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How Much RAM Do You Really Need?

06:00 - Monday 12 December 2005 by Jon Kullberg

1. The Need To Invest In 2 GB Of RAM Is Not Marketing Hype
2. Memory Matters
3. Test Setup
4. Gaming Benchmark Results
5. DirectX 8: Unreal Tournament 2004
6. DirectX 9: Battlefield 2

7. Battlefield 2, Continued
8. Video Benchmark Results
9. Application Benchmark Results
10. Synthetic Benchmark Results
11. Multitasking Is What Is Really Affected
12. Conclusion

How much RAM does your PC have? If you run Windows XP, it is probably in the range of 512 MB to 1 GB. Older Windows versions will do the job with less than that, but as soon as you execute demanding applications or more than one application at a time, anything below 512 MB will likely translate into performance bottlenecks.

Of course, the more RAM you have, the better off you are - but how much memory do you really need?

Multiple software threads that run all at once every time you boot up your PC continue to proliferate. Multitasking software includes what we really need, such as anti-virus tools or firewall software, or useful programs to which we have all grown accustomed that permanently run in the background until they need our direct attention. Most users, for example, have their email client and browser permanently available. Instant messengers such as AIM, ICQ MSN or YIM increasingly pop up on a growing number of desktops, while a media player plays music while you work. And all of these consume some memory, leaving fewer resources available for applications that you want to launch.