When will 2X2GB of RAM become the norm?

[Navid]

Currently, if you look on the Hot Deals forum, you will see most RAM hot deals are for 2X1GB of RAM.

I am using Vista 64 and am planning to upgrade my hardware.

I am considering getting 2X2GB for RAM.
Would that help performance for today's games?

Would there be any disadvantage, other than cost?

Thanks!

 

[Smilin]

2x1 still does the trick.

The resource intensive stuff like say FEAR hits about 1.5 GB.

You might see some new titles (crysis?) that leverage more but it's generally a bad idea to purchase hardware for software that is "coming soon". Buy it when you need it...the price will have dropped further by then anyway.

 

[Navid]

So, what are we talking about?
End of 2007, mid 2008, end of 2008?
When will 2X2GB become popular like 2X1GB is today?

 

[Steve]

When chip makers can make those size chips affordable.

 

[n7]

Considering how nice Superfetch is in Vista, i'd say quite soon.

Then again, most people here seem to prefer sticking with outdated OSes, so it's hard to say for sure.

 

[pradeep1]

Originally posted by: n7
Considering how nice Superfetch is in Vista, i'd say quite soon.

Then again, most people here seem to prefer sticking with outdated OSes, so it's hard to say for sure.

Ouch. Are you making fun on my Windows Me box? As far as I am concerned, USB is God's gift to computing. And who the hell needs more than 16 MB of memory anyways.

 

[pradeep1]

Originally posted by: Navid
So, what are we talking about?
End of 2007, mid 2008, end of 2008?
When will 2X2GB become popular like 2X1GB is today?

Probably when you can get two sticks of name brand stuff for about $100 shipped. You probably won't see mass Vista migration for another few years, so maybe by 2009-2010?

 

[ribbon13]

Originally posted by: pradeep1
You probably won't see mass Vista migration for another few years, so maybe by 2009-2010?

Oi... the XP holdouts aren't like that friend... 6 months tops. If hardware vendors don't have solid drivers by then, they are impotent and people will go elsewhere.

Vista 64-bit should be the norm for a while, 4MB memory pages... finally.

 

[Nothinman]

Vista 64-bit should be the norm for a while, 4MB memory pages... finally.

Actually memory pages are still 4k by default on AMD64.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: Navid
So, what are we talking about?
End of 2007, mid 2008, end of 2008?
When will 2X2GB become popular like 2X1GB is today?

If I had a crystal ball I wouldn't have to give the advice, "it's generally a bad idea to purchase hardware for software that is 'coming soon.'"

 

[Zolty]

using me as the sample, it took me 2 years to feel that I needed to upgrade from 512 to 1gb. I will probably upgrade my 939 next year and it will get a bump to 2gb, this should be good for at least 2 years.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

I have had 2gb for years. For me the norm will be 4gb from now on building boxes.

 

[ProviaFan]

I built my current system with 2GB of RAM around two years ago, and upgraded to 4GB about one year ago. With XP x64 I almost never saw any benefit except for very large scans with lots of layers in Photoshop (which I rarely work with). Vista x64, however, is able to make good use of the extra RAM with its enhanced caching. I can't say how much performance would decrease if I only had 2GB under Vista, and I'm not about to rip some RAM out for a week to find out. My opinion is that for the next few years, hard drive and CPU speed will be more likely to limit performance than having "only" 2GB of RAM.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
I have had 2gb for years. For me the norm will be 4gb from now on building boxes.

From my view, 2gig has been the 'power user' level for some time now. Now (and I do think Vista will be a driver) I'm starting to see that moving up to 4gig. Above 4gig (even on Vista 64) is for particular use (I'm spec'ing a new Vista 64 laptop and I can't find any normal brand that handles >4gig yet).

As the power user moves to 4gig, I think 2gig is becoming the new norm for new users (I picked up an HP Touchsmart last weekend to play with the form factor and it, along with just about every 'over the counter' mid-level machine at the big box stores, came with 2gig).

The virtual machine user, folllowed by the gamers, will push the memory requirements up. My servers are both 8gig machines (sans the NAS which is 4gig), my desktop is 32gig and just about everything else in the house is 2gig (sans my girlfriends laptop which is older and only supports 1gig).

