Been using Windows 7 for a while... 2GB isn't enough?

Ok so I have made the jump from XP to Windows 7 for past few months now. And sometimes I have the feeling my PC struggles with some processes due to lack of memory.

I have currently Intel Q6600, 2GB ram DDR2 667mhz, 8800GTS 512mb. My motherboard is Asus P5B.

Been wanting to buy new memory but problem is I use Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Been reading everywhere 32bit supports 3GB Ram maximum. I figured I'd buy an additional 1GB ram but then it won't run in dual channel wich makes it a waste.

How big of a bottleneck is it if I keep my current RAM? Damn time is flying by so fast. It seems like yesterday I played Crysis 1 and 2GB seemed plenty for windows XP. Nowadays people have up to 8GB ram, holy shiet!

Ok so I have made the jump from XP to Windows 7 for past few months now. And sometimes I have the feeling my PC struggles with some processes due to lack of memory.

I have currently Intel Q6600, 2GB ram DDR2 667mhz, 8800GTS 512mb. My motherboard is Asus P5B.

Been wanting to buy new memory but problem is I use Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Been reading everywhere 32bit supports 3GB Ram maximum. I figured I'd buy an additional 1GB ram but then it won't run in dual channel wich makes it a waste.

How big of a bottleneck is it if I keep my current RAM? Damn time is flying by so fast. It seems like yesterday I played Crysis 1 and 2GB seemed plenty for windows XP. Nowadays people have up to 8GB ram, holy shiet!

PullTheTricker

Im in the same boat. 2Gb of RAM really doesn't cut it. You really should have got the 64bit edition of 7....

Get 4 GB of memory. Then get Windows 7 64-bit. You dont need to buy a copy. The 32-bit key is valid for a 64 installation.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but if you buy another 2GB of RAM you can still run in dual channel. Because that kind of thing is all managed by the BIOS, y'see. Windows won't be able to use all of it, but it will still be dual channel.

Anyway... yeah, 2GB is fast becoming the bare minimum requirement now. Gaming machines in particular should have at least 4GB.

Ok so I have made the jump from XP to Windows 7 for past few months now. And sometimes I have the feeling my PC struggles with some processes due to lack of memory.

I have currently Intel Q6600, 2GB ram DDR2 667mhz, 8800GTS 512mb. My motherboard is Asus P5B.

Been wanting to buy new memory but problem is I use Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Been reading everywhere 32bit supports 3GB Ram maximum. I figured I'd buy an additional 1GB ram but then it won't run in dual channel wich makes it a waste.

How big of a bottleneck is it if I keep my current RAM? Damn time is flying by so fast. It seems like yesterday I played Crysis 1 and 2GB seemed plenty for windows XP. Nowadays people have up to 8GB ram, holy shiet!

PullTheTricker

Ok so I have made the jump from XP to Windows 7 for past few months now. And sometimes I have the feeling my PC struggles with some processes due to lack of memory.

I have currently Intel Q6600, 2GB ram DDR2 667mhz, 8800GTS 512mb. My motherboard is Asus P5B.

Been wanting to buy new memory but problem is I use Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Been reading everywhere 32bit supports 3GB Ram maximum. I figured I'd buy an additional 1GB ram but then it won't run in dual channel wich makes it a waste.

How big of a bottleneck is it if I keep my current RAM? Damn time is flying by so fast. It seems like yesterday I played Crysis 1 and 2GB seemed plenty for windows XP. Nowadays people have up to 8GB ram, holy shiet!

PullTheTricker

The memory limitation is really 4GB - whatever your video card RAM is. So usable/addressable RAM for your system will be about 3.5GB. It wouldn't hurt to pick up a 4gb set (2x2gb that are matched) for less than $50

Well 1GB is the minimum requirement. 32 bit does support more than 3GB, but will not go up to 4GB I believe, so it's still better if you have more because it will accept over 3GB's.

You only have 1GB over the minimum requirement right now, which is not a lot for gaming, I would get a bit more if I were you, shouldn't be too expensive.

you could also try modifying the size of your page file.. this might help a little but really only moving up to 64-bit and adding more ram would be feesable.. on a side note you could then sell the 32-bit copy and rake in a good 75 bucks off it to help cover the costs.

[QUOTE="PullTheTricker"]

Ok so I have made the jump from XP to Windows 7 for past few months now. And sometimes I have the feeling my PC struggles with some processes due to lack of memory.

I have currently Intel Q6600, 2GB ram DDR2 667mhz, 8800GTS 512mb. My motherboard is Asus P5B.

Been wanting to buy new memory but problem is I use Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Been reading everywhere 32bit supports 3GB Ram maximum. I figured I'd buy an additional 1GB ram but then it won't run in dual channel wich makes it a waste.

How big of a bottleneck is it if I keep my current RAM? Damn time is flying by so fast. It seems like yesterday I played Crysis 1 and 2GB seemed plenty for windows XP. Nowadays people have up to 8GB ram, holy shiet!

Urworstnhtmare

Im in the same boat. 2Gb of RAM really doesn't cut it. You really should have got the 64bit edition of 7....

