Envy 14 4gb vs 8gb question

I have a few questions.
Are there any members with mismatch RAM (different manufacture) and is there any notice different in performance between have 4 GB ram and after upgraded to 8GB?
What memory type did you purchase afterwards PC8500, PC10600, or PC10666 (I knew the manual calls for pc10600) but that's the difference between 10600 or 10666 and since i5 runs at 1006 MHz anyways so why not get pc8500?

If someone can be so kind can someone testify that there really is a gain by running a benchmark with 8GB and then running a benchmark with 4GB?

 

The amount of ram you need will vary on your usage. If you multitask and have a lot of programs running at the same time then more ram is better. Some applications like like running a virtual machine or editing photos with Photoshop will benefit with a lot of ram as well.

For standard gaming, 4GB should be more than enough. Just upgrading to 8GB of ram when you're not even utilizing the amount you have already will do nothing to improve your performance.

I upgraded my machine from 4 gig to 6 gig.

G.SKILL 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Laptop Memory Model F3-8500CL7S-4GBSQ

I picked this because it matched the timings of my original memory stick. I needed the extra memory since I run VMWare on top of my Windows OS.

The performance advantage you get from faster memory timings are minuscule compared with other upgrades you can do to a computer, namely upgrading from a HDD to a SSD.

 

Honestly, with things like CPU and RAM for the Envy 14, I think the best policy is that if you have to ask, you don't need it. 4GB is more than enough for most people unless you're doing virtualization, and even then it's still sufficient unless you're doing multiple VMs. SSD is a much better upgrade as Rustican said.

 

if you work with extremely large (1-2GB+) image files in photoshop and creative suite (particularly if you will have them open in multiple apps at once), or if you need to do things like color timing large video files, etc., in video editing apps, then you will benefit from 8GB vs. 4GB. However, even in this case you might experience a greater performance boost from switching to an SSD.

 

I don't know if this is a great policy. Of course, most people will not benefit much by going beyond an i3 or i5 and 4GB RAM, but there are a good number of people out there performing demanding tasks on their computers who may not be familiar with the intricate details of their hardware components.

 

I don't do photo or video and I'm constantly needing more than 4gb when running huge spreadsheet simulations and stat optimizations using genetic algorithms....

 

On my desktop system running Windows 7 with 6GB RAM, I routinely use around 4.5GB, with a variety of my most commonly used applications running at one. Most of the time, no single application is terribly memory-intensive, rather it's a combination of a number of different apps and Web browsers with many tabs open. And, I rarely exceed that 4.5GB unless I'm running an alternative OS in virtualization (which hasn't been terribly often lately).

On my notebooks, none of which currently have more than 4GB of RAM, I'm therefore limited in what I can do. I can't run the same set of applications as I do on my desktop, even though I'd like to: sometimes I run my notebooks with dual screens, and even when I don't I'd like to have the same apps readily available.

And there's the rub. While on my desktop I can have 6GB with full performance (2X1GB and 2X2GB sticks running in dual channel mode), that's not (probably) possible, since I'm limited to two RAM slots. So, it's either limit my productivity with 4GB, accept the (probably slight) performance hit and run 6GB, or jump all the way to 8GB.

For myself, I'm not willing to accept either of the first two options. So, on the Envy 14 I just ordered, I went ahead and ordered 8GB. An SSD might make up for the performance hit from running the RAM in single channel mode, but it's also significantly more expensive than the extra $100 of simply moving to 8GB. And 4GB forces me to make more compromises than I want. Of course, I can still add an SSD later should I find performance lacking, with only a $100 premium, and even then I'm giving up storage space that I can't afford to give up.

I go into this only to make the point that it's not so simple a question to answer. Note that if the Envy can run 6GB from the factory at full speed, then my entire analysis is bogus.

 

Perhaps you could elucidate what you tend to run that uses so much RAM, so others can use your experience as a sort of benchmark to determine how much they'll need.

From a couple hardware reporting programs like Everest, I'm under the impression that a 4 GB stick with a 2 GB stick, in which everything else is the same, can run in semi-dual-channel mode - the first 2 GB of the 4 GB stick run in dual-channel with the other stick. Again, this is based on what Everest and other similar programs report, though I don't know if they actually test this or just base it on a principle they have historically learned to follow.

 

I typically run the following, at least when I can:

- Outlook 2010
- Excel 2010
- Win 7 Evernote client
- FeedDemon
- Tweetdeck
- Windows Live Writer
- Taskangel (Toodledo client)
- A large number of browser windows (20+)
- And then a variety of other apps at times, such as Adobe Reader

Looking at the list, it doesn't seem like so much that it would consume so much RAM, but there you have it. I checked when I was writing this post and didn't have so many things open, and I was using 3.3GB. Granted, that might also be influenced by how Win 7 manages RAM, but as I said at times I'm well into the mid-4GB's.

I did read in another thread that some people were reporting that if the RAM sticks are timed identically then part of the RAM might run in dual channel mode. Maybe it's being a bit of a purist to fret about such little things, but when buying a performance machine I'd rather not cripple it that way.

 

True, but I think generally people who use demanding software know that they're using it, otherwise using it might be difficult. Especially considering if someone is buying a new laptop, their old laptop likely had a bit less RAM. However, I do think that having a lot more RAM than you need can be nice to open up new ways of working that you might not have thought of before, never closing applications when you might want them again.

Also, re: dual channel. I don't know whether it really make any noticeable difference these days; I think you'd notice maybe a 5% real world difference in the best of cases. Obviously, if you want to have the fastest machine, I guess that's important to you, but honestly the Envy 14 isn't that machine. So I don't think it would really matter if you just bought an extra 4GB stick after the fact to upgrade to 6GB, but if you really want to go dual channel just get the single 4GB DIMM and then try to match it.

 

For the applications you are running, worrying about dual channel vs single channel is not necessary. There is a slight gain when using dual channel but it is minuscule at best. You will be able to measure it with benchmarks but it won't be noticeable to the end user. Tom's Hardware did a very good article on this topic found here: Parallel Processing, Part 2: RAM and HDD : Single Or Dual Channel RAM; Single, Dual And Quad Hard Drives

Again, the amount of memory you need will depend on your usage. With lots of applications running, more memory is good. The reason we want to have a lot of RAM in the first place is because we always want to minimize accessing the hard drive which is the slowest thing on the machine so applications will always try to load as much of their components into memory.

The performance improvement that adding a SSD to a machine is orders of magnitude better than dual channel memory settings. Computers are always at the mercy of the slowest component/bottleneck in the system and is most situations it will be the hard drive.

 

I mentioned that I do run virtual machines on occasion, but also meant to mention I do use apps like Photoshop and a variety of video editing apps every now and then as well. I was giving more of an everyday scenario to show that anyone who really multitasks can need more than 4GB of RAM, not just folks who edit large images and run virtual machines.

I agree that for my typical use case dual channel doesn't matter, except in principle (I like to optimize performance where I can). But I also do more hardcore work where I like to know that I'm squeezing all the performance I can out of a system.

In short, I'll say: if $100 was terribly important to me, I'd likely have configured with 6GB RAM and lived with it. However, when I was spending around $1400 on a machine, I decided not to quibble about the extra $100. And, knowing myself, I'd have ended up maxing it out anyways eventually, so I might as well bite the bullet now. Some people subscribe to the idea of buying as much PC as you can afford. I'm one of them.