Why would anyone need 16 gb of ram?

Most applications and games I play don't go over 4 gb. Why would anyone need 16 gb?

p.s. sorry for my speling. I'm on a ipad.

 

The key phrase in your statement is "most applications and games I play." While you may not need 16GB or more, others do. More memory can be useful in many situations, from having a ton of browser tabs open to photo- or video editing with multiple large files to running any kind of virtualization. Also, as newer versions of applications are released, they typically will demand ever increasing amounts of RAM, so more RAM could be seen as future-proofing a system.

 

Not everyone has your usage patterns; just because you don't need it doesn't mean that other people don't.

Reasons that people might need 16GB (or more) RAM include: virtual machines, video editing, heavy photo editing, compiling extremely large programs, heavy multitasking, RAM disks, badly optimized software, 3D modelling and rendering, hundreds of browser tabs, hating swap partitions, not wanting to worry about memory ever again, and probably a few dozen others that I'm not thinking of.

8GB is starting to become standard in gaming systems; modern games will eat up 4GB pretty easily, so having more than that makes a lot of sense - it leaves space for the OS and a few other programs without requiring using swap space, which is vastly slower than RAM. Personally, I find it quite frustrating when I switch between programs and one of them has been swapped out, since it leads to several seconds (or more, depending on the program) of it being unusable or extremely slow.

 

just been thinking about this myself, but i think with my next laptop, my security setup will be based off of running VMs. then i don't need to worry whether i download and install some questionable software or not, cause i can just wipe the VM and start fresh. currently i use sandboxie for that

 

Running FEM simulations on simple heat exchanger configurations in COMSOL is enough for me to need 16GB at times. I've even gotten out of memory errors even with 16GB installed while using smaller elements to try and troubleshoot some problems i was having with simulations.

Even when gaming, i usually have other apps open that drives my usage somewhere between 4 and 8GB.

This question has already been asked many times here already and there are two/three reasons.

1. Work related programs that are RAM hogs, CAD, FEM simulations, Graphics design, etc.
2. You run a ton of programs simultaneously
3. Because i can and have the money, not technically need, but for some it might be enough to get 16GB.

We have quite a few power users on NBR and speed junkies too who need/enjoy having more RAM.

 

As above, and also RAM is relatively cheap.

 

Chrome.

10chairs.

 

HA I was gonna post FireFox.

Why would anyone need 16 GB RAM? If you do virtual machines, or Photoshop, or render 3 million objects in 3D, you need that much RAM.

Also given you can find 16 GB RAM on sale for 70-80 bucks, why not? I always have 15-20 FF tabs open, playing SC2/TF2 and I can easily balloon over 8 GB RAM, and with my SSD array, I make my pagefile only 1 GB.

 

LOL. Browsers are memory PIGS. With just Chrome and iTunes open, I can go over 8GB in about 10 minutes and be hitting the PF.

Indeed. My 16GB was about $100, but it's gotten cheaper in just the last month alone. For a new machine, 8GB is the standard. 16GB should be the standard option for any serious PC user.

 

please opera is worse lol. I have 8 gigs and chill at 5-6GB used while just using windows. I turned off virtual memory so that exploded my emory usage...though i probably only use 3 GB and not 5-6GB..windows and programs are weird. You look in task manager it says 5.3GB but you total all the memory used I might be using 3GB...it for some reason reserves a crap ton of ram for programs and wont show what programs are reserving it...weird

 

That's the biggest reason actually. Only a few years back having 8GB was like Who would need that? I know I can live with 4GB just fine actually except for the occasional VM's I use, even then I could get by with them using 512MB - 768MB and run fine. But since 8GB kits can be found easily for less than $50, it's a cheap upgrade that won't hurt anything really, only help. Heck you can even get 16GB kits for laptops for less than $100. It's just crazy.

 

Ah. I see that everybody differs. I use photoshop too. Do you reccomemd I upgrade to 8 gb of ram?

