12GB of RAM nessary for me?

[musman]

Is there any reason for me to buy another set of RAM for my PC? (check sig for system specifications) My primary use for my PC is gaming. I was told if I get another 6GB of RAM Windows will run much faster. A so called "computer expert" told me with 12GB of RAM Windows will load the complete operating system into the RAM and will then run faster. Sounds kinda fishy to me but figured I would ask.

My RAM is. OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 SDRAM 1600 Tripple Channel.

Thank You!

[Bman212121]

No.

/Thread

It will not load all of windows into ram either. There will be no difference between 6GB and 12GB of ram unless you run a program that actually needs more memory.

[DiscipleDOC]

Originally Posted by Butter Bandit

It's bs. 6 gigs is plenty. You wouldn't notice any difference going from 6 to 12.

Originally Posted by Bman212121

No.

/Thread

It will not load all of windows into ram either. There will be no difference between 6GB and 12GB of ram unless you run a program that actually needs more memory.

This.

[musman]

Thats what I figured. Where do people get this crap from? lol. One time I was editing/rendering a 2 1/2 hour video and I used 82% of my RAM, so I think I will hold off for a while. I doubt there is any game out there that needs more than what my system has already.

Thank you guys!!

[DiscipleDOC]

Originally Posted by musman

Thats what I figured. Where do people get this crap from? lol. One time I was editing/rendering a 2 1/2 hour video and I used 82% of my RAM, so I think I will hold off for a while. I doubt there is any game out there that needs more than what my system has already.

Thank you guys!!

You have a pretty good system. It should be able to handle all the games that's out there today.

[dandano]

That's Windows 7 64-bit, right?

[FlakMagnet]

Going with 12GB of RAM *could* actually have a -ve impact on performance if you have to run the RAM at a slower speed. On some motherboards, you cannot run all 6 RAM slots as fast as you can 3 RAM slots. Depends on mobo and RAM though I guess.

At best, you will not notice a difference. At worst, you will have to run your RAM slower and you will have a slower PC.

[pkirby11]

Funny I went from 2GB, 4GB, 8GB then to 12GB on each of my last four PC upgrades. I went with 8GB and 12GB not because the system will "load windows into memory" that's just stupid. However have you heard of a thing called a swap file or page file? This is used when Windows starts to run out of memory and will swap memory for a file on the disk acting as memory. This causes HDD writes/reads and will degrade performance. I've been running without a swap file for a year and a half and it's made a big difference in performance.

Search around on Google and you'll find a few test articles on this matter and yes it does improve performance. How much of improvement varies but memory isn't a big cost as it used to be. And remember any thing done in memory is going to be faster than read/writes from the hard drive, except for maybe a newer SSD.

So yes there is an advantage to having 8+GB of memory, but it's not going to make your system 10x faster.

[musman]

Originally Posted by DiscipleDOC

You have a pretty good system. It should be able to handle all the games that's out there today.

Thanks DiscipleDOC. For the most part it does play most new games maxed out except Crysis Cryostasis, FSX and a few others. It's the AA settings and PhysiX settings that can tax my system.

[musman]

Originally Posted by dandano

That's Windows 7 64-bit, right?

I am using 7 Ultimate RC 64Bit as of now. I will be getting the "true" W7 Ultimate in the near future.

[musman]

Originally Posted by FlakMagnet

Going with 12GB of RAM *could* actually have a -ve impact on performance if you have to run the RAM at a slower speed. On some motherboards, you cannot run all 6 RAM slots as fast as you can 3 RAM slots. Depends on mobo and RAM though I guess.

At best, you will not notice a difference. At worst, you will have to run your RAM slower and you will have a slower PC.

Thanks for the input. I will half to check my MB and see what the deal is.

[musman]

Originally Posted by pkirby11

Funny I went from 2GB, 4GB, 8GB then to 12GB on each of my last four PC upgrades. I went with 8GB and 12GB not because the system will "load windows into memory" that's just stupid. However have you heard of a thing called a swap file or page file? This is used when Windows starts to run out of memory and will swap memory for a file on the disk acting as memory. This causes HDD writes/reads and will degrade performance. I've been running without a swap file for a year and a half and it's made a big difference in performance.

Search around on Google and you'll find a few test articles on this matter and yes it does improve performance. How much of improvement varies but memory isn't a big cost as it used to be. And remember any thing done in memory is going to be faster than read/writes from the hard drive, except for maybe a newer SSD.

So yes there is an advantage to having 8+GB of memory, but it's not going to make your system 10x faster.

I have read about the swap file for a while, I read that some recommend doing it and some warn about doing it. The warning I heard was that some programs require a swap file and will not run if you do this. Don't know how true that is. With my 6 gigs I have now, do I have enough to try it?

Thanks!