help upgrading 4gb ram to 8gb

[xferminx]

how much would i benefit from upgrading my gaming pc to 8gb ram?
also would it be better to upgrade my cpu intstead of ram?

i have an asus p6t motherboard.
intel core i7 920 @ 2.67ghz
amd radeon r9 290
4g ram

 

[digitaldoc]

http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P6T/HelpDesk_CPU/

The link above is to your support CPU's. As they are all pre-Sandy Bridge, I would not recommend a CPU upgrade unless you are prepared to get a new motherboard so you can go Haswell.

While there are good reasons to have lots of RAM, gaming is not one of them above a certain point. From the article below, across multiple games, there was little difference in performance between 4, and 8 GB of RAM on gaming benchmarks.

http://techbuyersguru.com/RAMgaming.php

About the only upgrade you can make would be to swap the hard drive for an SSD if you have not done already. Anything else at this point will mandate an entirely new computer with a new MB, etc. The other option is a new GPU.

Your CPU is not bad though. Here is how it compares to a new Haswell Core i7:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-920-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4770K

 

[Tradesman1]

A lot would depend on what games you play, many use more DRAM and to greater effect than they did a couple of years ago when the article was published, back then 4GB was the standard for gaming, today 8GB is, and 16GB is rapidly coming

 

[digitaldoc]

It can depend on the game, but the article was published in 2013, and updated in 2014 so the data is not too old.

 

[Tradesman1]

I was referring to the games, there are game out today that call for 8GB

 

[xferminx]

http://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/P6T/HelpDesk_CPU/

The link above is to your support CPU's. As they are all pre-Sandy Bridge, I would not recommend a CPU upgrade unless you are prepared to get a new motherboard so you can go Haswell.

While there are good reasons to have lots of RAM, gaming is not one of them above a certain point. From the article below, across multiple games, there was little difference in performance between 4, and 8 GB of RAM on gaming benchmarks.

http://techbuyersguru.com/RAMgaming.php

About the only upgrade you can make would be to swap the hard drive for an SSD if you have not done already. Anything else at this point will mandate an entirely new computer with a new MB, etc. The other option is a new GPU.

Your CPU is not bad though. Here is how it compares to a new Haswell Core i7:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-920-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4770K

thanks alot. im just trying to make this build last as long till i have enough for a whole new one.

 

[xferminx]

I was referring to the games, there are game out today that call for 8GB

i agree, most system req have 8gb ram,

 

[Tradesman1]

Yep, it says something when far and away the majority of pre-built rigs are all a min of 6GB or 8GB (as manufacturers are stingy with DRAM)

 

[digitaldoc]

For a new build, I totally agree that at least 8 GB of RAM is indicated, and to consider 16 GB for a higher end build.

However, the question is how many updates should go into this older system, including a RAM upgrade. To me, the money would be better spent towards an entirely new MB/CPU as well as RAM to update the entire platform, rather than just pushing up the RAM. Only in the scenario of playing games that call for more RAM, and not wanting to upgrade the whole system would I spend money on more RAM.

Try running CleanMem, and seeing what your current memory usage actually is before going that route.

 

[Tradesman1]

DRAM is a relatively low cost upgrade and as OP stated, they want to prolong this rig until such time as can put together a new one. I agree with the premise, have seen many that couldn't really afford to do a new build and end up goin ahead with low end everything and aren't happy at all.