Can you have too much RAM ?

Astral Fridge Magnet · Tue Aug 05, 2003 7:56 am

Hello,
This question will be short and sweet. I plan on getting 1 Gb of RAM in my next PC set-up. But Seeing that it is not too expensive, do you think that 2ghz is too over the top?

Regards

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 8:38 am

I think it mostly depends upon 2 things :

1. how much you use native sampling plugins/programs which store samples in RAM rather than streamed from disk

2. how many programs you use at the same time. Using multiple programs like SFP, an audio/midi sequencer and multiple plugins therein, wave editors, and miscellaneous sound and internet programs at the same time (not to mention samples used by software samplers and the overheads of the OS itself) can really start to eat into RAM.

I personally don't see a great advantage in using more than 1Gb, but it basically depends upon your needs. 1Gb is a HUGE improvement over 512mb however. Maybe buy a 1Gb stick now and add one later?

peace

[ This Message was edited by: dArKr3zIn on 2003-08-05 09:39 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 1:52 pm

Hey Werdo!

Well, if the question was mine, I think it would be "yes, of course", because I have only one Pulsar I Plus, i.e., 4 sharks to do everything... But if I well remember, you have three Pulsars, and this is a lot of power! I would absolutely for sure use 2G or even 4 of ram if I had it... But will you use as much? I think the way Dark has given you a reflexion is perfect. Think well about the way you work, etc., and then come up with the answer.

One thing is true, nobody can impeed you to actually put more ram later... the slots will be there, it´s not a choice you can´t wait to take, it´s not for instance: "which MOBO should I take?" Once you´ve got your MOBO, there is nothing to do, cos you can only use one of them... But with RAM is a different story. You can add ram whenever you need more ram.

There are two advantages on adding RAM latter than sooner...

First:
You´ll feel you have a completely new system, cos it is known that more ram improves the overal performance of your PC and this is always a very plasing situation isn´t it?

So you have something to burn in the future, this heppened to me once, when I whent from 256 to 512, and the improvement was amazing.

Second:
RAM will ALWAYS become cheaper, cos new ram is going to be released soon, and the ram supported by your system will be much cheaper in about 6 months.

My personal choice would be:
"Oh God, give me the force to not to surrender to this temptation of having 2G of RAM in my computer... cos it´s too wanderful..." I´m going to wait a bit, till the RAM i´m going to use, comes down in price.

Hope all this can help you decide

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 2:45 pm

Answer: YES, you CAN have too much RAM... If you cannot fit all of it into your PC

But seriously: 1Gb RAM-modules are supposed to be way slower than 512mb RAM-modules...
So I would build up my system with as many 512mb modules as I could fit, and stay away from the 1Gb modules until I had some definate proof that they have caught up in speed...

Astral Fridge Magnet · Tue Aug 05, 2003 6:33 pm

Hi all.

Thanks for your responses (people on PlanetZ are an extremely helpful bunch). I'll stick with 1Ghz for now and add more later if I need it.

Tegards

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 10:40 pm

Yea, I think this is the best solution, cos you have nothing to lose, just much to get...

I can´t wait to see how your system will be configured by the end... It´s getting more and more interesting... Mine it´s quite stable for the moment...

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 10:52 pm

Do you think audio performance would be improved by adding more memory? I've got 512MB at the moment.

Shayne

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Aug 05, 2003 11:15 pm

On 2003-08-05 23:52, Shayne White wrote:
Do you think audio performance would be improved by adding more memory? I've got 512MB at the moment.

Shayne

Answer:
100% of certainty: YES!

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 10:50 am

Thanks! But I have a question: I'm not running out of memory when I'm doing SFP/Sonar/etc., I've got plenty free. Still, increasing memory would still help system performance?

Shayne

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 11:03 am

Yes, because Windows will use the swap file more if you have less ram, I recomend getting 1Gb+ (using 512md DDR modules) and disabling the swap-file all together.

