Page 1 of 4

any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:32 am
by MadManOriginal
So, I'm sure this has been gone over before, but things change. For someone who doesn't use VMs, manipulate massive photos, or multitask with a huge number of programs or browser tabs, is there any reason to get 16GB of RAM over 8GB ? How long will 8GB be 'good' for running Windows 8 ?

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:35 am
by kumori
Depending on the size of the photos it might make sense to have 32gb. You need to be working with something like the 5DIII or a 1DX for it to really matter. I don't know about the other cases you mentioned though I would imagine that if your running a ton of VMs then more RAM would be helpful.

The true reason to get 32GB is to impress all your friends!

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 6:37 am
by Elsoze
Well, what's the price difference? To me RAM is so stinkin cheap right now I don't see any reason not to get 16GB.

8GB will be fine for some time for sure, especially if you aren't doing a whole doing the things you mentioned. Even so RAM prices fluctuate and eventually DDR4 or something else will be out and become the norm and the price for DDR3 will likely go up as it is now for DDR2. If you want to update then it will be more expensive in both actual cost and inflation.

But hey, you might not need it then anyway ;)

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:03 am
by JustAnEngineer
I will argue against getting 4x4 GiB. If you do want to get 16 GiB of memory, get 2x8 GiB. That way, you'll be able to expand in the future.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:48 am
by sircharles32
I'm going to buck the current trend.
Based on your usage model, I'd say no.
You only use 1-2 programs at a time, and you only have a couple of tabs open in your browser. Based on that, and the fact that there are zero consumer programs out there that require 16GB (let alone even 4GB), why bother. If you don't plan to use it, don't bother.
By the time you will actually need to use it, chances are that you're building a new system, with a new speed/type of memory in it anyway, so you probably wouldn't even bother upgrading the memory.

It looks like everyone will poo-who this, but based on what you said, I'll stand by my recommendation.

Carry on.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:11 am
by Prestige Worldwide
I just pre-emptively ordered 16gb of RAM for the Haswell build I plan on doing later in the year while keeping my current i5 machine as a secondary gaming pc. The digitimes report about the price of ram modules going up scared me into a hasty purchase.

Back when I built my i5 750 machine in 2010, DDR3 prices were sky high and I paid something like $120 for a 4GB 1600mhz, 2x2 GB CL9 kit from G.Skill. About a year later I picked up the same kit to bump up to 8GB because their price had dropped to somewhere around $60-65. Over the last year prices hit rock bottom and I must have seen that kit for $35 at some point.

I didn't want to end up overpaying on ram again like I did then so I ordered a 16 GB G.Skill 2x8 kit for $88 yesterday. Probably don't need 16gb, but it doesn't feel like an upgrade if it has the same amount of RAM as my current machine.

Oh, and while I was at it, I picked up another GTX 670 for the jaw-droppingly low price of $279.99 after $40 MIR. :D


16 GB kits are still pretty cheap, so if you're on the market now, the "sure, why not?" argument comes to mind. Maybe you'll never use that ram, but hey, better safe than sorry if you've got the money for it. I've hit the 8GB limit while importing raw video footage in Sony Vegas, but it could be because I was running a portable version of the app... I recently installed a non-portable version and have yet to reproduce the issue.

Anywho, kind of rambling here. 8GB will probably be fine, but why not ball out like a boss and get 16 if it's only going to cost you $80-90? That's 4 times the RAM I bought in 2010 for 70% of the price!

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:30 am
by absurdity
sircharles is right on. But if you have extra money just laying around and have nothing to do with it, then sure, go with 16GB. Unless your usage patterns change, you'll never, ever, need it. 8GB will always be 'good' for running Windows 8, the memory requirements aren't going to increase over time.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:11 am
by bthylafh
absurdity wrote:
sircharles is right on. But if you have extra money just laying around and have nothing to do with it, then sure, go with 16GB. Unless your usage patterns change, you'll never, ever, need it. 8GB will always be 'good' for running Windows 8, the memory requirements aren't going to increase over time.


Sure they will. He'll probably get newer programs in the future that will need more RAM; it's a trend that's been holding true since the first computer.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:24 am
by Elsoze
lol... yeah by now people should have learned to never say you'll never need it.

Years ago when 1 or 2MB of RAM was standard my dad came home with 16MB of RAM to put in the Mac IIfx (thing was a beast back in the day). He said "we'll neeevvvveerrrrr use that much memory".

16MB.

Just saying.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:41 am
by bthylafh
Heh. The IIfx could take up to 128MB of RAM. Imagine having /that/ much in 1990. :o

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:43 am
by Arvald
the more you multitask the more RAM you'll need. I have 16GB and typically in Win7 saw 46% used.

So 8GB would have been playing it close.