Because what could ever be better than having the version that takes more RAM on a setup with limited RAM? :roll:

[QUOTE="Urworstnhtmare"]

[QUOTE="PullTheTricker"]

Ok so I have made the jump from XP to Windows 7 for past few months now. And sometimes I have the feeling my PC struggles with some processes due to lack of memory.

I have currently Intel Q6600, 2GB ram DDR2 667mhz, 8800GTS 512mb. My motherboard is Asus P5B.

Been wanting to buy new memory but problem is I use Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit edition. Been reading everywhere 32bit supports 3GB Ram maximum. I figured I'd buy an additional 1GB ram but then it won't run in dual channel wich makes it a waste.

How big of a bottleneck is it if I keep my current RAM? Damn time is flying by so fast. It seems like yesterday I played Crysis 1 and 2GB seemed plenty for windows XP. Nowadays people have up to 8GB ram, holy shiet!

DoomZaW

Im in the same boat. 2Gb of RAM really doesn't cut it. You really should have got the 64bit edition of 7....

Because what could ever be better than having the version that takes more RAM on a setup with limited RAM? :roll:

I think the point was more that they could have bought more RAM to take full advantage of the 64bit OS instead of only buying 2GB because they thought that 32bit only supported it (when they could have purchased 4GB and took advantage of most of it).

As Janus aleady said, the 32bit can support all the way up to 4GB of memory and nothing less!, the limmitation is where the memory adresses need more than 4GB, the graphic take some of it and some other adresses is needed.

TC:

You should try upgrading to 4GB no matter what you do, because even in 32Bit you'll see a difference.

Well i've got a laptop with 1Gb RAM running Windows 7 and it does fairly well considering it's a laptop.JohnF111

I have a netbook running Win 7 Home. It plenty for basic usage (web, office, music, video)... 2GB should run Win 7 64-bit quite well. Of course, this only holds true if your PC is optimized... which is easy to do but not often done :P

I usually stay at 1.45gb with nothing else running but about 49 processes (startup). With Firefox 4, windows explorer, and windows media player running, I get 1.97gb, pretty close. I barely have anything running at all and almost use 2 gigs. So there's a good chance 2gb might not be enough for you. You should be able to upgrade to 4 pretty cheap by now.

I usually stay at 1.45gb with nothing else running but about 49 processes (startup). With Firefox 4, windows explorer, and windows media player running, I get 1.97gb, pretty close. I barely have anything running at all and almost use 2 gigs. So there's a good chance 2gb might not be enough for you. You should be able to upgrade to 4 pretty cheap by now.

LovePotionNo9

Windows scales its RAM usage according to your maximum. My PC uses just under 1.1GB of RAM with 4GB available. If you have 1GB Windows 7 uses approx. 600MB. With 2GB it scales accordingly, probably around 800MB to 1GB.

I usually stay at 1.45gb with nothing else running but about 49 processes (startup). With Firefox 4, windows explorer, and windows media player running, I get 1.97gb, pretty close. I barely have anything running at all and almost use 2 gigs. So there's a good chance 2gb might not be enough for you. You should be able to upgrade to 4 pretty cheap by now.

LovePotionNo9

How much crap do you have running in the background on your PC :|?My laptop has Windows 7 with 2gb of RAM and uses JUST over 1gb running said programs and I mean JUST.

[QUOTE="LovePotionNo9"]

I usually stay at 1.45gb with nothing else running but about 49 processes (startup). With Firefox 4, windows explorer, and windows media player running, I get 1.97gb, pretty close. I barely have anything running at all and almost use 2 gigs. So there's a good chance 2gb might not be enough for you. You should be able to upgrade to 4 pretty cheap by now.

gmaster456

How much crap do you have running in the background on your PC :|?My laptop has Windows 7 with 2gb of RAM and uses JUST over 1gb running said programs and I mean JUST.

I've been playing alot of Starcraft 2 lately, and every now and then the game hitches on me, makes me mad man. The game isn't a resource hog as far as I know so I figured gotta be my memory.

I too want to keep using my current PC untill I can upgrade, probably in 2012 though. I just don't see any incentive to upgrade at this time.

Memory seems cheap though, but I'l only buy one if it actually benefits my perfomance.

I've been playing alot of Starcraft 2 lately, and every now and then the game hitches on me, makes me mad man. The game isn't a resource hog as far as I know so I figured gotta be my memory.

I too want to keep using my current PC untill I can upgrade, probably in 2012 though. I just don't see any incentive to upgrade at this time.

Memory seems cheap though, but I'l only buy one if it actually benefits my perfomance.

PullTheTricker

Just get another 2GB. You won't be able to use 1GB, but 2GB is so cheap, and it will mean both are in Dual Channel

The fact that it's only 667 mhz also increases your need to upgrade. scar-hawk

[QUOTE="scar-hawk"]The fact that it's only 667 mhz also increases your need to upgrade. imprezawrx500

2gb is not enough... 4gb is enough for web browsing, music, and maybe video playing with 1 game in the background 8gb is good for multiple games in the background, photoshop + everything else abovefishing666

Why would a person have multiple games in the background?

Get 4 GB of memory. Then get Windows 7 64-bit. You dont need to buy a copy. The 32-bit key is valid for a 64 installation.

XaosII