Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

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How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Less than 5
1
8%
5-10
7
58%
10-20
1
8%
20-50
1
8%
More than 50
2
17%
 
Total votes: 12

rene
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Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

How much time until people assume a different unit than now in the RAM-size poll?

When I first used Linux it was on a 386 with 4M of RAM; 4G is now the lowest reasonable option for most any use. Will there be a T-era? (and, yes, not using a unit myself is obviously my personal little joke; it's about as obviously intended to be years as G is/was intended on the original poll...)
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 07, 2022 4:01 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by t42 »

How much time until people assume a different unit than now
It will take them more than 50 weeks or never )

edit: using weeks above was a reply to (initially only implied) joke...
Last edited by t42 on Sun Jun 26, 2022 4:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by xenopeek »

In the 80's RAM size was counted in KiB, in the 90's it changed to MiB and in the 2000's it changed to GiB. How long till we count in TiB?

I don't doubt we'll go there but wowzers… :lol: I guess it's going to take more than 20 years.

Last month Japan's NICT published research that they had managed to increase transmission speed over fiber to 1.02 petabits per second. That's transferring 127,500 GiB every second! Somebody will come up with a use for having internet speeds that fast. Likewise when consumers buy a new PC and it has (I'm guessing) double the RAM of the old PC, we'll find a use for it eventually and that will continue to drive up need.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

For what it's worth, current x86-64 chips support up to 256TiB physical (boards do not...) although I don't believe there's a hard architectural limit before 2^64 = 16 EiB; 65536 times as much.

I myself picked 10-20 years: I believe I see a future coming within that timespan where the separation of RAM and storage is done away with; storage simply being directly addressable and as fast. In that scenario it'll grow fast again.

[EDIT] https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/mass-p ... first-time
Last edited by rene on Sun Jun 26, 2022 3:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by xenopeek »

rene wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:15 pmI believe I see a future coming within that timespan where the separation of RAM and storage is done away with; storage simply being directly addressable and as fast.
That may be. I do worry a bit for the new class of bugs that come into being when memory isn't ephemeral and the old "have you tried switching it off an back on again?" no longer works :(
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

Just edited in a link above after the term escaped me earlier.

And, yes, fair point it seems ;-|
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by xenopeek »

With a name like ULTRARAM and the claims attached to it—retains data 1000 years, individual cells can be rewritten 10 million times—I'm going to use my "I'll believe it when I have it in my hands" card :o But eventually probably we're going in such a direction. Awesome if this isn't vaporware :)
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by zcot »

TLDR; I won the poll!

The thought process was that rene looked at that other poll and within less than 5 seconds(I chose seconds) already started questioning the non-specified unit.

Sure, ok, I interpreted the question differently but it only changes the outcome completely! But still, I WIN!! :lol:

Interesting discussion though for sure. :wink:
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

Mmm. While I wouldn't claim it to come as surprise at this stage of my life, seems that something I find interesting to ponder sort of fails to excite generally. 6 votes...

Oh well. I still say 10-20.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by Moem »

I could not vote because my preferred answer was not listed. It goes as follows:

Yes.

:P
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

I'll settle for that if you say it between 10 and 20 times...
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by Portreve »

rene wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2022 9:40 am [ POLL ]
Hey rene, can you explain what you said in this thread's title and poll? I can't understand what you mean.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by antikythera »

At least nobody said 640K ought to be enough for everyone ;)

From crucial's website quite a sensible write-up covering the topic of how much is enough currently. I don't foresee it changing too much soon albeit maybe doubling in the next 5-10 years as certain AAA games can already easily take 1TB of storage on their own. While this could potentially bottleneck systems loading very high resolution game textures for 8K displays (you'd also need a high-end GPU or a couple in crossfire/SLI with 16GB or more GDDR each anyway), direct storage access will negate it for fast enough nvme over 1TB in size (which you'd need anyway because of these behemoth games).

Bandwidth will be as important as quantity going forwards.

Does your computer need more RAM than the system requirements?

Although a computer will run an operating system (OS) with the minimum requirements, the response time and multitasking capabilities will be poor. Any future upgrades might require higher minimum requirements, as well. You will want more than the minimum requirements.

Is 4GB of RAM enough?

