4gb And More Ram - Will You Ever Need It?

October 2, 2008 | By admin In Computers |

There is still a degree of confusion in the market place as to what exactly 64 - bit computing is, where it fits in and what it is used for.

64-bit computers have been around for some time now in the mainstream, for example AMD’s Athlon and Intel’s 64 bit ready processors.

Whilst these processors are 64- bit ready unless you have a 64- bit operating system they are more or less redundant as using a standard version of windows XP or Vista (both of which are 32-bit) will not allow you to access the existing power in your Pc or Cad workstation.

This is not necessarily a bad thing however as a vast majority of users for the foreseeable future will never need to use the benefit of this technology which at the end of the day is all about being able to have (and be able to use) masses of Ram in your computer ( 6 – 32GB for example).

Essentially they have a car that has all the fittings for a turbo but only a select few will ever need to fit the turbo (loads more ram).

Your standard operating system used by a majority of the population has not been designed to use in reality much over 3 GB of ram at the very outside and for a majority of users 2 GB will be ample although many will be running with far less than this.

32-bit architectures theoretically address up to 4GB of memory. In reality, even if you have 4GB of RAM onboard and are using standard XP or Vista, you still can’t benefit from it all.

This is because in some instances your motherboard will not have been designed to utilise that much memory (see Computer Workstations) and even if it has, all of your hardware—your graphics card, your I/O cards etc. has to be mapped into that 4GB of memory space reducing the amount available to the applications (software) you use even further.

Most average users (non CAD and home users) will probably only have 1GB and in most cases far less in their machine and will not for the foreseeable future need to address massive amounts of ram, as the programs they use do not and often cannot use more than 1GB or 2GB of memory anyway.

If you have got less than 1Gb though it will be highly advantageous to upgrade your memory as this can give your system a much needed boost, even for a home users.

If you have a local friendly IT support company you can also ask them about memory upgrades as well if you don’t want to do one yourself

So for home users 64 – bit computing is a bit of a non starter!

That said there is an altogether different group of computer users out there who are using software that can cost as much and sometimes more than the average second hand family car.

For these users the advent of 64-bit computing is a dream come true as they can make their software (which is often restricted by the computer they use) perform massively faster and better than ever before.

The Benefit for Power Users and Cad / Digital Content Creation specialists is quite exciting and very real.

This group of users has had to suffer the inadequacies of available and affordable hardware for many years but that has and is coming to an end.

Typically these professional (and traditionally 32-bit) applications can be compiled to “see” up to 4GB of memory, but as previously stated windows 32 - bit operating systems limits windows to use 2GB of memory for applications and 2GB for system use by default.

Some CAD applications can use 3GB of memory by utilising a 3GB switch in windows (required changing system files which is not recommended to be undertaken unless you are very IT literate), this effectively reduces reserved system memory to 1GB allowing the application to squeeze extra performance.

This can cause some instabilities when running multiple applications so should be used with caution.

Many commercial applications such as Digital Content Creation (DCC), Mechanical CAD (MCAD), Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software have swiftly outgrown the 4 GB limitations, as they need to manage extremely large data sets which require access to much more (preferably) physical memory.

The ability to be able to use mega amounts of memory will take all theses applications into the next generation and will enable the next coming of age in the computer aided design industry.

For more great computing advice and articles visit the Computer Support and Repair blog.

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