12g ram a waste?

[gregro]

With ram being so inexpensive I thought why not plunk down another hundred bucks and get 12g of ram instead of 6 as I had planned. Is that a waste of a hundred bucks? Will there be a significant increase in performance working with large Photoshop and video files? Or games for that matter?
Main uses for the computer will be Photoshop (large, 300+mb files) with other graphics programs open at the same time, possible video editing and file converting, some basic Office stuff, games and everyday internet, email, etc. I will probably being using a desktop resolution of 1920x1080. Hope to build this next week:

-Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
-EVGA 132-BL-E758-A1 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
-Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
-ASUS ENGTX285 TOP/HTDI/1GD3 GeForce GTX 285 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported GPU
-Antec CP-850 850W Continuous Power CPX SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply
-(2)Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drives
and
-OCZ Platinum 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory

Appreciate your advice as always.

 

[anndreww]

I'm going to recommend the CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 over your Antec one you have atm. There isn't much difference from a GTX 285 and 275, so you might want to switch over to save some cash. Back to the topic, 12 gb isn't really needed. Most you'll ever need is 6 gb and even that is overkill.

 

[gregro]

Thanks for the quick reply. I forgot to mention that I plan on using Vista 64 bit Home Premium until Windows 7 sp1 comes out. Unless 7 is stable (and all the drivers I need) are available right off the bat.

edit: Hmm- $140 savings on that 275 video card. Have to think real hard about that.

 

[aevm]

Games won't benefit much, if all all, from 12 GB of RAM as opposed to 6. However, since you've got those huge Photoshop files and you open lots of programs in parallel, I think it's a smart investment of $100. I'd get the 12 GB.

 

[gregro]

Thanks very much aevm.

 

[aevm]

The GTX 275 is a very good card for the money. It can handle even 1920x1200 with playable framerates (30 fps or better).

You can see some numbers here:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3539&p=4
or here:
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/foru...0-nvidia-geforce-gtx-275-896mb-review-13.html

It's pretty close to the GTX 285 indeed.

Besides, with that case/PSU/MB you can always add a second card later if you're not satisfied.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

I'm with aevm. I think for your intended use you might as well go with the 12GB. This site has so many gamers that they sometimes forget that computers can be used for other stuff too. Yes, 6GB may be overkill for a gaming PC, but if I was building a computer today for Photoshop I'd get 12GB.

Actually, I guess it all depends on what OS and version of Photoshop you're using. You'll need a 64-bit OS and Photoshop CS4 to take advantage of all the RAM. CS3 has the 32-bit RAM application limit IIRC.

http://www.rangefindermag.com/storage/articles/RF0409_1stExpo_PhotoshopCS4_Sholik.pdf

"If you’re running 64-bit Windows Vista with lots of RAM, CS4 will be able to address as much RAM above the 3GB 32-bit limit as you allocate to it. This potentially speeds up the program as it avoids hard disk swaps. CS4 ships with support for both 32- and 64-bit Windows Vista and senses the correct version to install. I installed the 64-bit version in Vista Ultimate 64 running under Parallels on a Mac. With large files and multiple layers it avoids the hard disk swapping I find with the 32-bit version I have running on a high-end XP system with 4GB of RAM."

 

[gregro]

Going with Vista 64 bit Home Premium- and I've already got CS4 so the ducks are lining up!
Thanks again for the help everyone.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Going with Vista 64 bit Home Premium- and I've already got CS4 so the ducks are lining up!
Thanks again for the help everyone.

With 64-bit Vista and CS4, I would say $100 is money well spent for your intended use.

 

[mikep170]

Sorry to break the thread.. I have a similar setup and when I went to 12 Gb RAM,
the boot is very, very slow- take off the additional 6Gb RAM, back in business..

 

[boudy]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html

There are your answers.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

Sorry to break the thread.. I have a similar setup and when I went to 12 Gb RAM,
the boot is very, very slow- take off the additional 6Gb RAM, back in business..

You probably had a bad stick of RAM.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html

There are your answers.

I don't see 64-bit Photoshop mentioned anywhere in that article. What does that have to do with the OP's question?

 

[gregro]

I was thinking the same thing. Interesting to know but too bad they left out such a widely used and pertinent program in their tests

 

[MRFS]

http://www.superspeed.com/desktop/ramdisk.php


MRFS

 

[DXRick]

Well, with 2G RAM and CS2 I have edited 100MB photos and found that I can make two changes before PS starts using its swapfiles. So, to edit a 300MB file and create layers, channels, and allow at least 10 undo levels, I could see CS4 64-bit using more than 6GB. I think 12G would be a good idea for your needs.

 

[Shadow703793]

Games won't benefit much, if all all, from 12 GB of RAM as opposed to 6. However, since you've got those huge Photoshop files and you open lots of programs in parallel, I think it's a smart investment of $100. I'd get the 12 GB.

Exactly! Well said. Also this way OP can reduce( or even disable pagefile) so those image files won't be swapped as often (or not at all) with 12GB.

 

[gregro]

I appreciate all the answers. Sadly, it looks like I'm stuck at 6. I chose an Intel motherboard to go with an Intel chip (i7 920 Nehalem) and it has only 4 ram slots. I saw in the specs that it could take a max of 12g of ram and I thought that meant that it could take 12g of ram. Guess I was wrong because I haven't seen many 3g ram modules for sale. You live you learn....