HEY THERE ALIENS, i need your power from mars to choose the best RAM

[heckers]

i am building a computer right and it is for mainly gaming purposes, i am tossing between 2 x 2gb of ram or 2x 4gb of ram. i have never seen a game require 8gb of ram so already i am thinking of 2x2gbs of ram which is cheaper and a higher mhz speed. my mother board has 4 channels and supports

DDR3 2000(O.C.)/1333/1066

so i aam deciding to get this memory as my board accept overclocking with "2000"

what do you thinks about this choice, does it sound correct, if not opinions would be great

Much love from Australia!

 

[Pyree]

2x4GB at a lower speed will beat 2x2GB at a higher speed any day.

8GB is pretty much the standard for gaming desktop.

 

[white20012]

what CPU you have? and Operating system you plan to use 32 or 64 bit?
For 32 bits OS is 2x2 GB is enough because OS 32 bits limitation . For 64 bits is 2x4GB memory you need

 

[heckers]

Pyree you right, most computers have 8gb standard BUT what i dont get it how 8gb of the game is stored on the memory when a game for example is 15gb, thats like 3/4 of the game on the memory, much of it you wont use again like exploring a new place ie doing something different and never doing it again, so i would rather use 2x2gbs with high speed so it could be sent quickly to wherever ever it goes and refresh it if it is full, do you see where i am coming from, i have not got this thought from any websites hust seems really logical

white: i dont have pc yet but will 64bit so in future, might choose to have more

 

[heckers]

with oc i can apparently get to 2133, sounds good

 

[Pyree]

Not everything in the game is loaded to the RAM, so your 15GB installation will not be in the RAM at the same time. I think the game engine only load what it need (the level you are palying) and there is a maximum RAM cap on 32 bit execution, like a game, and it is 2GB. I don't know about you, but currently I am using 2.23GB with FF and MPC open, if I open a game, it will exceed the 4GB, so 8GB it is.

 

[Hazbot]

Only consider this if you are building an AMD system, Intel systems scale badly with RAM frequency, remeber that your OS also reserves RAM space, in game like Battlefield 3 where RAM is a necessity, this could cause you lag. 4Gb is not enough to support games and the OS, the speed difference is practically unnoticeable, and you will need to upgrade very soon, overall 8Gb of 1600Mhz memory or better yet, 16Gb of 1333Mhz memory are better value.

 

[elijahgamer]

Hey guys I know this isn't really the most appropriate for this question but, I am a software developer and I can explain to you how the RAM to HDD space works...

With large games like Skyrim, Call of Duty, Fallout there is usually quite a lot of code that needs to be written if there is a requirement of a new game engine ( the thing that loads 2d images renders them to 3d and controls your players and other objects in the world ) the RAM gets used by the program as efficiently as the programming language can allow eg. C++, Java, etc. the programming languages like those have in built garbage collectors that find out what objects are no longer reference in the code and gets rid of them, until this happens these go onto your RAM although the Level files for games such as maps for call of duty do not get loaded into the ram instead they are loaded using an object in the ram to the game from the HDD, hope this makes at least some sense and you might typically know what RAM you need now... Games like FPS's usually use around 1GB RAM so don't worry too much about ram unless you are going to be making them and need to run the software for making the game as well as running the game.

In the simplest terms I can put it:

The RAM gets used by the program to load stuff from your HDD as well as control your character moving objects and making the screen reload...

The 12 Yr Old Game Developer

 

[xx_pemdas_xx]

Hey guys I know this isn't really the most appropriate for this question but, I am a software developer and I can explain to you how the RAM to HDD space works...

With large games like Skyrim, Call of Duty, Fallout there is usually quite a lot of code that needs to be written if there is a requirement of a new game engine ( the thing that loads 2d images renders them to 3d and controls your players and other objects in the world ) the RAM gets used by the program as efficiently as the programming language can allow eg. C++, Java, etc. the programming languages like those have in built garbage collectors that find out what objects are no longer reference in the code and gets rid of them, until this happens these go onto your RAM although the Level files for games such as maps for call of duty do not get loaded into the ram instead they are loaded using an object in the ram to the game from the HDD, hope this makes at least some sense and you might typically know what RAM you need now... Games like FPS's usually use around 1GB RAM so don't worry too much about ram unless you are going to be making them and need to run the software for making the game as well as running the game.

