Will I see any meaningfull difference between 16 gigs and 12 gigs of ram ?

[sarahtasher]

I decided more or less to upgrade to a Nvidia 1060. And while being at it, I'm toying with upgrading my ram from 12 to 16. (The current setup is something like a 2 x 4 gigs and 2 x 2 gigs, which I was told is inneficient). But the most intensive game I will likely play will be ''Andromeda''-I'm find typical big graphical games a tad boring. 4 or even 8 gigs of ram is a trivial expense, but will I see any difference ?

[Alcsaar]

I decided more or less to upgrade to a Nvidia 1060. And while being at it, I'm toying with upgrading my ram from 12 to 16. (The current setup is something like a 2 x 4 gigs and 2 x 2 gigs, which I was told is inneficient). But the most intensive game I will likely play will be ''Andromeda''-I'm find typical big graphical games a tad boring. 4 or even 8 gigs of ram is a trivial expense, but will I see any difference ?

While it isn't terribly efficient to run an awkward amount like 12 gigs, it should still be fine for now. I'm not sure what your motherboard currently supports - if it supports DDR4 - I'd probably just upgrade to 16 gigs and be done with it for a while. If it doesn't support DDR4, I wouldn't bother, just wait until you rebuild.

Of course, if you do decide to upgrade your ram, its better to get matching memory sticks, so if you couldn't buy the 2x4 sticks again (discountineud or something) its something to consider.

[sarahtasher]

Okay, so simple question, how do you I check if my motherboard can support DDR4, and/or what is the model of my ram ?

[Alcsaar]

You would need to check your motherboards manual or look up the model number online. Same deal for your ram, the DDR level of it is included in the description of it, along with the model

If you post the model number for the motherboard I can easily look it up.

[Shadow Fox]

Okay, so simple question, how do you I check if my motherboard can support DDR4, and/or what is the model of my ram ?

Motherboard manual; If you have a MSI or ASUS motherboard, you can go to their site and locate the right modeled board and it will tell you in a PDF or Support page what RAM Modules, frequencies, and even which RAM sticks models on the market that are supported.

[sarahtasher]

All right, very good advice, so my tower (unchanged since purchase) is this model.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c04337646

So it does not say precisely what configuration of RAM there is, but its presumably DD3. As I see two sticks, I presume it's one 4 and one 8. Really stupid question, but if I don't pick a knockoff one, any DD3 stick will work ?

[Alcsaar]

Supports DDR3 DIMMs
PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333)
PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600)

So basically I wouldn't bother messing with ram since its DDR3 anyway, its going to be dated fairly soon.

No idea what configuration they used, but if theres only two sticks in there, 4 and 8 is pretty awkward (and probably accurate)

[sarahtasher]

What do you mean by ''messing'' ? Does that include replacing the 4 gig stick by a 8 one ? As they usually go by pairs, would getting to 24 gigs of ram be a good idea (on three sticks)

[DeltrusDisc]

Supports DDR3 DIMMs
PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333)
PC3-12800 (DDR3-1600)

So basically I wouldn't bother messing with ram since its DDR3 anyway, its going to be dated fairly soon.

No idea what configuration they used, but if theres only two sticks in there, 4 and 8 is pretty awkward (and probably accurate)

I doubt it's a config like that, probably more along the lines of 4+2+4+2.

@OP, the simple answer is no, unless you reach the max of your RAM a lot, and unless you are running Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop/Premiere, as well as games, as well as 50+ tabs in Google Chrome, then you probably aren't.

[Alcsaar]

What do you mean by ''messing'' ? Does that include replacing the 4 gig stick by a 8 one ? As they usually go by pairs, would getting to 24 gigs of ram be a good idea (on three sticks)

By messing with it I mean I probably wouldn't bother upgrading it or changing it in any way, unless you really want to just because. Just me though. I seriously doubt you'd notice any improvement from it.

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I doubt it's a config like that, probably more along the lines of 4+2+4+2.

