Is there any tangible performance boost going from 2Gig to 4+Gigs of ram?

[Eastcoasthandle]

A lot of people are buying 4Gigs and higher of ram regardless of OS is being used. Yet I have not found any tangible evidence suggesting that 4 Gigs+ is really any benefit vs 2 Gigs. After further research I realize that found no tangible benefits like those found going from 512megs to 2Gigs. I like to know if there is any tangible proof (through benchmark methods) that going from 2 Gigs to 4+Gigs of ram increase performance. Programs like Winrar benchmark/hardware test, Everest, Sandra, etc are good starting points. Is there any such review?

I would like to differentiate between:
XP Pro(which uses up to 3.5Gigs from what I've seen)
XP 64
Vista 32
Vista 64

From what I've seen so far most games really don't benefit from the extra ram but I am not sure about programs like MS Office, Photoshop, etc. If there is such review could you provide me a link? If you tested this yourself in another thread/forum could you provide the link?

Thanks

[Tonucci]

IIRC there is an small boost, as it enables 4 way bank interleaving. Not sure how it woks nowadays.

[Kondik]

Vista x64 Definetly , 32 Bit systems are limited with 1024 MB per Process Max. And by the way X64 Ultimate + 8 GB ram = no swap = fast breeze

[xMrBunglex]

i have 2 gigs and the only times i've ever used 100% of it were when i was compiling video. none of the other things i do with my computer even use the 2 gigs i have. i'm running XP though.

[WrigleyVillain]

I don't know, I mainly upgraded to 4GB as it's so cheap right now. Though I do dual boot XP 32 and 64. However, when my system memory running STALKER under XP 32, for example, was up to almost 1600MB used, I figured the extra 1.5GB can't at all hurt. The less it has to hit swap the better, of course.

[Woland]

When I went from 2 to 4GB on Vista 64 things felt substantially smoother. Whether its faster or not is hard to say, but the overall experience is nicer.

[Kondik]

Depends on what you do .. Photoshop , 3DSMax , Huge Excel Database tables and 6 GB of RAM *poof*

[Eastcoasthandle]

So far practical everyday home PC use (including gaming) going from 2gigs to 4+gigs provides at best a placebo effect on performance (until there are benchmarks that show otherwise).

[tommyshango]

its more than placebo. its much faster.

[Eastcoasthandle]

its more than placebo. its much faster.

based on what performance results?

[Linchpin]

Not much/hardly any difference to gaming and benchmarks, Vista does seem to run much nicer and smoother. Since memory is so cheap nowadays 4Gb is worth it imo since things will use more in the future not less.

[64dragon]

as others said, it depends on what programs you use/what you do. i'm now using 4gb and installed solidworks 08 last week (i'm an engineering student) and as soon as i started the program upon install it used up 2gb. on average, when crunching and have aim and opera open with 8 tabs i dont use more than 1gb. imo, grab a pair of ram for like $30 AR and dont worry about it

[S1mon-]

I use 2 GB with either XP or Vista 32 bits (Dual-boot) and I haven't had any problem with games or major lagging issues... That's why I'm not going the 4GB way for now... My first 4GB set will probably be DDR3 next year ;)

[Fujimitsu]

Unless you use any kind of "professional" applications (solidworks, encoding, modeling) then just stick to 2gb for now.

DDR2 prices are so cheap I can see just springing the $30 extra for 4gb, but you probably won't notice in about 98% of situations.

[Tonucci]

IIRC there is an small boost, as it enables 4 way bank interleaving. Not sure how it woks nowadays.

I misunderstood the topic, my bad.

Well, from my understanding, as long as you dont run out of RAM, performance will be the same, regardless of the total amount. Doesnt swap only occurs when you run out of physical memory ? If you keep your OS RAM footprint low, and close unecessery apps, 2Gb is enough for games. But not for long tho...

[Jochenp]

I use my computer as an audio studio, therefor 4gigs of ram really helps me. Try running ableton live, sony soundforge, mixmeister fusion and some vst plugins at the same time and you'll understand.

[Ezekiell]

Do Crysis benefits from 4GB vs 2GB?
I'm building a system only for Age of Conan *MMO for the 20th May 2008 and I wondering If I should think about putting 4GB

[adamsleath]

4gigs for vista 32/64 i think.

i saw some games tests (with bf2 and 2142) for 2gig and 4gig with vista 32, and the 4gig vista system was a little bit ahead of the 2gig vista system.

[Andrew LB]

IMO, it's pretty much pointless to buy more than 2gb of ram unless you're running a 64-bit OS which can actually address a full 4gb. With Vista 32-bit, my setup only recognized 2.8gb of the 4gb I had installed due to memory addressing issues.

As for Crysis... I did have a performance boost when running it in 64-bit mode with 4gb of ram vs. 32-bit vista and 2gb or 4gb.

[Serra]

In XP (any flavor/type) I've never seen a difference doing what I would consider average computing tasks between 2GB and 4GB. Obviously you will be able to find tasks which can require more, but whether you use them or not is really the deciding factor. If not, your money is better spent on other components.

