[OT]: Memory & Performance

[Dicebot]

On Tuesday, 3 September 2013 at 16:15:51 UTC, Chris wrote:
> If you had the choice between:
>
> - 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 1 X 4 GB
> - 8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB ( + $49.00 )
>
> Is it worth the extra money or is the increase in performance 
> not worth mentioning? Any experience with that.
>
> The processor
>
> 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor ( 2.4 GHz 6MB 
> L3 Cache - 4 Cores plus Hyperthreading )
>
> Thanks.

Adding memory normally does not improve performance. Lack of one 
harms it though.
My simple rule of a thumb is "Am I using more than 2/3 of 
existing RAM in typical working scenario? Then buy more." (I only 
needed 8 GB because of virtual machines and tmpfs abuse)