Generally i would say 4gig is enough for mosts games, but if your using vista/win7 and plays a lot of mmo ( witch i suspect ure doing , why post here othervise. ) u get a slight increase in performance by getting slightly more, nothing u will notice while doing most tasks but the improvement comes when ure entering higly populated areas or trade hubbs, u will get less frame lagg when being there and when entering it, atm i cant say how much but i suggest 6gig in that case, but i have the suspicion that 5 gig would do aswell.
So I have to ask. If I am watching TV on one screen, monitoring temps, and looking up drop locations on another screen, and grinding some sought after ore in my favorite game on another screen, and recording the world series, on my media hard drive, then I will benefit from more than 4gigs? Yes?
If I got that right then my next question is: Say I have 2, 2 gig sticks of xxx RAM with xxx timings, dual channel, installed on my machine. I have two empty RAM slots, and I have 2, 1 gig sticks, of the exact same brand, speed,and timings as the 4, I already have, installed on my machine, laying around.
Can I pop those in and not screw something up?
And, does this configuration help me, or must I buy an 8 gig, or whatever gig, kit?
Or do I need to buy another dual channel kit, exactly the same as the kit already installed, and go with 8 gigs, and install that in my extra two RAM slots?
So I have to ask. If I am watching TV on one screen, monitoring temps, and looking up drop locations on another screen, and grinding some sought after ore in my favorite game on another screen, and recording the world series, on my media hard drive, then I will benefit from more than 4gigs? Yes?
If I got that right then my next question is: Say I have 2, 2 gig sticks of xxx RAM with xxx timings, dual channel, installed on my machine. I have two empty RAM slots, and I have 2, 1 gig sticks, of the exact same brand, speed,and timings as the 4, I already have, installed on my machine, laying around.
Can I pop those in and not screw something up?
And, does this configuration help me, or must I buy an 8 gig, or whatever gig, kit?
Or do I need to buy another dual channel kit, exactly the same as the kit already installed, and go with 8 gigs, and install that in my extra two RAM slots?
If all sticks do not match, you lose dual-channel capability. Your two 1gb sticks would become your bottleneck.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
So I have to ask. If I am watching TV on one screen, monitoring temps, and looking up drop locations on another screen, and grinding some sought after ore in my favorite game on another screen, and recording the world series, on my media hard drive, then I will benefit from more than 4gigs? Yes?
If I got that right then my next question is: Say I have 2, 2 gig sticks of xxx RAM with xxx timings, dual channel, installed on my machine. I have two empty RAM slots, and I have 2, 1 gig sticks, of the exact same brand, speed,and timings as the 4, I already have, installed on my machine, laying around.
Can I pop those in and not screw something up?
And, does this configuration help me, or must I buy an 8 gig, or whatever gig, kit?
Or do I need to buy another dual channel kit, exactly the same as the kit already installed, and go with 8 gigs, and install that in my extra two RAM slots?
If all sticks do not match, you lose dual-channel capability. Your two 1gb sticks would become your bottleneck.
Ok, ty. So adding an identical 4 gig dual channel kit, totalling me 8gig would be fine?
The reason I'm wondering about this, is, I typically see 2 channel 4 gig kits, ( 2 x 2 ), for 100 bucks each, approx.
Yet I see mostly the 8 gig kits, ( 4 x 2 ), for around 300. And I notice many say, 4 channel kit.
It would seem cheaper just to buy the 2, 2 channel kits, and save the extra 100 bucks. So it got me wondering if there was some reason, why a person would pay the extra money, unless some performance issue insued.
So I have to ask. If I am watching TV on one screen, monitoring temps, and looking up drop locations on another screen, and grinding some sought after ore in my favorite game on another screen, and recording the world series, on my media hard drive, then I will benefit from more than 4gigs? Yes?
If I got that right then my next question is: Say I have 2, 2 gig sticks of xxx RAM with xxx timings, dual channel, installed on my machine. I have two empty RAM slots, and I have 2, 1 gig sticks, of the exact same brand, speed,and timings as the 4, I already have, installed on my machine, laying around.
Can I pop those in and not screw something up?
And, does this configuration help me, or must I buy an 8 gig, or whatever gig, kit?
Or do I need to buy another dual channel kit, exactly the same as the kit already installed, and go with 8 gigs, and install that in my extra two RAM slots?
If all sticks do not match, you lose dual-channel capability. Your two 1gb sticks would become your bottleneck.
Ok, ty. So adding an identical 4 gig dual channel kit, totalling me 8gig would be fine?
The reason I'm wondering about this, is, I typically see 2 channel 4 gig kits, ( 2 x 2 ), for 100 bucks each, approx.
Yet I see mostly the 8 gig kits, ( 4 x 2 ), for around 300. And I notice many say, 4 channel kit.
It would seem cheaper just to buy the 2, 2 channel kits, and save the extra 100 bucks. So it got me wondering if there was some reason, why a person would pay the extra money, unless some performance issue insued.
Always get matching ram sticks, that's why the kits are there. When using unmatched ram, at the very least you will be limited to the lowest ram there ( in effect the computer will ignore the larger faster ram and only communicate with the lower slower ram ) and at the worst, the computer just won't respond at all.