 

depends how many projects are open and how large If you have 2 slots for ram you cna get 8 gigs for 30-40 bucks on sale. newegg always has GSKILL ram that is 1333 4gx2 for 30-40 bucks on sales. comes around once every month or so. That is the ram I got and I bought ti on sale for 55 bucks a year or so ago lol. You can get geil 8 gig sticks for 40-50 bucks on sale too. I dont know if they are any good but they look fine

 

Chrome, and other cache aggressive browsers, will use as much memory (to an extent) as you give them. Rather than cache things to the hard drive they prefer just to keep it in memory until another application requests memory.

 

Less than $80 if you can catch a sale.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

yea but task manager under processes doesn't show everything. If you count up all the ram used under processes it doesn't match the total ram. See my picture below.

http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/3159/memoryuseinwindows.png

i added everything up for the most part and averaged the little things...i honestly think i rounded and averaged on the high end and got 4.6GB and I was using like 5.6GB....what gives

EDIT: ops sorry forgot to change settings imageshack resize it my bad. I am not bothering to do it again. just check yours.

 

IGP perhaps? Windows kernel?

 

--Asked to install 24GB of RAM into someone's computer
"LOL why u need so much rams?"
Suddenly, computational fluid dynamics.
"Where did all my ram go?"

 

Previewing Adobe Aftereffects scenes in HD. 16GB ram will give you about a couple minutes of rendering.

 

Pfft no thanks, I'll take the $1,000 16GB upgrade from Dell anyday! That Samsung 1333MHz is going to destroy anything you could possibly get for $100!

 

windows added this superfetch on windows vista and windows 7 which uses the memory and basically uses it by cache stuff on it so things load much faster. You can disable it and have it like windows xp free ram but if you have 8gb then I believe you don't need to disable it to have free ram left.

Anyway I personally think 4gb is still enough but 8gb is future proof. I know video editing especially high res can eat up ram.

 

There is absolutely no need to disable superfetch, the RAM might be taken with pre-loaded programs, but if you need it for something running, windows will use it exactly like it would use free RAM. Free RAM serves no purpose, i'd rather have superfetch use it since it won't pose a problem if i need the RAM taken by it, windows will treat it like free RAM and put whatever is needed there when needed.

 

Why would anyone need 32MB RAM? Because as software and operating systems evolve, so do system requirements.

 

lol. obviously, there's a distinct lack of understanding of the progression of computer technology among such people.

 

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I've read most of the posts in this thread and the information provided is not specific enough to help the OP decide if 4GB is or is not enough.

I do use 3D software and do use Photoshop. I also do video editing every now and then and I'm fin with anywhere between 1 and 2GB under both Windows XP and 7. In my case the bottleneck is the CPU and the GPU.

To help you understand if you need to upgrade I'll explain why at the moment 2GB is more than enough for me. When I work in Photoshop CS5 I don't open more than 10 files in one go and these files are taken with a digital camera at a resolution of 6MP. If I use these photos for a photo montage, my final file has a max resolution of 3000x3000 pixels. I don't go over this size because I print on A4 with a resolution of 300dpi.

So based on the above, as long as I use relatively small photos (2MB each saved by the camera as JPEG files) and work with a relatively small number of files at the time I don't need more than 2GB.

What I explained above is also true for 3D applications. The more faces and vertices you have on a files the more RAM you need.

Video editing is slightly different as different software have different memory requirements. For instance, while Windows Movie Maker needs a lot of RAM, virtualDub doesn't need a lot. While Windows Movies Maker needs to load an uncompressed version of the video file during the manipulation, VirtualDub uncompress and processes the files by chunks; one chunk at the time, and thus needs less RAM.

Now, how do you know if you need more RAM?
Check the LED light of your hard drive. If it is constantly ON when you're working with Photoshop it means that you don't have enough RAM.

