So I just got a new laptop with 1 RAM slot empty and 1 4GB RAM soldered to motherboard. The maximum amount memory supported by the motherboard is 12GB. So I can either buy another 4GB stick and make it 8 GB or maxed out the memory to 12 GB by buying an 8 GB stick. In my country the price for 4GB ddr4 sodimm memory is around 40$ and the price for 8 GB is around 61$. So what should I buy?
8 gb is enough for everyday tasks but if you want to play triple a games or do some heavier tasks, more is better.
you probably won't notice the difference between 8 and 12 (unless you run something very resource heavy) you can just buy the bigger one if you have the money for it otherwise 8gb is fine.
Bigger would be better yes BUT in modern mainboards it is more important to use the dual channel which means use 2 same size ram modules with the same frequency! Because speed>>size Which means get 2 4gb because your mainboard doesnt support 16gb
Check the clock spd (of your processor). If its over 2, then go for 12gb. Else 8gb should be alright. As for the reason, its because a PC full spec would have a connection between all of its parts, so that it won't cause an unbalance. One more thing is, if you're not playing games, then don't bother getting 12gb. That'd be wasting the effort of the one who made that 12gb.
If it doesn't already have an SSD, consider keeping it at 4Gb and getting an SSD for those 61$ instead - it will bring much more noticeable improvement in performance.
Depend on your usage. I doubt you ever need 12GB. Laptop is not something that suitable if anything required 12GB. I used to use lot of ram for my browser with dizzying amounts of tabs open. If you need lots of rams, it probably for the same or similar bad habit. Now, 4GB is enough for my casual need. More than that, it probably because of bad habits that can be fixed. Despite all that, I would still buy 8GB and maxed to 12GB lol.
if the board supports dual channel, u might note a increase in performance if not better just go with 8gb if u don't plan on doing memory heavy tasks. p.s. if it supports dual channel try to buy same types of ram since different latency rams can have varying increase or decrease in performance.
"You want to make sure each stick has the same CAS latency, timings, and voltage" life hacker website has an article about mixing and matching ram thats a quote from it they also show how to fix those kinds of things could be useful?
Well I play games but not that intense, I usually play Skyrim and TF 2. And I also already check the speed.
Brother my laptop is an HD pavilion 15 with 8 ram ddr4 and 2gb grafics dedicated, I'm only capable of using medium performance programs because my processor is AMD dual-core 2.5ghz but with everything I have opened on my laptop non have more than 6gb of memory including war thunder open at full grafics and other stuff like chrome and photoshop <---6 Gb ram ddr4 2444hz So I recommend you 8 Gb since ddr4 is difficult to overwork. (sorry my mistakes, English is not my native language)
well many people already stated the pros and cons, you just have to ask yourself: Am i going to use something requiring 12 gb, or not? personally i would go for the 12 just so i have more wiggle room, but it all depends on what is best for you.
Wether it is 8Gb, 12Gb, or 16Gb, it's still useless if your OS is 32-bit but if you give me an option like that i'd say go for the 12Gb but if they have 16Gb pick that one if you're focus in gaming