8gb, 16gb or 32gb?

R

rem451

n00b
Joined
May 11, 2012
Messages
31
hi i m building a new pc, and i m wondering if extra memory could cause some problems, i m planning to play with photoshop mostly, but not as a pro.
cpu: i7-3770, mobo: asus p8z77-v pro
what are the + and what are the - of having 8...16 or 32gb of memory installed?
thanks
 
There are very few minuses to having more ram. Cost aside, if you plan to overclock, having all your memory banks filled can limit your overclock. The only other minus I can think of is that you may never end up using the extra memory.
 
As cheap as RAM is, I would save your money and just stick with 8GB. You're unlikely to ever come close to using all of that unless you run multiple VMs/hardcore rendering, etc. Like Howie said, you'll likely never end up using all that extra memory you buy.

If you're still not convinced, just go with 16GB and be happy with some extra overhead. Don't even think about going for 32GB, that's utterly pointless and can actually prohibit overclocking (as Howie mentioned-filling all 4 slots can reduce your max OC).
 
The only reason I went with 16GB is that is was a €35 difference and I wanted to try out ramdisking some not too large games.
6 gigs of ram + 10 gigs ramdisk :)
 
If you are going to get 16gb of ram, try and get it in a 2x8gb kit. That being said, there's really no reason to have more than 8gb for most people.
 
Ask yourself how many 64-bit programs you use.

Because right now computing is still dominated by 32-bit apps and games.

A 32-bit program can only access 2GB of memory under normal circumstances. A very small number of 32-bit programs are Large Address Aware and can access up to 4GB of memory. You'll never see a 32-bit program using more than 4GB of Ram.

So if you use only 32-bit programs, going from double (8GB) what any program could ever use under a best case scenario to 4-times as much (16GB) is obviously going to have no effect.

If you actually do use 64-bit apps/games, observe their memory usage and go from there.
 
GotNoRice said:
Ask yourself how many 64-bit programs you use.

Because right now computing is still dominated by 32-bit apps and games.

A 32-bit program can only access 2GB of memory under normal circumstances. A very small number of 32-bit programs are Large Address Aware and can access up to 4GB of memory. You'll never see a 32-bit program using more than 4GB of Ram.

So if you use only 32-bit programs, going from double (8GB) what any program could ever use under a best case scenario to 4-times as much (16GB) is obviously going to have no effect.

If you actually do use 64-bit apps/games, observe their memory usage and go from there.
Click to expand...

Why you gotta break out the logic/truth like that? :)
All kidding aside, great advice.
 
GotNoRice said:
Ask yourself how many 64-bit programs you use...
A 32-bit program can only access 2GB of memory under normal circumstances.
Click to expand...

Not actually relevant, because Windows 7 x64 can grant each 32 bit app up to 4 GB - they don't all necessarily run in the same address space.

The OP should look at his total memory usage and go from there.
 
I built a Photoshop / Premier box for a friend loaded with 32GB of ram, and man, it really kick ass.
 
I'd go with 16GB min. Don't forget all of your extra ram is used as disk cache, so it's not necessarily going to waste.
 
You probably won't even max out 8GB at this point.

I'd go with 16GB. You won't use it all now, but your system will be more future proof. 32 GB is too excessive and is a waste of money IMO.
 
rem451 said:
hi i m building a new pc, and i m wondering if extra memory could cause some problems, i m planning to play with photoshop mostly, but not as a pro.
cpu: i7-3770, mobo: asus p8z77-v pro
what are the + and what are the - of having 8...16 or 32gb of memory installed?
thanks
Click to expand...
RAM is very cheap now days. That said, even though 16GB was very affordable, I knew it was going to be a waste of money. I went with 8 GB knowing that I could add another 8 if I really needed it. So far I haven't even come close to needing even 8.
 
There is no need for more than 8GB on a gaming rig. I run 8GB myself and haven't come close to maxing it out but with ram being so cheap I can see myself grabbing another 8GB kit for 16GB just for the hell of it.
 
