4GB or 6GB

If the option were available..should I customize my incoming lappy from 4Gb to 6GB?

Does it really make a difference??

I do multitask...but not that much. And i do play games..but none of my games are going to be that demanding

 

Pick up 4GB of Ram and upgrade 6GB of Ram later if necessary or maybe some softs & games would demand it in the future ^^!

 

Anything over 4GB is overkill at this point. In the future, there may be a need for more 6GB or even 8GB, but current programs (even with several running simultaneously) don't need more than 3-4GB.

There are only 2-slots for RAM in a laptop. If you order 4GB, it is configured at two 2GB modules. If you order 6GB, it would be one 2GB module and one 4GB module, which is very expensive still. A 2GB module can be had for $25 or less but 4GB modules are priced well over $200 each! The wise choice would be to get 4GB now and, if you ever need more in the future, you can get it when prices have fallen.

 

If you don't know if it makes a difference then it won't make a difference because you don't use programs which could benefit from so much RAM.

 

What about for programs such as Photoshop? I thought you could configure Photoshop to use as much RAM as you want. I would have thought that working with huge Photoshop documents, you would benefit from the extra memory. (Or if Photoshop can't use 6GB, maybe you could set it to use 4GB, and still have a full 2GB for the rest of your system.)

EDIT: Ah, that's interesting. I just searched around on the web regarding Photoshop and its RAM usage. Apparently, the application can only 'talk' to 3GB of RAM, but Photoshop will use the remaining RAM as a scratch disk, until it fills it all up, at which point it switches to your hard drive(s). So, while the program can't actually communicate directly with all the RAM, it can use the extra as a sort of ultra-fast SSD to store your working documents on. Pretty cool.

 

4GB is already more than most users ever need

 

Although 4GB RAM is often useful for splitting up between different parts of the OS- i.e. as I said in the above post, dedicating 2GB just to Photoshop, or if you're using a Mac with VMWare/Parallels, splitting the RAM so that each operating system gets a full 2GB.

 

bla bla bla over Xgb is overkill. Well it all depends how you use your pc. USUALLY over 4gb is overkill. for me it's not. it all depends. just games? 4gb is enough. and check prices. is it really worth it? and 4gb ddr3 prices are insane atm. ddr2 not so much.

 

Just last year everyone was saying 2gb was right and 4gb was too much. Now that 4gb is affordable these people are saying 4gb is right and anything more is over kill. I disagree. Ive been running 8gb for a while now and the pc uses it. If you have the money get it. All the naysayers just cant afford it.

 

I disagree, strongly.

 

Yes. I have 6GB in my desktop, and its very useful. I use the RAM between RAM, VMs, and ramdisks.

 

The amount of RAM you should get it is very dependent on what you will be doing with your machine. Typically, more is always better as long as it's not exorbitantly priced. Just remember that you can always upgrade your RAM in the future should your needs increase.

 

I also don't think that too much RAM is overkill.
But because a 4GB module is very expensive at the moment, compared to 2x2GB, you also have to consider if the price difference is worth it.
I wish I could have 8GB or even more, to use a large RAMDisk, and don't have to worry about RAM if I start a few ram intensive programs and a VM, but I don't necessarily need it and thus the 4GB module is just too expensive for me at the moment. I also don't know if my notebook supports 8GB

 

Why is 4GB overkill at this point?? :S

So basically, I should go for as much as possible as long as it isn't too expensive.

Is it easy to upgrade l8r?

 

I would go with 4 gb as taking 6 or 8gb costs 200-500$ as of dell. Also its hard to find any program that utilizes 4gb of ram.

 

The great thing about RAM is that it can always be upgraded later (well as long as your MB can support more RAM)

Buy whatever you can use/utilize now and upgrade later when you need more, heck RAM will probably be half the price it is now by the time you upgrade. If you only need 4gb stick with it. If you can use or need 6gb, 8gb now, get it.