16gb ram user experience

[skipsneeky2]

Currently sitting with a 4gb stick of ram,having built my wife a rig recently on a budget i gave her one of my other 4gb sticks.Going to be giving her my other stick of course and picking up a new kit.

I got a H61 motherboard with 2 ram slots,i figured for the cheap price of $69 16gb certainly is affordable and will ensure i will be set with memory a good while.

Users with 16gb of ram,how is the experience?Do you disable your pagefile?Keep it enabled with a set amount?Any recent games that benefit from more then 8?I hear reports of GTA V being a title that pushes 8gb and seeing my memory hit 7gb it makes me wonder.

Rest of the rig consists of a i5 2500,a 120gb boot ssd and a gtx660.

 

[Magic Carpet]

16gb is the absolute minimum these days for ANY performance* user. So the question is, do you consider yourself a performance user?

*So you can have your swap file disabled and get extra performance gains from that.

Otherwise, 8gb is enough for general usage.

 

[skipsneeky2]

16gb is the absolute minimum these days for ANY performance* user. So the question is, do you consider yourself a performance user?

*So you can have your swap file disabled and get extra performance gains from that.

Otherwise, 8gb is enough for general usage.

I do enjoy the best performance for sure,having 2 ram slots going for 16gb over 8gb wouldn't break my wallet and if i could disable my pagefile that would be a big bonus.

More then happy with my 120gb ssd and my i5 2500.The ssd may be replaced with a 256gb one but for the most part the i5 2500 certainly isn't going no where any time soon.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I left my swap file alone when I moved to 16gb.

 

[Ketchup]

I left my swap file alone. The only time I use almost all of it is when I am running three VMs at one. And since it's Windows, hard to say how much is data is in there from days ago. But when just playing games, I don't recall going much over 8.

 

[sandorski]

The few times I have bothered to check once I was using >6gb. I rather doubt I have ever exceeded 8gb, but when I bought my 16 it was the same price that 8gb is today, so it seemed something worth doing.

I didn't change any Swap settings. Toyed with the idea of a RAM disk, but never tried that either. Best part of the experience is that RAM usage just isn't something I worry about. 8gb is probably sufficient, but it wouldn't surprise me if I have exceeded that on occasion.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

16GB is the bare minimum for games today IMO. I'm upgrading as soon as I can, and 16GB of DDR3 1600 is only $60, so it's not super expensive. I would say even 8GB is pushing it for modern browsing. With Chrome loving memory and even a casual browser having video/music/email/news all open at once I would say 8GB is fine for now, but honestly 16GB is cheap enough to spring for while DDR3 is still the standard.

Sitting here with this forum and a livestream open in Chrome, steam, and afterburner open I'm using between 3.7 and 4.5GB. I'd say it's mostly the livestream.

Again, if you're gaming at all do yourself a favor and get 16GB.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I put 16GB in both of my Mom's boxes. Just because. So she doesn't have to worry about rebooting regularly, in case there are any memory leaks (Flash Player, etc.).

Myself, I built an ITX box with a Haswell Celeron, and I put in 16GB. Pure overkill for browsing and light DC work.

My Skylake rigs (G4400 OCed in Z170 boards, and an i3 in a H110 board) all have 2x4GB kits in them. Primarily, because I was on a budget when I got the RAM kits for those rigs. I would have picked up 16GB if I could have afforded it. So far, though, no issues with only 8GB.

If I were gaming on them, I probably would move up to 16GB though.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Ordinarily, 8 GB works fine for me for, well, anything I've done up until just a few minutes ago where I slammed the entire amount just tooling around in Unreal Engine 4. Might need to grab another 8 GB kit to toss in. If nothing else, having a RAM drive for emulators would be awesome.

 

[skipsneeky2]

I ordered the memory.

This single 4gb stick is pitiful,i open and play any newer game and after i close it my desktop just crawls.GTA V stutters and hitches all over.I give my wife this stick and shes sitting pretty with her ssd,8gb of ram and G1820.:thumbsup:

With this much memory,programs and the os wouldn't even touch the pagefile usually right?It will be a whole new experience for me.

 

[Coup27]

There is no logic to having a 16GB page file. Windows 7 mirrors the size of the RAM and the page file and I used to change it to 1024-2048MB.

I can't speak for Windows 8 because I avoided it but Windows 10 has set my page file to 2GB based on 8GB. If it isn't already, I would set it to 2GB.

 

[MajinCry]

Got 16GBs 'ere. Max me mobo supports, and 8GB just feels too small.

Concerning the pagefile, dinnae disable it. There are programs & games that are designed to use it, such as Bethesda's games (Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim & Fallout 4 want a 1GB-2GB pagefile according to Boris Vorontsov).

What I did, was use Softperfect RAMDisk to create a 1GB volume and put me pagefile on that. Noticeably reduced stutter in the aforementioned games.

Another benefit to be had with lots of RAM, is that you can put programs and game files on a RAMdisk, then use junctions to link the RAMDisk to the program/game. Works a treat when hosting a server 'n' for open world games.

 

[PliotronX]

There is no logic to having a 16GB page file. Windows 7 mirrors the size of the RAM and the page file and I used to change it to 1024-2048MB.

I can't speak for Windows 8 because I avoided it but Windows 10 has set my page file to 2GB based on 8GB. If it isn't already, I would set it to 2GB.

This! Do not waste precious SSD space on an unutilized pagefile. The only reason to jack it up is if your computer happens to be an SQL server.

 

[myocardia]

Concerning the pagefile, dinnae disable it. There are programs & games that are designed to use it, such as Bethesda's games (Oblivion, Fallout 3, New Vegas, Skyrim & Fallout 4 want a 1GB-2GB pagefile according to Boris Vorontsov).