Bill

 

[Navid]

This is a popular motherboard I believe, whichI am considering.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot...x?ProductID=2510&ModelName=GA-965P-DS3

The memory support list mainly includes 512MB and 1GB modules! It only shows 2 or 3 2G modules.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Mem...ort/motherboard_memory_ga-965p-ds3.pdf

Those of you who say you have 4G, do you use 4X1G or 2X2G?

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: Navid
This is a popular motherboard I believe, whichI am considering.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Mot...x?ProductID=2510&ModelName=GA-965P-DS3

The memory support list only includes 512MB and 1GB modules!
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/FileList/Mem...ort/motherboard_memory_ga-965p-ds3.pdf

Those of you who say you have 4G, do you use 4X1G or 2X2G?

Whenever possible I leave slots open for future expansion, so given the choice I'd get 2 dimms over 4 (unless the MB only support 4gig max)

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: Navid
Currently, if you look on the Hot Deals forum, you will see most RAM hot deals are for 2X1GB of RAM.

I am using Vista 64 and am planning to upgrade my hardware.

I am considering getting 2X2GB for RAM.
Would that help performance for today's games?

Would there be any disadvantage, other than cost?

Thanks!

It wasn't too long ago where the "hot deals" where for 2x512.

It depends on the game, and you have to keep in mind that you have a thirstly OS in the background as well. As far as I know the only game that can currently beat the crap out of a 2gig Vista machine is Supreme Commander, and it crashes hard on some rigs when it tries to allocate more than 1.5 gig. The funny thing about this is that GPG is trying to reduce SupCom's footprint by 20-50% in the next "big" patch.

The only disadvantage I can see to having a 4gig machine (one that can handle it correctly) is having a large portion of your RAM go unused. But from what I understand Vista's superfetch architecture will keep as many exe's as possible in RAM just to avoid swapping in from your HD at launch. This being true, I guess there isn't really a downside. It just depends on how you run your box.

 

[ROcHE]

Battlefield 2 can own a 2gb vista machine.

 

[aka1nas]

4GB in Vista 64 is a bit more comfy atm. The 2x2GB kits have come down astronomically in price in the last few months and will be somewhat affordable near the end of the year. By affordable, I mean that you won't pay a huge premium by getting 2x2GB compared to 4x1GB sticks.

I think that large number of people still running 32-bit XP is going to slightly retard the push to 4GB+ becoming the norm.

 

[HardWarrior]

Originally posted by: ROcHE
Battlefield 2 can own a 2gb vista machine.

This would sort of mean that 2142 would be even worse, right? I haven't played BF2 on my machine yet, but 2142 runs just fine, for hours on end.

 

[pcslookout]

8 GB will be the norm in a few months when newer power hungry games come out. You will need at least 8 GB ram to run smoothly and in a good comfort zone if you want anything else running even if its small in the background of Windows Vista.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: pcslookout
8 GB will be the norm in a few months when newer power hungry games come out. You will need at least 8 GB ram to run smoothly and in a good comfort zone if you want anything else running even if its small in the background of Windows Vista.

We are about 14-22 months from that being the norm. I do agree we will see alot more 4gig machines soon, but the 32bit factions are going to cause a bit of a buildup there before the world bumps up higher.

 

[pcslookout]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: pcslookout
8 GB will be the norm in a few months when newer power hungry games come out. You will need at least 8 GB ram to run smoothly and in a good comfort zone if you want anything else running even if its small in the background of Windows Vista.

We are about 14-22 months from that being the norm. I do agree we will see alot more 4gig machines soon, but the 32bit factions are going to cause a bit of a buildup there before the world bumps up higher.

More like 1 to 2 months.

 

[bsobel]

More like 1 to 2 months.

Ok, well it's May 1st. By your estimation, by July 1st 2007 8gig will be the normal/average amount of memory on new machines. Instead of arguing, I guess we can visit this in 60 days.

I am curious what your qualificatons are to make this prediciton?

 

[spyordie007]

Since we're all just throwing out arbitrary numbers I say 6 months!

That's why I have a board with 4 slots that supports 8GB. 2x1GB today and another 2x2GB when the price goes down and the speed goes up for a total of 6GB, that's the plan at the moment anyways...