Is 6 GB Sufficient to Run Windows 8?

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

I had two laptop cards (1x2GB & 1x4GB) left over from an upgrade and installed the two I had in a fellows Toshiba laptop that had 3 GB (1x1GB & 1x2GB) OEM; my cards brought it up to 6 GB (DDR3 PC3 10600) will this be good to go for him or does he NEED to replace the 1x2GB for a 1x4GB to obtain 8 GB?

Hope I'm clear here on my question

Alec Mowat · Jan 22, 2014

DDR3 RAM works best in pairs. If it's the same clock speed and same frequency and same size, it will be OK. If it's different speed and sizes, I don't recommend it.

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

Okay yeah they were both the same type cards PC3 10600 both Samsungs. Was just wondering if 6gb will get him by or does he really need to bump the 2 to a 4 to make a total of 8.

Alec Mowat · Jan 22, 2014

6 is enough if it's 64 bit. I'm pretty sure almost all versions of 8 are 64 though.

If it's 32, it will only use 3.5 GB anyway.

Tradesman1 · Jan 22, 2014

If the sticks will play together, should be fine, many Win8 laptops come w/ 4 or 6 and 6 is better than 4

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

yeah I didn't look to see if it was 32bit but fairly sure its 64. and thanks Alec Mowat I'll just go on and mark this as solved.

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

thanks Tradesman1 I clicked solved to Alec and your post somehow got checked off...weird how that happened must be lag...it wasn't even showing when I clicked solved....any way thanks to you both and I tried to do a +1 to you both but do not see the button to click being a moderator can you give yourselves a +1 on me?

The fella with the Toshiba did an upgrade from I don't know what to the Windows8 as it only had 3gb of RAM stock. Have no idea what the original OS was probably Win7 or may have been Vista, with only 3gb OEM I'm thinking it is a 32bit now. 3gb RAM seems awful low for a stock 64 bit system.

wrathofdragon · Jan 22, 2014

Alec Mowat :

ram with different clock speed and different frequency will still work, but the performance will not be as good as from serial ram sticks.

Tradesman1 · Jan 22, 2014

Actually someone else hopped in and decided to change your selection, it shows you give me the best solution then someone named WraithDragon decided they were changing it, I can and will Unselect his selection as this is your thread and leave you to chose which ever answer you want

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

Thanks Tradesman1 you guys are my 'go to' site when it comes to this sort of thing. Professionals all. Between you guys and Amazon reviews it's hard to go wrong. Keep up the good work or as an old buddy use to say 'the pretty work'........ :^}

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

Alec Mowat :

+1

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

Tradesman1 :

+1

Tradesman1 · Jan 22, 2014

I enjoy helping out here, but prefer the hands on with the hardware/software - this is great for helping to keep up on all the components available out there

Can get frustrating at times here when you just want to dig into the case and fix it!

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

Tradesman1 :

Many thanks for your timely and prompt responses. I'm a 'hands on' guy myself have been since I took my first lawn mower apart and got it to run for about a minute then she blew....some people are just afraid or leery to take things apart and some I don't blame for even trying. Me it is a curiosity of how things tick.

Tradesman1 · Jan 22, 2014

Same way and my kids too, they were 5 and 7 when they started building computers, the oldest now runs a IT shop for the Air Force

tazmo8448 · Jan 22, 2014

Tradesman1 :

Just shows to go ya' never too early to get a jump on things. That's great hearing about your children; computers are one area that is a 'growth industry' for sure. It's gotta be a DNA thing.

Tradesman1 · Jan 22, 2014

Might be, interesting part is, he's gone on to get a degree in computer science (and a couple others) and still calls once a week or so with computer problems

tazmo8448 · Jan 23, 2014

Now that's a hoot. I have a nephew who took political science in college and a good friend was talking to him one day and asked of his education and he responded 'political science' so my friend asked 'okay what form of government is the United States?' he thought for a while and stammered around and my friend said 'now you went to college to study political science surly you know the answer to that' and my nephew himmed and hawed with a few stabs then my friend said 'it's a democratic republic'. My nephew said 'that can't be right' so my friend pulled out his Oxford dictionary and there it was in black and white. Go figure right?

Tradesman1 · Jan 23, 2014

What's was funny though was while in college, on a few occasions, he corrected his professors on some finer points based on things I had told and taught him, which resulted in them calling me, and a couple have called back a few times with questions (we've become friends), very few that I've met (have a couple others as clients) really keep up with the tech, in many cases they are teaching stuff a couple years old

tazmo8448 · Jan 23, 2014

It is an ever changing thing almost constantly. I'm looking at this ramdisk thing because I have more than enough RAM (16GB) but what I have gleaned having a solid state hard drive that it is really unnecessary what are your thoughts on that?

tazmo8448 · Jan 23, 2014

Or should I start another post?

Alec Mowat · Jan 23, 2014

tazmo8448 :

Hugely unstable and it has to save to the Harddisk every 10 minutes or so.

Not recommend for practical use or saving any files you plan on keeping

Installing a game on there would make the load times lightening fast.

tazmo8448 · Jan 23, 2014

Alec Mowat :

So for gaming it would be the ticket I take it and that is precisely what I would use it for. I have 16gb using about 4 everytime I check so that would leave a good 10 to use for games, which leads me to the question if a game is lets say 20 some odd gigs then it wouldn't work is that correct? Does the memory space have to be larger than the actual game itself? And thanks Alec for your input.

Alec Mowat · Jan 23, 2014

Most games are larger than 8 Gigs these days. Anything that isn't over 10 GB probably doesn't need a boost

You also have to pay for RAM disk, it's not free.

RAM disk will improve the loading times from the harddisk to the RAM. It won't improve the framerates, if that is what you are wondering. The game will just load quicker.
It will also become unstable, since RAM is volatile.
You will also lose over half your RAM, which would hinder performance.

If you want to experiment, go for it. I wouldn't put anything on there that you actually want to keep.

tazmo8448 · Jan 23, 2014

Alec Mowat :

Great synopsis...the heck with it. I think that is one thing better left alone. I imagine it is useful for small programs that are ephemeral in nature. Take good ole BF3 or IL-2 (with all the mods) they are in the upper 20's GB wise. I'll just stick with the SSD and let it go at that....now when a 1 TB SSD is reasonable price wise that'll be the ticket.
Thanks Alec once again.

Is 6 GB Sufficient to Run Windows 8?

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