# Is it possible to use 8 gigs of ram?



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 18, 2007)

hey.

Iam just in a thoughtful mood and would like to know if it is possible to use 8 gigs of RAM? I have seen some mobos that can fit a max of 8 gigs of ram..but if Win XP can use only 3gigs and 64-bit can use 4....can vista use 8 gigs?? what do you need in order to use all 8gigs?? or is that not possible yet???


----------



## Darknova (Aug 18, 2007)

Theoretically Vista can use all 8Gb. XP was never designed to use 8Gb even if the x64 version can support it.

It's a waste of money to be honest. Just get a pair of 1Gb sticks and OC the hell out of them, or get 4 1Gb sticks. 8Gb is a waste though unless you do serious memory intensive work, or intend on running a server.


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 18, 2007)

Sweet thanks!! When I heard of an 8gig mobo I was kinda wondering..hmm..it is possible after all! thats good I guess. Iam just keeping my eyes open..when I do buy myself a new mobo/cpu and ram I am unsure weather to go 2gigs or 4gigs...then maybe once the prices drop for the ram I might as well buy another 4


----------



## mullered07 (Aug 18, 2007)

you wont need 8gigs for a few years yet and at that time im pretty sure youll have a new rig and mobo, 2gb sticks are expensive, go with a 2x1gb kit and upgrade to 4x1gb when you can/need to


----------



## tkpenalty (Aug 19, 2007)

lol 8GB of RAM ISNT useless... honestly Vista with 8GB of RAM Would run way better, due to the super fetch. If you are doing something like a crazy PS 8GB of RAM is nearly satisfactory (in the case of Ex_reven)


----------



## Disparia (Aug 19, 2007)

Video and photo work. My friends and I are all on 4GB systems and will be moving to 8GB soon (along with C2Q's).

That's not to say it's a need - we edited our first full length movie on P3-733 with 384MB - it's just that 8GB of memory is so cheap these days and we will put it to use.


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 19, 2007)

sweet! That would be pretty cool....to have 8gigs of RAm...sweet!!

But I guess I wont go 8gigs or even 4gigs for a few more years!! well...maybe 4gigs by the end of the year...depends really


----------



## HookeyStreet (Aug 19, 2007)

Irish_PXzyan said:


> sweet! That would be pretty cool....to have 8gigs of RAm...sweet!!
> 
> But I guess I wont go 8gigs or even 4gigs for a few more years!! well...maybe 4gigs by the end of the year...depends really



I hope to go 4GB by XMAS......as long as it doesnt effect my overclocking


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Aug 19, 2007)

Most motherboards can house a maximum of 16GB or even 32GB. For Vista64 I'd suggest no less than 4GB if you plan on using it as it currently is. I made a thread about an AnandTech article detailing the issue with the 2GB barrier with 32bit Windows and the issues with 64bit. 

Might be worth a read.


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2007)

Actually most desktop boards list 8GB as their max, 4x2GB. Mine supports 24GB, no clue why I'd want that though. The more expensive models  support even more.


----------



## mullered07 (Aug 19, 2007)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> Actually most desktop boards list 8GB as their max, 4x2GB. Mine supports 24GB, no clue why I'd want that though. The more expensive models  support even more.



is there even a possibility to have more than 8gb? ive never heard of 4gb modules


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 19, 2007)

wtf! 32GB.....seriously...who buys that much RAM???

I will read that article right away!


----------



## HookeyStreet (Aug 19, 2007)

Irish_PXzyan said:


> wtf! 32GB.....seriously...who buys that much RAM???



Guys with servers I suppose


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 19, 2007)

Well then! thats costly!
I bet the PC runs brilliantly tho! 

How would having more RAM effect your OCing?


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2007)

Haven't seen normal 4GB DDR2 modules for sale as far as I can remember, however you can buy 4GB FB-DIMM's quite easily. Besides that, having more memory slots helps, need registered memory for that though.


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Aug 19, 2007)

Not just servers... some enthusiast broads such as the abit Fatal1ty boards - I use the mATX boards in the rigs for my clients. If you notice that one is 16GB and the full ATX Fatal1ty board can support 32GB. I want at least 8GB low latency by the time I'm ready to build another rig - Quad Core, 8GB DDR2 (or 3) and a relatively low power consuming GFX card, along with a highly efficient _green_ PSU. What else could I ask for?