For getting more RAM you may need to check windows editions now (windows 7 introduced limits to Home versions)
Pro is where the restriction ended.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:50 am
by superjawes
If you're not multitasking, then 8 GB is probably fine. But I like to have Netflix or Youtube going on my second monitor while I'm playing WoW, and the added headroom of 12 GB over 6 GB (for my i7 920) makes a world of difference. Especially since the 64-bit WoW client tends to eat a LOT more RAM than the 32-bit...

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:53 am
by Synchromesh
I've had 16GB for a while in both desktop and laptop. It's nice to have. On the other hand, when I had 8GB for a few weeks while getting a replacement for a bad RAM kit, the difference in performance was negligible, even in games. I'd get 16GB anyway since prices are slowly going up but is it absolutely necessary? Definitely not.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:00 am
by absurdity
Elsoze wrote:
lol... yeah by now people should have learned to never say you'll never need it.

Years ago when 1 or 2MB of RAM was standard my dad came home with 16MB of RAM to put in the Mac IIfx (thing was a beast back in the day). He said "we'll neeevvvveerrrrr use that much memory".

16MB.

Just saying.


Well, did you ever use 16MB in that system? 16GB is overkill for most was my only point. By the time most people will need above 8GB, they'll have upgraded anyways.

And to bthylafh, the point was about the OS requirement, not the application requirements, since he had specifically called that out.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:11 am
by bthylafh
One assumes he's going to be running things besides just the operating system. :wink:

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:54 am
by just brew it!
If your system drive is a mechanical HDD more RAM will improve system responsiveness since any RAM that is not used directly by the OS or applications will be utilized as disk cache. If you're on an SSD the improvement will be less noticeable.

Something else to keep in mind is that once DDR4 is phased in the price of DDR3 may rise as production volumes decline. So if you think you'll be needing more RAM down the road you may want to just bite the bullet and get it now.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:01 am
by flip-mode
bthylafh wrote:
absurdity wrote:
sircharles is right on. But if you have extra money just laying around and have nothing to do with it, then sure, go with 16GB. Unless your usage patterns change, you'll never, ever, need it. 8GB will always be 'good' for running Windows 8, the memory requirements aren't going to increase over time.


Sure they will. He'll probably get newer programs in the future that will need more RAM; it's a trend that's been holding true since the first computer.


I think it is hard to say at this point; it depends a lot on the program. Most of the programs I use today don't need anymore memory or only nominally more than they needed 5, 6, 7 years ago.

I'll throw my vote in with sircharles and absurdity. If 8 GB (or 4 or whatever) is enough for you then there's no point in getting more.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:07 am
by superjawes
just brew it! wrote:
Something else to keep in mind is that once DDR4 is phased in the price of DDR3 may rise as production volumes decline. So if you think you'll be needing more RAM down the road you may want to just bite the bullet and get it now.

Oh crud. I'm probably replacing my desktopin 9-15 months. I'm either going to have to eat early adopter DDR4 or overload it on DDR3.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:38 am
by just brew it!
superjawes wrote:
just brew it! wrote:
Something else to keep in mind is that once DDR4 is phased in the price of DDR3 may rise as production volumes decline. So if you think you'll be needing more RAM down the road you may want to just bite the bullet and get it now.

Oh crud. I'm probably replacing my desktopin 9-15 months. I'm either going to have to eat early adopter DDR4 or overload it on DDR3.

It is unclear whether DDR4 will debut on the desktop in that timeframe. If it does it'll probably be towards the far (late) end of your 15 month window.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 11:50 am
by Krogoth
There's no reason to get 16GiB and it will likely be the case in the foreseeable future.

The problem is that there's no killer app that needs more than 2-4GB and the vast majority of mainstream applications are still coded in 32-bit which means that can only use up to 2-4GB (depending on OS and how the program is flagged).

The only reason unbuffered 16GiB is "cheap" is because demand is low and market is overflowing with high-density modules.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 12:52 pm
by zzz
Looking at price/GB, unless you're really hurting for money 16GB makes sense unless you find a sale.You only need 4GB, 8 is nice, 16 just makes sense money-wise.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:37 pm
by flip-mode
Krogoth wrote:
The problem is that there's no killer app that needs more than 2-4GB and the vast majority of mainstream applications are still coded in 32-bit which means that can only use up to 2-4GB (depending on OS and how the program is flagged).
You go too far. There are killer apps, just none that he uses.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 2:32 pm
by Forge
The real question everyone should be asking is not "can I make use of XXXGB of ram". The real questions should be "how much do I have that I can freely spend on something I don't need", combined with "how long do I expect to use this computer".

If the answer to the former is 100$+ and the answer to the second is a year or more, then get more ram. No one has ever cried about having too much ram. My main desktop has 32GB, my laptop has 16GB, and aside from Windows 8 working furiously to use as little as possible, it has never had any ill effect, and even when not explicitly used, Windows can cache the blue hell out of everything I touch, which DOES make things smoother.

