I have a quadcore with 8 gigs of memory ddr3, on a computer running Vista 64bit.  Can I add more memory to this, and will Vue be able to use it?  I know I can put more memory in the computer, but it seems to me I've read that Vue can use only so much?

Vue can use every RAM that the hardware and the operating system can provide. So, you can add more memory and Vue will see it and use it, if your scenes require it. However, it can happen that Vue will become sluggish (insufficient CPU power) if your scenes have that many objects, even though you still have RAM available.

 Check your motherboard's spec sheet. The 64 bit versions of Vue can address quite a few gigabytes.....but  unless you are talking a server board, most mobo's only support up to 16gigs of ram. A few of the newer ones can take up to 32 gigs, but those are more workstation boards than general computing boards.

google for "crucial memory" they have a memory configurator that tells you how much memory your motherboard can support.

Quote - google for "crucial memory" they have a memory configurator that tells you how much memory your motherboard can support.

I just tested one of my motherboards and the result of their memory configurator was wrong. About 100% wrong.

So take the results with a grain of salt....

Thanks for your responses, everyone.  I will add MORE MEMORY!!!!  Yea!

Note that you have to fit the memoery IN....

say you have 6 slots each currently with 1 gigs for 6 gig total
and you want 12 gigs, well, alas, you'll need replace ALL of them for 2 gig chips....
which is annoying :/

and how do you have 8 gigs in a DDR3 motherboard? :)
DDR3 are set upin triplets of memory,most have 6 slots. so it's in multiples of , like 3, 6, 9, 12 etc?

Silverblade, sadly I don't have a clue as to how my motherboard is set up- I'm just parroting what I was told by the people that built the computer.   I'm going in today to ask them about what I can do about more memory.   I just don't have a clue about what's inside my machine- I just press buttons and magic happens :).  Thanks for pointing out these things- they are questions I need to get resolved.

you can get 2gb ddr3 ram sticks too silverblade!

my understanding was that it was otpimal in i7 configurations (and others) to have tri channel RAM rather than dual channel.

You probably have one of the newer i7 systems that uses the cheaper 1156 pin cpu and only supports dual channel memory (as opposed to triple channel for the higher end i7 systems) - hence you are probably maxed out at 8Gb - or 4 memory slots x 2Gb each. 

They can probably sell you 4Gb memory modules, but they are very expensive and are used for servers right now - I can't even find them at online vendors.  Without knowing your motherboard, your chipset probably maxes out at 16Gb memory.

Go and grab the little free program called 'CPU-Z' online - easy to find with any search engine.

It tells you a lot about your CPU,memory,motherboard and so on directly compacted in small tabbed windows - you don't need to open up your PC.

And it will display the size, kind and how many memory sticks you have installed.
It even lists the name and brand of your motherboard. So you could jump to the motherboards manufacturer website, select your motherboard and read the info about how much RAM can be installed on your board.