Indeed. OP, set your pagefile to 2,048MB-2,048MB. If you use 1,024MB-2,048MB, Windows isn't smart enough to every stop thrashing your SSD. It continually changes the size, and that is needless wear and tear on your SSD.

What I did, was use Softperfect RAMDisk to create a 1GB volume and put me pagefile on that. Noticeably reduced stutter in the aforementioned games.

I do this as well, only @ 2GB size, using the RAMdisk software that came with my Asus motherboard.

 

[slag]

16GB is the bare minimum for games today IMO. I'm upgrading as soon as I can, and 16GB of DDR3 1600 is only $60, so it's not super expensive. I would say even 8GB is pushing it for modern browsing. With Chrome loving memory and even a casual browser having video/music/email/news all open at once I would say 8GB is fine for now, but honestly 16GB is cheap enough to spring for while DDR3 is still the standard.

Sitting here with this forum and a livestream open in Chrome, steam, and afterburner open I'm using between 3.7 and 4.5GB. I'd say it's mostly the livestream.

Again, if you're gaming at all do yourself a favor and get 16GB.

16 GB is definitely not the minimum for gaming. My son has 8 and games just fine. I have 12 and never have issues. 16 is nice, and probably not many have 16 GB in their systems on a whole if you polled gamers.

 

[Charlie98]

I put 16GB in both of my Mom's boxes. Just because.

Jeez, Larry, you are making me feel bad. I got my mom a set of 2x4GB for her Dell for Christmas (she uses it for work, website management, etc) she's been running on 4GB since she got it.

All my desktop machines have 8GB, I've never had a problem in general use tapping 8GB, but I don't have tons of tabs open with video running, etc, either.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I put 16GB in both of my Mom's boxes. Just because. So she doesn't have to worry about rebooting regularly, in case there are any memory leaks (Flash Player, etc.).

Myself, I built an ITX box with a Haswell Celeron, and I put in 16GB. Pure overkill for browsing and light DC work.

My Skylake rigs (G4400 OCed in Z170 boards, and an i3 in a H110 board) all have 2x4GB kits in them. Primarily, because I was on a budget when I got the RAM kits for those rigs. I would have picked up 16GB if I could have afforded it. So far, though, no issues with only 8GB.

If I were gaming on them, I probably would move up to 16GB though.

My man :thumbsup: For once, you do something right. No point in buying 4gb sticks anymore. 8x1 or 8x2 for future upgrade.

 

[Deders]

Arkham Knight will use abut 12GB and Rise of the Tomb Raider will use more than 10GB. I've not see GTAV use much more than 8 and it was very playable on my old 8GB machine.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I wonder, can I grab 2x8 GB sticks to go with my 2x4 GB sticks I currently have, assuming I can keep latency and speeds identical. If so, could I also run a 4 GB and an 8 GB stick per-channel, thus an equal amount of RAM per channel? (will go for the same brand as well btw)

Edit: Seems a mite on the janky side now that I read it. I know my laptop for sure is running a 2 GB stick and 4 GB stick in dual channel though (and different brands at that), so I may not need to worry about mismatching sizes too much.

Edit 2:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005657.html#dual

According to this, 24 GB (4 + 8 GB/channel) across 2 channels should work just fine in interleaved mode, just at the speed of the slower module, which is no issue.

 

[Ketchup]

I wonder, can I grab 2x8 GB sticks to go with my 2x4 GB sticks I currently have, assuming I can keep latency and speeds identical. If so, could I also run a 4 GB and an 8 GB stick per-channel, thus an equal amount of RAM per channel? (will go for the same brand as well btw)

Edit: Seems a mite on the janky side now that I read it. I know my laptop for sure is running a 2 GB stick and 4 GB stick in dual channel though (and different brands at that), so I may not need to worry about mismatching sizes too much.

Edit 2:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005657.html#dual

According to this, 24 GB (4 + 8 GB/channel) across 2 channels should work just fine in interleaved mode, just at the speed of the slower module, which is no issue.

It used to be the more sticks you ran, the slower you wanted your speed (more traces for your data to travel through). With modern memory, I don't know if that is much of an issue.

 

[Deders]

It used to be the more sticks you ran, the slower you wanted your speed (more traces for your data to travel through). With modern memory, I don't know if that is much of an issue.

It should be fine at normal speeds, although it might lower the overclock potential. Asus has T-topology that helps minimise this by making the traces equal distance.

 

[Zodiark1593]

It should be fine at normal speeds, although it might lower the overclock potential. Asus has T-topology that helps minimise this by making the traces equal distance.

My mobo has no memory overclock capability (Asus H97 Plus) anyhow aside from whatever XMP gives you, so even that's a non-issue. 1600 MHz 9 CAS all the way.

 

[Magic Carpet]

@Zodiark1593

You can.

 

[tortillasoup]

pathetic how 16gb of ram us necessary for decent computing performance due to bloated webbrowsing.

 

[tsupersonic]

pathetic how 16gb of ram us necessary for decent computing performance due to bloated webbrowsing.

Chrome and Firefox? Yeah, it's a bit crazy to see browsers "hogging" up so much RAM. I actually like when the hardware is being used to its best potential.

I had 8 GB RAM when I built this rig in 2013, and it was fine. I saw the opportunity to pick up 16 GB (2 DIMM's) for $70, and bought it about 10 months ago. I had my page file disabled at 8 GB, so it's still disabled. I usually consume 4-8 GB of RAM, so I'm glad I have some extra headroom. Since I have DDR3, this is probably the last significant upgrade I make to this rig for a while. I hope it lasts another 4-6 years.