If my X79 build were to come together suddenly, the question I'd be asking myself is 64GB or 128GB. I'd probably go for the former, just because there's a limit to useful caching, but when you can buy 4 8GB sticks of decent DDR3 1600 for well under 200$, why wouldn't you? Buy the serious performance items first (CPU, SSD, GPU), but if you have funds to optimize with, buying more ram is not a bad choice.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:55 pm
by absurdity
bthylafh wrote:
One assumes he's going to be running things besides just the operating system. :wink:


But he asked specifically about the OS, and so I answered that part :P

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 4:20 pm
by sschaem
Well, if console do have 8GB of ram. I could see game starting to require 4+GB on PCs

So having 8GB would not be overkill.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 4:23 pm
by morphine
You want 16GB of RAM.

- With 16GB of RAM, Windows will literally barely ever touch the HDD after the initial loading, as it will use that extra RAM for file caching. That's a Very Noticeable Improvement - I've done that.
- It's dirt cheap right now and RAM prices are climbing.
- You don't know if you won't need them for actual programs in a year or two.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 5:08 pm
by Pax-UX
I've 16GB in my Laptop for the simple reason it's dirt cheap to buy.... but realistically I'm always in the 5-7GB of RAM used. Now if I fire up Adobe Photoshop or Premier then I start seeing value for money or a couple of VM's since I run Linux in A VM for work reasons. But gaming I never use more 8GB... IMO if you can afford it get it... but I don't think you'll actually use it just for gaming.

Also check your windows versions... http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 85%29.aspx

Windows 7 is a bit mean when it comes to the max memory for system...
Windows 7 Professional 192 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 16 GB <- Windows version which came shipped with Laptop... my PC can handle 32GB RAM but I'd need to upgrade my Windows
Windows 7 Home Basic 8 GB

Windows 8 is better...
Windows 8 Enterprise 512 GB
Windows 8 Professional 512 GB
Windows 8 128 GB

That said if Next Gen Consoles are based off AMD with 8GB of RAM you might see game devs push out the memory usage to 16+

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:33 pm
by MadManOriginal
Yes, I started considering it because of RAM prices climbing. (Should have considered it a few months ago...oh well :P) I never have money 'burning to be spent' but that's just the way I look at spending money, not that I "can't" pay for it.

I was holding off for Haswell but the itch got to me, and I have consolidated my PCs (main and storage server/secondary) into one - turns out the 775 mobo in the storage server is now worth *more* than what I paid years ago...craziness. i5 3570K on an Intel DH77EB (which btw is awesome for power draw - idling at the desktop it draws ~45W with an SSD and 3 hard drives spinning but not seeking and a GTX 660. That's less than the idle power draw of the SSD/1 HDD/GTX660 system it replaces by about 20W! When the hard drives spin down it's ~35W :o using a 450W 80+ Gold PSU. It's made me very jaded about power draw figures in reviews - the motherboard matters a TON. Anyway...) It was a bit of an impulse but a worthwhile upgrade over the Clarkdale I was running as my main system. I am going to skip Haswell now so the next possible upgrade timeframe is Broadwell.

The 8GB I have now is that sweet Samsung low profile/low voltage that also overclocks like mad. The mobo is limited to DDR3-1600 though (at least without XMP) :( so I have it running DDR3-1600 CAS8 at 1.40V. Given the upgrade timeframe there's two ways to look at it: 1) I don't 'need' 16GB for anything I do, and won't likely take up the known heavy RAM uses I listed, so don't bother. or 2) I will be keeping this system for at least 2 years, and in that timeframe...who knows? DDR4 isn't coming to desktop until post-Broadwell from what I've read, so I may have DDR3 for a long time including Broadwell. The only catch would be what DDR3 speeds Broadwell will support, I wouldn't buy DDR3-2133 now and it's logical that will be an official speed for Broadwell.

Sorry for the long post, as usual I overcomplicate things :D I am leaning toward no because of my uses and not spending money = good, but still thinking about it because 2 years is a long time.

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:44 pm
by Pancake
MadManOriginal wrote:
So, I'm sure this has been gone over before, but things change. For someone who doesn't use VMs, manipulate massive photos, or multitask with a huge number of programs or browser tabs, is there any reason to get 16GB of RAM over 8GB ? How long will 8GB be 'good' for running Windows 8 ?


RAM is cheap. I'm maxed out with 32GB. Windows will use the RAM for disk caching which can be useful for all sorts of uses eg level loading in games where you might be going back and forth between different areas (eg Borderlands 2).

Re: any reason to get 16GB RAM?

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:44 pm
by DeadOfKnight
superjawes wrote:
I like to have Netflix or Youtube going on my second monitor while I'm playing WoW
lol wut