4GB of RAM is the bare minimum memory needed to run a base computer model. That said, the bare minimum may not provide a productive use of your time as your system will likely slow down every time you run two or more programs like internet browsing, email and some word processing simultaneously. So, unless you are running a legacy system, we generally recommend running your system with 8GB of RAM.

Is 8GB of RAM enough?

8GB of RAM is the amount of memory we recommend for casual computer users. If your usage includes internet browsing, email, lots of office programs, flash games, and multitasking – this level of memory should be sufficient.

Is 16GB of RAM enough?

16GB of RAM is the amount of memory we recommend for intermediate users looking for extra speed and smooth functioning. This may be especially beneficial if you tend to have several programs open and running, simultaneously. This is also a good level of RAM for casual gamers and standard business professionals.

Is 32GB of RAM too much?

32GB of RAM is the amount of memory we recommend for serious gamers, engineers, scientists, and entry-level multimedia users. This level of RAM allows for these memory-hungry programs to run smoothly, even as your computer ages. Therefore, It’s not too much, it’s just right.

Is 64GB of RAM too much?

64GB of RAM is typically recommended for top-end users. If you’re a professional user of RAM-intensive programs, like AAA games running at the highest refresh rate and resolution, 3D modelling applications, 4K or 8K photo or video editing software, you may want to future-proof your computer’s memory by installing at least 64GB of RAM.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

Portreve wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 10:50 am Hey rene, can you explain what you said in this thread's title and poll? I can't understand what you mean.
The linked poll on RAM-size asks "how much RAM" and provides as options "Less than 4, 4, 8, ..." -- but less than 4, 4, 8, ..., what? At the time of posting pretty obviously G but seeing those options without a specified unit had me recall my first Linux install ever to have been on a system with 4 M of RAM and 256M at the time being enormous yet for server-type imaginable. I.e., that list to have at the time been fully expected to be in M rather than G. This of course then has one also ponder conversely if that list will ever be naturally interpreted as asking about 4-256 T, i.e, another factor 1024 up, and if so, how soon.

My take, yes, it will, although certainly 256T seems huge enough that I'd say we'd need storage and RAM to have consolidated to get there -- although then it's all of a sudden not very large at all any more; 16T drives are already very much consumer-grade. As such that "UltraRAM" link is interesting; if that's as far along as that seems to be saying my 10-20 may be overshooting.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by Portreve »

rene wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:16 am
Still no clue. Sorry.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by Lady Fitzgerald »

Portreve wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 12:52 pm
rene wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:16 am
Still no clue. Sorry.
Rene is being a bit snarky because Murph didn't specify the unit of RAM size, such as MB or GB--in his poll. Rene failed to specify in the poll whether the selections were the number times or whether the choices were in seconds, minutes, hours...
Last edited by xenopeek on Mon Jun 27, 2022 4:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

Portreve wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 12:52 pm Still no clue. Sorry.
The above is completely clear so I then will not be able to help.

And no, nothing is snarky; the missing unit as said just pointed out that historic 1024 times increase and (as mentioned in the post) then not specifying a unit myself on this one is just the type of implicit, self-referential joke I tend to enjoy.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by Portreve »

Lady Fitzgerald wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 2:15 pm Rene is being a bit snarky because Murph didn't specify the unit of RAM size, such as MB or GB--in his poll. Rene failed to specify in the poll whether the selections were the number times or whether the choices were in seconds, minutes, hours...
rene wrote: Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:31 pm The above is completely clear so I then will not be able to help.

And no, nothing is snarky; the missing unit as said just pointed out that historic 1024 times increase and (as mentioned in the post) then not specifying a unit myself on this one is just the type of implicit, self-referential joke I tend to enjoy.

Oh, well then in that case I've keyboarded my completion of the thread point as an outlier value. Simple.
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by rene »

Sort of interesting that up to now half -- of those that understood the poll in the first place, i.e., more relevant still! -- have picked 5-10: 5 years is short and 4TB is a whole lot. But yes, I guess 10 years on the other hand isn't overly short -- although I'll call dibs on the 256TB end of the scale not happening in 10 years :)
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Re: Poll: How much time until people assume a different unit in the RAM-size poll?

Post by gittiest personITW »

And regardless, it still takes about the same amount of time to open an Office/LibreOffice document as it did 20 years ago.
More RAM, more bloat/features (take your pick) and generally lazier programming with legacy code (of the 'other' operating systems, not Mint. Like Mint. :wink: ).
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