Will 4 Gb work with my intels?

[Guest]

intel core 2 quad q6660 2.4 Ghz x 4

I have 2 Gb of ram....would i benefit from 4?Windows 7

[Ai Haibara]

More RAM couldn't hurt, of course, but unless you're using a 64-bit version of Windows, you'll only be able to access about 3.5GB of the 4 (maximum).

[usually_quiet]

Depending on what you want to do, yes. For example, I have read reports from some who use a TV tuner card saying that to record or watch live TV while something is running in the background required them to install more than 2GB of memory.

Unless you get a 64-bit version of Windows 7 you won't have all 4 GB available. The memory contained in your video cards factors into the equation too. The more you have there, the less of the last GB is usable.

[Guest]

I'm running 32 bit,so should I keep it at 2?

[Ai Haibara]

As usually_quiet said, it can depend on what you want to do. But if you can afford it, and don't mind that you won't necessarily get to be able to use the entire 4GB (missing a portion of the last GB), then you might consider doing it. More RAM probably wouldn't hurt, and might just help.

[T-Fish]

unless your system starts to swap with 2gb, you wont see an improvement with 4 imho.

[Guest]

unless your system starts to swap with 2gb, you wont see an improvement with 4 imho.

how will i know that?

[Ai Haibara]

Do you hear a lot of hard-drive churning/access going on, when doing something that might be taxing the system? Does it seem to slow on system-intensive processes, or access the drive a lot?

[edDV]

This may help. I use a Core2Duo with 2GB RAM (Vista 32bit) side by side with a Core2quad with 4GB RAM with 3.2GB active (Win7 32bit).

90% of the time I see no difference in responsiveness during normal activities. Encoding goes faster on the quad core but it isn't due to RAM. When I do large projects such as running several instances of Vegas Pro with Photoshop and other apps also running I can get the 2GB machine to slow due to page swap. This usually happens while encoding or rendering effects.

So in sum, I rarely run out of RAM. But every day I wish for more CPU speed.


PS: Forgot to mention, I often run Flight Simulator in the on a third machine so I have something to do during heavy renders*. Yes I am self employed

* that and answering questions here.