Gap between 2GB RAM vs. +3GB RAM

[Jack-PC-05]

I just build my new rig with 1 GB RAM, but when I look at system status, Win XP is already hogging 250MB RAM at startup so I only have 770MB RAM to spare, yeah it's Dual Channel so in cyberspace it might be double that, but I don't really believe it. Anyhow, since I had never owned a rig with more than 1 GB RAM, how much difference does it make to have 2 GB RAM? And is the gap between 1 GB RAM and 2 GB RAM bigger than between 2 GB RAM and 4 GB RAM? Is the system considerably faster with 4 GB RAM? Is there any bottleneck issue where rest of the rig can't keep up with 4 GB RAM? The mobo does support up to 4 GB RAM, is it worth the upgrade?

[tuekr]

i don't think you will get much performance gain from 1G to 2G nowadays. It seems that 1G is more than enough for most applications running on todays desktop computer.

[AgentVX]

I read an article sometime back that benchmarked a system with various amounts of RAM. When the amount of RAM gets past a certain point, performance actually decreased. I'm guessing this has to do with the number of addresses in the RAM that the CPU has to look through before finding what it wants. Anyway, I have 1GB of RAM myself and I have yet to see more than 800MB being used at any one time, even when playing very intensive games and the usual background apps running.

[Redfallon]

I have run my rig at home with 1GB ram overclocked quite a bit (in sig) and 2GB running at 200fsb. All differences aside from the OCing, it did feel slightly snappier when running a large number of apps at once, but not enough to justify the price, IMHO. If you're using programs which require a large amount of RAM, or have the $ to spend, go ahead and get as much as ya can, otherwise stick with the GB. It makes a huge difference over say, 256Mb, or even 512Mb. By the way, dual channel doesn't mean it's "double the ram" but double the bandwidth (theoretically) or the amount of information which can be transferred to/from the RAM in one clock cycle.

[roomwithamoose]

WinXP is an enormous resource hog. You may want to go to Black Viper's site and check it out. He has some great articles and tutorials on disabling tons of processes that aren't neccesary. It can sometimes clear up a ton of RAM, like 80-90mb. Give it a try.

[Cricket]

The reason you would want over 1GB of RAM in your system is if your computer is using the swap file a lot when you're doing whatever it is you're doing with your computer. If your computer is not going to the swap file much, adding more RAM won't do a thing except empty your wallet unnecessarily.

But if your computer is going to the swap file a lot because you're working with large programs and large files, then adding more RAM will be worth it. If you've added more RAM but your computer is still using the swap file a lot, then you gotta add even more RAM.

Adding more RAM to your computer doesn't make it physically faster...only upgrading to a faster CPU will do that. What adding more RAM to your computer does is make it more efficient by allowing it to work more in RAM than in the swap file.

Cricket

[roomwithamoose]

If that's the case, then how much RAM do you see on computers that do major film editing and rendering? I'm just curious. Is it around 2 gigs? I have a friend who does editing on a PowerMac G5, and she's got 2.5 gigs on it. What other applications would need that much RAM?