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Here is my system configuration:
Now I am trying to upgrade my memory. I checked crucial.com and found that my motherboard supports 8GB RAM DDR2 RAM with FSB 800MHZ, but I just want to know whether my CPU will be to handle the 8GB? Would I be getting any performance issues with 8GB, and should stop at 4GB RAM?
Software Sainath
Posted 2014-01-10T12:22:29.757
Reputation: 97
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Yes your motherboard will support 8GB of RAM(source) and yes your processor will be able to handle 8GB of RAM. But if you do install 8GB RAM you will also need to install a 64Bit OS too(32 bit Operating Systems only use 3.25GB of RAM).
Go for 8GB of RAM. More RAM will help in caching more programs and you will be able to run a lot more programs in the background.
Karan Raj Baruah
Posted 2014-01-10T12:22:29.757
Reputation: 894
Do you mean to say that it will run better with 4 GB than 8 GB? The price difference these days is so small I'd rather suggest to buy more RAM in any case. – slhck – 2014-01-10T12:38:09.730
4I tend to disagree with people saying that there is no need for more than 4 GB of RAM. Nowadays some mundane tasks like browsing with many tabs open can easily lead to browser allocating around 1 GB of memory. I have always felf it was better to have more memory to be able to avoid swap usage (or even disable swap altogether). And when it comes to things like virtual machines or games, then 8 GB doesn't seem too much at all. In fact, I plan to build my next machine with 32 GB of RAM :) – Igor Zinov'yev – 2014-01-10T12:41:06.187
@slhck what karan is saying that my MicroProcessor(Intel Dual Core 2.5GHZ) is 5 Years Older one and it may not handle the 8GB RAM Perfecly – Software Sainath – 2014-01-10T12:41:34.213
It won't be meaningful imo to run so much RAM. The dual core processor itself won't be handle so much of a load. Most applications like PS won't run that well. Most of the RAM will go to waste. – Karan Raj Baruah – 2014-01-10T12:42:29.767
2@KaranRajBaruah It's not like the processor will be carrying it all around in a bag :) What do you mean by "handle so much of a load"? – Igor Zinov'yev – 2014-01-10T12:43:18.600
@Igor I'm on an i5 3230m based laptop right now(Windows 8 Enterprise). I'm running a Firefox, foobar2000(for songs), Steam, Pidgin(a chat client) & I'm consuming 1.5GB of RAM. Even if OP gets 32GB of RAM there's no way OP can run so many programs to use all the RAM without completely freezing his machine. On a dual core rig, just running a game like Just Cause 2 & trying to minimize to do something else may lead to lags. – Karan Raj Baruah – 2014-01-10T12:47:34.163
How about running one program that needs to open a file that is >4GB in size? – terdon – 2014-01-10T12:53:39.820
4@KaranRajBaruah That... makes no sense. Running a game (heavy on CPU &/ GPU) while performing other tasks could cause contention for CPU &/ GPU resources, but there's certainly nothing saying having more RAM would cause slowdowns - quite the opposite! Any unused RAM is actually used to cache the disks, which speeds up IO. You can also keep a lot more background programs open - just having more sitting in memory wouldn't slow anything down, they'd have to actually be doing something, using the CPU/GPU, etc.. – Bob – 2014-01-10T12:53:58.623
1@KaranRajBaruah fair enough, I'm just saying that in this case if the OP gets 8 GB instead of 4 GB the OP either won't feel any difference, or will get a benefit from not having to use swap. And when RAM, especially DDR2, is really cheap, it should be considered. – Igor Zinov'yev – 2014-01-10T12:54:15.767
@KaranRajBaruah You do realize your OS uses a percentage of your RAM? The more RAM you have, the more amount your system will consume. – Varaquilex – 2014-01-10T13:38:04.280
I do some very heavy Adobe After Effects work and I have had projects where when rendering, it took more than 8GB of memory. – kobaltz – 2014-01-10T14:08:57.807
2> I just want to know whether my CPU will be to handle the 8GB You'd have to provide the CPU model and/or check its spec page to be sure. "Dual Core 2.5GHZ" is not a model number. Check with CPU-Z or something. – Bob – 2014-01-10T12:59:59.740