1Gb vs. 2Gb RAM debate

[pkilway]

Seems that more and more people are buying the 2Gb (2 x 1Gb) instead of going with the old standard of 1Gb (2 x 512Mb).

 

Just curious as to why? I remember the debate from this past summer and it most cases (at least 6 months ago) 2Gb's offered marginal performance increases. In fact Corsair (or was it Crucial) came out with a PDF on the subject which showed how 2Gb's of ram could actually be slower in some games/benchmarks.

 

But that was SOOOOO 6 months ago.

 

Is it worth it now to save donut money for 2Gb (2 x 1Gb) of RAM?

 

Just looking for opnions.

[Om1kron]

2x1 gig packages have pretty low latencies as long as you dont buy "VALUE" ram... anyone buying "VALUE" ram for anything more than a duron, cempron, celeron should be stabbed in the eyesocket with a rusty screwdriver.

 

That said... its faster to have only 2 sticks of 1024 in two slots than 4 sticks of 512 in 4 slots if you ever want to expand. And if you ever want teh holy grail of 4 gigs then you have to have 2 slots free for another 2x1 gig set.

[THunDA]

Just curious as to why?.

Newer games benifit greatly from 2gig's.. Games like BF2 play like night and day when going to 2gig's..

 

For regular stuff you prolly wont notice much of a difference so it really depends what you do with your rig..

[Gary_Johnston]

Gaming of course! I get blistering framerates at max detail including AA and AF on battlefield 2 with my current 2gb kit as opposed to my old 1gb kit. The world is a better place with 2gb

[KimberKlr]

2x1 gig packages have pretty low latencies as long as you dont buy "VALUE" ram... anyone buying "VALUE" ram for anything more than a duron, cempron, celeron should be stabbed in the eyesocket with a rusty screwdriver.

 

That said... its faster to have only 2 sticks of 1024 in two slots than 4 sticks of 512 in 4 slots if you ever want to expand. And if you ever want teh holy grail of 4 gigs then you have to have 2 slots free for another 2x1 gig set.

 

 

ermmm

my investigation leads me to believe 4x512 may be better at this point.seems alot of the low latency 1 gig sticks are having stability problems in 3d apps.

if i'm dead wrong on this please let me know .as i just bought my ocz (shown in sig )and will return it for a good 2gig kit.

[Confined]

You need 2GB of RAM to max out BF2.

 

Thread Closed

 

kthxbai

[Grynt11]

Don't forget that with 4 x 512mb sticks you will be running at " T2 ", and thatz not good. In BF2 with maxed settings my sys uses about 1.25GB of sys mem, and in Quake 4 Ultra settings it uses about 1.80GB of sys mem. If your building any Gaming sys than there is no dought, you need 2 x 1024mb stickz. :nod:

[rdr4g0n]

i do graphic design and i cant live without my 2 gigs. when people are throwing business card, flyers, and pamphlet designs at me all at once and im switching programs and designs like crazy, the difference between 1 and 2 gigs is insane. i regularly run photoshop, indesign and illustrator and each of those usually have a few files open (photoshop totally hogs ram). besides that i got winamp, outlook express, a few explorer windows, a few opera windows, and some other small programs running.

 

just for kicks i like to run prime95 while im working and laugh at my ssystem as it hits 55c lol. i like to show it whos boss. of course i then apologize to her and she says ill never change and then we kiss. wtf lol

[inphared]

.

just for kicks i like to run prime95 while im working and laugh at my ssystem as it hits 55c lol. i like to show it whos boss. of course i then apologize to her and she says ill never change and then we kiss. wtf lol

 

ahh true LOVE such a beautiful thing <3

[Smoken Joe]

Unless benchmarking is a sport they rarly reflect the true needs in a system though they can show you when you have a problem. That corsair test was basicly flawed and perhaps self serving. 1GB is still of for many people but if you are getting a new system I would go with 2 no question.

[Kawasaki 1]

Don't forget that with 4 x 512mb sticks you will be running at " T2 ", and thatz not good. In BF2 with maxed settings my sys uses about 1.25GB of sys mem, and in Quake 4 Ultra settings it uses about 1.80GB of sys mem. If your building any Gaming sys than there is no dought, you need 2 x 1024mb stickz. :nod:

 

 

Why is it not good to run at 2T? Granted it's a little slower and by little I really can't tell. I'm not trying to sound like a smartass, but how is it "not good" for you to run at 2T timing? If you mean the system will be a little slower (only really noticable in benchmarks) then I see what you are saying, but the setting is there for a reason and it's not going to harm anything. I have 4x512 of G.SKILL and they run great at 2-2-2-5 at 2T 200mhz (I have to run divider ).

[-CsA-TAZ]

Don't forget that with 4 x 512mb sticks you will be running at " T2 ", and thatz not good. In BF2 with maxed settings my sys uses about 1.25GB of sys mem, and in Quake 4 Ultra settings it uses about 1.80GB of sys mem. If your building any Gaming sys than there is no dought, you need 2 x 1024mb stickz. :nod:

 

Is it not, my test show an increase in 3Dmark05 when upgrading to 4 X 512 and only a silght decrease in AM3 score, in the real world where game play matters most, games like fear and bf2 love 2 gig of ram whist other games dont really care! 2T vrs 1T not worth the worry unless benchmarking is all you do with ur PC!