From 3GB to 6GB, worth it?

I'm considering upgrading my RAM from 3GB to 6GB.

My current RAM is OCZ 1333MHz 3x 1gb sticks.
Click here for link

Is it worth buying another 3gb of the same type for £50 ?

Or should I save up a bit and get 1600 / 1800

It depends on how much memory you use, and whether you're using a 64bit OS.
If you're on a 32bit os the OS won't use anything over ~3gb anyway, so no.

If you're on 64bit and you're using close to or more then 3gb in normal operations, then yes more would be worth it.

Unless you want to run a few VMs at the same time, more memory won't really help. You won't feel any difference.

That said, memory speed will help even less.

Therefore, if you really HAVE to get rid of that money, go for more memory. Or send it to Haiti.

I can only assume, based on the very limited information you have given us in your post, that you are asking us if you would see a performance increase by buying more RAM? And if so, will the performance gain be worth the money?

Based on the info you have provided, the simple answers are no, and no.
Unless of course you are having issues related to not having enough memory, then the answers would be yes and yes.
Quite simple. So what's the story?

Personally, I get by just fine with 3GB, whether it be for benching, gaming, crunching, folding, whatever. This machine tops out at ~70% usage and that's only while crunching Rosetta@home.

Ok, thanks for the replies, I only hit around 70% in a game anyway so I guess it's not that important, only reason I was thinking of upgrading was because somebody had told me that the more unused RAM you have, the more it'll help game performance

YarwoodUK said:

Ok, thanks for the replies, I only hit around 70% in a game anyway so I guess it's not that important, only reason I was thinking of upgrading was because somebody had told me that the more unused RAM you have, the more it'll help game performance

Click to expand...

It sounds to me as though that someone was misinformed. Unused RAM is just that: unused. I could put up to 16 GB of RAM in my quad rig in sig, and it wouldn't help one bit. If you have any percentage of idle RAM, then adding more won't make any difference, unless you have some kind of program that really needs more RAM.

Yea, I thought so too, thanks for confirming

Most people who say that more memory is not needed say so in most cases because they limited experience with large amounts of memory, or configuring your system to make use of it.
I have 8gb in my Laptop and 16gb in my desktop as well as SSD drives and if I could get the memory in I would have even more.

The simple reason why I like lots of memory is that it permits you to have more flexibility with how you use your drives, swap, ram disks, memory.
If you configure your system to run Applications in memory it gives your system a boost as it is faster than disks.

You will never be able to run all applications in RAM and utilise a RAM disk for fast storage caching and support the OS memory requirements with 3gb imho

YarwoodUK said:

I'm considering upgrading my RAM from 3GB to 6GB.

My current RAM is OCZ 1333MHz 3x 1gb sticks.
Click here for link

Is it worth buying another 3gb of the same type for £50 ?

Or should I save up a bit and get 1600 / 1800

Click to expand...

I have 3gb windows 7 utilizes almost 38-50% by itself all the time 1.2-1.8gb

system runs ok, but could be better

my buddy has same mobo, cpu and ram cept for 6gb and runs sooooooo much smoother. I'm upgrading to either 6 or 12 here real quick.

GIXXERGUY6 said:

I have 3gb windows 7 utilizes almost 38-50% by itself all the time 1.2-1.8gb

system runs ok, but could be better

my buddy has same mobo, cpu and ram cept for 6gb and runs sooooooo much smoother. I'm upgrading to either 6 or 12 here real quick.

Click to expand...

Have you had a look at these?
That's what I was going to try next, but found a better deal in the classifieds on 6GB of HyperX T1.

The odd time, I will have a waiting for memory message in Rosetta, and it does seem to take a bit longer to alt tab out of games and such with 3GB but that's about it. The rest of the time things are pretty much exactly the same as when I had 6GB. Truth be known, I will always recommend buying a 6GB set over a 3GB set if the person is just putting the system together, but in this case I did not as it just seemed a waste.

baditude_df said:

Have you had a look at these?
That's what I was going to try next, but found a better deal in the classifieds on 6GB of HyperX T1.

The odd time, I will have a waiting for memory message in Rosetta, and it does seem to take a bit longer to alt tab out of games and such with 3GB but that's about it. The rest of the time things are pretty much exactly the same as when I had 6GB. Truth be known, I will always recommend buying a 6GB set over a 3GB set if the person is just putting the system together, but in this case I did not as it just seemed a waste.

Click to expand...

I can't go with those unless I cut down the heat spreaders on them as my v10 won't allow it(I will be going water hopefully soon).