Surface 3 Ram : 2gb or 4gb

[ONeill29]

Hello,

First I'm a french student so excuse my bad english and my grammar; ...

I will buy a surface 3 in the next days but I don't no if the 2gb ram model is good for me; that's why I need your help !

I will use my surface 3 to go on internet, watch series, youtube, chat, e-mail, word, poweroint, excel, the apps of the windows store and maybe use others games. I will not use it for photoshop or thinks like this (video editing, images retouching)

So, what do you think ? Should I take the 2gb or 4gb?

PS: Memory is not a problem because I can put a microSD card.

Thanks for your answers.

ONeill29

 

[GreyFox7]

Either will work. The difference in the US is $100 so if you can afford it I would recommend the 4GB.

I have Surface 2 with 2GB and have done everything you mention with it, obviously it wont run non-Store Apps. I got it at release in October 2013 and used it heavily every day until getting a Surface 3 May 2015. I cannot think of one time where I got an out of memory error or felt like I needed more RAM on it. It does a good job of managing memory, standby memory and swap space. I'm certain it would be noticeable if the storage was a slower HDD vs eMMC.

Again, if you can afford the 4GB get that model, in a couple years 2GB might start to be a hindrance as programs and services consume ever more resources as they are wont to do.

 

[ONeill29]

Ok thanks, However I'm in Europe and the price are more expansive...

So I think that I will take the 2GB. If it is sufficient on a S2, I tink that if I don't open lot's of apps in the same moment it's will work ? Moreover S3 have more computing power than the S2.

Otherwise you don't install non-Store apps because it was a RT or because they don't work on your S2.

 

[GreyFox7]

Otherwise you don't install non-Store apps because it was a RT.

Right, you can only install and run Store apps because it was RT (ARM architecture CPU) Which required apps complied for ARM.

 

[ONeill29]

So if I pay attention to not open all apps in same moment (it's not usefull) and for this :

will use my surface 3 to go on internet, watch series, youtube, chat, e-mail, word, poweroint, excel, the apps of the windows store and maybe use others games. I will not use it for photoshop or thinks like this (video editing, images retouching)

I can take a 2GB model.

How many apps can work in the same moment on a S3 2GB model ? Because I have heard that it was the only difference (the multi-tasking) with a S3 4Gb

 

[leeshor]

It very much depends on the apps you're running so there is no hard fast answer. Suffice it to say that 2GB will run "mostly" the same number of apps that 4GB will but with additional lag due to more activity in the swap file. It's not that 2GB won't work, just not as well.

The general rule is that RAM is usually the best place to go for a performance increase but you can't add RAM to a Surface so best start with more than get stuck with less.

 

[GreyFox7]

I just fired up the Surface 2 and opened 4 PDFs from OneDrive, Two Word Documents from OneDrive, a local spreadsheet, a PowerPoint file, OneNote, 5 IE tabs and Task Manager. I can switch from app to app and navigate in the apps from page to page, scroll up and down etc. and its pretty responsive. None of these files are small, idle browser tabs sometimes lag a bit when activated but I think that's normal.

win 8.1 keeps the is use memory around 1.2 GB+/- and Free RAM around 800MB+/- With all this Committed RAM is at 2.2 of 2.7 GB, that means we're using about a gig of swap space.

 

[ONeill29]

Thanks for your answer

Unfortunately, my english is not good and I've not understand your last sentence. You use 2.2GB on you S2 with all of this app ? And how GB max have you ?

 

[GreyFox7]

Thanks for your answer

Unfortunately, my english is not good and I've not understand your last sentence. You use 2.2GB on you S2 with all of this app ? And how GB max have you ?

It has 2GB RAM... but the Swapfile I believe defaults to 4GB giving you a max capacity with the swapfile of 6GB.

 

[ONeill29]

If I understand so I could running more or less the same list of app with the S3 2gb

4 PDFs from OneDrive, Two Word Documents from OneDrive, a local spreadsheet, a PowerPoint file, OneNote, 5 IE tabs and Task Manager

without big big lag isn't it ?

 

[GreyFox7]

If I understand so I could running more or less the same list of app with the S3 2gb
without big big lag isn't it ?

Correct.

 

[ONeill29]

Okay thanks a lot, I will take a 2Gb because first it's in my budget and then I've not the need of 4gb in view of your test !!!

Just if I have the need, exist it some apps or programs who can manage the RAM or the W8.1/10 makes it good ?