Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: Microsoft, Windows, Vista
Categories: Hardware
Conclusion 8 GB Improve Efficiency and Comfort
Our testing brought us to a clear conclusion. If you often use several memory hungry applications simultaneously, then theres really no way around upgrading your system to 8 GB. Working and especially switching between applications is much more efficient than with a typical 2 GB configuration. Also, it would even be feasible to run a modern 3D game that already takes up more than 1 GB of memory by itself while having another application with a large memory footprint running in the background. Thus, load times in Windows are a thing of the past, as is the constant swapping of Windows components to hard drive. The best part such an upgrade is not even overly expensive, as 8 GB of memory are already available for as little as 135.
Experienced users can give their system another little performance boost by deactivating the paging file. However, you should always keep an eye on the system status, as you may otherwise suddenly find yourself confronted with a system crash.
Large memory sizes are especially worthwhile when virtual machines such as those provided by VMware and Microsoft Virtual PC are used. With enough RAM at their disposal, users no longer have to stop the individual VMs but can simply switch between them instead.
Nonetheless, even veteran users should expect to encounter a few setbacks when using 8 GB of RAM. Be prepared to encounter driver problems - and not just on exotic hardware either. Some system tools may also spring a nasty surprise on you. On the other hand, falling memory prices should allow 64 bit systems to spread fairly quickly, which in turn should mean that driver issues should be sorted our fairly quickly.
Those that dont possess a 64 bit version can order one directly from Microsoft and will only have to pay shipping and handling fees. Users with an OEM version of Vista arent quite so lucky. Here, it depends on the goodwill of the PC vendor as Microsoft does not offer direct upgrade support for such versions. In the worst case, the user will be forced to spend more money to buy another licence.
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I like the charts on the max supported ram per OS, but you need to show the user why they may need 8gb of ram, instead of "because you can" being the reason.
tsebbens' comment is pretty encouraging though. Encoding and gaming are two things I do quite often. But the fact that you can do both at the same time really a consequence of the 8GB or RAM or is it due to the processor (I'm guessing it's a quad?)?
My question is, where does readyboost fit in. I have vista home premium 32bit with a Q6600, and a 2 GB USB for ready boost. About to swap it with a 4 GB readyboost stick, will an 8 GB USB make a difference??
what more ram does is prevent Slow downs due to running low on ram so pageing happens
allso one other Point that is an small error about going past 4gb on an 32bit program it cant happen
if it gets correted an 32Bit program can only allocate 4gb of VM space even with 8gb of ram No page file would be used at all as the program can only use 4gb of space (in games i have only seen this happen on Supreme commander when there is an High amount of units on the map can use quite alot of ram or allacate alot of Vm space taht can be fixed by patching the game.exe file to make it support Large mode so it can use upto 4gb {default is norm only 2gb})
as an test on my pc readyboost makes my games judder when ever the flash drive is accessed