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 11:17 am

I did have the swap file disabled until I bought John Bowen's Solaris. Now I have to use it again.

Thanks for the tips!

Shayne

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 12:18 pm

I just second what is being said. Yes, more RAM will help about everything in your system, it will even free some CPU procesing thanks to this. You can´t go wrong, get it!

dehuszar · Post by **dehuszar** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 1:03 pm

Even if you have 10GB of RAM Windows will still try to use the swap file for things unless you take the damn thing out of it's hands. When I made the jump from 512MB to 1GB in my now defunct laptop (I still have the RAM which is waiting for a new home) the difference was like night and day. I, of course, killed the swap file, but also bumped up the video ram (shared memory in many craptops) to 64MB. BIG difference. I have yet to test my system on a video card with memory higher than 32 MB, but given that the OS is based in Java and that Java consumes memory like nothin else (unless coded by the most unscrupulously perfectionist programmer) I'd wager that an increase in video ram might benefit GUI animation speeds (i.e. better realtime representations of fader/knob/peak timing).

I can also concur that 1GB DIMMS are a tad slower than 512MB DIMMS. It's just an architectural limitation at the moment. When you're doing nucleotide simulations on machines that use 16GB of memory, you get by with the extra latency. ;P But it's not much of a big deal. I'd say that unless you're looking to load GIGA libraries into memory (using STS-xxxx or some non-disk streaming sampler) you'll be fine with 1GB. Almost all desktop boards have at least 3 DIMM slots, so 1.5 should be a nice healthy level of eccentricity if you're really worried about maxxing out. Just keep in mind that if you do intend to push your RAM to it's outer reaches there will be consequences in not having a swap file. Like your computer crapping out. Killing the swap file is really only intended for systems where you won't push the RAM limits. Unless you LIKE the machine to lock up and corrupt your data files. But then we're talking to a different audience.

Food for thunk.

Sam

[ This Message was edited by: dehuszar on 2003-08-06 14:11 ]

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Wed Aug 06, 2003 3:14 pm

OK, thanks! I'll look into increasing my memory soon.

Shayne

Astral Fridge Magnet · Wed Aug 06, 2003 9:59 pm

Hi Nestor,

You say your system is stable. Well, I hope mine will be too, that I won't have problems and that it will run extremely smoothly. It will be ready this Saturday ( 9 August 03 ).
I'll let you know after about a week how things are with it.

Regards

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Aug 07, 2003 9:29 pm

It WILL!

, It just WILL!!!

jbraner · Post by **jbraner** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 7:21 am

I've got 2GB RAM, and here's why. I use the DR008 with Drumkit from Hell, in SONAR. If you load the full "close mic" set and the "room mic" set, that's over 600MB. (I would never have considered this until I got the 2GB).

Then the nice Trinity basses can be over 200 MB. Then the malmsjo piano for STS is over 200 MB.

So that's over 1GB already, and we need RAM for SONAR, and anything else in the STS sampler. Oh, and then theres Windows XP...

Now if I had anything that used disk streaming, I guess it would be different....

_________________

John Braner

jbraner@blueyonder.co.uk
http://www.mp3.com/johnbraner

[ This Message was edited by: jbraner on 2003-08-08 08:23 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Fri Aug 08, 2003 11:39 am

and your plug-ins, and your audio-editor open, and perhaps a broser to solve a problem minwhile, and...

RoonSmits · Post by **RoonSmits** » Mon Aug 11, 2003 2:48 pm

Hiya,

To get back to the original question, In the ol'days just before the BX chipsset there were the FX and LX chipsets which could only address this amount of memory. If you put more in it, it would slow down your machine, since not all RAM could be cached.
I haven't spend time studying on the current chipsets, but in the end it just comes to this: you'll never have enough Mhz, RAM or DSP power, so go for it

.

Regards
Ronald

Shayne White · Post by **Shayne White** » Tue Aug 12, 2003 11:16 am

OK, memory and CPU power are cheap, but DSP isn't.

Shayne