P.S.
Photoshop is set by default to use 50% of the available RAM. If you are only working in Photoshop and have nothing else open, you can increase this percentage to 75%. This means that Photoshop can access up to 3GB of RAM and Windows, drivers, antivirus and else the remaining 1GB.

 

Most apps today will chew threw 32 MB in a matter of a mouse click.

Don't worry, Talin. We know it was a typo... In any case, using up 32GB, it would depend on what the end user runs.

 

because MMO tend to memory leak.

 

You guys are all wrong. Doesn't everyone know a modern PC will never make use of more than 64kb of RAM? Bill Gates said so!

If you can afford the extra $35 over 8gb and have the free RAM slots, is there any reason not to max out the system? I think I've gone over 10gb usage maybe once, but I never have to worry about how many things I have open.

 

5 years ago, the question asked was, "why would anyone need 8gb of RAM". My laptops (Dell Latitude D630/D830's) support 8gb, but if I was buying a new laptop today, I'd at least want some upgrade room for the future. The components happen to be available at such economical prices that in many environments, going to 16gb right out of the box makes sense immediately.

 

Exemple me when I start my laptop and IE 9 I am at 3GB used , when you have SSD too you need more ram for take full advantage.

 

just a quick clarification. It was in regards to 640K. In any case, BillyG may have said a lot of things (and some may now be silly), but he never said this one. See "misattributed" - Bill Gates - Wikiquote or Did Gates Really Say 640K is Enough For Anyone?

What does RAM have to do with taking advantage of an SSD?

 

Absolutely nothing aside that you can have both in the same computer. That is assuming you have an adequate amount of RAM to start with.

 

Make no mistake, anything approaching 8GB is for a special use. Fully 80% of users will never or use even that much. However, for those that have those special needs, there are programs that can handle as much RAM as you can throw at it.

 

Currently typing this on my older N50 with 4GB of RAM running windows 8, Opera 10, tabs 1.5GB used so yeah for internet and word processing, even 8GB is totally overkill. For gamers though, i'd say 8GB is the sweet spot, i.e. SKyrim with the 4GB patch.

 

It was no typo, friend. I was making the analogy that many, many years ago 32MB was more than enough to run Windows and apps. Computers and software are constantly evolving, and one day we will need 16GB RAM, it's just inevitable.
You fail, sir.

 

6 GB and 8 GB memory has the same WEI score. Therefore.... 6GB is enough!!

I have 8GB and have thrown many different things at it... PS-CS5 giant RAW pictures and lots of them, complicated 3D CAD/assemblies, etc but have not see it go anywhere near 8 GB. Mostly the usage is in the 2++ to 4+ GB range. I have the Task Manager open all the time as it's in the Startup folder. I also noticed this PS-CS5 will auto-swap files back on to the scratch disk/SSD even if we set it to use 80% of the main memory. But i like to think this 8 GB will be useful one day hmm...

 

I'm definitely in the "because I have money to burn!" category. I figured that I should buy it while it was "cheap" ($75 for a 2x4GB kit last summer, $50 after MIR). Probably should have waited for this year, but then again you never know anything about sales.

Everyone else here basically explained most reasons why to have a large amount of memory. Another case (under "badly-optimized code"?) would be Minecraft + multitasking. I can easily make Minecraft use up all 6GB I give it (using a .BAT file...my laptop runs Java 32-bit due to another x86-32 only program), and I'm sure I can make it use more if I gave more. In addition to all the other things I usually have running at once (FF + tabs, SRWare Iron + tabs, iTunes, Office, etc.), I can hit 8-9GB used memory at times.

 

LOL, don't really like Opera... but due to browser caching with an application at work I keep most browsers handy/installed on my work laptop. Safari is very slow on my work laptop so I rarely use that, not sure if I still have it installed or not.

