8 GB vs 16 GB
I just purchased 8 GB of RAM because it's one of the best deals I have ever seen.
I got these for $33.99 yesterday.
I already have 8 GB of the same memory when I first built my rig a year ago. They cost me $99.99 a year ago.
The price of RAM fluctuates in cycles. When a new model comes out (the memory for the Sandy Bridge mobos), the older ones become cheaper, until the supply dwindles because of production cessation, and they become extremely expensive once they become scarce. I've seen this cycle since the 1980's.
I grabbed these yesterday because I am afraid that if I don't buy them now, they will cost me more than $100 in a few years.
But now I am wondering whether I will ever benefit from having 16 GB of memory.
A few years ago, 8 GB seemed excessive and unnecessary, but that's pretty standard today. Perhaps in a few years, applications and games would take advantage of all 16 GB of memory or even more.
What do you think?
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I think me and my 2 gigs of RAM are jealous.
Moore's Law suggests that more people will be able to afford 16 GB of RAM in the near future, which means that more developers will begin to utilize higher amounts of memory.
And that cycle you've noticed about RAM prices is interesting. I'll be sure to keep that in mind for my next computer.
8Gb seams to be the sweet spot. And works best if it's 2x4gb in the dual channel slots.
For gaming 8 gigs is easily to be enough for the next few years at least. Almost all games still use less than 4gb for legacy reasons. But now that ram is that cheap, hey! why not use 16gb you monster !? 
wait a couple of years. seriously, the too-much of today soon becomes the not-enough of tommorow. you can never have a pc that is so good that it will never need updating again. more RAM is always a good thing.
I think in terms of boolean variables. Generally, it makes things easier.
I just installed the 8 GB of additional memory.
With 16 GB of RAM, Portal 2 plays the same (as expected), but Hammer loads faster, and the VMF loads faster too.
Maybe it's just in my head, because I don't have an objective comparison before and after the upgrade. But I am happy with 16 GB.
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Herman
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Unified
16GB....what you running 
I've got 6GB in at the mo, just increased (from 4GB) 3 months ago when I started using hammer, as I was starting to get page faults and things were slowing down a bit.
My system normally is using around 5GB.
Hammer uses just over 1.2GB with a couple of big maps open, Portal uses about 1GB, 6 tabs on chrome about 200KB, Steam, skype, bioinc, outlook and a couple of Putty sessions etc about another 1GB, then some other stuff for system use.
I just couldn't see myself using 16GB at the mo....
Rob.
I only got 16 GB because it only cost me $33 to upgrade.
If I wait until later, it will cost me more than $100.
This is from my experience after building and upgrading many computers.
Vengeance
Olympic
[SP] Interception
Interception PeTI
Herman
Uprise
Unified
i think you could sell some RAM at a higher price and make profit :3
i luv ebay
I like bionicle, and am on bzpower.com
"Optimists, I'm told, see a glass with 50% water, and %50 air and say it is half full. Pessimists, on the other hand, see it as half empty. Engineers realize the glass is 2 times larger than it needs to be"
8 Gb is plenty, 16 is even better. Of my 6 total in the desktop I hardly use 5. And with this I easily manage without the paging file. 16 Gb can boost certain applications like chessbase, if you set the hash table to its maximum. Also, large amount of RAM should give you some additional comfort in multitasking.
If my motherboard could handle more than 8Gb, I would upgrade too. Later I plan to change my CPU and motherboard and probably the video card as well. Will buy new ram then.
@Satchmo, I'm curious are all your RAM sticks the same on frequency and timings? Did you have to adjust them to a "common denominator" in the bios, or did you leave the settings on "auto" ?
I personally prefer sticks from identical kits.