[AbuSom3a]

Slightly smoother performance in Vista and lower loading times in games. That's about it for the average user.

[Mic]

I also noticed a 20-25 fps boost in crysis with 4GB vs 2GB in vista64

[Linchpin]

20-25FPS? I seriously doubt that, got any proof?

[Emerica]

I recently purchased a 4GB kit, I was thinking for $95 why not?

[Eastcoasthandle]

4gigs for vista 32/64 i think.

i saw some games tests (with bf2 and 2142) for 2gig and 4gig with vista 32, and the 4gig vista system was a little bit ahead of the 2gig vista system.

Can you provide a link of where you saw this?

[Eastcoasthandle]

IMO, it's pretty much pointless to buy more than 2gb of ram unless you're running a 64-bit OS which can actually address a full 4gb. With Vista 32-bit, my setup only recognized 2.8gb of the 4gb I had installed due to memory addressing issues.

As for Crysis... I did have a performance boost when running it in 64-bit mode with 4gb of ram vs. 32-bit vista and 2gb or 4gb.

I also noticed a 20-25 fps boost in crysis with 4GB vs 2GB in vista64



Is it asking to much to provide some SS of your gpu benchmark results using 2Gig then with 4Gig at the same resolution?

[AbuSom3a]

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=667

[[XC] Synthetickiller]

I use over 2 gigs in vista 64 ultimate more times than not. YAY MULTITASKING!

I do not know how well ultimate runs games w/ 2 gigs. I did notice that Unreal tournament 3 pushed my ram to 2.1 gigs w/o running anything else.

[billb]

One link... one test... PFFFFT!

[Kondik]

No really if you use just games you can stick with 2 - 4 GB's the games are still 32 bit [ sorry for X64 crysis and so on ] and still can just adress 1024 MB's max for one process so system ram [ 1GB for XP , 2 for Vista ] + 1 GB for games and you're ready to go everywhere you want.

But as i Said .. i can eat 6 GB's without problems so i preffer 8 and its really faster to switch off the pagefile and use just ram instead of 2 - 4 GB's and Pagefile on .

So generally

32 2+ , 64 4 - 8 debends on your work and 8 GB is cheap today so i don;t see a reason why not

[adamsleath]

Can you provide a link of where you saw this?

no
:hehe:
the article i saw was old, back when vista first came out.

oo i found it again; here's the linky:
http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3135&Itemid=40&limit=1&limitstart=2
10 October 2006
and i made an ERROR it is comparing 2gb to 4gb in 64 bit vista ultimate...not 32...
whether the games are actually being run with 32bit emulation (or whatever) i dont know.
http://www.bcchardware.com/gallery/albums/VistaRAM/BF2142.sized.jpg

18 poossent difference in this test between 2gb and 4gb in 64bit vista.

[Mic]

20-25FPS? I seriously doubt that, got any proof?
Was a bit shocked myself had expected maybe 5-6 fps. Didn't even have anything running in the background. Ill test it when i get my 8800 gtx back from RMA, right now im using some old ati card which can't even run it.

[Xcel]

I recently upgraded to 4GB ram under winxp32 even though it won't recognize it all and because it would have been a waste to just buy 2x512mb sticks.

I don't think I ever used up 2GB under normal conditions in xp 32 but when I edit videos and special effects in After Effects I did notice a great improvement after the upgrade. With only 2GB of memory before, AFX could use up everything and then multitasking really sucked, now it's not a problem anymore :) I'm running it without the 3GB switch so AFX 'only' uses 2GB which leaves the rest of my memory for all other applications

Another nice thing is, I already have 4GB when I upgrade to a 64bit OS.

[Origin_Unknown]

is it true that vista 64 benefits from 8gb?

[Mic]

is it true that vista 64 benefits from 8gb?
Depends on what you do. For regular use, you probably won't see any gain in 8GB as windows mostly likely won't use half of it.
But you could use the 4GB for a superfast ram disk, where you keep certain applications or small games for instant load.

[Eastcoasthandle]

http://www.legionhardware.com/document.php?id=667

Thank you, this is what I was looking for!








no
:hehe:
the article i saw was old, back when vista first came out.

oo i found it again; here's the linky:
http://www.bcchardware.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3135&Itemid=40&limit=1&limitstart=2
10 October 2006
and i made an ERROR it is comparing 2gb to 4gb in 64 bit vista ultimate...not 32...
whether the games are actually being run with 32bit emulation (or whatever) i dont know.
http://www.bcchardware.com/gallery/albums/VistaRAM/BF2142.sized.jpg

18 poossent difference in this test between 2gb and 4gb in 64bit vista.


Thank you very much :up:

[MikeB12]

2x2gb pc8000 kit..

open apps - 2 smp's, FF 1 window, media center

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4435/89875257pf6.jpg

[Eastcoasthandle]

After a few reviews it appears that the best benefit of adding ram came when we went from 1gig to 2gigs. Regardless of what OS you use adding 2 more gigs just doesn't show any real benefit vs cost.

[Kondik]

As i said before x64 4 GB + is a must have , 8GB+ if you want to tur off the page file and don't get BSOD's as you get at 4 GB's with Pagefile off