# 8 gig of ram.... is it worth it



## rampage (Mar 8, 2008)

i will be getting the q9450 later this month comes out and i was wondering is it worth going 8 gig of ram insted of 4 gig, all this rig will be used for is mostly gaming

P.S. i can get the 4 sticks of generic 2048mb PC8500 (1066) for $260 australian


----------



## btarunr (Mar 8, 2008)

Right now it's overkill but nothing stays 'overkill' for long. So it's ok if you're getting them for a reasonable price.


----------



## shiny_red_cobra (Mar 8, 2008)

It's only worth it if you have a 64-bit OS. If you do, then it's fine, in fact once you have 8GB you can even disable the Windows Page File (or swap file), since there's enough space in RAM for it, and this will increase performance.

You may want to read this article as well.


----------



## Cold Storm (Mar 8, 2008)

I'm with bata, its over kill. You just have to look at your memory usage on this whole thing. Is it above 50% at all times? And go from there. Yeah, it may look nice in the specs. But, to tell the truth, there isn't a lot of stuff that can even have that usage going on. IMO that is.


----------



## Triprift (Mar 8, 2008)

Yeah its abit of an overkill for gaming if u were video editing then 8 gig would be good 4 would definitly be the way to go


----------



## Nitro-Max (Mar 8, 2008)

Im not sure to be honest m8 i have 4gb myself but i still use xp 32bit which doesnt even see 4gb One thing i do know if you have all your slots full it will limit overclocking more.


----------



## JrRacinFan (Mar 8, 2008)

I know RAM is cheap but stick with 4Gb. Once DDR3 comes truly mainstream, then you may want to make the move to 8GB.


----------



## Darren (Mar 8, 2008)

rampage said:


> i will be getting the q9450 later this month comes out and i was wondering is it worth going 8 gig of ram insted of 4 gig, all this rig will be used for is mostly gaming



I've got 8 GB of ram and it was probably the best decision I've made. Computer feels way more responsive than when I was running 4 GB, especially now I've disabled the page file completely. But it's true no application or game will accumulate all the ram but it's good to know in a year or two you will be prepared.


----------



## Fitseries3 (Mar 8, 2008)

the q9450 is a step back in performance from the q6600 if you ask me. 

8gig's is overkill for 98% of people on here.


----------



## Morgoth (Mar 8, 2008)

go for 8 ram if you do rendering or uses programms that needs allot of ram


----------



## Xazax (Mar 8, 2008)

I would go for 8GB, i made the mistake of getting 4GB to find out im maxing my self out at 4GB!

I use 64-bit Vista Ultimate and(atleast for me) its a huge hog! 4GB is hardly sufficient, Just doing desktop and regular(non-game) programs being idle eats 1-1.5GB! When i play a game like company of heroes my usage shoots through the roof. Trying to enable x4 AA or Ultra Details causes my Ram usage to hit %90, so i have to back off and use High details. COD4 is much worse using so much ram %80-85 needless to say i might have to upgrade in a while if it continues in this style.

If i may ill lead you the way to some good 4GB sticks of RAM

Patriot 2x2GB 4-4-4-12 $91
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220293

OCZ Reaper HPC $95
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267

Corsair XM2 $40(if you can believe those newegg.com review OC's then i would 8GB of this one)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184


----------



## Silverel (Mar 8, 2008)

I'd use 8gig just for the sake of disabling the pagefile... gawd that'd be nice to never hear my drive spin unless I tell it to...

Really, that's the only advantage you would have. Think about how big that advantage is though... no more paging... so sweet.

You would need a 64-bit OS though. Besides, RAM isn't going to stay cheap forever, and ddr3 isn't the same step as it was from sd to ddr or ddr to ddr2. The RAM is fast enough, I think getting 8gb to mainstream and eliminating paging entirely is the next logical step.


