certainly is. Saw the SP2 popping up everywhere in my uni, and saw a few SP3's already on monday! ( it was last thursday in AUS)
i5 4GB ram or i5 8GB ram
- Thread starter Matuldo
- Start date
certainly is. Saw the SP2 popping up everywhere in my uni, and saw a few SP3's already on monday! ( it was last thursday in AUS)
kristalsoldier
Well-Known Member
I have an old i5/ 4GB/1TB desktop machine. It seemed obtuse to pick a device that I can carry with two fingers that would be more powerful than it. So, I picked the 15/ 4GB/ 128GB version. The space constraint is not a big deal for me as I have a 64GB MicroSD, which I will upgrade to a 128GB one. That plus my extensive use of OneDrive and the offline capability works just fine for me.
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raqball
Active Member
I wish Microsoft had a custom build option. If they did I probably would have went i3, 128, 8gb ram.. An odd configuration to some but I don't really need the i5, I don't need the extra HD space as I use the cloud and an SD card. I don't need 8gb of ram but I look at ram overkill as a future proofing kind of thing.
Unfortunately allowing Bespoke Configurations would greatly increase the costs because they wouldn't be able to scale the parts...
bulls96
Member
I have had both and I'm using the 8GB ram now.
Worth the price if you can get the 10% discount. And the bigger disk space definitely helps.
However, I find that battery life is less. Don't know if other users have reported this too. Maybe its because its just a few days old and I have not had enough charge discharge cycles yet on my new one.
Worth the price if you can get the 10% discount. And the bigger disk space definitely helps.
However, I find that battery life is less. Don't know if other users have reported this too. Maybe its because its just a few days old and I have not had enough charge discharge cycles yet on my new one.
In the end, I never regretted getting the model which I thought was overkill at the time. A little bit of Future Proof Safety Factor is desirable IMO. JMTC
My first desktop computer had 256Kb of RAM and a whopping 10Mb hard drive for $2K. Funny to think I could store 1 photograph by today's standards that would probably make the computer crash before it ever loaded! 
That said, I have the 4Gb RAM model, and find that more than adequate. I often have multiple-multiple apps open, and do not notice any slowdown. I pretty much only use this for traveling, but I do use this for photoshop then.
If there was 8Gb RAM, 128 GB SSD, I would have gone that route, however.
That said, I have the 4Gb RAM model, and find that more than adequate. I often have multiple-multiple apps open, and do not notice any slowdown. I pretty much only use this for traveling, but I do use this for photoshop then.
If there was 8Gb RAM, 128 GB SSD, I would have gone that route, however.
mitchellvii
Well-Known Member
Just as a test, I opened every single program I use during the day all at once to see how much it taxed my 4 GB ram.
MS Access
MS Word
MS Outlook
Photoshop 2014 (with a large image loaded)
Flash Professional 2014 (testing a flash animation)
OneNote
Sharepoint Designer
MUI Email
Chrome running a YouTube video.
Altogether I maxxed out at 95% ram usage. Mind you in real practice I would never have all of these open at the same time. Even at 95% everything continued to run smoothly. Ran some big complex queries in my database and nary a hiccup. Most times I would be running at 60% or less of ram usage.
So, there it is. Running tons of stuff at once stressed the 4 GB ram out yet everything still ran smoothly.
MS Access
MS Word
MS Outlook
Photoshop 2014 (with a large image loaded)
Flash Professional 2014 (testing a flash animation)
OneNote
Sharepoint Designer
MUI Email
Chrome running a YouTube video.
Altogether I maxxed out at 95% ram usage. Mind you in real practice I would never have all of these open at the same time. Even at 95% everything continued to run smoothly. Ran some big complex queries in my database and nary a hiccup. Most times I would be running at 60% or less of ram usage.
So, there it is. Running tons of stuff at once stressed the 4 GB ram out yet everything still ran smoothly.
mitchellvii
Well-Known Member
Here's an interesting blurb on 4 gb vs 8 gb of ram:
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/375815,how-to-how-much-ram-do--you-really-need.aspx
Conclusion
Even during our Real World Multi-apps test – which opens several major applications at once – our test system’s total RAM usage never topped 4GB. This means Windows didn’t need to fall back on virtual memory at any point. As such, installing more RAM would yield only a modest speed boost.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid paying for more than 4GB. If your work is unusually demanding – such as processing 4K video files, or working with very large databases – you may well need more memory than this. Also, there’s a distinct possibility that, as memory prices continue to fall, everyday applications will evolve to take advantage of ever-higher quantities of RAM. What’s more, many ultra-slim laptops aren’t user-upgradeable, so if you’re buying a new system today, you might reasonably opt for an 8GB model, just to be assured of a degree of future-proofing.
