3gb or 4gb? that is the question

abstractposer

abstractposer

New Member
i currently have 2gbs of ram and want to upgrade for better performance. my main problem is deciding whether to get 1gb more or 2gb more memory. is there a big difference from 3gb to 4gb that you have experienced? what is a good brand of memory if i do upgrade? right now i think i have wintec or something like that.
 
Better performance in... What? Unless you are planning to run CAD, large software design softwares, or some memory hungry monster there's a big lack of need to 4gb from the start. For 32bit versions of Windows you also have the 3gb barrier problem to some extent. http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

The big leap is seen when going from 512mb or 1gb upto 2gb. That's a giant step seen there while going up a gig or two for a 2gb system running the usual won't expect much. Eventually when chipsets are designed for seeing 8gb to 16gb on a board and fully detect all of the memory before the OS is installed along with the next generation of 64bit Windows to follow the next version everyone will looking at about 4gb standards.
 
PC eye is correct. Unless you have Vista or a 64bit OS there is no use for more than 3 gigs of memory. You cannot possibly use it.
 
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The MS page there explains how Windows mapps out memory addresses to hardwares explaining why some only see 3.25gb when 4gb is installed. The memory substracted from the total is not available for use for games and apps as available ram. This is what is meant by the 3gb barrier term applied mainly to 32bit versions of Windows including Vista as well as XP.
 
But it also give a reason to why they have limited the address space. With proper hardware support, it isn't a problem for at 32-bit OS to support all 4GB RAM
 
A simple look at the boards now seeing 8gb and 16gb capacities reveals another hardware flaw there too. The current chipsets seen even on the new boards were designed for use on those that saw only upto 4gb max. When 8gb is installed only 7gb is actually seen in the bios post screen! The chipsets fail to detect the full amount of memory installed.

The drawback with support from OS and software companies is simple there too. Look at how much has changed hardware wise between XP's release and now seeing Vista. 512mb was typically the max or upto 768mb seen then. XP was written for the then current hardwares. Likewise Vista is still outdated by seeing a lengthy delay and has not fully kept up with the mush faster pace seen in hardware turnovers.
 
i have vista home premium and i do like to play game and basically have a fast computer. do you think i will notice a big difference from 2gb to 4?
 
With 2gb installed I would have to add a second pair of performance dimms in to see what little gain you might see for a few of the larger and newer games out. For most of the ones that have been out for some time you probably wouldn't notice any there. The only real plus is when having a ton of startups running in the background using memory where that might see lags when gaming and simply tend to smooth things out more.
 
i have a question...i have 1gig of ram. (2 512's) if i upgrade to 2gig, should i replace the 2 512's, add 2 more, add a 1 gig....? oh, and when it comes to loading the internet would it make much difference? i also play games, which i know it will help there, but i was just wondering about the net.
 
how many slots do you have? if you got only two, better have two 1 GB sticks for dual channel support if you mobo supports it,.....if you got 4 slots,....add 2 more sticks of 512's,......and no, you won't notice any difference when surfing the net and just a little performance gain in gaming:)
 
Is it okay do use dual channel slots in this manner? Have two 1gb sticks and then have two 512mb sticks? Would this work ?
 
also, it doesn't matter if you have miss-matching brands of ram correct? and what is a good way to find out if your mobo can handle 4gb.
 
abstractposer said:
also, it doesn't matter if you have miss-matching brands of ram correct? and what is a good way to find out if your mobo can handle 4gb.
Click to expand...

Go to this link and download the program CPU-Z.
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

Click on the "CPU-Z 1.43" link on the left of the page to download.

Give us all the information that CPU-Z displays on your motherboard and processor and we should be able to help you determine how much memory your motherboard can handle.
 
Simply looking over the specifications on the make and model board there will show how much is supported as well as the type and speed. When mixing any memory make sure the type and timings are the same to avoid problems.
 
i will check that site soon. i was told that the 32bit edition of vista can only handle like 2gb, but i also need to check if i have the 32bit or 64bit
 
32 bit vista will handle 3.2 gigs

go to task manager and see what your peak memory usage is. you probably don't need more than 2 gigs unless you use a lot of memory intensive programs. on my xp build i rarely go beyond 1 gig and i mostly idle around 600-700 megs.
 
The problem isn't simply the different brand name but can be seen within the same brand as well. If you have memory running at 2v and the other at 1.8v something won't work right. For 1,8-2v and 2-2.2v memory you would have to manually set the voltage to 2v in the bios. By that time you would also be running two different types as well.
 
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