Because recent PCs utilize a dual-channel memory controller, common practice has been to purchase either a 2GB or 4GB kit, as odd numbers aren’t possible with an even number of sticks (at least if you are dealing with even densities and are not mixing and matching), but recent advances in technology has changed that. Instead of 2GB, 4GB or even 8GB kits, you’ll be dealing with 3GB, 6GB and 12GB in the near future.
The question comes down to “How much do you need?”, and for the most part, this is actually quite easy to answer. The reason is because for most enthusiasts, the choice of 3GB is going to be eliminated right away. At this point in time, 3GB isn’t a substantial amount of RAM, and most people have been using 4GB in their machines for the past year at least, so to actually downgrade would be an odd step to take. The major increase in bandwidth doesn’t exactly counteract the lack of density, sadly.
With today’s games and high-end machines, 3GB can become very limiting, especially if you want to run Windows Vista alongside games at a resolution of above 1680×1050. Today, 4GB is almost a minimum, and even 3GB isn’t going to be good enough. On the new Intel i7 though, it’s either 3GB or 6GB if you want your memory to be optimized… there’s no in-between.
The other option is to take the outrageous route and pick up 12GB, but that’s going to be overkill for the vast majority of people. If you need that much RAM, then you’d likely know it without reading this article. Even intensive render jobs won’t usually take advantage of more than 6GB, so I think that will be the most common configuration for most people.
Memory frequencies also come into play, and this article will aim to figure out whether or not faster RAM is actually needed. After all, if Core i7 enables great latencies and insane bandwidth on lower-end kits, is there any reason to go with a “high-end” model? In previous generations, the benefits of having faster RAM was to both increase bandwidth and decrease latencies, and really, things don’t change much with i7.
This isn’t to say the old way of doing RAM has no value. You can still get a lot of use out of an 398706-051 SDRAM, but again watch out for gigabyte usage. You probably don’t want anything under 4GB. But 8GB is actually a really good forward-thinking strategy, and this is just not possible with the newer options. So the mix of them all is really the best possible market strategy.
The question comes down to “How much do you need?”, and for the most part, this is actually quite easy to answer. The reason is because for most enthusiasts, the choice of 3GB is going to be eliminated right away. At this point in time, 3GB isn’t a substantial amount of RAM, and most people have been using 4GB in their machines for the past year at least, so to actually downgrade would be an odd step to take. The major increase in bandwidth doesn’t exactly counteract the lack of density, sadly.
With today’s games and high-end machines, 3GB can become very limiting, especially if you want to run Windows Vista alongside games at a resolution of above 1680×1050. Today, 4GB is almost a minimum, and even 3GB isn’t going to be good enough. On the new Intel i7 though, it’s either 3GB or 6GB if you want your memory to be optimized… there’s no in-between.
The other option is to take the outrageous route and pick up 12GB, but that’s going to be overkill for the vast majority of people. If you need that much RAM, then you’d likely know it without reading this article. Even intensive render jobs won’t usually take advantage of more than 6GB, so I think that will be the most common configuration for most people.
Memory frequencies also come into play, and this article will aim to figure out whether or not faster RAM is actually needed. After all, if Core i7 enables great latencies and insane bandwidth on lower-end kits, is there any reason to go with a “high-end” model? In previous generations, the benefits of having faster RAM was to both increase bandwidth and decrease latencies, and really, things don’t change much with i7.
This isn’t to say the old way of doing RAM has no value. You can still get a lot of use out of an 398706-051 SDRAM, but again watch out for gigabyte usage. You probably don’t want anything under 4GB. But 8GB is actually a really good forward-thinking strategy, and this is just not possible with the newer options. So the mix of them all is really the best possible market strategy.