For current tasks, however, adding memory beyond 4GB seems to yield sharply diminishing returns: we’ve yet to see any application – outside of extremely specialist data-processing tasks – that genuinely benefits from 16GB. It seems the days when you could never have enough RAM are, thankfully, behind us.
Memory and performance
We’ve mentioned that the high transfer speeds of a modern SSD make virtual memory less painful than it once was. But what does this mean in practice? To find out, we ran our Real World Benchmarks on our test system, equipped with 2GB, 4GB and 8GB of RAM. Our findings are shown in the graph below.
Clearly, even with an SSD, adding more memory speeds things up. We saw the most pronounced effect in our Windows test, which involves repeatedly opening and switching between applications. With only 2GB onboard, Windows had to make regular use of virtual memory; going up to 4GB let it keep everything in memory, bringing a performance increase of 11%; and adding a further 4GB provided extra headroom for SuperFetch, which delivered an additional 5% boost.
In the Multi-apps test, things were less clear-cut. Moving up from 2GB to 4GB gave us a similar speed improvement of 10%, but adding RAM beyond this point didn’t help, presumably because the system wasn’t idle for long enough to allow SuperFetch to do its thing.
In our Media exercises, which rely on number-crunching rather than file access, adding memory had almost no effect on performance.
Overall, the difference between a 4GB system and an 8GB one was only 3%. You might consider that significant enough to justify an upgrade, but it’s nowhere near as transformative as you might expect.
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/Feature/375815,how-to-how-much-ram-do--you-really-need.aspx
Conclusion
Even during our Real World Multi-apps test – which opens several major applications at once – our test system’s total RAM usage never topped 4GB. This means Windows didn’t need to fall back on virtual memory at any point. As such, installing more RAM would yield only a modest speed boost.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid paying for more than 4GB. If your work is unusually demanding – such as processing 4K video files, or working with very large databases – you may well need more memory than this. Also, there’s a distinct possibility that, as memory prices continue to fall, everyday applications will evolve to take advantage of ever-higher quantities of RAM. What’s more, many ultra-slim laptops aren’t user-upgradeable, so if you’re buying a new system today, you might reasonably opt for an 8GB model, just to be assured of a degree of future-proofing.
For current tasks, however, adding memory beyond 4GB seems to yield sharply diminishing returns: we’ve yet to see any application – outside of extremely specialist data-processing tasks – that genuinely benefits from 16GB. It seems the days when you could never have enough RAM are, thankfully, behind us.
Memory and performance
We’ve mentioned that the high transfer speeds of a modern SSD make virtual memory less painful than it once was. But what does this mean in practice? To find out, we ran our Real World Benchmarks on our test system, equipped with 2GB, 4GB and 8GB of RAM. Our findings are shown in the graph below.
Clearly, even with an SSD, adding more memory speeds things up. We saw the most pronounced effect in our Windows test, which involves repeatedly opening and switching between applications. With only 2GB onboard, Windows had to make regular use of virtual memory; going up to 4GB let it keep everything in memory, bringing a performance increase of 11%; and adding a further 4GB provided extra headroom for SuperFetch, which delivered an additional 5% boost.
In the Multi-apps test, things were less clear-cut. Moving up from 2GB to 4GB gave us a similar speed improvement of 10%, but adding RAM beyond this point didn’t help, presumably because the system wasn’t idle for long enough to allow SuperFetch to do its thing.
In our Media exercises, which rely on number-crunching rather than file access, adding memory had almost no effect on performance.
Overall, the difference between a 4GB system and an 8GB one was only 3%. You might consider that significant enough to justify an upgrade, but it’s nowhere near as transformative as you might expect.
InspectHerGadget
Active Member
You know the problem with this test, is that all that matters at the end of the day is whether YOU need 4G RAM or more. The best thing if you have 8G or more is just to monitor your memory usage.
I have found for instance that using LR and PS at the same time will use over 4G of RAM. Using virtual machines will also use more than 4G.
I ended up getting the i7 just to be sure but the cost is high and it comes down to finances as it really is just a question of whether the extra expense is likely to be worth it or not.
I have found for instance that using LR and PS at the same time will use over 4G of RAM. Using virtual machines will also use more than 4G.
I ended up getting the i7 just to be sure but the cost is high and it comes down to finances as it really is just a question of whether the extra expense is likely to be worth it or not.
from what I know bigger capacities don't. However running MORE sticks of Ram does cost battery life.
Also, yes, it's easy to max 4GB of ram. I say this loosely cause it really really depends what you do. For example, my photoshop files get really messy and end up having 30 - 40 layers of vector graphics and HQ scans, this, added with a couple of memory hungry chrome tabs, I can max out 4 gb easy.
That said, I don't usually use chrome and photoshop at the same time, and my photoshop files are rarely that messy. So, It is possible, but it occurs very rarely. ( I've only had the low ram warning 3 times in 4 years using my old laptop, not a big deal just close and open up again)
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