@OP, the simple answer is no, unless you reach the max of your RAM a lot, and unless you are running Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop/Premiere, as well as games, as well as 50+ tabs in Google Chrome, then you probably aren't.

OP said they only see 2 sticks of memory in the PC. In that case, I believe only a 4 and a 8 stick gets you 12. AFAIK there is no 6 gig memory sticks, and even if there were, the motherboard specs says it only supports 1, 2 , 4 and 8.

To put it into perspective, I can run 2-3 WoWs on my PC and another high-demand game, while having Twitch and other chrome tabs open, and still only use maybe 60% of my 16 gigs of memory.

If you have a tendency to open a lot of chrome tabs, I'd suggest getting The Great Suspender plugin, as it helps reduce chrome memory useage alot (by unloading tabbed pages after a specific set of time, unless you forbid it from suspending certain websites)

[sarahtasher]

I doubt it's a config like that, probably more along the lines of 4+2+4+2.

@OP, the simple answer is no, unless you reach the max of your RAM a lot, and unless you are running Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop/Premiere, as well as games, as well as 50+ tabs in Google Chrome, then you probably aren't.

Well, I get 25% ram use while just running Word...

[Alcsaar]

Ehh, next time you do it, open the task manager and sort your process list by Memory usage and see whats taking up so much memory. I seriously doubt Word is causing that.. Even my WoW only takes about 800-900mb per copy.

[sarahtasher]

Word is a figurof speech for ''doing nothing''

[Alcsaar]

Well I'd suggest looking through your process list to see whats eating up memory, shouldn't be using ~3 gigs idling.

[DeltrusDisc]

OP said they only see 2 sticks of memory in the PC. In that case, I believe only a 4 and a 8 stick gets you 12. AFAIK there is no 6 gig memory sticks, and even if there were, the motherboard specs says it only supports 1, 2 , 4 and 8.

To put it into perspective, I can run 2-3 WoWs on my PC and another high-demand game, while having Twitch and other chrome tabs open, and still only use maybe 60% of my 16 gigs of memory.

If you have a tendency to open a lot of chrome tabs, I'd suggest getting The Great Suspender plugin, as it helps reduce chrome memory useage alot (by unloading tabbed pages after a specific set of time, unless you forbid it from suspending certain websites)

My bad.

Then yeah, more than likely 8+4.

@OP, as another poster said, you should be using likely around 3GB of RAM idling pretty much... and that's 25% of 12GB.

Honestly, you are incredibly unlikely to see any benefit to buying RAM.

If anything, knowing you have an HP prebuilt, here's some much bigger improvements you could make:

a) Install an SSD.
b) Replace the chassis.
c) Replace the power supply unit.
d) Backup and replace the potentially old, and also possibly lower-end hard drives.
e) Install an aftermarket CPU heatsink.

[Alcsaar]

OPs PC came with an SSD (small one however).

I don't agree that it should be using 3gb idling however. I use maybe half that idling on my PC. Because its a prebuilt, its possible its running some bloatware that it doesn't need to have running. Its also running Windows 8.1 unless OP has changed that, which probably takes more memory than my W10 install, so shrug.

[DeltrusDisc]

OPs PC came with an SSD (small one however).

I don't agree that it should be using 3gb idling however. I use maybe half that idling on my PC. Because its a prebuilt, its possible its running some bloatware that it doesn't need to have running. Its also running Windows 8.1 unless OP has changed that, which probably takes more memory than my W10 install, so shrug.

I wonder what kind of SSD... checked that link out.

"128GB SSD"

Hell yeah! No-name! Also, who knows if it's a good ol' SATA III drive or an actually old SATA II drive. I'd hope HP didn't cheap out there... but knowing them...

[sarahtasher]

It's a small system drive. Nothing is installed on there.

[DeltrusDisc]

It's a small system drive. Nothing is installed on there.

You mean only Windows is on the SSD?!!!!

[sarahtasher]

You mean only Windows is on the SSD?!!!!

Yes. Everything else is on the 2 TO drive.