Hello Everyone,

As I am not that knowledgeable when it comes to the technical aspects of computer hardware, I would like to pose this question to those of you who are. I have been noticing that the newer computer systems that are becoming available on the market are now using the DDR3 type of RAM, and some are using DDR3 Tri-channel RAM. It also seems that these systems are also limited to a maximum of 6GB of RAM. Now I understand that when it comes to VUE that the more RAM the better, with many people going for 8 GB in their newer systems. My question is, why are these new systems limiting the maximum RAM at 6 GB? Is the new DDR3 and the DDR3 Tri-channel RAM so much better/faster/efficient that 6 GB are equal to or better than 8 GB of the older DDR2 RAM? As I will be looking at upgrading my computer system in the next few months I would like to know what people think about the DDR3/DDR3 Tri-channel  RAM, is it a significant improvement? Ignoring the differences in cost, is it better to think about getting DDR3/DDR3 Tri-channel RAM versus the older DDR2 RAM because of performance improvements?

Thank you for any replies.

nabob21

Quote - Hello Everyone,

 

As I am not that knowledgeable when it comes to the technical aspects of computer hardware, I would like to pose this question to those of you who are. I have been noticing that the newer computer systems that are becoming available on the market are now using the DDR3 type of RAM, and some are using DDR3 Tri-channel RAM. It also seems that these systems are also limited to a maximum of 6GB of RAM. Now I understand that when it comes to VUE that the more RAM the better, with many people going for 8 GB in their newer systems. My question is, why are these new systems limiting the maximum RAM at 6 GB? Is the new DDR3 and the DDR3 Tri-channel RAM so much better/faster/efficient that 6 GB are equal to or better than 8 GB of the older DDR2 RAM? As I will be looking at upgrading my computer system in the next few months I would like to know what people think about the DDR3/DDR3 Tri-channel  RAM, is it a significant improvement? Ignoring the differences in cost, is it better to think about getting DDR3/DDR3 Tri-channel RAM versus the older DDR2 RAM because of performance improvements?

 

Thank you for any replies.

 

nabob21

Benchmarks have been done in some of the technical mags that say faster Ram doesn,t
do nearly as much as more RAM does.( within reason of course you cant compare 200 with 1000)
They test on a wide range of Apps.
The 6GB limitation is probably because of the motherboards design rather than the memory.
Extremetech and some of those type sites have these studies.
The cheaper motherboards useualy limit memory size.

Also depends on your version of Vue and your operating system.

Vue 6 Pro Studio is a 32 bit application so it is limited to only 2 gig.

Windows XP or Vista 32 bit are limited to 3 gig at max but any single app is limited to 2 gig.

If you are going to get a system with 6 gig, you also need to get Vue Infinite and XP 64 or Vista 64 or a newer Mac since all of those are 64 bit.

All of the three channel motherboards I've seen support 12GB of memory. Six sticks of 2GB each. Intel after all started out as a memory manufacturer :-)

Edit: of course you need a 64 bit operating system...

Here is an article by extremetech on DDR2 vs DDR3 etc

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2328817,00.asp

Quote - All of the three channel motherboards I've seen support 12GB of memory. Six sticks of 2GB each. Intel after all started out as a memory manufacturer :-)

Edit: of course you need a 64 bit operating system...

Quote - All of the three channel motherboards I've seen support 12GB of memory. Six sticks of 2GB each. Intel after all started out as a memory manufacturer :-)

Edit: of course you need a 64 bit operating system...

Unless you buy a system and they install 6 sticks of 1GB each.

Please be aware that currently there is not much of a speed advantage between DDR2 and DDR3.  Since the DDR3 technology is still 'new', it still costs much more than DDR2.

With DDR2, the newer motherboards support up to 16Gb of RAM, and DDR2 is now available in 4Gb sims (sticks)... so 4 x 4Gb = 16Gb of ram in a system.  To utilize that, you need to run either "XP64" or "Vista Home Premium 64" or "Vista Ultimate".  "Vista Home 64" is limited to 8Gb (MS rules).  Not sure about "Vista Bussiness 64" but I'd suspect it's good for up to 16Gb.