I'm getting a new system soon and i've chosen everything, im just still stuck on whether to go for 4GB of ram or 8GB. Could you please tell me what the benefits are of having 8GB of ram apposed to 4GB and what that ammount of ram would be good for?

if you have enough money buy 8 gb, don't know what's the real question...

Quote from tikshow :

if you have enough money buy 8 gb, don't know what's the real question...

The real question? Is there a point to 8GB? In what programmes would i see a difference if i had 8GB of ram, as opposed to only 4GB of ram?

Moar RAM - Smoother Vista. Apps will load up faster, and for things like Photoshop / Premiere etc should run better when you've got 20 miillion things open.

In the real world though I think i've only ever used up 4 GB when I was playing SupCom.

Quote from Migz :

The real question? Is there a point to 8GB? In what programmes would i see a difference if i had 8GB of ram, as opposed to only 4GB of ram?

if you buy a computer for the near future 4 gb is enough, but for the 'far future'(?), maybe it isn't enough, for example gta 4, starcraft 2, diablo 3, we don't know how much ram will those needed

GTA4 won't need over 4GB of RAM.

GTA5 might :|
Hmm seeing as ill probably have this computer for about 5-6 years, maybe i should get 8GB ram? in 5 years im guessing most games/programmes will need quite a high amount of ram.

lol, i remeber when people used to tell me that i could never use more than a 20gb hdd. not i have 600GB. imo, it's better to have something and not need it rather than need something and not have it.

4GB are more than enough. The only game which used all my 2Gb was Crysis during few minutes (normally 1.5/1.8Gb), and Photoshop working on a very big image needs a lot more than 2Gb.
I would buy 4Gb, if you need more, you always can buy more

I'd recommend getting a motherboard with four RAM slots, and then buying 2x2GB for now. Then you can upgrade later on with another 2x2GBs if you feel the need for that. It's always cheaper to upgrade when you actually need something than to try to be one step ahead all the time..

Quote from dadge :

lol, i remeber when people used to tell me that i could never use more than a 20gb hdd. not i have 600GB. imo, it's better to have something and not need it rather than need something and not have it.

Thats what i thought.

Quote from NitroNitrous :

4GB are more than enough. The only game which used all my 2Gb was Crysis during few minutes (normally 1.5/1.8Gb), and Photoshop working on a very big image needs a lot more than 2Gb.
I would buy 4Gb, if you need more, you always can buy more

Hmm, i may think about buying 4GB and then just getting more.

Quote from Gnomie :

I'd recommend getting a motherboard with four RAM slots, and then buying 2x2GB for now. Then you can upgrade later on with another 2x2GBs if you feel the need for that. It's always cheaper to upgrade when you actually need something than to try to be one step ahead all the time..

I dont know why but i cant find any AMD mobo's that have 4 ram slots. If i could i would do this instead.

Why are you looking for AMD mobo's?!

I R CONFUSED.

I've got amd processor
Intel doesnt seem as good. I think.

Quote from Migz :

GTA5 might :|
Hmm seeing as ill probably have this computer for about 5-6 years, maybe i should get 8GB ram? in 5 years im guessing most games/programmes will need quite a high amount of ram.

I think processor and graphics card technology is more likely to hold a computer back in the future than not having that much RAM.

loads of Mobo's for AMD have 4 ram slots.. i dont think i have ever bought one without 4 ram slots...

Just a note on the ram Migz.. if your 32 bit OS then 4gig is more than enough. The 8 Gig will only come into use on 64 bit os's and would likely not be much use to you at this time.

my current mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140701 (lacks in Sata connectors) - A good mobo, just needs more SATA connections
my previous mobo: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?QuickLinx=4CPR (lacks in AM2+) - A good mobo and it worked fine on Vista 64 for me.

not unless you hack the operating system...

Quote from ajp71 :

I think processor and graphics card technology is more likely to hold a computer back in the future than not having that much RAM.

Perhaps, but the graphics card im getting should play most of the latest things for a while yet.
And i can just overclock the processor.

Quote from franky500 :

loads of Mobo's for AMD have 4 ram slots.. i dont think i have ever bought one without 4 ram slots...

Just a note on the ram Migz.. if your 32 bit OS then 4gig is more than enough. The 8 Gig will only come into use on 64 bit os's and would likely not be much use to you at this time.

my current mobo: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140701 (lacks in Sata connectors) - A good mobo, just needs more SATA connections
my previous mobo: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?QuickLinx=4CPR (lacks in AM2+) - A good mobo and it worked fine on Vista 64 for me.

Vista 32 bit only allows 3gig's iirc, but im getting 64bit anyway

See this is what im confused by, on the mobo that links to dabs in the specs it says:

Features
Two DDR channels

Doesn't that mean i can only fit in two sticks? So if i bought a 4GB kit the two sticks that are in it take up all the channels?

Or am i wrong and that means that a 4GB kit would only take up one channel?

Because all the mobo's Ive looked at say this.

Not sure what that means but just look at the picture, it has 4 RAM slots. Might mean single and dual channel I guess, dual channel basically means if you have a matching pair of RAM sticks it works faster (2, 1gig sticks for example, if you added a 3rd it would revert to single channel) can't say I've really noticed a difference.

If you look at the picture you can see 4 RAM slots, the red and yellow things.

....and as for Intel nothing being as good as AMD, I don't think you'd find a balanced argument for that at the moment. Intel are quiet a distance in front right now but none of that matters, all thats really important is which one you prefer.

it's for running in duel channel mode. it's meant to be faster but i think you need bit ammounts of ram (which you're getting) to see any difference from single channel mode. the amd phenoms have been tested against the intels and phenoms run higher resolutions better than intels. tbh, if you bought either an intel or amd, you wouldn't be upset with your choice. both chips do their jobs quite well.

Ehhh? i need bit amounts of ram? whats that? Or do you mean equal?
If i bought a 4GB kit, which is two 2GB sticks and put that in, would their still be space to buy another 4GB kit to put in?

And jakg has beaten me into getting intel *Coughs blood*

Quote from Migz :

If i bought a 4GB kit, which is two 2GB sticks and put that in, would their still be space to buy another 4GB kit to put in?

There are 4 slots, you fill 2 of them so.....

Well then, that sorts the ram problem, ill get 4GB of ram, and if needed ill upgrade to 8GB of ram.

Quote from Migz :

Well then, that sorts the ram problem, ill get 4GB of ram, and if needed ill upgrade to 8GB of ram.

Smart

Pretty pointless to even think about getting 8Gb for gaming system. By the time you'll actually might get benefit from it, whole system is outdated and your old ram will most likely be incompatible with new equipment.

Quote from Crommi :

Pretty pointless to even think about getting 8Gb for gaming system. By the time you'll actually might get benefit from it, whole system is outdated and your old ram will most likely be incompatible with new equipment.

This isnt just a gaming system, this is an everything system.
Movies, music, photoshoping, video editing, game designing, rendering.
Everythingg