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2007)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Not just servers... some enthusiast broads such as the abit Fatal1ty boards - I use the mATX boards in the rigs for my clients. If you notice that one is 16GB and the full ATX Fatal1ty board can support 32GB. I want at least 8GB low latency by the time I'm ready to build another rig - Quad Core, 8GB DDR2 (or 3) and a relatively low power consuming GFX card.



32GB would require 8GB modules which aren't available as far as I know. And I don't think it could have more slots due to non-reg memory being limited to 4 slots. The bus simply can't handle more modules.


----------



## Disparia (Aug 19, 2007)

mullered07 said:


> is there even a possibility to have more than 8gb? ive never heard of 4gb modules



Some 2P Xeon and Opteron boards will do 64GB over 16 DIMMs. But 4GB sticks are quite expensive.

32GB would be nice - have 24GB set aside for a RAM drive


----------



## HookeyStreet (Aug 19, 2007)

InnocentCriminal said:


> Not just servers... some enthusiast broads such as the abit Fatal1ty boards - I use the mATX boards in the rigs for my clients. If you notice that one is 16GB and the full ATX Fatal1ty board can support 32GB. I want at least 8GB low latency by the time I'm ready to build another rig - Quad Core, 8GB DDR2 (or 3) and a relatively low power consuming GFX card, along with a highly efficient _green_ PSU. What else could I ask for?



One thing I dont understand is....how can it support  RAM that doesnt exist (ie an 8GB stick) 
(or does it require the use of some kind of RAM 'bridge'?)


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 19, 2007)

bloody hell!!!! 64gigs here I come!!!


----------



## Zero Cool (Aug 19, 2007)

3D modelers use 8GB of ram, and Dual Quad Core CPUs

this shit needs alot of power


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Aug 19, 2007)

HookeyStreet said:


> One thing I dont understand is....how can it support  RAM that doesnt exist (ie an 8GB stick)
> (or does it require the use of some kind of RAM 'bridge'?)



It's probably just marketing I would have thought. They're probably expecting a memory company to release 8GB sticks or higher at some point. I wouldn't be suprised if they were released at a later date. You know what this industry is like.

As we're talking about RAM - anyone using these? Been looking for them everywhere but they're not on sale in the UK.


----------



## HookeyStreet (Aug 19, 2007)

InnocentCriminal said:


> I wouldn't be suprised if they were released at a later date. You know what this industry is like.



Too true m8


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2007)

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000P/X7DBi+.cfm

Try something along these lines.


----------



## HookeyStreet (Aug 19, 2007)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000P/X7DBi+.cfm
> 
> Try something along these lines.



OMFG!!!!!


----------



## 3991vhtes (Aug 19, 2007)

Darknova said:


> Theoretically Vista can use all 8Gb. XP was never designed to use 8Gb even if the x64 version can support it.
> 
> It's a waste of money to be honest. Just get a pair of 1Gb sticks and OC the hell out of them, or get 4 1Gb sticks. 8Gb is a waste though unless you do serious memory intensive work, or intend on running a server.



Not even servers need 8 gigs.


----------



## truemore (Aug 19, 2007)

Well if anyone is interested. My work was willing to pay me to experiment with XP 64 and Vista 64. 

I currently run a system with 8 gigs of ram 2gigx4 on a dual core AMD system with Raid 5. I build it myself and the total cost was $1250. It is really nice with XP 64 I have yet try Vista 64. Some good points are it is lighting fast... For gamers I use Supreme Commander as a good guage since it can bring to a crawl most systems if you crank it up and supports dual monitors. Well I have a ATI 1950x 512 Ram with dual monitors at 1440x900 at 60 hz. With maximum everything and dual monitors it runs perfect, no slow down even during multiple nuclear weapon strikes. So I can say that for gaming it is a real bost to have the 8 gigs if the games can handle it.

For work I like the fact that nothing slows you down because with 8 gigs you can get rid of the page file on the HD. Without this most items move much faster. On the downside driver and program support can be spotty because you are using a true 64 bits system so there can be problems. I find that anti-virus support is off and on. As a bonus thought most viruses bounce of 64 bit systems because of the hardware overflow stop bit and the software is so different that the viruses just don't work. 

So overall there is not that much difference unless you a security freak or a gamer and your using games that can use it all. 

My 2 cents.


