8GB ram benchmarks?

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poopy

Limp Gawd
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Sep 11, 2004
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Are there any reviews that pit 8GB of memory against 4GB or 2GB? I couldn't find a single one on the dozens of hardware tech sites in existance.

And before anyone says it, yes, I know that most applications and games are 32 bit and can't utilize more than 2GB on windows. Even 64 bit programs are designed to be run on 2GB or less memory because thats the amount of ram the vast majority of people have.

However, I am interested to see if 8GB has any effect on boot and load times, multitasking, image editing, and 3d modeling/rendering.
 
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/index.html

This might be an interesting article.

The upshot is that it doesn't make sense to install a 64 bit version of Vista in order to better utilize 4 GB of memory simply because the 32 bit version would only recognize 3.5 GB. The problem is that while it is true that you would "gain" the missing memory, you would also immediately lose it to the system due to the 64 bit version's larger memory footprint. Thus, using a 64 bit version really only makes sense with larger memory sizes.
Click to expand...

No real numbers in the article about performance comparisons between 2, 4, and 8GB configs though. I think the consensus is that if you're using memory intensive programs like the ones you mentioned, it will definitely be helpful. One thing to mention though is that it's really hell to get a stable overclock with all four of your DIMMs populated.
 
poopy said:
Are there any reviews that pit 8GB of memory against 4GB or 2GB? I couldn't find a single one on the dozens of hardware tech sites in existance.

And before anyone says it, yes, I know that most applications and games are 32 bit and can't utilize more than 2GB on windows. Even 64 bit programs are designed to be run on 2GB or less memory because thats the amount of ram the vast majority of people have.

However, I am interested to see if 8GB has any effect on boot and load times, multitasking, image editing, and 3d modeling/rendering.
Click to expand...

The thing about RAM is that it does not do you any good until you're actually using it. The only time more RAM is going to give you increased performance is if you were running out of it before. (Note: Vista will cache more stuff if it sees more RAM, so that could lead to faster Windows performance.) So any time you approach or exceed your available memory and start swapping to disk, having more RAM will eliminate those problems.

But if you're using 1.5GB of RAM at most, upgrading from 4GB to 8GB won't do anything for you.
 
I'm not very fond of that article; it doesn't really give any numbers, and just seems to draw the conclusion that, if you get 8GB of RAM, well, you'll have plenty of RAM (I'm not sure where they showed it "improves efficiency and comfort"). Plus it recommends turning the page file off - while it's true you can probably get away with that on an 8GB system, that doesn't make it a good idea.

But I've been wondering about this issue myself; I intend to hang on to this CPU for at least another 2-3 years, and for $100 I could go to 8GB RAM (I'm not US, don't suggest how I could get it cheaper!). Wondering if it'll be worth it in that timescale or not.. I can use 2GB without too much trouble without any games running (I don't like closing programs..). Undoubtedly it's not going to help now, but DDR2 prices aren't going to get much lower, and when DDR3 becomes more mainstream, they'll go up.
 
I'll keep any eye on this thread.

I'm in the same boat in terms of keeping my Q6600, and conscious that prices for DDR2 will begin to rise once DDR3 starts to bite.
 
If you have a modren OS, it should use all the ram you have.

In the Windows world, you require x64 for > 4G (3G?). In the unix world you can address up to 64GB on a 32-bit OS. In either case, RAM not used for programs/apps should be used for disk caching. You can even use it as a ram drive (in windows with add in programs, in freebsd with memory filesystem and in linux, probalby with something else).
 
bigdavethehorn said:
I'll keep any eye on this thread.

I'm in the same boat in terms of keeping my Q6600, and conscious that prices for DDR2 will begin to rise once DDR3 starts to bite.
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thats my reasoning. + i build for the future so who is to say ill be able to find the exact same sticks I originally purchased?
 
Benches would be nice., but I think Robstar is right. 8GB will just allow you to cache more applications and things at once...it wont make them load faster if they are already cached.
 
Go with x64 and 4gb. I pulled 2 gb out of mine for a week while I was troubleshooting and when I put it back in I noticed the OS was a lot quicker and Crysis was much more smoother and loaded a lot faster.

You gotta think of the cost/performance thing. 8 gb means 4 2gb sticks, and I don't feel at this point it's worth it because what are you going to use that uses that much? I Have x64 and when I play Crysis, it still doesn't use all 4gb. And it's not like this game is going to come out that will be 2x Crysis anytime soon. I think this generation 4gb is safe, next generation go 8gb for sure though but by that time, 2gb sticks will be the same as 1gb are now. If you're thinking about 8gb, unless your working with an unlimited budget, going with 4 and putting the rest of the money into a better graphics card is a better idea.
 
Say I was using Vista 64 and was gaming, encoding, downloading and browsing at the same time ..how much RAM would roughly be used up do u think?
 
Mithent said:
Plus it recommends turning the page file off - while it's true you can probably get away with that on an 8GB system, that doesn't make it a good idea.
Click to expand...

Why not? Right now I'm running without a paging file on XP x32, 2.75GB RAM. I've had no problems so far, even though I don't do very much intensive gaming (mostly WoW and TF2).

I'm getting a new machine with Vista x64 and 8GB of RAM and was considering doing this. Will Vista really chew through as much RAM as it can?
 
Gambit2008 said:
Say I was using Vista 64 and was gaming, encoding, downloading and browsing at the same time ..how much RAM would roughly be used up do u think?
Click to expand...


^^^Try doing them all at once and find out. Or do each separately and see what each process is using in task manager and then do the math.

In Xp64 with 8gigs I used to cache my program files folder and much of my windows folder in a 5gig ramdrive. (I don't keep games in program files and I remove a lot of shit that is no longer needed once the install/update is done from the Windows folder).
Obviously, the system was extremely responsive, and the majority of apps that I used started up instantly.
One downside was a very loooong boot time. Well, it booted up normally but the hd was thrashed leaving the system almost useless for a good 30 or more seconds after I reached desktop. Another downside was that I needed to have a ups. A power outage or improper shutdown would often hose my os or the cached apps running it that way.

There are many benefits to having 8gigs if you take advantage of them.
 
i would but the thing is i can't yet and thats why i am asking, since i am actually going to build it and not all the parts have arrived. Basically i bought the 8 gigs of ram and now i am having 2nd thoughts...same with my motherboard..D'OH! what am i doing :(
 
I am interested in the 8gb market as well for photoshop. I would also love to see 16 gb kits
 
I'm considering 8gb now also because i found that after running firefox, lightroom, and photoshop simultaneously brought my physical memory (4gb) used to 91 percent. (150mb 725mb and 1.6gb respectively) - vista started to warn me to close programs.
Ps must have some massive memory leakage or something.
I wonder if there any other performance gains.
 
I noticed in the Tom's article the writer talked about setting 32 bit apps so they could use up to 4GB of RAM. Does anybody know how the author went about doing this?
 
I got 8GB DDR2-800 of A-Data for $120AR as this is too hard to resist and I've been watching the RAM market for months...I was originally gonna go for 4x1GB Ballistix Tracer for like $80AR awhile back but I'm glad I waited

Some people, like me, might suggest using that extra RAM, maybe 1-4GB as page caching while being left with 4GB for everything else. If the application is RAM intensive like Adobe Premiere Pro or CS3, turn it off and enjoy the full benefits of 8GBs of orgasmic RAM (and a bigger e-penis to boot)
 
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