memory/ram calculator?

[Spawn-Inc]

i've been trying to figure out if i need 2gbs or 4gbs for my new build and was wondering if anyone knows of any kind of calculator that will see how much ram i need for certin programs and components. i would have lots of stuff running and i want to be sure to have enough.

what i would be running

Vista and all its stuff
Fraps
LCD studio
g15 software
setpoint
nortan 2007
all the nvidia things for temps and what not
crysis

would 2gbs cover all that?

thanks for the help!

[D1337]

If your planning on using 64 bit then go 4 gigs, 32 bit go 2 gigs.
Otherwise youll be constrained to less then 4 gigs on 32 bit.

[Redundant]

If your planning on using 64 bit then go 4 gigs, 32 bit go 2 gigs.
Otherwise youll be constrained to less then 4 gigs on 32 bit.
Also known as 3 gigs.

[crenn]

If you can easily afford the 4GB, get it regardless of running 32-bit. Yes, you can only use about 3.5GB (Although vista does things with 512MB of that) in a 32 bit system, it will still run well.

Also remember, if you need vista 64 bit, make sure your processor supports 64 bit and also you may have to order a DVD unless you got Vista Ultimate (which includes the 64 bit version as well).

Order the DVD at the bottom of this page: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx

[Spawn-Inc]

no i'm going 32bit and i am getting a Q6600 with a 680i board so as far as support goes i'm good. so what are you saying crenn that if i get 4gbs 3.5 will go to programs and 512mbs will go to vista only so it all gets used. i was looking at vista Home Premium 32bit.

i thought they fixed that with vista so it can handle a bunch... wtf stupid M$

[crenn]

It's because of the 32 bit address which is the problem. And I mean vista will 'see' 3.5GB in total. It's still worth getting the 4GB in my opinion. Gaming with that amount is fine.

[armadilloben]

It's because of the 32 bit address which is the problem. And I mean vista will 'see' 3.5GB in total. It's still worth getting the 4GB in my opinion. Gaming with that amount is fine.
firstly i got the oem version of home premium for about 120 bucks at micro center and i didnt need to order a dvd from microsoft to get 64 bit i just bought the 64 bit version i had just bought for gigs of ram and running 64 bit windows vista server longhorn beta and it addressed all 4 gigs no prob i believe 64 bit addresses up to 128 gigs but with my old pc i had xp 32 bit and i only could acess more like 3.25 gigs cuz ive got 2 256mb gfx cards in the system and it sucked cuz i wanted 4 gig for performance considering the amazing price i spend it on 150 bucks for 4 1gb sticks at 675mhz corsair ocd to 800mhz

[Scotty]

Posted this on another forum for a guy who wanted to know if windows supported 4gigs

A 32 bit system can only address so many pieces of hardware etc, it can only address (2^32 = 4 294 967 296) 4.2Billion unique places in a system. Every point on the mother board uses an address, so the PCI slots PCI-E etc etc take up some of this address space, depending on how much is used by other parts of a system the rest is assigned to the memory installed. So if you have a M-ATX mobo i believe less is used by the system and therfore some people can get more then the 3 or so GB of memory that people with ATX boards have. It depends on the amount of features of the board you have. If you have PCI cards etc installed more address space is given to them so that deducts from the memory.

A 64-bit OS can address 2^64 = 1.84467441 × 1019 (16 exabytes or so) Which is pretty much impossible to achive at current times. So 64-bit is then taken down to 128GBs which is still amazingly large you will not need that much atleast now. Although lower vista versions only allow upto 8Gb and 16GB which is lameo.

You could shove a 8-core system with 16GB of RAM together but because the OS is limited to 32-bit you won't be able to access it all, it's all down to the limitation of the OS.

64-bit Vista isn't great there are many drivers missing, meaning your hardware may not work etc. Also it fails to run any 16-bit program which can be annoying as some instalation programs are in 16-bit so you won't be able to install. It can be annoying.

[Spawn-Inc]

so which would be better the 64bit vista or 32bit? what is the whole difference anyway?

[Redundant]

so which would be better the 64bit vista or 32bit? what is the whole difference anyway?
You would be better off getting the 32-bit version as most hardware doesn't have 64-bit drivers. (at least at the moment)

[SSGM4DCOW]

You would be better off getting the 32-bit version as most hardware doesn't have 64-bit drivers. (at least at the moment)

True.. its hard enough finding 32 bit Drivers for some software id wait on 64 bit till companies actually get to the point where they feel like making the software.


and it actually works

[ownaginatious]

I use 64-bit vista, and it found drivers for everything (including USB devices), except my TV card, but that thing sucks anyway. Go for 64-bit now. Contrary to popular believe, support is really good right now :)

[SSGM4DCOW]

well drivers for a lot of things are starting to come out but drivers for audigy sound cards seems to suck no matter how many updates they get and ive tried two cards so far and neither of them sound as good as they did on xp.