In the simplest terms I can put it:

The RAM gets used by the program to load stuff from your HDD as well as control your character moving objects and making the screen reload...

The 12 Yr Old Game Developer

+1 but you must take into fact the operating system and other bloatware the user will run.. 8gb is faster then 4gb when just using windows 7 by itself.

 

[jaquith]

Pyree you right, most computers have 8gb standard BUT what i dont get it how 8gb of the game is stored on the memory when a game for example is 15gb, thats like 3/4 of the game on the memory, much of it you wont use again like exploring a new place ie doing something different and never doing it again, so i would rather use 2x2gbs with high speed so it could be sent quickly to wherever ever it goes and refresh it if it is full, do you see where i am coming from, i have not got this thought from any websites hust seems really logical

white: i dont have pc yet but will 64bit so in future, might choose to have more

First, there's no 'good' way to advise you or anyone on which set of RAM to purchase unless (We) know what MOBO, CPU and OS in particular 32-bit or 64-bit.

You are forgetting the GPU's (Shared System Memory) is a Variable Size dependent upon the FREE and available RAM after the OS/Apps/BIOS (HW Reserved/Etc) is used. In 4GB the GPU isn't getting the full (Shared System Memory).

Example, note the (Shared System Memory ~2.7GB+ => from RAM) plus it's (Dedicated Graphics Memory); in most cases ~4.7GB+.
See -> http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/WEI_HJ_i7930_IDE.gif

Further, note the (Standby) memory, the vast majority is (Shared System Memory) from the GPU, but as I open applications the (Standby) memory aka (Shared System Memory) will be reduced as (FREE) is used up. The Impact in Performance as the GPU's (Shared System Memory) is reduced is significant enough. In addition, worst as Windows runs out of Memory and uses Virtual Memory IF the load on the system is too much 'memory too low' your system becomes ever more unstable.
See -> http://i1013.photobucket.com/albums/af254/Jaquith/RM_7PRO6GB.gif

Here's a good 4GB vs 6GB vs 8GB vs 16GB article, especially note the significant 64-bit game performance -> http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778-8.html most 32-bit games the 4GB vs 8GB is 2%~6%+.

 

[heckers]

Hazbot: I didnt know the speed difference was si liitle between 1333 and 2100(oc) so i will get 2x4gb at 1333 because it is the largest my baord supports, as for getting 16gb i dont have the money for that ***

ElijahGamer: yer i knew about the hdd to ram thing, you just went into more detail,


jaquith: this answer was just meant to be a quick "this or that question" and i listed the memory capabilities so that should be suffiecint in deciding the best ram for me
Made a great point about the gpu, it seems right that it would be shared some of the memory because of the technology that is developing theses day so i guess i will be getting lager memory sticks!

 

[heckers]

if it does matter my mobo is (ASUS M4N98TD EVO AM3 NVIDIA nForce 980a SLI ATX AMD Motherboard) $129.99

processor: (AMD Phenom II X2 565 Callisto 3.4GHz Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Desktop Processor HDZ565WFGMBOX, over clocks (4 ghz) $99

gpu: (GIGABYTE GV-N550D5-1GI GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card) $120

 

[jaquith]

Here's the thing, supported RAM speed, capacity/density, voltage, and in essence compatibility are a function of: OS (32-bit/64-t >4GB), CPU's IMC, and MOBO (BIOS/DIMM/Etc).

Therefore, a "this or that question" risks a Ferrari + Camry incompatibility. Like DDR3-2000 in a 2-4 core AMD AM3 CPU or Intel H67, and guessing. It's pretty safe if you have a DDR3 DIMM MOBO that 'generally' DDR3-1333 should work, but that's as far as it goes.

 

[digitalzom-b]

Did you already buy the motherboard?

 

[heckers]

digitalzom: i ddint, i am choosing that one

jaquith: i like your analogies, jokes