# Is 4GB RAM enough?



## ascension15 (May 21, 2000)

I'm in the market for a new desktop PC and I'm juggling some of the spec options. I'm looking at one system that comes with 4GB but for the extra cost can have either 6 or 8. 

My novice question is, how much is enough, or rather how much is too much? I know it depends on the tasks you do, and certainly something like gaming will benefit from extra RAM compared with just typing up spreadsheets. As for the gaming issue, 4GB sure seems like it would be adequate but those kinds of programs nowadays are big system hogs, aren't they? On top of that, I have heard Vista itself is a RAM hog. (My current PC is still XP.) Maybe 4GB will be just fine now, but what about, say, six months down the road? Will 6GB or even 8GB be necessary then?


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

Unless your running a server with a lot of traffic on it,
4GB is plenty.


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## RogueSpear00 (Jan 18, 2008)

4gb is more than plenty for everyday use, and even pretty decent gaming.


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

For the 32 bit version of Vista 4Gb is if I am not mistaken the max anyway, you can use more if you are going to running the 64 bit version of Vista. But you can always upgrade your ram later if you need to. Ram prices are really decent nowdays, at least for DDR2 ram.


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## AKAJohnDoe (Jun 6, 2007)

2GB is good for Vista Home Premium (32bit), although it would recognize 3.2GB or so.


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## BG-0 (Jan 1, 1970)

If you aren't convinced by far, I'll throw in another "4GB is well enough for just about anything" post. And like dusty said, you can upgrade the amount (and speed and quality) of the RAM in the future, it's a real breeze to do, and very cheap. About half or less of the price the computer company would take for it...


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## leroys1000 (Aug 16, 2007)

I think they patched 32 bit vista to handle 4GB.


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## jigamike (Oct 18, 2008)

dont buy a computer that already has everything in it. it will be wayy too expensive..i just built mine (for gaming mostly) and i spent 800(already had 22" LG lcd). You can get 4gb for 60 bux, pk5-e asus motherboard for 75. geforce 8600gt for 70, terabyte hard drive for 130, 32-bit xp professional OS for 130. Full size computer case w/500w power supply and 4 fans for 90. good processor for 200. And u can upgrade all of this in the future. but u can build urz for 500 and still have a good comp.


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## BG-0 (Jan 1, 1970)

Here's a 120 $ one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102
Anda 130$ one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148274

Oh. Dusty deleted his post.  Anyways, there are some 1 TB HDDs for mentioned prices.


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## Courtneyc (Dec 7, 2003)

They did not patch Vista (32-bit) to handle 4GB; it already does. The patch (SP1) merely shows you the amount of memory you have before the hardware takes its cut. Incidentally, the patch only works on certain motherboards.

The 4GB limit is not a problem of either Vista or XP. Linux will give you the same result. The problem is the 32-bit operating system (2^32 is approximately 4GB, the max a 32-bit processor can address.

A 64-bit O/S can access more (I believe 16TB). Why? 2^64 is way more than 4GB.

Courtney


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## BG-0 (Jan 1, 1970)

Courtneyc said:


> They did not patch Vista (32-bit) to handle 4GB; it already does. The patch (SP1) merely shows you the amount of memory you have before the hardware takes its cut. Incidentally, the patch only works on certain motherboards.
> 
> The 4GB limit is not a problem of either Vista or XP. Linux will give you the same result. The problem is the 32-bit operating system (2^32 is approximately 4GB, the max a 32-bit processor can address.
> 
> ...


Just a note about 64-bit OS. Could handle 16TB.  If I'm not remembering wrong, the max allowed by Vista Ultimate Whatever Craphead can handle 64 GB or so?


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