How much RAM do you have?

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I have 16 GB in my three year old desktop. I had 4 GB in it at first, but with games like STALKER and The Witcher 2 and in combination with Win7, I was running out of memory space at times. And since memory is so cheap nowadays, I upgraded to 16 GB after a year or so.

8 GB would've been sufficient in pretty much all cases, but I've learned in the past that more memory is usually a good thing. I could use more memory on my graphics card at the moment for the more demanding games (I have 1 GB on it at the moment).

 

Normal desktop use hasn't been demanding on PCs for well over a decade now. Most games haven't been very demanding on PCs either for approximately 4 to 5 years now, because most games are developed primarily for the antiquated hardware of current day consoles.

The upgrade from windows XP to Vista or newer would warrant a slight upgrade, though in most cases an upgrade to the RAM could suffice (for me Win7 generally uses about 1.5 GB, whereas XP used about .5 GB RAM).

For actually demanding applications for the PC, things haven't changed that much, though. Simulations have grown more complex requiring better hardware, videos have grown in resolution and more generally bitrate though this is mostly demanding on hardware when encoding rather than when playing. Increased bitrate for video does increase the demand for diskspace, though you can get multiple terabytes for pretty cheap nowadays.

 

3.00 GB (2.75 GB usable)

 

It's a sign that microcomputer technology is finally starting to mature, much like cars. We'll still get minor improvements, but nothing on the scale of the previous 30 years with Moore's Law.

 

Running Snow Leopard on a 4 GIG iMac.

 

4 Gigs on an Intel i5 system and running Win 7 with NP. My notebook has 4 gigs too with an AMD A6 system and also running Win 7 with NP.

PC sales are down. Tablets are starting to take over....

 

Which again, is a sign that the technology is maturing, instead of the constant inadequacy of the past. It finally does what we need it to do.

It's now much like a television, where with a proper signal adapter, my grandmother's TV that grandpa stuck a label on saying it's from 1986 is a perfectly viable solution to watching TV. An old car (so long as it isn't so old it needs leaded gas) is usually a viable form of transportation, with the only problem being presumed disrepair from old age. If that old car is in perfect condition it's perfectly viable.

So to computers are starting to mature and no longer need the "latest and greatest" for everyday tasks. They are becoming more normal appliances or durable goods.
Perversely, smart phones are now undergoing the computer growth, where before you tended to get one phone and just use it for years solely for talking.

 

As long as the minimum speed isn't 120 mph, there little need for a v16 "something incredible" engine. Likewise, if there are no programs that demand a lot of our machines... oh, well. I guess you get the picture.

 

Recently got a new gaming rig as an early Christmas present.

Went for 16GB DDR3/2133MHz Quad Channel Memory

 

Part of the issue is that the old consoles held PC Gaming back a lot considering it was mainly Console Ports and with the main consoles running on outdated hardware even when they came out it has really held back the requirements. With the new consoles out we should see a sizable increase in requirements which should mean that we should see intel/amd/nvidia stepping up their game from here on meaning we should see a larger increase then we have been lately. AMD has mantle coming for instance which is a shift in the way things are done. Which means intel and nvidia should come up with something of their own if they don't make cards that are specced right for Mantle that is. Valve seems to wanting to get away from windows for gaming for another shake up in the gaming world.