----------



## 3991vhtes (Aug 19, 2007)

It would be stupid to have 8GB of RAM. You don't need it. Try playing games with 2GB and you'll get the same performance.


----------



## ex_reven (Aug 19, 2007)

Irish, Ive just finished working on a 6-7 Gigabyte image.
My printing company was complaining in fact, because it took them an hour to open the file and 6 hours to print it. I lol'd at them, because the file I gave them was a compressed (lossless) and merged/rasterised file type a few gigs less than the actual photoshop image file I was working on.

I was using 4 Gigs of ram with absolutely no problems. All you need to do is set a large amount of page file. 8 Gigs of RAM will not help much, Id instead reccomend that you get a smaller but higher speed amount of ram combined with a fast CPU and a few fast hard drives in RAID. I cant see ANYONE needing more than that, unless your planning on producing some absolute masterpiece  high resolution and lengthy film/image production. For example my image was approx 50-60 thousand pixels wide or something like that at 300 pixels per square inch. Theoretically, to get the absolute best quality I could have worked at 600ppi, but that doubles the image size again and is unnecessary unless working on images with MUCH finer detail (in which case the image would be smaller anyway so the filesize still wouldnt be very large).

I think more RAM is more suitable for server applications...


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2007)

truemore said:


> Well if anyone is interested. My work was willing to pay me to experiment with XP 64 and Vista 64.
> 
> I currently run a system with 8 gigs of ram 2gigx4 on a dual core AMD system with Raid 5. I build it myself and the total cost was $1250. It is really nice with XP 64 I have yet try Vista 64. Some good points are it is lighting fast... For gamers I use Supreme Commander as a good guage since it can bring to a crawl most systems if you crank it up and supports dual monitors. Well I have a ATI 1950x 512 Ram with dual monitors at 1440x900 at 60 hz. With maximum everything and dual monitors it runs perfect, no slow down even during multiple nuclear weapon strikes. So I can say that for gaming it is a real bost to have the 8 gigs if the games can handle it.
> 
> ...



First of all, Supcom is mainly CPU bound,not memory bound. If you really wish to test with it at least use a 80x80 map and 8 players with 1000 units each and test with both 2gb and 8gb to see a difference. Saying a nuke works fine on the system means nothing since it does on most system.
If they're paying for your experiment at least make it a ecent one, use memory intensive applications. Photoshop with 4GB files or something or huge databases.


----------



## mysticjon (Aug 19, 2007)

wait vista can utilize all 8gs of memory without having to be a x64 bit version??

iknew 4gs is all x32 bit os can use at max and x64 would need 8gs?? im confused


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 19, 2007)

mysticjon said:


> wait vista can utilize all 8gs of memory without having to be a x64 bit version??
> 
> iknew 4gs is all x32 bit os can use at max and x64 would need 8gs?? im confused



No, the only way to use 4+GB in Windows without a 64bit version is PAE, and you don't want that.


----------



## p_o_s_pc (Aug 19, 2007)

my mobo can use 16gb it says if you can find the OS to use it than that would be cool.I don't think it could be slowed down with 16gigs


----------



## ex_reven (Aug 19, 2007)

p_o_s_pc said:


> my mobo can use 16gb it says if you can find the OS to use it than that would be cool.I don't think it could be slowed down with 16gigs



Dude, how do you figure you will be able to use 16 gigabytes of ram... You probably couldnt even use 8. The system will be bottlenecked by the hard drive probably.


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Aug 19, 2007)

Hmmm... I'd say 8GB isn't need in a home, desktop environment not now anyway. We're all still living in this 32bit dominated world. As soon as that's out of the way, 2GB would be the least you'd have, just how 1GB is now. (Recommended minimum amount of RAM)

I honestly don't believe 8GB in home enthusiast PCs is all that far off. It'll take a few years (3 or so) for 64bit to start digging it's heals in, but with the arrival of more memory intensive games I'm hoping it wont take too long. RAM is always being superseded relatively quickly so prices will drop and they should be cheaper ways of making chips by then.


----------



## p_o_s_pc (Aug 19, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> Dude, how do you figure you will be able to use 16 gigabytes of ram... You probably couldnt even use 8. The system will be bottlenecked by the hard drive probably.



16gb is the max my mobo can support that is what i am saying.


