16GB or 32GB
polycounter lvl 6
I'm building a new computer and I'm curious if anyone here has ever needed more than 16GB of ram. I quickly run out of my 4GB of memory(32bit) when I try to build lighting in my UDK scene. Another 16GB is only around $100 more but I don't want to waste the money if I'll never use it.
Thanks
Thanks
Replies
32bit can only use 4GB (like 3.8 or something)
Geeze, it used to be 128MB was all I'd ever need, 1GB was for rich people.
Only thing I would say is make sure you research your motherboard and make sure it isn't too finnicky about the brand of ram you are looking to buy, so you won't have issues when you put the system together.
make sure you have windows 7 pro, though. Home version locks the system down to 16 gigs no matter what i believe.
32-bit apps running on a 64-bit system are still limited by their 32-bitness.
I would get 16, and put the rest toward the baddest ass graphics card you can get. I know Unity uses Beast light mapping and that's CUDA enabled. So an Nvidia card is a huge speed boost for that editor.
if you're running max, udk, and photoshop all together, and you're doing mesh and texture revisions... well the more ram the better, even if one is only using 4gb, another using 6gb, and the third using 2gb of ram... that's still 12gb, and your OS is then using god knows what else.
so yeah, more ram the better. i'm looking to get 32GB just because it's actually pretty cheap to do right now. i'm already rocking a pretty fast SSD, so that's the next logical upgrade for me... (i'm running 8GB atm).
Even if a particular application can only use X amount of RAM, the excess RAM will just let you run more than one application at a time. More is better, and 32 GB is not too much, especially if you find a decent deal.
Also, maxing out the RAM capacity of your motherboard is just fun.
Then again, it does depend on your work, I mean if you're not running a game engine with Uber Shaders, Rendering out Lightmaps, and working on a 2-4K texture at the same time, while watching 3 hours long videos with Firefox, using a plugin to pop out the window and Always Ontop it, then the extra RAM will not be exactly stellar nor will you find use for it.
And ontop of the that, many rendering engines in stuff like Max and Maya, when they crash, they will suck up all of your RAM without noticing, forcing a reboot or BSOD, so again, very little it will help there is the program is a memory whore.
All in all, it's honestly up to you, you can never have too much RAM, but it will be all for naught if the demand isn't there.
And at home my 4 year old, 4gig computer dosnt have a problem with UDK lightmaps at all. Im sure I couldnt run Max, Photoshop, UDK and Zbrush at all the same time but there is honestly no reason anyone would need to run all those programs at the same time. They take about 30 seconds to start up anyway.
The most applications you ever need to have open at one time are 2. A program to do your authoring content in and the program your seeing the authored content in. Example. Photoshop to UDK. Max to UDK. Photoshop to Zbrush. 2 is the most you will need to swap back and forth in rapid succession that you would need to have open. You wont need to constantly make changes in max, photoshop and UDK simultaneously. That is of course unless I assume you dont know what your doing and have a really poor workflow.
But if its cheap, then get it. Although if it was more than a hundred bucks I think it would be a total waste as you will almost never tax out 16gigs. You might once or twice, but the chances are so low its not worth it. It would be better to put the cash somewhere else in the computer or save it up for the next time you want to upgrade.
Just my 2cents
(Ace-Angle beat me to It!)
Let us know how It goes!
I also desperately want to upgrade, already got 64bits just need ultimate and the ram, uhg.
(Oh yea make sure you get ultimate.)
I'd suggest putting the money you save into a SSD if you'd don't have one.
http://www.downloadmoreram.com/
The more the better, but don't forget they will be cheaper and more cheaper...
16GB is a standard right now, and i'd say a MUST HAVE, like a cool SSD and of course a good graphic card.
Dell Precision desktops have the option for 196 GB of RAM.
IJS.
196gb is a windows limitation.
technically speaking (if i remember correctly, any techy's feel free to correct me here), but a 64bit cpu can address 2^64 bytes of memory, or 16.8 million terabytes.
there are linux distributions which have no limits other than hardware.