Is 4GB really necessary for gaming???

guys i just bought a palit 9800gt and a 500w cooler master smps... i have one doubt, i only have 2gb ram... does upgrading to 4gb help... also am using vista 32bit sp1... so it wnt detect more than 3.25gb rite? so wat shud i do to get better fps in games? or is 2gb sufficient???

Make sure that they are in dual channel mode and then frequency of RAM matter too for performance. I would say maxing out the capacity is nice but do consider whether you will be able to utilize it all the time or just for some gaming sessions. 1GBx2 should be sufficient IMO.

yes it is... just buy one more stick of 1 GB if u want.... or else upgrade to 64 bt

C

In Vista, you'd do good having at least 3GB of RAM. I recommend you upgrade to 64-bit Vista and upgrade to 4GB RAM. If you can't switch to 64-bit for some reason, then get at least 2-3GB of 800MHz RAM.

On Vista with 2GB and gaming is butter smooth... I dont think upgrading to 3 or 4GB will give much of a boost.

^^ On Vista x64 4 GB ram makes a huge diff. ... unless u've used it urself, u'd not know ...

There will be 10~15% difference in some games

deathvirus_me said:
^^ On Vista x64 4 GB ram makes a huge diff. ... unless u've used it urself, u'd not know ...

Are we talking about noticeable difference? If so is that in terms of game load times? Also does it reduced micro stuttering?

@death...

seems u have not used it... I used to have.... and i still have spares..there is no use..

2 GB is very well enuff

as long as you run no app except the game 2GB should do. But if you plan to write a DVD in Nero and have 20 tabs full of cheat-code pages and tutorials open in firefox, while gaming, I seriously suggest 4GB RAM :lol:

And I see no reason why you shouldn't be using 64bit btw.

thanx for the replies guys... think i wil sell my existing 1x2gb 667mhz for 2x2gb 800mhz transcend...

am now playing undercover and am experience small jerks while playing at 1440x900 at everything high and 4xantialising... wi upgrading to 4gb remove those jerks???

C

Psychosocial said:
On Vista with 2GB and gaming is butter smooth... I dont think upgrading to 3 or 4GB will give much of a boost.

I had 2GB 800MHz RAM. When I played undercover, my RAM usage used to go up to 1.8-1.9GB (with only Firefox with 8-10 tabs open and a few folders). It used to lag sometimes. But after I upgraded to 4GB, everything's perfect.

george101 said:
thanx for the replies guys... think i wil sell my existing 1x2gb 667mhz for 2x2gb 800mhz transcend...

am now playing undercover and am experience small jerks while playing at 1440x900 at everything high and 4xantialising... wi upgrading to 4gb remove those jerks???

I'm playing Undercover at 1440x900 too, but with 2x antialiasing (with 8600GT graphics card). I used to get those jerks when I was using 2GB too, but now after upgrading, they're gone...

george101 said:
thanx for the replies guys... think i wil sell my existing 1x2gb 667mhz for 2x2gb 800mhz transcend...

am now playing undercover and am experience small jerks while playing at 1440x900 at everything high and 4xantialising... wi upgrading to 4gb remove those jerks???

No! The game is sh1t. It also lags on PS3 o_0.

wat abt crysis??? wil it benefit from 4gb and 64bit os>

C

george101 said:
wat abt crysis??? wil it benefit from 4gb and 64bit os>

You might, but not all that noticeable... to get noticeable graphics improvement in Crysis, you should upgrade your gfx card. Which are you using at the moment?

^He is using a 9800gt....

D

I'm using 9600gt at 1440*900 with 2gb ram. I don't see any stutter even in dx10. If you are not running too many programs in background while gaming, 2gb will be enough. But even I'm tempted to have 4gb. May be because we all like more and more.