4gb vs 8gb of ram? Who would notice the difference?

[mjnoles1]

I currently have an I5-450m with Hitachi 7k500 hard drive, Nvidia 330m and 4gb of ram. I am debating back and forth on if I should purchase 2 4gb of Samsung rams= 8gb total for $58.95 shipped.

Would I even notice a difference? What kind of computer user would notice a difference between 4 and 8 gb of ram?

My laptop is acting a little sluggish lately, would this bump up its performance?

I am in the insurance business (health, life, disability, long-term care) and I have maybe 7 or so desktop illustration softwares downloaded on my machine, so I can give quotes on the fly. I believe that is what is making my system a little sluggish as I would assume these illustration softwares might be resource hogs even not in use (I am not a big computer guy, but I assume they would be).

Would putting 8gb of ram make things act quicker?

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

Not sure if it would speed anything up (most speed problems typically are the result of the HDD), but why buy 2 sticks? If you already have 4GB of RAM, you could just buy another 4GB stick for ~$20 on Newegg. So long as the type and speed match (DDR3 1333MHz, most likely), it'll work. I have a Samsung stick and two Mushkin sticks installed atm and never had any problem.

[ramgen]

...What kind of computer user would notice a difference between 4 and 8 gb of ram?

People who use lots of demanding apps at the same time. Such as 5+ instances of VMWare, processing raw images on photoshop with crazy filters etc.
Average user will never need beyond 4 Gigs (-- for now).


--

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

People who use lots of demanding apps at the same time. Such as 5+ instances of VMWare, processing raw images on photoshop with crazy filters etc.
Average user will never need beyond 4 Gigs (-- for now).


--

True. On a typical basis, I usually hover around 3-4GB for daily use (few web browsers, each with multiple tabs, AV, Office, and Minecraft).

[mjnoles1]

Not sure if it would speed anything up (most speed problems typically are the result of the HDD), but why buy 2 sticks? If you already have 4GB of RAM, you could just buy another 4GB stick for ~$20 on Newegg. So long as the type and speed match (DDR3 1333MHz, most likely), it'll work. I have a Samsung stick and two Mushkin sticks installed atm and never had any problem.

I actually have 4gb total in right now. 2gb x 2....Also, mine is a 1066Mhz as its the 2010 I5 processor and not the 2011 I5 Processor. It seems like what you wrote as your last post that your "typical usuage" is not too heavy, )don't know what minecraft is however) and you hover around 3-4gb?

Just not sure if its worth the upgrade or if I will notice any difference at all with what I do...Hmmmm

[GamingACU]

You should definitely upgrade. My last computer had 4gb of RAM and I was constantly hitting 100% load.

[Steven]

4GB is enough for most people including gamers. Usually professional photographers and video editors need more in which case I would recommend 8GB of ram.

[dustin_broke]

I upgraded to 8 GB and it made my notebook run faster. I never used the whole 4 GB but for somereason having 8 GB of ram starts my programs and games faster. It didn't make my games have alot more FPS but it did help some FPS.

[Ryan]

Yeah, with browsers taking up huge chunks of RAM nowadays, and with 8GB RAM being so cheap,

I see no reason staying at 4GB.

Even using two browsers with like 4 tabs each + iTunes + some software like MATLAB seems to max out at 3GB+.

[ramgen]

Even using two browsers with like 4 tabs each + iTunes + some software like MATLAB seems to max out at 3GB+.

How many percent of all the laptop users have MATLAB (or similar software) in their computers?

More than 2%???


--