All it takes is one instant of insufficient RAM, and most, if not all, modern computers starts working really bad.
Long time ago, I was taught that RAM is cheap, both in cost and ease of installation, relative to other PC components. When in doubt, consider installing additional RAM capacity.
Yeah, it's always been the rule: Buy more RAM than you think you need right now.
Not going to make the 640KB joke here of course. We all make mistakes.
For internet, 8GB is ok. For graphics, sure you need to be heading towards 32GB because that will incorporate audio which halves your bandwidth again.
RAM just makes life easier and quicker. For an Audio machine that you use as your main DAW, then anything less than 16GB is a compromise today. I run a machine with 4GB, but that is an XP machine, so can't use more RAM than that anyway. It flies like shit off a blanket. It's faster than my Win7 and WinX machines on some tasks.
If you do video then yeah, don't think about less than 32GB, really 64 or 128 if you can. Because all video (pretty much) includes Audio, which takes up the same bandwidth of zeroes and ones again with their data structures. 32 bit and 24 bit (and even 16 bit) Audio is resource heavy. You will record at higher bandwidths like 32 bit, but you will dither down to 16 bit for CD quality and even .mp3 quality at its best (CBR 320KB/s or wtf). If you want to hold that in 'state' while you do your editing and want to do it quickly, more RAM is your boy.
I'm writing this though on an old knacker of a machine. Got a nice DAW setup on here. I don't do video (very much). Get as much RAM as you can. It goes up in price as they invent new versions of it and so stocks get bought up and sold out. Oh and don't forget the old 'oh we had a fire in the taiwan/thailand factory that just happened to be the only factory in the world making that kind of RAM' trick! The Tsunami afterwards did not help. Nor the terrorist attack. Shame about the fucking earthquake as well. And it's a pity their whole economy went down the shitter also because the government were found to be embezzling funds and had to fly to Singapore via Saudi Arabia. Many such times. Sad.
RAM is expensive. And many people don't need it. But even for browsing it's good to have a lot. I've got a couple of hundred tabs open in my browser on startup. I couldn't do that with minimal RAM. It's nice to have but not essential.
Even for Audio stuff you don't need much more than 8GB. But if you work with sample libraries or want to use other functions on the computer like RAM heavy browsing (as I just mentioned) than more RAM is your boy.
It's the one thing you don't wan to skimp on when building a new compo. Sure, you can get by with less, but having more, pound for pound, just makes the whole computing experience that much more pleasant. RAM for this machine I am on is quite expensive now as it is quite old. But even though its only 8GB and I should double that to 16 GB, I won't. But I can put in another 4 GB on 2 x 2GB sticks (parity) and it will take it to a tidy 12GB in total. I won't notice that for the most part, but when I really need it, it will be there! For more hungry machines, then yeah 32GB and 64GB whatever...
This is why I keep an old XP box in tip top shape. Because that 4GB of RAM (even though it can only access 3GB of it from any program and the OS - 32 bit OS can only access around 3/4GB - 64 bit OS around 16 exabytes [1
6 billion gigabytes]) is more than enough considering how the programs were architected in the first place.
Networking is getting easier all the time and programs like Audio Gridder make it possible to even connect Mac and Pc. Not to mention 32 bit and 64 bit architecture CPUs.
I understand why video and audio take up so much space data structure wise on a modern computer, but all the rest of the shoddy programming is shameful dispray on the part of the programmers who just squander modern hd/cpu resources as if they were infinite, all the while pissing on Moore's law, but bringing it about ever quicker. Son.
We are at the limits of the fucking metal now. At the limits of physics. At the limits of resources of what we can drag out of the ground and make good and refine. We're over the hump. But the road ahead will be rocky for a few more years to come yet. That is what we are seeing now.
In 5-10 years the future will bring new tech (if we don't blow ourselves up to shit first). It has to. We have nowhere else to go. Photonics? We have heard of it. Right.
It will take a while for this to come about and to come to market, but I don't hold my breath. Humanity got cocky on this one. Hubris can be a curse sometimes.
God it's exciting. I just don't see where this new tech will come from. But it has to come. It always does. It's the same blip on the roadmap that humanity always faces before great new discoveries are made.
Either that or everyone will be paying 500 bucks for a gfx card by 2025.
We can live in hope.
Or we won't be living at all. And a new fucking Gfx card to play Doom 56 -
The Resurrection - won't be an issue at all, because we'll all be fucking dead.