----------



## Disparia (Aug 19, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> Dude, how do you figure you will be able to use 16 gigabytes of ram... You probably couldnt even use 8. The system will be bottlenecked by the hard drive probably.



Well, 4GB isn't hard to fill 







8 would give me a little more breathing room, so I could start a game like Supreme Commander. Right now I stick to more mild games like UT while my stuff renders (I'm also not on a quad core yet).


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Aug 19, 2007)

LOL - Jizzler... what a name. XD


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 19, 2007)

tkpenalty said:


> lol 8GB of RAM ISNT useless... honestly Vista with 8GB of RAM Would run way better, due to the super fetch. If you are doing something like a crazy PS 8GB of RAM is nearly satisfactory (in the case of Ex_reven)



2Gb ram in photoshop is plenty really.

I run into a CPU bottleneck.


Unless you have a zillion other things open like I normally do 






YAY servers!


----------



## Mediocre (Aug 19, 2007)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon1333/5000P/X7DBi+.cfm
> 
> Try something along these lines.



good god.


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 19, 2007)

All interesting stuff. Now I hear that if you had like 8gigs of ram or more..that the HDD will bottleneck the RAM?? how does that happen? WHy would a HDD bottleneck RAM??


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 19, 2007)

Irish_PXzyan said:


> All interesting stuff. Now I hear that if you had like 8gigs of ram or more..that the HDD will bottleneck the RAM?? how does that happen? WHy would a HDD bottleneck RAM??



Where does that data come from?

if you're just sitting there with data in memory its not.

if you're loading a video game map... it would take a little while.

Same reason page files suck.


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 19, 2007)

Mediocre said:


> good god.


----------



## Zero Cool (Aug 19, 2007)

LOL!! up to 128GB!!! OMG


----------



## R^ven (Aug 19, 2007)

*reply to 8gb thing*

a really good 8gb mobo is the asus striker extreme.


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 19, 2007)

heh 128gigs....whats next?


----------



## Zero Cool (Aug 19, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


>



lol its a radiator! how do you keep that thing cool? you cant even connect WC pipes to the CPUs! not enough space!


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 19, 2007)

Zero Cool said:


> lol its a radiator! how do you keep that thing cool? you cant even connect WC pipes to the CPUs! not enough space!



4 low profile 1U/2U heatsinks, making a wind tunnel.

Same way its been done for years


----------



## Zero Cool (Aug 19, 2007)

Jizzler said:


> Well, 4GB isn't hard to fill
> 
> 
> 
> ...



render? video editing or 3D modeling?


----------



## ex_reven (Aug 20, 2007)

Jizzler said:


> Well, 4GB isn't hard to fill
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thats not a very realistic way of putting it.
If you have 67 processes running, you cant really complain about not having enough ram. (Vista...sigh )
I could fill 8 gigs of ram with 28 processes. Sure you might be rendering, thus using 100% CPU and RAM, but you generally wouldnt do that with a heap of other crap running in the background. Max I would ever do would be something intensive (photoshop, video render etc), listen to music, internet and msn at any one time. Having 67 processes running is hardly optimal nor practical.

What Im saying is, how many people do you know that actually require that much ram? With a bit of intelligent thought, the average user could easily utilise the ram they already have much better. While for you and me that might just be cutting it fine, the majority of the people wouldnt need more than 4 gigs of ram. And if your running something that requires that much ram, chances are you have a lot of money in your pockets as well as a fairly good system (cpu, ram, hard drives, mobo) to back up that software. Of course, it all depends on the scenario. The average photoshop user/video editor will probably not use all that ram. Wow your page file is almost as big as mine


----------



## Zero Cool (Aug 20, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> And if your running something that requires that much ram, chances are you have a lot of money in your pockets as well as a fairly good system (cpu, ram, hard drives, mobo) to back up that software. Of course, it all depends on the scenario. The average photoshop user/video editor will probably not use all that ram.



3D modeling 


8GBs of ram and dual quad core cpu is what most successful Freelance 3D graphic artists have


----------



## ex_reven (Aug 20, 2007)

Zero Cool said:


> 3D modeling
> 
> 
> 8GBs of ram and dual quad core cpu is what most successful Freelance 3D graphic artists have



lol. ouch.
Like I said, deep pockets .


