get 8 gigs of ram and vista 64?

[grimREEFER]

im debating whether to do this. the main motivation is cost, ddr2 is so cheap nowadays. the alternative would be keeping my 2 gigs and sticking with vista 32. the only thing stopping me is im not really sure what the benefits of having so much ram and a 64 bit os is now, and how much it will benefit in the future.

[SoulsCollective]

8GB of RAM shows no performance increase over 4GB in ordinary desktop apps and games. This has been tested and tested, a search should bring up the old threads. 4GB, however, shows a significant performance increase over 2GB, especially when running Vista. Having run both x86 Vista on 2GB and x86_64 Vista on 4GB I can tell you that it's a lot more pleasant on 4GB and 64-bit.

[martymonster]

Depends on what you are going to use it for.

I have Vista 64 Ultimate with 8GBs

I went from 4 to 8GB and never looked back.
I am constantly using over 4GB especially when running VMware to access Windows XP to run my work applications.

Google earth loves 8GB, it caches heaps.

[RADCOM]

Depends on what you are going to use it for.

I have Vista 64 Ultimate with 8GBs

I went from 4 to 8GB and never looked back.
I am constantly using over 4GB especially when running VMware to access Windows XP to run my work applications.

Google earth loves 8GB, it caches heaps.

exactly, it dpends entirely on what you do with your system. I personally think you can neve have enough memory or cores lol and the bigest bit OS :) Seriously 64bit Vista and 8GB ram is sweeeeeeet

[SoulsCollective]

Depends on what you are going to use it for.
...
I am constantly using over 4GB especially when running VMware to access Windows XP to run my work applications.
As I said (added emphasis) -
8GB of RAM shows no performance increase over 4GB in ordinary desktop apps and games.
Running virtual machines I'm not surprised you're needing more than 4GB.

[XtremeBawls]

Not to change the subject, but are any of you having problems with 64-bit OS compatabilty with drivers, software, etc.?

[Scubar]

None whatsoever. The only time you will get problems with 64bit and Drivers is if its old hardware.

[XtremeBawls]

Thanks, because i may go 64-bit since I am going to 4 gigs of ram.

[Kayin]

64 bit vista and 8 GB RAM=very little I feel needs ANY work on this PC atm. No page file=sweet...

[MaxxxRacer]

Another argument is that Vista puts everything it can into the prefetch. With 8GB you have arseloads of preftech available for all your apps. For me it is useful and I will most likely go for the 8GB Vista64 route later this year when I move to Intel.

[LagunaX]

This changed my mind for x64 vista and 4gb ram (currently switching from x86 vista and 4gb ram):
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=191551

[tyxeros]

Depends on what you are going to use it for.

I have Vista 64 Ultimate with 8GBs

I went from 4 to 8GB and never looked back.
I am constantly using over 4GB especially when running VMware to access Windows XP to run my work applications.

Google earth loves 8GB, it caches heaps.

Google Earth is 64bit app? It can utilize more than 2GB ram if it is 32bit app?

[Andrew LB]

Not to change the subject, but are any of you having problems with 64-bit OS compatabilty with drivers, software, etc.?

None at all. Been running Vista 64-bit with 4gb ram, raid, SLI, etc for 6 months now. I would never turn back.

[Serra]

Another thing to keep in mind is that 8GB is much harder to OC. I'm not really complaining about my 8GB (it was cheap ), but it offers poor terrible OC performance. Each bunch does OK as a 4GB kit, but together... well...

[In case you're wondering, 8GB can be useful if you're using VM's and other emulation programs - no difference over 4GB for anything else as far as I can tell].

[Andrew LB]

I definitely saw a jump in performance when doing heavy video work with Adobe Premier CS3. Even in Photoshop CS3 when you're dealing with huge files.

[LagunaX]

Well, switched over.
3dmark06 and Vantage scores are the same.
Superpi is the same.
Ntune crashes with Vista x64 business but that's ok as the EVGA precision overclocking utility works.
Can't use Spyware Doctor anymore but Superantispyware isn't bad.
Can't use Vista Smoker Pro either.
Haven't encoded any video yet.
Vista experience index cpu score increased from 5.8 to 5.9.

However does seem a bit snappier.

I'll keep it for my 4gb system and my other 2gb system will stay on x86.