Ram upgrades

[Red Charlie]

TLDR version at bottom

So I recently (as in yesterday) upgrade my RAM on my PC from 2gigs to 4gigs.

I wanted that extra space because War Hammer online eats up too much ram whilst I play so I can't watch movies.

Now don't get me wrong, I knew when I went to upgrade Vista will use at the most around 3.3gigs of Ram memory so I was deciding between a single strip upgrade (bringing my 2 gigs to 2.895531 or whatever it would've been) or go for 4gig upgrade giving me the max poss on my 32 bit system).

My main reason behind getting the 4gig, which are two 2 gig strips (busted ram is a bitch), was logic from a friend long ago is that you should always match ram to the same manufacturer or buy at the same time if you are getting more than one strip for performance reasons.

Now an IT guy at work today when I discussed this with him called me a total retard for doing that and that it was completely unnesscary and should've gone with the one gig strips and saved from dough. I was gonna argue my point but unfortunately I am not as well as informed in regards to RAM as I would like to be.

So hence my post, anyone got an answer as to wether I was sound in getting completely new strips or a complete douche?


TLDR version:

Bought RAM 2 * 2 gig strips, replacing 2 gig ram Vista 32 bit system. I.T. guy shouted at me for doing upgrade claimed I should have bought 1gig strip upgraded 2 gig to 3 gig and kept money - Was I sound or wrong?


Edit: After re-reading I discovered I couldn't type English.

[Sable]

Your IT guy is a moron.

Although there's rarely a terribly noticible difference.

[jtaylor]

Get a 64bit OS and mail me your extra RAM.

[Master Gunner]

3 strips of RAM allows a higher speed, but 4 gigs allows for more to be stored at any given time. Especially these days though, the difference will be minuscule, and 4 gigs would probably edge out the 3 strips under most circumstances anyways.

[spartanhelmet]

3 strips of RAM allows a higher speed, but 4 gigs allows for more to be stored at any given time. Especially these days though, the difference will be minuscule, and 4 gigs would probably edge out the 3 strips under most circumstances anyways.

Unless he has a brand new i7 board, 3 sticks will be slower than 4. Noticeably? Not really, unless the system dies.

Even though you have more chips, the 4GB setup would be like trying to put a square peg in a round hole (3 sticks and dual-channel... hmm) whereas 4GB is nicely divisible.

Unless you really want your system to be perfectly stable and working at its' optimum, you can just buy matching ram. That said, I never have... it might just be me being compulsive. Do take the advice of making an 64bit install if you can find drivers for everything.

[arallyn]

When I first saw this topic, I thought someone was buying a new breeding goat.

I really need to get back into the city.

[JohnyMcmuffin]

[CtMolloy]

I tried to buy a 2gb stick of ram today, they only had 1gb sticks and the woman told me it would be ok if I just took them and put them in. She wouldn't listen to my explanation that having 2 ram slots would mean just upgrading from 2gb to 2gb in two separate sticks.
Needless to say i picked her up and threw her through the ceiling.

[empath]

Get a 64bit OS and mail me your extra RAM.

This. in b4 Wraith

[Wraith]

Now an IT guy at work today when I discussed this with him called me a total retard for doing that and that it was completely unnesscary and should've gone with the one gig strips and saved from dough. I was gonna argue my point but unfortunately I am not as well as informed in regards to RAM as I would like to be.

Your IT guy is an idiot. Ask him if he knows what dual-channel archeitecture is.

Ever look at a modern mother board with 4 RAM slots? Ever wonder why they're typically in two sets of colors, for example two blue slots and two white slots? Those are matching banks. You put the same type of RAM in the color-coded slots and the motherboard basically uses them as one strip; however, because it's accessing both of them at once, you get double the throughput to the memory controller. Gaming rig mechanics 101.

Why do these people keep getting hired and I can't find better work?.

[empath]

Why do these people keep getting hired and I can't find better work?.