So yes, just get an identical kit to what you already have in there, and you'll be good to go.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.- -And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Originally posted by mudstuck So I have to ask. If I am watching TV on one screen, monitoring temps, and looking up drop locations on another screen, and grinding some sought after ore in my favorite game on another screen, and recording the world series, on my media hard drive, then I will benefit from more than 4gigs? Yes? If I got that right then my next question is: Say I have 2, 2 gig sticks of xxx RAM with xxx timings, dual channel, installed on my machine. I have two empty RAM slots, and I have 2, 1 gig sticks, of the exact same brand, speed,and timings as the 4, I already have, installed on my machine, laying around. Can I pop those in and not screw something up? And, does this configuration help me, or must I buy an 8 gig, or whatever gig, kit? Or do I need to buy another dual channel kit, exactly the same as the kit already installed, and go with 8 gigs, and install that in my extra two RAM slots?
If all sticks do not match, you lose dual-channel capability. Your two 1gb sticks would become your bottleneck.
Each pair has to match in size for dual channel to work. So 2 1GB sticks and 2 2GB sticks will still work in dual channel mode (provided you put them in the proper slots). You shouldn't worry about timings too much, they are a very minor influence on real world performance, but dual channel is a good thing to have going.
The extra tasks you are wondering about actually take up not much memory. But you can easily check if 6GB is going to help over 4GB, just start all the tasks you want running and watch in task manager your memory usage, if you hit 90% usage or see your 'commit charge' going over your actual physical amount of ram then you would see a benefit from putting more in.
If you feel low on memory I'd just toss in the 2 1GB sticks you already have. You said they were the same timings and everything as the 2GB sticks so no performance issues to worry about anyway. Even if they were slower, having enough slow ram is much better than having not enough fast ram.
I have 8 gigs with a quad core including a GTX 285 video card and a 700 watt power supply. I know it is an overkill, but it is nice having all that power and memory and not worrying about turning things down for better performance.
I basically can run anything maxed out. For now...LOL
I always refer to this quote:
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981
Comments
Generally i would say 4gig is enough for mosts games, but if your using vista/win7 and plays a lot of mmo ( witch i suspect ure doing , why post here othervise.
) u get a slight increase in performance by getting slightly more, nothing u will notice while doing most tasks but the improvement comes when ure entering higly populated areas or trade hubbs, u will get less frame lagg when being there and when entering it, atm i cant say how much but i suggest 6gig in that case, but i have the suspicion that 5 gig would do aswell.
Edit: im thinking of the 64bit version of the OS.
So I have to ask. If I am watching TV on one screen, monitoring temps, and looking up drop locations on another screen, and grinding some sought after ore in my favorite game on another screen, and recording the world series, on my media hard drive, then I will benefit from more than 4gigs? Yes?
If I got that right then my next question is: Say I have 2, 2 gig sticks of xxx RAM with xxx timings, dual channel, installed on my machine. I have two empty RAM slots, and I have 2, 1 gig sticks, of the exact same brand, speed,and timings as the 4, I already have, installed on my machine, laying around.
Can I pop those in and not screw something up?
And, does this configuration help me, or must I buy an 8 gig, or whatever gig, kit?
Or do I need to buy another dual channel kit, exactly the same as the kit already installed, and go with 8 gigs, and install that in my extra two RAM slots?
If all sticks do not match, you lose dual-channel capability. Your two 1gb sticks would become your bottleneck.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Ok, ty. So adding an identical 4 gig dual channel kit, totalling me 8gig would be fine?
The reason I'm wondering about this, is, I typically see 2 channel 4 gig kits, ( 2 x 2 ), for 100 bucks each, approx.
Yet I see mostly the 8 gig kits, ( 4 x 2 ), for around 300. And I notice many say, 4 channel kit.
It would seem cheaper just to buy the 2, 2 channel kits, and save the extra 100 bucks. So it got me wondering if there was some reason, why a person would pay the extra money, unless some performance issue insued.
Always get matching ram sticks, that's why the kits are there. When using unmatched ram, at the very least you will be limited to the lowest ram there ( in effect the computer will ignore the larger faster ram and only communicate with the lower slower ram ) and at the worst, the computer just won't respond at all.
So yes, just get an identical kit to what you already have in there, and you'll be good to go.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Each pair has to match in size for dual channel to work. So 2 1GB sticks and 2 2GB sticks will still work in dual channel mode (provided you put them in the proper slots). You shouldn't worry about timings too much, they are a very minor influence on real world performance, but dual channel is a good thing to have going.
The extra tasks you are wondering about actually take up not much memory. But you can easily check if 6GB is going to help over 4GB, just start all the tasks you want running and watch in task manager your memory usage, if you hit 90% usage or see your 'commit charge' going over your actual physical amount of ram then you would see a benefit from putting more in.
If you feel low on memory I'd just toss in the 2 1GB sticks you already have. You said they were the same timings and everything as the 2GB sticks so no performance issues to worry about anyway. Even if they were slower, having enough slow ram is much better than having not enough fast ram.
I have 8 gigs with a quad core including a GTX 285 video card and a 700 watt power supply. I know it is an overkill, but it is nice having all that power and memory and not worrying about turning things down for better performance.
I basically can run anything maxed out. For now...LOL
I always refer to this quote:
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates, 1981
;-)
I have 8 gigs, but I also do production work and sometimes use all my memory.