Advantages to larger RAM capacities?

[Perf]

Say I want 4GB of RAM in my computer. Is there any (performance) advantage to having 2x2GB over 4x1GB besides the fact that I will have no DIMMs left open? Will the power drain for the 4x1GB be a lot compared to just 2 sticks? Thanks.

 

[wafflehammer]

yea...usually it's harder to overclock if you have 4x1gb instead of 2x2gb, and i've heard it's a bit harder on the northbridge too...but i don't think it'd be anything major.

 

[veedubfreak]

yea...usually it's harder to overclock if you have 4x1gb instead of 2x2gb, and i've heard it's a bit harder on the northbridge too...but i don't think it'd be anything major.

This. The nb (memory controller) requires more power to run 4 sticks than 2 sticks.

 

[saltynay]

As stated its the extra power required in the nb that causes issues when overclocking 4 dimms although generally 1gb dimms have a cheaper performance/cost ratio. I am using 4x1gb dimms atm and will continue to until I upgrade to ddr3

 

[wootwoot]

If you have 4 gb of ram, what's the use in overclocking =(. I think anything over 4 gigs is just overkill =P.

 

[saltynay]

Whats the point in overclocking..... do you know what ram actually does in a pc it stores the cpu calculations before and after they have completed so that they can be applied its a buffer as such. If your cpu is faster (via overclocking), the faster the calculations can be performed so the pc is faster as a whole. Adding Ram just means there is less calculations kept on the slower but higher capacity hdd so that the cpu does have calculations to perform. 4gb is not overkill if gaming on vista and if your doing CAD or media editing 6-8gb or even upto 32gb for really high powered CAD machines is not overkill.

 

[veedubfreak]

I've been having issues with vista not wanting to run with 2 sticks of memory and i can definately tell the performance hit between 4gb and 2gb. Thats why i'm still on xp until i rebuild this weekend. 6gb FTW.

 

[saltynay]

I am running vista premium on 512mb on my laptop its a tad slow but fine I just disabled the memory hogging features and try and keep processes to a min.

 

[objecterror]

Have you turned off the program that sets aside ram for programs that is built into vista?
In regards to 6GB of ram, I don't know what the use is for all of that memory, just to have more? I guess that would be the only reason, your not getting a performance increase, just, more space for your cpu to place information of vital programs your running at the time.

Graphic Designers are to blame for this. all the power in the world isn't going to make bad art better. It's about running your programs and things within a comfortable, affordable budget.

 

[saltynay]

I am not really sure what I turned on off from the top of my head I just turned off virtually everything so that vista now in essence runs like xp but with a prettier interface via aero. On boot I only 25 processes so its still quick as