Good lawrd. Get at least 16 GB. How can you people browse the web with less even? :eek:

Seriously, with current prices, it would be a mistake to only get 8 GB ;) maybe you don't need it immediately for gaming, but more is always better when it comes to memory.
 
My mem monitor in the rig below only went above 6 gigs of Ram once with a game open and all of my hardware monitors running. Went I get more footage for Sony Creative suite, I'm sure the 16 gigs and the 12 cores will come in handy :)
 
More isnt always better when it comes to ram, if your not going to use it, it is a waste of money that could of been spent on beer or something else :)

i use the crap out of my computer and at home i only just hit over 9G the other night and i have 16G total, that was with PS open and several 30MB raw files, diablo III running, regular other apps, and 2 VM's running
 
My pc usses around 3gb on normal day to day use with: antivirus,chrome(with several tabs),gadgets on screen. The max i went was 6gb,and this while encoding and having a game opened. Go for 16 gb even if u wont come close to 8gb,its just so cheap so why not :)
 
Right now, I have 6 GB in use. Just the usual range of utilities and apps. And 44 tabs open in Chrome. Running C&C3 or Runes of Magic will max out my 8 GB
 
Gah cmon people I know this is [H] but lets be reasonable for just a moment. Realize most gamers would benefit very marginally from 16GB memory over 8GB. I would rather put the $50 towards the deals on SSDs and improve a component in my system that will make a significantly positive impact on the performance of my computer that I can feel.
 
I just went from 8GB to 16GB. Was pretty nice being able to make a ram disk for the chrome cache considering all I have is SSDs and little file writes as we know are not necessarily the best.

Beyond that the system itself just seems to feel a bit more snappy when alt-tabbing between stuff.

But being able to run a game, a couple remote desktop connections to other machines on my LAN, and have origin/steam blah blah blah open all while not missing a beat, is... well... sweet.
 
8 gigs was nice a few years ago, but is starting to feel pretty cramped now. If I do video transcoding or heavy Photoshop work I can easily close in on the 16 gigs my system has installed. The developers of Battlefield announced the next version will be 64 bit only, so hey, maybe you will see a use for that RAM in gaming.

Honestly you are building a powerful desktop computer. Whats 50 bucks to double your RAM? If I wanted to use a machine with gimped multitasking capacity I'd use my phone.
 
8 is the "standard" for "today". Do you NEED it? Not really, but most comps come with it. 16 is nice to have, if you want to pay for 2x8gb sticks which weren't around a couple years ago; granted it's very unlikely you'd even use up the complete 8.
 
fishrule said:
8 gigs was nice a few years ago, but is starting to feel pretty cramped now. If I do video transcoding or heavy Photoshop work I can easily close in on the 16 gigs my system has installed. The developers of Battlefield announced the next version will be 64 bit only, so hey, maybe you will see a use for that RAM in gaming.

Honestly you are building a powerful desktop computer. Whats 50 bucks to double your RAM? If I wanted to use a machine with gimped multitasking capacity I'd use my phone.
Click to expand...

I do some Photoshop work of my own and 8GB is more than enough. TBH some people in here are starting to sound like Geek Squad. I guess it's just me and how many times I have had to explain to people that in not all cases adding RAM is all you need to do to improve system performance and that there are other factors to take into consderation. If you need 16GB or get it for the hell of it, more power to you. But for the majority, 8GB is more than enough for multi tasking without anywhere close to "gimped phone" speed. I have a large project open on Photoshop and have 20 IE 9 pages open and have resources to spare. Maybe if I opened FIFA 12 and BF3 I'll eventually run out of of RAM...... Nope, still have resources available :D But what the hell am I doing with all those programs open when I can't even use all of them at the same time. I like to multitask too, but I hope you can understand why 16GB isn't needed in 95% of cases. It is because 8GB is simply more than sufficient even for editing and multitasking. I think plenty of members on here with 8GB configurations would immediately upgrade to 16GB and post about it if they ever had gimped multitasking capability.

