Anyone with 4GB wish they had more RAM?

Hello everyone,
I recently purchased a laptop with 4GB of RAM (32 bit OS but whatever).
One question I had for people who already have 4GB is: Are you ever in a situation where you tell yourself "****, I wish I had more RAM!"?

If so, when does this situation usually pop up?

 

Yes, and i bought 4 more gb and love it. I was running 64 bit with the 4gbs too so i was using it all.

I noticed i would use 70-75% ram with 4gb often after using it for a while (about 3gb). Now im using 3gb ram and its only 35%. The more ram you have the more programs can be superfetched...let me tell you, photoshop opening in 3 seconds flat is awesome!

 

I've got 4GB and I consider going to 8 sometimes (so cheap, why not?)... but I don't, because I don't need it. The most I ever fill is 3GB, and that's some serious multi-tasking. I boot to Vista with 1.25GB used. The truth is 99% of people won't be able to utilize 4GB of memory for a very long time, and 2-3GB is plenty. Especially with your 32 bit OS, you shouldn't really upgrade.

 

Exactly. A lot of people with 4 GB can't even use 3 GB. The problem is, there is a misconception about RAM, many users think the more RAM they have, the faster their system will be, but this is only when your system doesn't have enough RAM in the first place. Once it has enough RAM, even if you put another 4 GB into it, it won't make it any faster.

 

Xp is the best operating system, my systems idle at 180-200mb of memory

I cant see why anyone could need more than 4gb in a laptop, it is just unneccesary. I make by with 2gb and I can never even use all 2gb of it.
On my homemade Tyan server I have 16gb of ddr Pc3200 ECC memory, and even with the ridiculous video editing and CAD I do on it, I still cant break over the 4gb mark for memory usage.
I think the only time I actually was able to use more memory was when running memtest.

3600th post

K-TRON

 

Why did you put 16GB of RAM in that server if you only ever us 4? 6-8GB sounds like it would have been a more logical approach.

 

You only ever need as much RAM as what most demanding application you run requires. For applications today (save perhaps high-end CAD programs), requirements rarely even surpass 2GB. For now, I merely enjoy not having to worry about my memory consumption since I have so much; and that I've at least given my laptop a slightly longer life.

 

Well I had the memory lying around which I bought from a friend, and for the price, hey why not have 16gb.

K-TRON

 

****! I figured ECC PC3200 was probably expensive in what do you have... 8x2GB?

 

The computer uses it if you have it. Like i said, My computer sits with 3gbs used now that i have 8 gbs where as it sat with 1gb when i had 2gbs, and 2gbs when i had 4gbs. It seems to me that vista can utilize the bump to 8gbs from 4gbs, but it wont benefit from any further than that. If i were running xp i wouldnt bother with 8gbs.

 

I think that if you are running Vista 64bit, you probably need more that 2GB.

I feel that my system is often suffocated by the lack of memory (2GB here), so I am planning on moving to 4GB.

I don't think that it would make much of a difference moving from 4 to 8GB, but from 2 to 4 it would definitely be much better.

 

I just bought 4GB ... (had 2 before).

But I bought it not because I needed it, but because the GFs latitude D630 had only 1GB, and instead of buying her another 1GB I upgraded mine to 4 and gave her my old 2x1GB modules, lol .. (still have 1GB DIMM not in use now)

anyways, I see 3GB in XP, plenty of RAM, lol. However, the new RAM has 4-4-4-12 timing, so it's somewhat faster - very little noticeable though.

for XP all you need is 2 GB
for Vista all you need is 3GB

 

Why does everyone have this misconception that you need more memory for Vista X64 than for X86? The extra address space taken up by the 64 bit address scheme is so minimal, you won't notice it being gone at all.

I tend to agree more with the below, however for me, it's 3GB or less - XP 32 bit
4GB or more - Vista, 64 bit

 

Not true. I'm running Vista 64-bit with 2 gb, and it runs great! Noticeably faster than 32-bit Vista, which I had before. My RAM usage is about the same as it was in 32-bit Vista... I haven't even seen my RAM usage get up to 1.5 gb yet. It's using 1.1 gb right now, with Firefox using about 100 mb.

I would advise anyone who wants to run Vista with 2gb of RAM to use the 64-bit version as long as they don't need the extra compatibility that 32-bit Vista offers.

Call Dell (or do online chat) and ask them to send you the 64-bit version (if this is Vista). See this thread for details on what to say to them: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=254817
If you have Business or Ultimate edition they should do it. With other editions... people have reported varying results.

 

Lol I would like to have 8gb of ram on my m1330. Just to break the limit...

 

Tell me about it!