  6. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,779
    Messages:
    7,957
    Likes Received:
    87
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Overclock the ram and reduce timmings. That should give you a few extra frames.
     
    moral hazard, Nov 18, 2009
    #6
  7. llmercll

    llmercll Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    15
    Messages:
    331
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Well I'm on win7 32 bit and just wondering if its worth the upgrade. ive got 4 gigs but only 3.2 being used i believe.

    seems its not a big deal though, so ill probably stick with the 32 bit. anyone object to that? =p

    thanks again everybody
     
    llmercll, Nov 18, 2009
    #7
  8. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

    Reputations:
    2,637
    Messages:
    6,370
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    Nope!

    Hummm, Merc.

    Merc Merc bo Berc
    Banana Nana Fo Ferc
    Be Bi Bo Berc
    Merc!!!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
    surfasb, Nov 18, 2009
    #8
  9. moral hazard

    moral hazard Notebook Nobel Laureate

    Reputations:
    2,779
    Messages:
    7,957
    Likes Received:
    87
    Trophy Points:
    216
    I do. All you need is a 64 bit installation disk, if you could borrow one, it would be a quick upgrade.
     
    moral hazard, Nov 18, 2009
    #9
  10. Melody

    Melody How's It Made Addict

    Reputations:
    3,635
    Messages:
    4,174
    Likes Received:
    419
    Trophy Points:
    151
    To answer the initial question: it doesn't no. Games aren't yet hungry enough to eat anywhere near 3Gb of RAM on their own. Mind you, if you have 500 things running at the same time, it might starting being a bit taxing, but I haven't yet encountered a game which by itself could eat that much system RAM.
     
    Melody, Nov 18, 2009
    #10