Just like those who do video/graphics editing and those who run "custom" applications... a common reason for 16 GB would be for hosting virtual machines (hyper-v or vmware workstation). I tried staying at 12 GB, but found myself maxed out with 3 or 4 VMs... I currently have 6 OS running on my desktop, plan on duplicating SOME of that on my laptop after I upgrade it (so I can be mobile with the VMs).

Otherwise, gaming, casual browsing, email, work processor, excel, etc.... 4 GB is sufficient!

 

Fail? There's nothing to really fail against, just going on the words in the post - which didn't mention HW configs from many, many years ago. Thought you were starting the evolution clock from today's HW configs. A misinterpretation on my part regarding the ambiguity. My apologies.

Agreed. But also was hoping to see a reply from Sectorz.

 

re: Dumb Survey...
Here's the latest silly survey of people using Autodesk CAD and animation software. They get this aggregate info from probably tens of thousand of people that use their software. They collect this data when we install the software. Looks like the average now is 3.25 GB system memory. Yeah we need everyone to buy more memory modules!! (Or get the IT guys to come over to open the workstations and plug in more memory modules!!)

 

I shouldn't have said fail, I'm sorry. I just meant that as you already said, by yesterday's standards 32MB was more than enough for everyday needs, and now we're (quickly) approaching the day when 32GB will be commonplace. There will always be software to take advantage of the latest hardware, which I think is both a good and bad thing.
Good because software can evolve and we can enjoy better features, but bad because it can get bloated, wasteful and needless. Atleast Microsoft has put real effort into optimizing Windows 7, and apparently also the upcoming Windows 8.

 

A shame really, because I personally feel that Win7 is still excessively bloated. I get the impression that Windows uses more ram "because it can". My best efforts at reducing the number of background processes and idle memory consumption left me running around 1.2GB. My computer has 16GB ram. A similarly optimised computer with only 4GB RAM uses 700MB idle .... yes, there are lots of unknowns (hardware, software, stup, etc) but I'm not really convinced they all make up this 500MB disparity. It is also a shame (to me) because I remember my Windows 2000 days where idle usage was 150MB.

On topic, scientific computing will always find ways to use more memory, some problems are unsolvable without infinite memory, for example (also problems exist requiring infinite processing power). As memory availability increases, we may find approximations to such problems. Also some computing applications may be sped up by increasing memory consumption - this is known as space-time tradeoff, and is useful if the application is heavily CPU bound one wants it to run faster, we can trade running time for increased space usage (memory).

 

Windows 7 utilizes RAM a lot different than previous Windows. It uses RAM "because it can" is a good thing. It uses up as much as it needs to process things more quickly. Otherwise that fast RAM is just wasted sitting unused doing nothing for you. On the other hand, it scales well, I run it on two systems with 2GB and one with 1GB and runs perfectly fine.

 

Agree with you there. Win 7 utilizes available memory a lot better than its predecessors.

For Win 8, while I'm still struggling with the "metro" screen, it seems for the majority of apps I do, I spend the majority of time at the "desktop level", and not at "metro screen" or one of the metro apps. I haven't had enough time with it to study the use of hardware resources.

 

Didn't Billy gates once say that you will never need more than 640MB of memory??

 

He actually didn't say that, but it's such a popular phrase now that I guess it doesn't really matter, huh?

 

Are you by chance talking about what was covered in the last page of this thread (although it was for 640KB not 640MB)? Check it out - http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...ould-anyone-need-16-gb-ram-4.html#post8625118

 

There are programs now that can use it sure, but I don't know of a single individual that has that much on their system. Not even the pros.



p.s. That said, I WILL have it on my next system.

 

I have 16GB and wouldn't mind more. I video edit and if you're running a bunch of Adobe programs like Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects at the same time, it helps. I'm sure it'd be helpful for those running Maya and such also.

As a bonus you'll have enough ram for whatever future lies ahead for a few more years ( assuming you're still using the same computer ).

 

Not only helpful, but necessary. The level of efficiency of those applications are determined by it.