RAM

[ohhellyes]

Will I notice an appreciable difference between 32 GB and 64 GB OF RAM? I use the computer mainly for photoshop and lightroom. I'm buying a new desktop.

[DanieRains]

1. No

Unless you load massive amounts of files.

[ohhellyes]

3. Thanks.... I thought maybe

64 was overkill. It's not cheap.

[PoliticAverse]

5. THe corona-virus crisis caused memory prices to spike but things are slowly returning to normal.

Assuming you have 2 open slots on your motherboard for memory, an additional 32GB (2 16GB sticks) of DDR4 should cost you < $120.

Note that for < $120 you can get a 1TB SSD which, if you currently have a spinning hard drive and not an SSD in your computer, would most likely be the most cost-effective way to speed up your normal computer activity.

[poli-junkie]

2. RAM or hard drive? 32 GB RAM is a

buttload. You wouldn’t notice if you had 64.

[PoliticAverse]

4. The only reason you would need more than 32GB is if you are editing very large images.

or are someone that likes to keep 40 browser tabs open at the same time.

To check how much memory you are using (assuming you are running windows) bring up Task Manager (control-alt-delete) and check your memory usage under the [Performance] tab when you are doing worst-case editng or internet browsing.

[lapfog_1]

7. I typically have 150 tabs open in like 10 windows

bookmarks are a pain in the ass...

but I have 16GB on my laptop plus 64GB of 3D crosspoint configured as paging memory... if I can, I will go to 32GB of memory. All of my work computers have 128GB to 1TB of memory, but those are all servers.

[mr_lebowski]

6. In addition to the great advice above (esp. checking task manager for mem usage)

Memory is the kind of thing where you either have 'enough for the tasks at hand', in which case everything runs 100% normally.

Or you do NOT have enough for the tasks at hand ... in which case performance will tank significantly (though less so if you have an SSD because that's where the 'overflow' from the physical RAM would go, known as your swap file, among other names).

There's absolutely zero gain to having more RAM ... than what you actually need for whatever you're doing.

And Windows is pretty good about unloading programs from physical RAM that you're not currently using (but that started up since your last system restart) if you start to get low.

Biggest single improvement you can make as stated above is going from a spinning HD to an SSD, i.e. that's the biggest gain for the most common tasks.

However depending on what you're doing, a faster CPU and/or video card can also make big differences. Relatively heavy duty programs like Photoshop and Lightroom could potentially benefit from such upgrades.

[ohhellyes]

8. Thanks to all for the info. n/t

[jrandom421]

9. Since I run

A virtual network on Hyper-V, 64 Gb is just enough to make things run well. Not for every one.