would 4gb or ram make a difference in gaming?

Hello,

I am currently in the market for a gaming notebook, and I seem to have my mind set on the Asus gs1-a1 notebook. It is a lot cheaper then what i expected, and as such I thought about getting a ram upgrade. Would there be a difference in games if I bought 4gb of ram as opposed to 2gb?

Thanks

 

There will not be much improvement in gaming performance. 4 GB of RAM is useful with Vista 64-bit.

 

I recently went from 2GB > 4GB in my desktop. I am running 64-bit XP so I am able to see and use all 4GB. The only reason I upgraded was for Crysis and I did see a small but noticeable performance improvement. So, if you're running a 64-bit OS then 4GB may be worth it. However with a 32-bit OS you'll only see ~3GB so it is not worth it to buy 2x 2GB sticks. Instead, buy one 2GB stick, put it in place of one of the 1GB ones that come with the laptop, and have 3GB. That should give you a decent improvement in Crysis.
I did not see any other improvements in any other games due to the upgrade, so it only matters in extreme situations.

 

If you plan to use XP on it then that 4GB RAM wouldn't make a difference as it wouldn't support that much RAM. If however, you were to use Vista-64 bit then as the wise and almighty jetstar said, it would clear up a few correctly stereotyped Vista issues. With that Asus you could probably play most games on close to max settings quite smoothly so I wouldn't be too concerned about giving it a RAM upgrade anyway and also although RAM does make a difference to games - you need a certain amount to be able to play them properly - graphics take over priority for desency when you reach that specified RAM value.

EDIT: Go with what Chaz says - he knows what he's talking about.

 

Possibly. I am running Vista 32bit with 4GB of RAM on my desktop.(I know only 3GB of recognized, at least on my rig, but I planning on going 64bit eventually).

I've noticed that Gears of War actually taps into 2+ GB of RAM, so it certainly couldn't hurt.

 

I don't get why I keep seeing this EVERYWHERE... Looks like unsubstantiated BS does spread--and they spread FAST.

News flash: ALL 32Bit OS's do NOT support 4GB of RAM--yes, that includes XP AND Vista!

Only 64bit OS's can support more than 3.2GB.

More RAM never hurts .

 

It always helps those games with big maps and textures to be rendered to have 4 Gb of Ram. For Vista to run smooth as a whistle, 4 GB is a must. 2 gb is just your casual and very pacient user. I'm not, so here's to 4 gbs

 

I think of getting a 1GB stick (3GB total) but then i lose my dual channel....
Is a dual channel really that much better?

 

Nowadays, not really. You should not worry about DC, rather than having more memory.
There are some pretty good RAM deals on the forum, check them out under Tech Bargains