If you are talking PCs and you still run XP 32bit, you only need 2 Gb because that is all it can access. Anything above XP I would say to get what you can afford. I try to have at least 6 Gb on a laptop, but on some of my workstations I have 8, 16, or 32 Gb. Usually the difference between 6 and 32 Gb is not noticeable when just doing web access and simple things like word processing, but when I require continuous number crunching, opening and closing numerous files automatically, and running numerous background programs, the 16 and 32 Gb systems leaves the others in the dust. Don’t forget to get as much graphics memory that you can afford, especially if you are doing gaming or anything that uses rendering.
Good advice. I completely forgot about graphics memory and that I really need to start shopping around for a better card chipset. Of necessity, Linux-friendly. Rendering is quite demanding as it is on the main machines so I need to consider this a bit more.
Your comment about graphics memory is so true. I do lighting design using Relux - if you’re familiar with it. It’s a pig for graphics memory. I finally got a 4GB Nvidia card and it’s a world of difference - especially for 3D rendering.
Correct. It depends on how many “bits” your operating system is.
I know on the mainframe, it has been 32 bit for a while, then it went 64 bit.
At 32 bit, the highest number it can address is:
2,147,483,648
This is 2**31
The first bit in the mainframe world is 0 or one standing for positive or negative.
I am unsure if in the PC world, there is a difference between designating negativity with 0 or one, so cannot say for sure.