----------



## Xazax (Mar 8, 2008)

Yea, its the step im trying to take myself right now, disabling that pagefile give you quite a nice boost in loading times because it doesn't have the inefficiency of stealing from the HDD


----------



## rampage (Mar 8, 2008)

the pc it will be going in is a vista X64bit machine with 4 gig already in it, i guess if i feel the need to splash some cash i can and if i dont like it i can go back to 4 gig, altho i do like the idear of disableing the page file....btw im not a huge OCer if the ram limits me a bit im not too worried but the 2 gig sticks im looking at are 1066 so they shouldnt be to bad

the ram in mind
http://www.itestate.com.au/products_detail.asp?code=PD00005384

Edit: if the 2 gig generic stics are anyhting like the 1 gig generic sticks i have they should do 1066 5-6-6-18 1.9v


----------



## das müffin mann (Mar 8, 2008)

for gaming its definitely NOT needed or even used, for rendering and very ram intensive processes like that go for it if not do what jr said and wait for ddr3 to become mainstream


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Mar 8, 2008)

Xazax said:


> I would go for 8GB, i made the mistake of getting 4GB to find out im maxing my self out at 4GB!
> 
> I use 64-bit Vista Ultimate and(atleast for me) its a huge hog! 4GB is hardly sufficient, Just doing desktop and regular(non-game) programs being idle eats 1-1.5GB!



It caches stuff, which is a good thing. As soon as some program requires the RAM Vista will drop the cached data. I think it's a good thing when software actually utilizes resources.


----------



## Xazax (Mar 8, 2008)

Then wouldnt having 8GB help more, even if it doesnt use all of it, true games dont use 8GB of ram but then again you not running just games, you have many other programs running the in background besides the game.


----------



## strick94u (Mar 8, 2008)

you should never need more than 640k


----------



## Cold Storm (Mar 8, 2008)

DanTheBanjoman said:


> It caches stuff, which is a good thing. As soon as some program requires the RAM Vista will drop the cached data. I think it's a good thing when software actually utilizes resources.



I've seen this happen, and I couldn't believe how much space was given back to me. I was running almost 34% with the ram, then solaris told me to try something in vista, and now i don't go above 23-25%.


----------



## Greg0101 (Mar 8, 2008)

For 8GB, vista x64 would be a good OS to make use of it.  But , running 4 sticks 1066Mhz, might not be possible, depending on your motherboard.

Then 4 sticks will again limit your max FSB speed, 2 sticks is the best option.


----------



## Morgoth (Mar 8, 2008)

strick94u said:


> you should never need more than 640k



bil gates said that?


----------



## Xazax (Mar 8, 2008)

He said a couple things....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RgriTO8UHvs


----------



## Kreij (Mar 8, 2008)

There is no such thing as too much RAM. Go for it.

MO POWAH!


----------



## Greg0101 (Mar 8, 2008)

Kreij said:


> There is no such thing as too much RAM. Go for it.
> 
> MO POWAH!



I agree more the better, I've used 8GB for some time in vista x64, but as 4GB has its share of bugs, so does using more.

Crossfire still won't work for me with over 5120MB of ram in vista, no idea if 8.2 or 8.3 fixed this though.  Just causes a BSOD requiring going to safe mode and system restore.


----------



## Deleted member 3 (Mar 8, 2008)

Morgoth said:


> bil gates said that?



No, he never did.


----------



## strick94u (Mar 10, 2008)

Morgoth said:


> bil gates said that?



I think it was bill when talking about D.O.S 1


----------



## infrared (Mar 10, 2008)

With 8 gigs, you could set up a 5gb ramdisk to put the games on before you play! Superfast load-times!


----------



## Greg0101 (Mar 10, 2008)

infrared said:


> With 8 gigs, you could set up a 5gb ramdisk to put the games on before you play! Superfast load-times!



I've done this.  It was fun but I couldn't fit team fortress 2 (7GB of stuff) to fit, to see if new games had a large improvement from it.

For pcmark05, it can increase your score alot.

Sisoft benched my software ramdrive at 3000MB/S


----------

