4gb of Ram?

ally_uk

Is it really vital to have like 4gb's of ram in your computer i'm in the process of building a new rig and the question I propose is what's the key amount of ram to have for gaming?

Do any games really utilize anything over 2gb?

Many Thanks

BigTone

the way technology is going 2 gigs will be outdated in a year or so and 4 gigs will be the norm. Bigger/faster is always better in technology... with the exception of laptops

ally_uk

Currently though are any games taking advantage of 4 gigs? secondly what about Quad core processors do these effect game performance in comparison to a Dual core setup

dtlokee

I haven't looked at the current timings of RAM, but the bigger the chip the slower it seems to be. I would prefer less but faster ram over slower but more of it for gaming. If you are looking to run a number of virtual machines, or using something like dynamips then the quantity may be more important. I don't think there are any games that will benefit from having more than 2GB of ram, but depending on what else you're trying to run at the same time, it may help. As far as the CPU goes I think it depends on the directx version the game uses because the older directx versions were only single threaded so mullticores wouldn't help the game, but again you can offload the other running processes to the other cores.

Silver Bullet

I have 2GB in my Gaming PC. I play Ghost Recon Advanced Warfight 2 and it has never reached 1GB. It averages from 450-600MB of ram usage. So, I don't think you will benefit from having more than 2GB in your new system if your primary reasoning is for gaming. Just my opinion though.

sthomas

I think it will depend on what OS you are going to use. If the computer is for gaming then 2GBs is good for XP but with Vista you may want to go 4GB. Of course if it is just for general purpose stuff then 2GB should be sufficient for either OS.

Non-Profit Techie

which is better $100 or $200?

dtlokee

Non-Profit Techie wrote:

which is better $100 or $200?

US or Canadian?

It isn't that simple. What's better 4GB of CAS 5 memory or 2 GB of CAS 2 when you will never use more than 2 GB? I prefer the faster memory.

Ahriakin

You'll need 64 bit architecture (or PAE) with a 64bit OS to get any value beyond 3GB (yes I know 32bit maps to 4GB but 32bit XP falls apart after 3Gb, not sure about 32bit Vista - also normal applications are limited to a max. of 2GB unless you add the /3GB switch on your Boot.ini and the application in question has the LargeAddressWare bit set).
The only game I've played that pushes this limit is Supreme Commander (For which there's a user made patch to fix the LargeAddressWare bit) and on some games I've seen it hit 1.8GB. Leaving room for your OS and Cache over 2GB is preferable.
Still UT3 should be waiting for me when I get home so it might push that envelope a bit too

TechJunky

Most gaming applications are not written to use dual cpu's let alone 4 cpu's. You will not see a true increase in performance if the application is not written to take advantage of it.

This is common with enterprise applications in businesses. I see this a lot, Someone will spec out a server that is way overboard for the application due to the application can not utilize the hardware.

Memory is always a good thing to have and most applications try and utilize memory first.

Schluep

I'm not a gamer so I wouldn't know about what specifications you need for various games or anything, but I do know the following from my own system.

I am however typing right now on my laptop running 64 bit Vista. I have 2 GB RAM with on one stick (so I can easily throw in another if I need to have 4 GB). I am at 49% RAM usage right now while primarily using basic internet access. (IIS Server Running, Windows Mail, Internet Explorer, wirelessly connected, sidebar/aero turned on).

None of my other system resource usage comes anywhere close to my RAM percentage wise. I run some GIS software on here from time to time and that uses up the RAM very quickly. I would imagine for gaming it would be just as bad or worse on the RAM. I would imagine that a good video card and sufficient RAM are the two most important things. A higher speed hard drive to read/write more quickly is probably more important than the CPU for gaming, but I don't think either would compare to RAM/Video Card.

You could always try going with one high speed 2 GB stick of RAM initially. If you find it isn't enough just add a second dual channel as long as your OS will support it. I would imagine most of the games out right now could run sufficiently with 2 GB, but I really don't know what is out there so don't take my word for it.