RAM question

[TDK1044]

Can one of you smart tech guys answer something for me.

Microsoft states that windows 7(64) requires 2 GIGS of RAM to run smoothly. When a publisher like Ubisoft sates that their game requires say 1 GIG of RAM with 2 GIGS being recommended, does that mean that if your system has a total of 2 GIGS of RAM then you'll be fine running the game? Or do you really need more RAM in addition to the RAM required by the OS to run the game really well?

I guess I'm asking when the publisher quotes it's recommended RAM for a game, is it including the OS RAM in that quote?

Thanks,

Terry :)

[AVGWarhawk]

I do not believe it is including the OS RAM when stating the game runs best with 2 gigs of RAM.

[TDK1044]

I'm glad my new Laptop has 4 GIGs then, AVG....assuming SHV will play at all on a Laptop of course. :)

[AVGWarhawk]

I do not see why it would not play on your laptop. I ran 4 gigs on my Vista64. The machine flies with 4 gigs and so do the games. I pressed it up to 8 gigs just for fun and the price of RAM was very inexpensive. So why not. I'm guessing 7 is RAM happy like Vista is. Funny thing is, feed the OS what it needs to run correctly and it will run correctly.

[longam]

Windows Ultimate 64 bit running some apps. (bunch of them)

http://www.longam.net/sh4/mem.jpg

Windows 7 with just the desktop showing and background services running

http://www.longam.net/sh4/mem2.jpg

4 GB will keep you from caching off the HD which would improve performance.

[Reece]

Can one of you smart tech guys answer something for me.

Microsoft states that windows 7(64) requires 2 GIGS of RAM to run smoothly. When a publisher like Ubisoft sates that their game requires say 1 GIG of RAM with 2 GIGS being recommended, does that mean that if your system has a total of 2 GIGS of RAM then you'll be fine running the game? Or do you really need more RAM in addition to the RAM required by the OS to run the game really well?

I guess I'm asking when the publisher quotes it's recommended RAM for a game, is it including the OS RAM in that quote?

Thanks,

Terry :)If it says 2 GB of ram then that is all you need, the game is quoting the total system ram, however ram prices are cheap and another 2 GB would be a vast improvement overall!:up:

[TDK1044]

Thanks, Guys. :)

[AVGWarhawk]

4 GB will keep you from caching off the HD which would improve performance.


This is the best observation here Terry. With 4 gigs of RAM your hard drive is never accessed other than to load the game. Caching the hard drive is what really slows your games down. Gosh, SH4 with 2 gigs of RAM on my old system would work my hard drive to death making the hard drive act like RAM. With 4 gigs you will be flawless. To put it in perspective I play COD World at War at full tilt. My hard drives sits idle and does nothing as the game has so much RAM to play with that caching off the hard drive is non-existent. This goes for SH4 as well. You will see that 4 gigs on a 64bit OS is kick butt. :up: 8 gigs is better but to be honest I did not notice a difference in performance when I added the extra 4 gigs. But, if I need the extra I have it. :up:

[TDK1044]

Cool. Thanks, AVG. :)