Is it time to upgrade to 8gb ram?

I've been using most of it.

 

It was time for 8GB RAM (assuming maximum O/S performance) since Vista 64bit back in 2007.

Time to upgrade...

 

Oh. o_o
I guess.

And here's another question:
Sager NP5125 thread says the ram is DDR3 1066. But CPU-Z says the ram that I am using is DDR3 1333. Which one should I trust and buy?

 

I would always put in the highest grade ram (1333 or 1600 in this case) that was at the lowest price, unless the 1066 RAM modules were significantly cheaper.

In actual use, with a discrete gpu, you will not be able to notice any differences in any of the three RAM speeds we're talking about here - unless you're using a benchmarking program (and we know how well that translates to real world results. ).

 

Buy the 1333, it will just downclock to what your board supports

 

Ah, mk, thank youuuu.

 

"Physical Memory: 94%" means that you have already been late in the upgrade.

My physical mem usage varies between 25-30%.

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XD.
I see. Thank you.
Too bad my laptop can only support 8gb max.

 

My laptop officially supports up to 4GB, though I've seen at least 1 example where someone upgraded to 8GB no problem (the only difference is that mine is DDR2 - which is a bit expensive, however, I think it's worth it).

8GB is definitely needed if you use x64 OS (6GB would be the nice medium for average users).

 

As said above - 4GB is not enough (it is enough to just WORK, but not if speed and responsiveness matters!), 6GB is absolutely fine for most (I upgraded from 4 to 6 and was working like that for a long time! Oh and I am a heavy multitasker + disabled pagefile!). But if the price is no issue for you - you can upgrade to 8GB directly.

It is however very likely that you will not feel any difference between 6 and 8 GB (depending on your usage of course).

 

Yep, time to upgrade. I disagree with people saying 4GB isn't enough though for simple day to day use. My RAM usage for most day to day tasks doesn't go over 2.5GB, but i tend to keep windows installations as slim as i can make them. It is true that 6 or 8 GB will make everything feel snappier but by fractions of a second.

If you do something the average joe usually doesn't (video editing, very large file transfer) or your RAM usage is as high as yours, then it's time to get more.

Currently at 2.37GB ~15 tabs opened in Opera and a couple of programs opened though nothing intensive.

 

Came in to say no.

For you, yes.

 

8GB didn't make financial sense for the mainstream until 2010.

 

Agree. I run at 4GB without issue, although I don't ever have things running in the background.

 

Charles, I agree. But the price doesn't matter if the O/S's available couldn't leverage the additional RAM in the first place. Even $50 for 4GB pre-Vistax64 days was $50 wasted (which you couldn't find if you tried).

As an aside: it made financial sense (from a spreadsheet perspective) for my business in middle/late 2009 when 8GB was ~$400 (for my notebooks, my desktop workstations were already at 8GB's by then) - but had I known what an increase in productivity (easily 60%...) I would have actually experienced I would have been smarter to buy them at double that price.

I really believe that a platform should be fully optimized/spec'd as early in it's lifecycle as possible to get the most bang for the buck from it - with prices so low on 8GB systems, even for websurfing it seems a crime to save $50 (over the lifetime of the system!) and watch your system behave like a type of digital senior citizen months/years before it's time...

Adding the RAM just before you sell it (within the year, if its so close to it's end of life) may be cheaper - but then, so is the benefits derived from forgoing a new system, built to the current 'optimum' level (and for an SNB system, it is easily 16GB RAM right now).

People who look at Task Manager and say they're only using 2.5GB out of 4GB (therefore: no need for more RAM) simply do not get how much better Windows 'breathes' with more than the XP equivalent of 128MB minimum to *'run properly'*.

 

Yes 8gb is a good upgrade, make sure you get sticks with a good latency and voltage that also effects the speed

 

Alright thanks guys.
I ordered 8gb ram today.
This one:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR 8GB (2 x 4GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO8GX3M2A1333C9
You may now lock and close this thread.

 

Nah.. I am wondering what it will say for your "Physical Memory percentage".


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I'm guessing around 50%.

 

Yup. I was only using about 1.5-2GB of RAM back when I used 4GB. But if you check the "resource manager" it showed that my Static RAM (cache) was 2-2.5GB large with 0 free RAM. Moved to 8GB and now I have a 6GB cache.

 

what does it mean by "cached" in resource monitor? does it mean its caching windows/files/frequently used stuff so the system will be more responsive?

 

Yeah, i believe he is refering to what windows 7 calls standby memory or RAM loaded with apps you use frequently. If you need it for something else since it is not technically in use, windows will allocate it to the program needing it but it is pre loaded with frequently apps to speed things up.

As i'm typing this, i' currently sit at 2GB/2GB Used/Standby, the old N50 won't take more than 4GB RAM anyways.

 

Yup, ram is cheap and there's no reason not to if you have the money and in the process up upgrading other components on your laptop.

However if you're just looking to upgrade your ram from 4GB to 8GB and expect and big change in performance, you maybe disappointed; it'll be better but not game changing.

A good option would be upgrade to a SSD before you upgrade to 8GB ram is you already have 4GB installed, doing both upgrading would be the best and you'll definitely notice a performance increase.

 

With precaching aside, if you don't regularly come close to your max RAM then there's not really much point in upgrading unless you're thrashing your page file.

 

Yes... but why would we put superfetch/ caching aside when that's a huge part of your performance?

 

Yes. System files, frequently accessed files, etc will be loaded into RAM to reduce disk I/O and to act as buffer.

 

Simply put with more ram Windows will use more ram. So for instance is you idle at 1.5GB now with 4GB it'll be close to 2.5GB idle with 8GB, this is to my understanding but I'm not 100% sure.

Also, Windows will cache more programs into the ram that it couldn't have limited by 4GB that's if you have a lot of programs installed with 8GB ram.

I currently use anywhere from 2GB to 3GB with 4GB of ram on daily basis and just about 4GB with a game open, I'd expecting my usage to increase to anywhere from 3GB to 6GB with 8GB ram.

While 8GB is not going to change performance is games, I think with 4GB Windows limits itself to conserve and use less memory for the OS and programs. By going to 8GB, Windows will and programs will use more ram thus resulting in smoother overall experience.

 

Nah, it's less of the fact that you'll see it move from 2GB to 3GB (though some programs will) and more of the fact that Windows will always find files to add to its cache.

You'll hit your disk less often and your overall experience is faster.

 

i thought a lot of the caching features were removed and superfetch toned down in win 7 from vista because of the hard drive trashing that it caused...consumers were not happy with that

 

With more RAM windows won't page things as agressively but the fact is that 4GB was more than enough for almost anything when vista came out and windows 7 uses uses even less RAM. Most programs still won't use more than a few hundred MB of memory.

Unless I'm mistaken and microsoft has somehow managed to magically alter windows so that it's gt crack-cravings for more RAM then the whole 8GB minimum thing is BS.

Also, anyone who preaches the "doubles your number of cores in GB of RAM" saying probably doesn't know how computers use RAM in the first place.

/sarcasm

 

Well, I got the ram today. I'll install it and post up results tomorrow.

 

Hope it all works out.

 

I noticed I don't have a screwdriver. :[
Should I do like... temperature, 3DMark06, and blah?

 

Meh, if you want. It won't really make a difference, all that matters is how the computer feels for you.

I don't notice too much difference except for VM's and Civ5.

 

good idea to run a stress test for stability just to make sure you didnt get a bad stick of ram.

 

I was too lazy to do either. But I did walk 2 miles to Ace Hardware and back to buy a screwdriver.

Temperatures:


Usage:


Looks like something happened with the sensor or something?