Sure it is $50 for another 8GB kit, but why spend $50 on something that you don't need? I'm sure you built your PC gaming, but with transcoding and photoshop in mind. Therefore the $50 investment in RAM would give you a better return compared to someone else who didn't have the same goals for their computer. Like I noted, you can spend $50 on RAM that you will use. Why would I spend $50 on something I wouldn't use for another two years or more? I would rather put the $50 towards a solid state disk, video card, or CPU. I could have 4GB RAM on a higher end system than yours and it would be more "powerful" than yours because the RAM matters much less than the other system components as long as you have a decent amount. Ultimately if you know what you do with your PC then your RAM is fine.
 
Last edited:
Take advantage of the low prices and go with 16GB.


People who say 8GB is more than enough are probably the same short-sighted people who also said dual-cores were preferable to quad-cores a few years back. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
 
16 is cheap man!
it really depends on what you plan to do with your computer as well, but I'd say 16GB is the way to go. 2x 8GB sticks :cool:
 
I have 8x8GB RAM on my X79 board. I put 54GB of them to ramdisk for downloading stuff. :cool:
 
Don't even consider 8GB. Those that have 8GB and think they are doing ok don't realize how much their page file is being used. RAM is too cheap. Get 8GB sticks, if you are unsure of how much you need then 16GB will likely be fine for you, then you can always add more later. You'll have plenty of breathing room for multitasking, and if you do any large image 16 & 32bit editing that ram will fill up very quick. When the time comes that you need more than 16GB you'll know it without a doubt.
 
FWIW, I built my SnB-E setup with 16GB and honestly I wish I went 32. Quite regularly I am using over 10GB of ram, and that is with NO VM's. If I need VM's for dev environments then I run out fast. 32GB would be real nice, IMHO. I am going to be putting 32GB in my next laptop.
 
Rule of thumb!

If you are making threads about how much RAM to use is, you probably don't need more than 8GB (the 4GB of today).

Better spend your money on an SSD. Believe me I got in on the 16GB hype train and got an SSD later. SSD > Memory over 8GB
 
idk why everyone insists on 16gb of ram, while i personally recommend it to a power user most people wouldn't run into an issue with 4gb, my little brothers computer has 4gb of ram and is running windows 7, uses about 1.5gb on average of ram, which leaves about 2gb of usable memory before windows goes crazy writing everything to the page file.

With how cheap ram is though i would still say 8gb is way better then 4gb because you can a small vm+7+ a game, if you plan on multitasking lightly to moderatly 8gb should be enough

16gb is really for people who want to do several things at once or can't get themselves to commit to closing anything (read 500 tabs in chrome/firefox) the only other reason would i can think of for more ram (besides this being [H] and ram being cheap) is 3d rendering or video editing
 
anything over 8gb is a waste right now if all you do is play games. and don't edit movies or pictures or do much of anything.
 
blaze15301 said:
anything over 8gb is a waste right now if all you do is play games. and don't edit movies or pictures or do much of anything.
Click to expand...

Obviously you didn't read the thread..

There are too many clowns around here that think people only use their computers for games...:rolleyes::rolleyes:
 
blaze15301 said:
anything over 8gb is a waste right now if all you do is play games. and don't edit movies or pictures or do much of anything.
Click to expand...

rive22 said:
Obviously you didn't read the thread..

There are too many clowns around here that think people only use their computers for games...:rolleyes::rolleyes:
Click to expand...
this /\
I can max out 8GB if I have the usual 30+ firefox tabs, big photo project and a vm or two open.

I think bang for the buck right now is 4x4GB. 4x8GB might indeed be overkill for most people. Then again this is [H] ;)
 
pwrusr said:
What ram did you get? What program are you using for ramdisk?
Click to expand...

8xCorsair Vengeance CMZ8GX3M1A1600C10 DDR3 1600MHz 8GB

My ramdisk software is qsoft. I tried many. This one is the fastest and it supports NTFS. :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top