FEATURED How much RAM does your primary computer have installed? 2013 Version

[ThorV2]

8gb of G Skill Trident X approves for 2400Mhz (2x4gb)

 

[Steven90]

16gb of G Skill Ares, way more than I will ever use

 

[ScrubyMcBubble]

16gb of G.Skill Ripjaws X @ 1600Mhz 7-8-8-20-1T
Still hungry for more... You can never be satisfied until your ram drive can fit absolutely any game Too bad my Mobo limit is 16gb, guess ill have to wait till next rig..

 

[Dlaw]

16GB. Maybe when I get the money to build my next rig, I'll add more to this and retire it to server duty.

 

[blamauci]

12 GB's off DDR3, dedicated 4GB to 2 VM's so 2GB per VM and the 8GB that is left is used for gaming

 

[-KCT-Ibi]

Had 18GB, Removed 2GB, So now 16GB.

( 50 % discount at work )

 

[Ivy]

16 GB, way to much but at least futureproof and RAM is so cheap nowadays, its not worth it to save up those few cents by using half of that RAM.

 

[DarrenP]

I find 16GB to be not enough... I think i'll try 32GB and see how that works, but currently i have:
2012-Macbook Pro: 16GB @1600Mhz
Mid Resurrection-Desktop (Motherboard died...): 8GB @ 1600Mhz (Soon to be 32GB)
1997-Compaq Deskpro 4000 AKA The DOS-inator: 64MB
2004-Acer Aspire T-320: 512MB
2009-Toshiba Satellite something: 3GB
2011- Macbook, currently used as my second desktop, because it's unibody broke: 8GB@ 1066, and 1333Mhz

Edit: I should add i do a lot of Photoshop, and other programs like it, while running music, and the odd virtual machine in the backround, this is on my Macbook Pro of course.

 

[Ivy]

You indeed have lot of ressource hogs, but the usual user isnt running all that stuff at once. However, 32 GB is still to expensive right now because the problem is that 32 GB usualy costs more than twice the cash, so its not the best value* and just a few people will actually get benefit. Its no problem to upgrade my machines to 24-32 GB if i wish to because 2 of the the machines got a free slot for a second RAM-pair, resulting into twice the RAM amount. Just my HTPC cant be upgraded by adding RAM (would have to exchange), but a HTPC is not in need of much RAM at all and i got already way to much.

*Its simply sold still to less, and stuff not inside mainstream usualy tends to be more pricy. Even 8 GB isnt best value anymore, its clearly the 16 GB category currently the "big hit".

Besides: Another culprit is the Windows OS because most users are running the Home Premium version and that one is limited to 16 GB as far as i know.

 

[DarrenP]

Your home theatre PC has a 3930K... I'm not sure i understand why...Are you sure that's no typo?

The thing is though, i don't mind paying 250 bucks for 32Gb of RAM that will save me time in the long run, as i always say: "Time is money."

 

[woboy]

Main rig 2X4gb 1600
Laptop NEEDS 2x4 GB 1333 (I3 2350M), integrated graphics and whatever. Came with 4+2 GB, faster with matched 2x4 GB. Would faster RAM make a difference?
Which is another issue.
When Sandy Bridge came out anything over 1333 and 4GB was considered "obsessive."
2x4GB was considered good because RAM was cheap.
Two years later, high speed 2x8GB gets a lot of attention.
Side note, APUs, and FX chips appear to "like" at least 8GB and high speed 1866+ RAM.
Intel seems happy with 1600 RAM. Die Hards still see 1333 as fine, note H61 Limitations. I think Phenoms and Athlons benefit less from more and faster RAM, A GUESS.
I do not know if it is habit, but 2x4GB seems proper.
1600 seems minimum speed.
Does anyone know if RAM quantity and speed has any effect on SSDs? SSD/HDD set up?

 

[Automata]

Would faster RAM make a difference?

Without synthetic benchmarks, you aren't going to be able to tell the difference. Even with those benchmarks, there is a minimal increase past 1333/1600.

Does anyone know if RAM quantity and speed has any effect on SSDs? SSD/HDD set up?

I don't know what you are asking. RAM speed has nothing to do with hard drive speed.

 

[woboy]

RAM speed definitely affects APUs/Integrated Graphics. And quantity.
Concerning SSDs, just a random question that came to mind. Is RAM speed or number of GB a variable in SSD results? Particularly when using SSD/HDD combination.
I realize it is probably silly, but does anyone know?

 

[DarrenP]

SSD/HDD's have nothing to do with RAM speeds, HDD speeds are based on their RPM or revolutions per minute, and SSD's speeds are based of there RRWS or Random Read And Write Speeds. The usually max write at 500mb/s and write about 300-400mb/s. You're ram could be 1600Mhz and your HDD could be say at 10000RPM and it will run just as fast as if you were to swap the RAM out for 1333mhz RAM. Also Speed in RAM has nothing to do with it's number of GB other then the fact that the RAM memory and it's processing power will power along at the specified frequency. I think you're a little confused with how RAM and HDD's/SSD's work... I hope this helped a little, Sorry if it's confusing, it's very early in the morning.

 

[woboy]

I thank you for the explanation, though I do understand the individual hardware.
What I do not know is whether RAM affects the performance of programs or games.
GPU capability is often concerned with GDDR speeds and quantity.
I cannot remember seeing an article or discussion concerning the effect of RAM quantity and speeds affecting everyday use.
Benchmarking is definitely effected, I am not certain how intertwined relationships are in overclocking.
If the answer is simple, IE no program uses more than 3-5 GB or benefits much from faster RAM, this is useful to know.
What I appear to be seeing in articles not directly related is. in some cases, overall benefits.
We overclock to improve performance. In GPUs RAM speed and quantity affects performance.
So with RAM between CPU and storage, is there significant differences?
I do not know what RAM does except act as temporary fast storage. Is it enough faster than CPU and other storage that it does not matter?
For APUs and iGPUs RAM speed matters.
FX chips seem to scale better with faster memory when overclocked??

 

[Knufire]

Basically what you said, it's so much faster than necessary for CPUs, which is why RAM performance is not really consequential for real world performance. GPUs require much faster RAM (hence why graphics cards are on DDR5) and since integrated GPUs are using system RAM as vRAM, the increased speed helps there.

 

[woboy]

Yes that is what I am curious about.
Faster RAM seems to be gaining popularity too. Or is that marketing ?

 

[PolePosition]

32 GB, not that I really need or use all of that, but because I went with a LGA2011 chip and X79 board where to me it made sense to use the maximum RAM stick per slot and use 4 of them, so in the future I just add more instead of replacing smaller sticks, where they might make good hair combs.

 

[3line]

32gb, but using 10gb of that as a ram disk for temp cache and photoshop scratch. Speeds up the browser a whole heck of a lot too.

 

[JimmyG]

I remember when 64KB was the standard.

I remember when they didn't even mention the RAM. TRS80 Model III -- yes, I am that old!