Will 4 Gbs Be A Big Upgrade From 2 Gbs Of Ram?

#1 sweryap

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Posted 25 February 2008 - 10:19 AM

My set up is an Intel e2180 dual core processor, gigabyte ga-p35-ds3l motherboard, 7800 gtx gfx card, and 2GB G.skill ddr2 800 mhz memory. I have vista ultimate. I just put everything together and it works great right now, but the g.skill memory is only 45 bucks from Newegg so I am considering 2 more gigs. right now, my windows vista experience rating is held back by my ram...everything is well over 5 except the memory is 4.8 (although I guess these numbers don't really matter). do you guys think that 2 more gigs of RAM would be worth buying since they are so cheap?

#2 jgweed

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Posted 25 February 2008 - 10:40 AM

More RAM is always good, especially if you want to do graphics or to play games; it also improves the performance of office suites. If you are not unhappy with the current performance, then getting additional RAM is up to you.
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#3 figgis41

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Posted 26 February 2008 - 05:49 AM

hi,, vista 32bit only recognises 3gig of ram,,, 64it can take 4gig and up,,,, if you have 32bit it could be a waste of money,,, good luck.

Figgis,,,, LUFC

#4 usasma

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Posted 26 February 2008 - 07:37 AM

IME most newer 32 bit systems will run just fine with 4gB of RAM - but they'll only recognize around 3.26 gB of the RAM.
That being said, it seemed to improve performance on my systems - and it did increase the Vista score.

Also, I noted no significant performance increase using 4 gB between 32 bit and 64 bit OS's

- John
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#5 sweryap

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Posted 26 February 2008 - 08:08 PM

Hey guys, thanks for the replies. I went ahead and ordered it from newegg...I couldn't pass up good ram for 45 bucks (it has $40 off instantly right now). Hope it makes an improvement! I do have 64 bit by the way.

#6 usasma

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Posted 27 February 2008 - 08:25 AM

An interesting article on the RAM thing between 32 and 64 bit systems: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/

- John
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#7 sweryap

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Posted 27 February 2008 - 03:34 PM

usasma, on Feb 27 2008, 07:25 AM, said:

An interesting article on the RAM thing between 32 and 64 bit systems: http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/

Thanks for the link, that was informative but it left me with a few questions. Am I going to need to adjust a lot of settings like they show you to take advantage of the 4 gigs of ram or is that only to take advantage of the full 8 gigs of ram?

#8 usasma

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Posted 27 February 2008 - 04:16 PM

Well, it all depends on your motherboard and how it's setup to handle that much memory. Since it's a fairly new chipset, I wouldn't expect problems - but that's just a guess on my part.

The surest way to find it is to try it and see what happens. I've got a Core2Duo and an Intel 975x chipset that's running fine with 4 gB of RAM. And sitting on my desk is 8 gB just waiting to be installed - so we'll see what happens when I put it in!

- John
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#9 usasma

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Posted 28 February 2008 - 11:01 AM

Well, the 8gb went in fine, and the system is working great - but Windows says that I don't have a processor or any memory :huh:

CPU-Z detects it all, so I'm not worried - but I'll need a bit of work to figger it out.

- John
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#10 sweryap

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Posted 29 February 2008 - 11:43 AM

Did you get yours figured out usasma?

I got my other 2 gigs in for a total of 4 gigs and I notic the office suite opening up faster as well as everything just seeming a little quicker so I am pleased. It is weird though, the new memory didn't change the vista experience score for Ram calculations per second. I would have thought that would have gone up. Oh well, I would rather have my system run good than get a good score.

#11 usasma

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Posted 29 February 2008 - 08:00 PM

I'm still fussing with mine (but it may give me an excuse to buy a new mobo and processor! :huh:

My opinion is that the benchmark/scores really don't mean a heck of a lot in the real world. What counts to me is how it feels - does it feel faster or peppier? If so, then that's good enough for me.

Benchmarking can be used to document issues - but I prefer not to get wrapped up in the numbers myself.

- John
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