It may do. When I get a chance I check some of my other laptops to see if they show the full amount of RAM is available or not.
All three of my machines are laptops and all came as is, except for increasing the RAM and replacing the HDDs with SSDs.
My WIN 10 64X rig has 16 GB RAM. I have rarely seen it use as much as 50% RAM even with multiple apps open, browsing with several windows/tabs open, gaming (often while running iTunes), or photo editing working with several layers. ~ Removed Off Topic Remarks ~
Laptop had 4G. I couldn't get another 4, Crucial only had 8G, so I have 12. Usually 20-40% in use. Right now just this site is running, but excel or word similar. How Commit of 14G is possible I don't know.
Is using modules with different capacities, voltages, clocks etc. a good idea? The machine will default to the module with the lower specifications anyway. I'd settle for just the 8 gb and keep an eye out for its "soul mate" or order it online. It's a mixed blessing that RAM frequently comes in kits, you can end up with extras you have no immediate use for and money better spent for other things..
A 32 bit OS does support 4 gigs of ram, but some of that ram/address space is used by the hardware and so can't be made available to applications. The usable memory may be less than the installed memory https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/978610
2012? Ummm, not so. Of course the motherboard needs to be working but adding a card is no big deal. Even PCIe 1.0 supported 75 watt cards. If a newer card needs more power, it will have an extra power connection so it will be up to the power supply, not the motherboard or BIOS. And to that, PCIe 3.0 came out in 2010 so again, don't see what 2012 has to do with anything. Note I said a "nice" graphics card not a top of the line 300W card. And even if your motherboard is 10 years old, AGP and even PCI cards are available that will have their own integrated graphics RAM, thus freeing up stolen system RAM. Plus they will most likely have a superior GPU too. So graphics performance goes up, and you get a little RAM boost in the process - all WITHOUT messing with the BIOS.
lol! I was making an oblique, specific reference to another hardware topic, probably a silly idea. I learned some things from you though, many thanks! Also, what do you recommend in terms of mixed RAM usage? Not a good idea, right?
1 GB is plenty with my setup. When I upgraded to 2 GB I noticed no difference whatsoever. Still I have 4 (3.25).
When I used Windows XP I found one gig sufficient too, which makes the point that how much ram is needed depends a lot on which operating system is being used. For instance when Windows Vista was first released many machines only had gig installed and performance was horrible. All versions of Windows after XP really need at least two gigs and are better with four. By the way the OP never stated which OS he's using...
I would go no less than 3-4GB on a laptop, preferably 8GB or more. Anything less becomes a pain to use for multi-tasking with current requirements by the latest OS and programs. Even mid-range smartphones nowadays come with 3GB RAM so I expect a laptop to have that as the bare minimum.
How much RAM does your Windows 10 PC need? (2019 edition) Is there a case for having more than 16GB or more of RAM in a Windows 10 PC? Sure there is, but the bang for the buck trails off July 5, 2019 https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-much-ram-does-your-windows-10-pc-need-2019-edition/
8 GB is fine for most things. 16 might be a little better if you do any high end gaming. 16 is the minimum (for me) if you are going to be running virtual machines. Home use obviously. Database servers and such will use all they can get but I think that goes beyond the scope of this topic.
I think 8GB is still the sweetspot. That is, less and performance suffers. More than 8GB and performance gains tend to be marginal, at best. There are exceptions, of course. But I agree, 8GB is fine for most things and most users. It really depends on what you use your computer for, and what you want. Because "I want more" works for me - if the price is right.
If I don't restart my pc for like a week I have 30GB of ram cached (64gb on my main machine). Although 8gb are enough for most stuff, 16gb is nice cuz you can cache more stuff. And obviously some games eat a lot of ram and then there's VMs and other such stuff that eat lots of ram as well So yeah, if on a budget 8gb is enough, but with 16 you can do more stuff and cache more stuff. 32 and above is only if you have the money basically, or you need it. Ram is actually pretty cheap right now, 16 gb ddr4 3000mhz cl15 is 70 euro now
