How much RAM (Page 2): I have a saying I've used for years: "You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much RAM." I don't know about the too thin part, though. True story: I...

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

I have a saying I've used for years: "You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much RAM." I don't know about the too thin part, though.

True story: I just bought 8GB of RAM to upgrade an old laptop. $30, including shipping.

RAM is cheap. If you can add it yourself, even more so.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

Longshadow wrote:

As much as you can.

For extensive video editing projects, yes. For still photography, that is not so good advice. It's like suggesting one needs to buy a huge, powerful truck for simple, single-family shopping errands.

Jbravi

Thank you all for your input. Well appreciated.

Just Fred Loc: Darwin's Waiting Room

rook2c4 wrote:

For extensive video editing projects, yes. For still photography, that is not so good advice. It's like suggesting one needs to buy a huge, powerful truck for simple, single-family shopping errands.

Allow me to respectfully disagree. What is "enough" for now may not be enough a year from now. Having worked in the computer field for 35+ years, I remember when RAM was measured in kilobytes. Then Megabytes. Now, it's Gigabytes. And because physics limits how fast you can build a processor, things like bit-depth, RAM and gate sizes/paths are constantly being tweaked for speed improvements.

Buy as much as you can now. You'll thank me down the road.

Haydon

I'd first find out how much your motherboard can support.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

NCMtnMan wrote:

Go with 32GB. If like most notebooks it will have two memory slots. They will populate them with 8GB pieces for 16 and you will have to remove them both in order to move up to 32 and they will be wasted unless you can use them elsewhere.

👍👍 Exactly what I was going to say.

Fredrick Loc: Former NYC, now San Francisco Bay Area

Just Fred wrote:

Allow me to respectfully disagree. What is "enough" for now may not be enough a year from now. Having worked in the computer field for 35+ years, I remember when RAM was measured in kilobytes. Then Megabytes. Now, it's Gigabytes. And because physics limits how fast you can build a processor, things like bit-depth, RAM and gate sizes/paths are constantly being tweaked for speed improvements.

Buy as much as you can now. You'll thank me down the road.

In January of 1992 I was in the market for my first Window desktop system. I was about to buy a 486/33, and a close friend of mine (who is very technical and now a senior partner at Microsoft) said to me “buy a 486/66 with 4MB of memory ... and it’s all the computer power you’ll ever need.” BTW, that desktop cost me $4,500!

Memory is (relatively) cheap. It’ll make a big difference to your current and future computer performance.

Valsmere Loc: New Jersey

Not sure which laptop you are looking to purchase however one thing to keep in mind is that there are some out there that the memmory can not be expanded at a later date. If that is in fact the case i would strongly suggest the 32 gig right off the bat. Memmory prices do flucuate with market trends. Just somethkng to be aware of.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Get as much as you can...it’s cheap. Back in the late’80s I was buying engineering workstations for a GM division and negotiated a DEAL on RAM at $800 per megabyte. How times have changed...

Jbravi wrote:

planning to get a Windows laptop for use with PS/LR.. either 16gb or 32gb?

At present I am using macbook pro with 16gb RAM.

NormanTheGr8 Loc: Racine, Wisconsin

I would go with 32 if I could but if you do go 16 make sure you can upgrade the RAM some of the makers are soldering the ram onto the board making it not upgradable, at least that's what I was told about my HP Envy

BruceS

Big motors and lotsa chrome!

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Even though my son has a 903 those 500 cu in motors burning nitromethane make the big power...😳😎

BruceS wrote:

Big motors and lotsa chrome!

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

jwreed50 wrote:

I figured I needed at least 16 gigs of RAM, so I doubled it and got 32. Glad I did, especially since I now have the D850 and am getting back into scanning medium format.

Yes, good advice from jwreed50. Cost of DDR4 is low so building my new AMD-Ryzen-3600 MIS computer I loaded it with 36 gigs of 3200-speed RAM. Note that you go into the BIOS to make sure you are running full speed on RAM -- lots of how2 on UTube

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

dpullum wrote:

Yes, good advice from jwreed50. Cost of DDR4 is low so building my new AMD-Ryzen-3600 MIS computer I loaded it with 36 gigs of 3200-speed RAM. Note that you go into the BIOS to make sure you are running full speed on RAM -- lots of how2 on UTube

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

There's an old adage in computing. One can't have too much RAM, too big a hard drive, or too much speed. Go with the 32.
--Bob

Jbravi wrote:

planning to get a Windows laptop for use with PS/LR.. either 16gb or 32gb?

At present I am using macbook pro with 16gb RAM.