Nepotism or similar - sleeping with the person doing the hiring, or that person's boss.


Looks like marrying into a company is your only hope, sadly.

[forkbomb!]

Wraith is right. There's the small issue that 2gig dimms tend to have slower CAS timings than their 1gig counterparts, but you're better off keeping things dual channel. Ram's so cheap these days that the extra expenditure is essentially a non-issue.

[Shandi]

When I first saw this topic, I thought someone was buying a new breeding goat.

I really need to get back into the city.

A ram would be a sheep. A male goat is called a billy. Sorry, raised sheep growing up.

[Red Charlie]

So what you are saying to me is that, if I was to upgrade to a 64 bit OS I could stick the two 1gig strips I had in before into the other dual banks and it wouldn't really affect the machine if not allow it to perform better with the extra ram?

If I was to do that I'm assuming I would need at least a Dual Core processor? - Is there any minimum speed I should be considering before upgrading to a 64bit OS as well?

I know its a total bitch to get programs working for it depending on their age.

[Daco]

Your IT guy is a moron.

Although there's rarely a terribly noticible difference.

depends
if he's staying on 32bit then the difference between 4GB and 3GB is nothing at all
the amount of ram you'll keep for applications is the same

i wouldn't shout but you could have indeed saved money if your never going to upgrade to 64bit

EDIT: also, that is the only reason i could think of why he'd shout o_O;

[Evil Jim]

When I first saw this topic, I thought someone was buying a new breeding goat.

When I first saw this topic the first thought that occurred to me was a thread suggesting places where you could ram your upgrades...

[Wraith]

So what you are saying to me is that, if I was to upgrade to a 64 bit OS I could stick the two 1gig strips I had in before into the other dual banks and it wouldn't really affect the machine if not allow it to perform better with the extra ram?

If I was to do that I'm assuming I would need at least a Dual Core processor? - Is there any minimum speed I should be considering before upgrading to a 64bit OS as well?

I know its a total bitch to get programs working for it depending on their age.

It really is. As badly as I want 64bit to be the norm, I'm waiting untill Windows 7 before doing it, as there are just too many companies draggin their feet to accept it, just like they did with Vista.

[Wraith]

depends
if he's staying on 32bit then the difference between 4GB and 3GB is nothing at all
the amount of ram you'll keep for applications is the same

But the speed is not. Dual-channel architecture. Did you skip over my post?

[Daco]

Did you skip over my post?

that i did, i was in a hurry

[tamaness]

Windows Vista (32 Bit) will only recognize either 3 or 3.5 (depends on version) gigs of RAM. That being said, dual-channel architecture will get better performance out of two sticks of the same capacity. 2 * 2GB will work faster than 1 * 1GB and 1* 2GB, even though your system is not using all of it.

Windows Vista (64 bit) does not have this limitation. Vista64 also has a compatibility mode available for older programs and 32-bit programs. Most people don't know this feature exists, though, and complain about program compatibility. *note* Compatibility mode does not work with all programs, but I have seen few issues with it when it is used.

The main issue with Vista64 is that it will not use 16- or 32-bit drivers. "What? Why is that an issue?" You ask. Windows up to 5.0 (XP), and the entire 9x line were compatible with 8-bit and 16-bit drivers, so hardware companies tended to just use a 32-bit wrapper with older drivers. Old hardware no longer can be supported in this way, so hardware companies are having to re-write code they've been using for almost 20 years. It takes a long time to re-write code that old.

TL;DR.

2*2GB is better than 1*2GB+1*1GB, and Vista64 actually works pretty well if you don't use software written for Win9x or NT4.

[Wraith]

Vista 64 does work very well. I just get tired of jumping through hoops as developers drag their feet to support 64 bit platforms. Thus, I'm waiting for Windows 7.

[masamune]

Vista 64 does work very well. I just get tired of jumping through hoops as developers drag their feet to support 64 bit platforms. Thus, I'm waiting for Windows 7.

qft.