Is 8gb RAM worth it?
 

Hi guys,

My pc is falling apart and I'm looking into buying a new one. I'm sure about it being a quad and I was about to buy one with 4gb ram when I saw another one with 8gb ram for 500$ more. I use premiere cs3 and after effects cs3...will they really benefit from all of this or will it be overkill?

You won't get any benefit.

You have to be using 64-bit Windows AND 64-bit Premiere which doesn't exist(!)

Indeed, you won't really benefit from 4GB since Windows only sees about 3.2GB. Some PC vendors have starting shipping PCs with 3GB instead of 2 or 4GB.

Yeah I have 3GB in my system, at first I had 4GB, but windows only addressed 3.25GB.

I have 8GB in my quad-core Vista 64-bit PC and it works great with the CS3 Suite. After Effects can take up to 4GB by itself (each processor gets it's own 32-bit process and a gig of RAM). PPro never uses much more than a gig or 1.5GB. And that still leaves plenty of RAM for the OS, Photoshop, Encore, etc.

YMMV, but I sure wouldn't want to go back to a 32-bit OS and 3GB.

HTH,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions

That is a valid point. Maybe neither premiere of after effects will use the full 8gb, but even if they only use 4 or 3gb this would mean I could still be working with other applications while I'm exporting a project...which is good...I'm just not so sure if it's "500$ worth it good".

You can put the 4GB of RAM in yourself for a LOT less than $500. More like less than $100, at least here in the States. RAM is shockingly cheap at the moment.

Regards,
Brian

Brian makes an excellent point. For multitasking with memory-greedy applications, the extra RAM is clearly a benefit.

But you must be running 64-bit Windows. In turn, you must be certain that all your hardware has the necessary 64-bit drivers. >3GB on 32-bit Windows is pointless.

If you only run Premiere by itself at any given time, the benefits will not be as great.

Just to chime in on the multi use bit. I use CS3 Premiere, Photoshop and Encore daily and almost always have them all open at the same time as I render and work on Menus for my sports DVDs. Runs like a champ on Vista 64 Ultimate with a Intel Quad Core Q6600 with 4GB of Ram :) The added ram makes switching between the apps easy and all of the programs run as if they were the only thing running :)