How much RAM is sufficient?

I recently bought the M15x in my signature from The_Moo. As you can see, its packing 3gb ram. I haven't received the rig yet, but while I'm waiting I'm just wondering if 3gb would be sufficient that it wouldnt be a bottleneck during gaming, or if I should just replace the 1gb ram stick with a 2gb one.

 

I'm not sure about gaming, but the general rule is for Windows 7 32bit 2GB and for Windows 7 64bit 4GB of ram works great.

 

I would say that the general rule is 3GB for Windows 32-bit and 4GB for Windows 64-bit.

 

Hmm, general rule is great, but I was more wondering if I would be seeing a bottleneck in gaming performance with 3gb or not.. Because I'll probably upgrade to 4gb anyway at some point, question is if I should just buy the ram now, or if I can just do it later... But ok, if I go for a 2gb ram stick, any reccomendations regarding which one to get? does it make a difference? Unfortunately I do not know if my m15 will be coming with 1033mh or 1333mhz ram :/

 

Then what's the question? Just buy the 2GB stick once you know what memory you have. You should always go for matching memory.

 

Doubt you'll notice any difference from 3GB to 4GB for what I assume you will be using the notebook for (gaming).

 

i say you replace those 3gb for a matching 2x2gb stick. OC that baby and let it fly. never trust those ram that comes with it. your ram will probably be 1033. shoot for 1333 if possible.

 

Well, with 3 GB you lose your dual channel ability. I would open it up, take a look at what the 2GB stick is, and buy one to match it.

 

is there a large difference between 1033 and 1333 ram? and where is this difference pronounced? Also, how on earth does on OC RAM... Man, seems like there is hardly anything out there one cant oc... ram, cpu gpu.. screen resolution?

 

I don't think you'll see any noticable improvement with 1333 vs 1066

I wouldn't OC it either...

 

For gaming I'd say you need 4GB's. When playing Far Cry 2, my memory usage went over 80%.(I have 4GB's).

 

the M15x come with 1333.
atleast mine did. but im not sure if all icore processor use that speed.

but it doesnt matter cause you feel any improvement.

4GB sufficient, unless you are using virtual machines. (if you are you would know what you need more than anyone else)

 

Don't worry about matching the sticks. It does not matter at all. If you want 4GB just buy a single 2GB 1333Mhz stick. But I recommend first getting the laptop and trying it out to see if you need it.

 

My brother is running a desktop with a Core i7-920 and a GeForce 275 GTX along with 3GB of RAM in Win7 64-bit - for him, the RAM is never the bottleneck while gaming. The only reason you'd need more is if you have other more-RAM-intensive calculation-based programs.

 

This is false, 1+2GB sticks will still run in dual channel, asynchronously. Your computer will use more memory if you have more memory free but 3GB will suffice for gaming without any noticeable difference in most games beyond that.

 

i'd get 4GB and windows 7 64bit.. also doesn't matter if you have matching memory or not.. but get matching.. also get 1066MHz at most as i5 processors can't use 1333MHz RAM and the RAM will downclock to 1066MHz.

 

sean473 is absolutely right. The memory controller in i3 and i5 series CPUs can use only DDR3 1066. The memory controller in i7 series CPUs can use DDR3 1066 or 1333, so to make use of 1333 RAM You would need an i7 CPU.