Since as far back as I can remember, PC techs have always recommended that if your PC is slow - you need to add more RAM. This seems to be the cure-all that is touted to end all our problems.

I remember back when I was running a Windows 95 PC with 24MB that was true. Just another 8MB would have made StarCraft run much faster. Then again a full 1MB video card would have done that too.

Over the last 6 years it seems memory sizes have been increasing faster then the demand that software has been putting on it. From everything that I have seen I don’t think that more RAM is a problem anymore - a better CPU for businesses or a better GPU for gamers is what is needed.

So what qualifies me to say that? How should I know better than everyone else? Well, I have built my share of PC’s too - and put them to good use. I have used them for benchmarking and logic, databases, software, video games, and media creation and editing. I can honestly say that mathematical calculations and video encoding have always topped the charts on what brings my computers to their knees. However, it isn’t the ram that runs out - it is the CPU.

For example, I just built a Core 2 Quad system with 4GB of RAM and a 512MB Radeon HD video card. The first thing I wanted to do was to test the video encoding speed of this new system - actually, that is the whole reason I built it! It took it about 5min to encode a 4.5GB Quicktime video. The CPU usage never drooped below 80%, but the RAM usage never exceeded 800MB.

What only 0.8GB? So what is the point of the other 3.2GB if the most demanding task I do can’t use it? It seems the days of needing more RAM are leaving as I find that more raw power from a FSB and CPU is what our apps are lacking.