Which Ram to buy.

[Bonebreaker777]

Would it make then a terrible difference to have 8GB instead of 6GB?

I have 8GB and have no page file and the highest my memory consumption goes is 5GB when doing some file conversion.

[robredz]

Would it make then a terrible difference to have 8GB instead of 6GB?

I have 8GB and have no page file and the highest my memory consumption goes is 5GB when doing some file conversion.

Not really, it just wouldn't work triple channel, but you would have 2Gb more available RAM and that of itself may be what you want. We can argue nanoseconds of response and potential bandwidth, but in normal use no doubt it will be just fine

[watercooled]

Would it make then a terrible difference to have 8GB instead of 6GB?

I have 8GB and have no page file and the highest my memory consumption goes is 5GB when doing some file conversion.

That's not the point I was making, I was just saying populating all 3 channels really isn't the big deal it's being made out to be, and don't let it get in the way of potentially saving money or whatever - it's a fairly minor concern.

Would 8 vs 6 make any difference? Well if the OP happens to need more than 6GB, but less than 8, then yes, to avoid swapping to HDD which often destroys performance. Also, Windows doesn't really waste memory - if there's 'free' memory, Windows will fill it with caches, and potentially prefetch/superfetch data for example.

This is why, after working working with large files for instance, 'free' memory under task manager can drop to close to 0 and not seem to return - the memory is still available for any programs which request it, but while it's free it's being put to use, hence the 'available' value. Unfortunately, some people seem to panic about the free number and it seems to be the motivation behind certain snake oil 'memory cleaner/optimiser' apps.

However, OTOH, unless there's a specific reason to add more memory, it's unlikely to have a noticeable impact on performance in most cases, whether it's 8GB or 24GB.

[robredz]

" @ watercooled [I] "Would 8 vs 6 make any difference? Well if the OP happens to need more than 6GB, but less than 8, then yes, to avoid swapping to HDD which often destroys performance"

Agreed, and in practice more than 8 Gb would likely only be of use for multimedia and HD video editing.

[markieboy]

Thanks for all the help and advice everyone.

I've managed to track down some ram which is identical to the ram I already have. I'll be getting 8gb ram (4x2gb) which strangely enough worked out cheaper than getting 6gb (3x2gb) and I'll be able to recoup some cost by putting the extra stick up for sale.

Once again, thanks for all the help and advice.