8gb of ram or more. questions.

daninfamous

New Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
I know in a 32bit os (vista) you can run 4gb of ram, but you will only have like 3.2~gb avail because of your video card/ect.

Now im running a 64bit os (win7)
I ordered 4gb of ram, and will be running 6gb, but I was reading my motherboard details and it supports up to 8gb, but if i ordered another 4gb so im 4x2 =8, will it all be supported/show up or does it have limitations/share video ram/ect like a 32bit os?

What im asking is, Can I put in 8gb of ram, plus have my video card ect, and everything show up/work correctly.

Gigabyte p35-ds3l
 
From what i understand is that windows 7 64 bit should support anywhere up to 8 GB of RAM. So i am gonna guess that that is the full 8 GB. I dont see why anyone would ever need that many GBs of RAM but ok.
 
Well, if it follows the Vista ideals, the "Basic" edition will support up to 8 GB fully, Home Premium 16 GB fully, and the rest 128 GB fully.
 
It should support it, no video card deductions. This is because the video RAM deduction in 32Bit-Windows comes from the fact that 32bit-OSs can't adress more than 4 GB of any kind of RAM, no matter where it's installed, be it video card, main board, whatever.

The limitation in 64bit-architecture, however, is far off limits - it's 16 Exobyte.
 
I have found in Windows 7 that when I use 8GB of RAM vs 4GB, I get very different results when running Prime95 (stressing RAM and CPU). My system with 4GB will stress 2.6+ GB of RAM during the test and the system with 8GB will use just over 1.5GB. I'm not really sure why this is, but I'm really not concerned. I may move 4GB of the 8 into another computer I have that has 2GB.

I have found in Windows 7 that when I use 8GB of RAM vs 4GB, I get very different results when running Prime95 (stressing RAM and CPU). My system with 4GB will stress 2.6+ GB of RAM during the test and the system with 8GB will use just over 1.5GB. I'm not really sure why this is, but I'm really not concerned. I may move 4GB of the 8 into another computer I have that has 2GB.


Here is a visual comparison:


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U may run in to some errors when upgrading to 8gb of ram. For some MB's you have to lower the RAM
frequenzy. if the ram for example is a 1066 mhz, you have to lower it to 800mhz. and also higher the voltage to the ram. from standard up <1.8> up to 2.0. this is beacause you may stress the dimm ports when you populate them all at the same time...
 
I was just discussing this with a mate in another city seeking my console earlier today; question came to mind, "why (the need) for the monsterous amount of RAM?"... was, also 4G going to 8. Besides the M/B concerns & useless unless 64-bit... when it comes to Windows 7, you have to ask, WHY? The phrase I use to him was, superfluous overkill... With Vista, bring on the RAM. Win7, can use it, sure but, need... nope.

Example:
Vista, I can't run 2 VMs (XP & Vista) simultaneously... Windows 7, I can and at nice speeds, too. It just does not ask much of system resources.
I use 2GB at idle, and easily find use for 6GB regulary. Have a 1GB RAMdisk loaded on top of that. RAM is so cheap, load it up and install x64 I say. Helps out with gaming heaps too. A must for my system.
U may run in to some errors when upgrading to 8gb of ram. For some MB's you have to lower the RAM
frequenzy.
No problem, bump the RAM and NB voltages a little.

Additionally, x86 is dated and I dont understand why you would choose to use it if you have an x64 CPU.
 
I have a computer that came with 8GB of Ram and holds 16BG of RAM and runs very smoothly with vista. Wonder what windows 7 would be like:rolleyes:
 
I run 4GB of ram, and for me it's not enough. But I plan to go from DDR2 to DDR3 not too long in the future (AM3 mind you), and yes I know the difference is neglible but I plan to overhaul my system, and going from a cheap am2+ mobo to a decent AM3 is going to be my choice.

Anyway back to the topic, 4gb is still 'the sweet spot' for the general user and gamer alike. Heck for the 'web browser/word processor' 2gb is more than enough. But for people running things like Adobe programs and other design programs like myself, there is NEVER enough RAM :p. I'm using Win7 64 specifically to utilise all my RAM as my 32-bit XP limited me very much so in working with photoshop (as it can only use up to 2gb per program in 32 bit, regardless of installed amount), so I was limited to 1.7 gb of ram (max) available for photoshop (after calculations etc), now I get 3.2 gbs worth to use =). Much smoother and faster. I can't even fathom how much better it'd be with 8gbs =D.
 
I have a computer that came with 8GB of Ram and holds 16BG of RAM and runs very smoothly with vista. Wonder what windows 7 would be like:rolleyes:

As the risk of starting another long winded Vista v 7 rant, probably about the same lol. ;)
 
Lol I remember that review.. Really only accounts for those who run games and the like constantly. Compare 2 gb to 4gb of RAM in a 64 bit enviroment whilst running photoshop and you'll see the difference. That review is bad because it only covers i7 triple channel RAM etc, and doesn't account for actual differences in RAM intensive apps like video editing, photo editing, and animation.

Sometimes more RAM can be useless though if you're not actually using it.. Why bother spending more if you have no need for it. Unless you plan to use the spare ram as a RAMdisk for a scratch disk or things like that etc.
 
I run 4GB of ram, and for me it's not enough. But I plan to go from DDR2 to DDR3 not too long in the future (AM3 mind you), and yes I know the difference is neglible but I plan to overhaul my system, and going from a cheap am2+ mobo to a decent AM3 is going to be my choice.

Anyway back to the topic, 4gb is still 'the sweet spot' for the general user and gamer alike. Heck for the 'web browser/word processor' 2gb is more than enough. But for people running things like Adobe programs and other design programs like myself, there is NEVER enough RAM :p. I'm using Win7 64 specifically to utilise all my RAM as my 32-bit XP limited me very much so in working with photoshop (as it can only use up to 2gb per program in 32 bit, regardless of installed amount), so I was limited to 1.7 gb of ram (max) available for photoshop (after calculations etc), now I get 3.2 gbs worth to use =). Much smoother and faster. I can't even fathom how much better it'd be with 8gbs =D.

My experience is 8 Gb of Ram, which allows me to feel comfortable while running multitasking and running programs that require much Ram. I can have all my applications open when digress for a while to play smth like Myst or Arma. Sometimes my task manager shows me that no more than 1,8 Gb is being used, and all the rest is occupied by the superfetch, which I disable and then have it like:

Total 8125
Cached 1685
Free 4952

The more Ram is the better, but mind that Vista kills all of your free Ram by its "brilliant" superfetch, which you shoud disable to have free Ram available. You can go for 8, 12, or 16 Gb of Ram, won't be a mistake.


Control Panel > Administrative > Services > Superfetch > Disable and stop it.
 
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