Is 4 GB of RAM good to have?

My friend told me it's a huge waste of money, that it doesn't make any difference in games, etc. Also said you have to have 64-bit Vista. Is it good for the long run, or is 2 GB just fine? He also mentioned something about not being able to overclock it. Is 4 GB of RAM good to have?
I couldn't hurt, but your friend is right... unless you're editing video, you don't need 4 gigs. By the time you'd need that much, the prices will be much lower and/or it'll be time to upgrade to newer ram.Is 4 GB of RAM good to have?
Plus if you're using a 32-bit OS you can only really use about 3 gigs.
It might be usefull if you plan to do mapping for Crysis... or some other kind of level design. Other than that, no... I don't think its going to be used.
This is just me but I think 4 gigs of RAM will really help Crysis, I mean look at how good the game looks I just cant see 2 gigs running it max. I think crytek is just scared right now to say ''2 gigs will not max out crysis'' because every one will just hear ''crysis needs 4 gigs to run, ow noe!!!''. Its just my opinion but I feel 4 gigs of ram will add a significant performance boost to Crysis.
I guarantee 2 gigs will run games as well as 4 including Crysis. Also as X360PS3AMD05 said, 32-bit Windows will only be able to use about 3 gigs. Extra RAM will help if you have lots of stuff running in the background or do video editing, etc.
Why get 64 bit OS only to break the 4 gb wall? if you get a 64 bit you should get more than 4gb. And also 2gb is more than enough for today games.
I just bought 4 gigs of OCZ DDR2 800. xp32 only shows 3gb, but under system monitor is shows 4gb. Haven't noticed my gamees run any differently than when I only had 1gb of Corsair XMS. But I didn't really buy the ram for gaming, I bought it for xp x64bit so I can work on 2-4gb texture files for my job...which in that case, 4gb is just barely enough. So if you're getting 4gb for gaming, I don't think it's going to help you more than 1-2gb will. But if you're doing texturing or video with Adobe software, then by all means, Yes, get it!
Going from 1gig to 2gigs in my vista computer made a huge difference to me, especially playing games like stalker and supreme commander. I would go for 3 personally. 2x1 and 2x512.
[QUOTE=''TrailorParkBoy'']This is just me but I think 4 gigs of RAM will really help Crysis, I mean look at how good the game looks I just cant see 2 gigs running it max. I think crytek is just scared right now to say ''2 gigs will not max out crysis'' because every one will just hear ''crysis needs 4 gigs to run, ow noe!!!''. Its just my opinion but I feel 4 gigs of ram will add a significant performance boost to Crysis.[/QUOTE]You have to always keep in mind that speed is limited by bottlenecks.With a 32-bit processor, it processes strings of 32 bits (10011001010100101010110010100101010100111010100...like that). Those bits are coming from the memory through the FSB or HT depending on what kind of processor you have.With the ability to process only 32 bits at once, you run into a problem where you can't possibly ''empty'' the RAM at a speed to justify the use of more. Instead of adding speed, you simply add the ability to store more instructions where they're ready to be processed.With a 64-bit processor the bandwidth limit increases. It can, in concept, ''empty the RAM twice as fast'' which would remove that bottleneck. Then you've got the bottleneck of the FSB/HT frequency...In other words...RAM has a very defined limit of performance enhancement. Think of RAM not as a method for increasing performance, but rather a component that will limit your performance if you don't have enough.
[QUOTE=''D9-THC''][QUOTE=''TrailorParkBoy'']This is just me but I think 4 gigs of RAM will really help Crysis, I mean look at how good the game looks I just cant see 2 gigs running it max. I think crytek is just scared right now to say ''2 gigs will not max out crysis'' because every one will just hear ''crysis needs 4 gigs to run, ow noe!!!''. Its just my opinion but I feel 4 gigs of ram will add a significant performance boost to Crysis.[/QUOTE]You have to always keep in mind that speed is limited by bottlenecks.With a 32-bit processor, it processes strings of 32 bits (10011001010100101010110010100101010100111010100...like that). Those bits are coming from the memory through the FSB or HT depending on what kind of processor you have.With the ability to process only 32 bits at once, you run into a problem where you can't possibly ''empty'' the RAM at a speed to justify the use of more. Instead of adding speed, you simply add the ability to store more instructions where they're ready to be processed.With a 64-bit processor the bandwidth limit increases. It can, in concept, ''empty the RAM twice as fast'' which would remove that bottleneck. Then you've got the bottleneck of the FSB/HT frequency...In other words...RAM has a very defined limit of performance enhancement. Think of RAM not as a method for increasing performance, but rather a component that will limit your performance if you don't have enough. [/QUOTE]



you obviously know more about this then me, I am just saying that maybe people with 2 gigs will have a bottle neck.
Wow! OK, let's explain something...When we talk about 32-bit or 64-bit Windows, we are talking about the ability to address a range of memory. The physical motherboard, processor and RAM combination will control the bandwidth (speed)of the memory when transferring data. Those are completely different things. Adding more memory will not improve the speed at which it transfers (unless you go from one stick - single channel - to two sticks - dual channel -). Adding more memory allows you to process more data without the need to swap to the hard disk (virtual memory) which is much slower. This usually affects load times and controls how many processes you can run concurrently. Games do not demand more than 2GB of RAM to run... and will not likely need more than that in the near future.