----------



## Disparia (Aug 20, 2007)

Oh, I know. I'll never claim to be average 

A handful of those processes are php-fcgi.exe. Zend Core throws out eight by default. Don't really need that many as this is a just a dev machine. My 'constant' runners are Azureus, FAH, Firefox with about 8 tabs (Gmail, this forum, other forums, news, etc - 181MB), and some others.

The hog from the screen shot is After Effects, ~2.5GB usage. A lot of my friends have moved up to HD cameras for their shorts and features.

Like I said before, I don't require it but at less than $100/GB, why not  I really do like to jump into a game while rendering, though not so much anymore with everything being multi-threaded and me with only two cores.


----------



## niko084 (Aug 20, 2007)

1 gig for basic stuff, 2 gigs for games, 4 gigs for best performance, 4+ gigs for servers or really heavy workstation apps.


----------



## Zero Cool (Aug 20, 2007)

ex_reven said:


> lol. ouch.
> Like I said, deep pockets .



its a well paid job


----------



## R_1 (Aug 20, 2007)

I think that buying a good overclocking kit of 4 or 8 gig would be the best and also the cheapest choice. Recently I had a very bad experience trying to find another matching pair RAM for my rig. Two kits of high-end DDR2 RAM were not even close to my old pair in overclocking. So I had to get rid of them with   significant money lost.


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Aug 20, 2007)

R_1 said:


> I think that buying a good overclocking kit of 4 or 8 gig would be the best and also the cheapest choice. Recently I had a very bad experience trying to find another matching pair RAM for my rig. Two kits of high-end DDR2 RAM were not even close to my old pair in overclocking. So I had to get rid of them with   significant money lost.



I believe that 8GB of RAM and overclocking are two different markets.


----------



## HiddenStupid (Aug 20, 2007)

If I say something wrong forgive me... I am just an average stupid user.

From my experience I used to have 512mb ram when I play Lineage2 and all those asian's mmo where There's no auction house leaving thousand's of players setting up thier own private shop in town which cause the choppy and chunky laggness. Also when Alt tab it took me 7-400 seconds to minimize.

When I upgrade my ram to 1.5gig.... There is reduced choppy and chunky laggness sudden spike out in town full of private shop of players on screen. When Alt Tab guaranteed to be under 4 seconds but usually 1 seconds!

This make's me think that system ram is important and the more the better. Even if it is posible to exceed 4gig and up to 12gig I Would get it if I can afford it to ensure 100% performance lagg-free! steady and stable no sudden jumpy laggness. Internet/Server lagg is another story.

Just felt like sharing my experience and my belief.


----------



## InnocentCriminal (Aug 20, 2007)

You should upgrade to 2GB if you're using 3 slots out of four as this would enable dual channel which can only bring in more performance. Replace the 512MB with another stick of the same 1GB. You'll be happier then.  

Obviously if funds are allowing it of course.


----------



## Irish_PXzyan (Aug 21, 2007)

When I buy the new rig I most def will go and buy 2gigs..then after a week or two ill buy another 2gigs. " depends on the RAM I choice due to prices  "

I can remmember playing Raven Shield on my old rig..it had a nice BFG GeForce 5700FX OC 256mb init but only had 192mb of RAM!..the game ran pretty badly..at the time..I did not understand RAM and thought it done nothing for games..then a friend told me to buy 512mb and I did...boy..I was shocked what it done!!

I will never make that mistake again


----------



## Solaris17 (Aug 21, 2007)

HookeyStreet said:


> I hope to go 4GB by XMAS......as long as it doesnt effect my overclocking



thats what im doing im going to buy a 4gb gSkill kit think it was 185ish?


----------



## 3991vhtes (Aug 22, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


>




oh. my. god.


----------



## p_o_s_pc (Aug 22, 2007)

ATI and Nvidia on the same board.


----------



## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 22, 2007)

p_o_s_pc said:


> ATI and Nvidia on the same board.



Oh my god haha it is! 


Win.


----------



## surfsk8snow.jah (Aug 23, 2007)

We'll get there soon enough. As for now, 4GB is amazing performance for the average, and even above-average user. Renderering & servers use >4GB.
But, I still remember when my friend got 512MB of RAM for his PC, and I was like, "When the crap are you ever going to use 512MB of RAM? That's overkill." 
So, progression will happen soon enough, and faster than ever, where we'll all need >4GB, but, as for now, need=1GB, great=2GB, amazing=4GB, professional= >4GB.


----------

