Is it necessary to go beyond 8gb DDR5 for this device? Choosing the right Zenbook 14X Oled model is a bit tricky.
Is it necessary to go beyond 8gb DDR5 for this device? Choosing the right Zenbook 14X Oled model is a bit tricky.
I placed an order yesterday at Best Buy for two Asus Zenbook 14X Oleds: one with an evo i5-13500h and 8gb RAM for $500, and the other with an i7-13700h and 16gb RAM for $700. I’m currently using a Dell Latitude 7200 2-in-1 ('19, i7-8665U, 16gb DDR3), but it’s been having some keyboard and touchscreen problems, so I’d prefer something more stable while traveling. Until then, I’ll stick with the Dell at home, using an external monitor and peripherals.
I mostly use Edge (5-10 tabs), Excel, Word, Acrobat, PowerPoint, and sometimes Google Earth. Occasionally I do audio work—recording live tracks with an audio interface, sequencing MIDI and synth/sample plugins, or mixing in a DAW. It’s a hobbyist setup, not too demanding. I also use an eGPU (Razer Chrome X) with 2070 Super for 1440p gaming, while my desktop has a 3070 Ti for 4K.
The older Dell has worked well so far, and I’m curious if the extra $200 for the better CPU and 8gb RAM on the higher-end Zenbook will make a difference in my situation. The i5-13500h is already a significant upgrade from my current model, which hasn’t slowed me down, and even with 16gb DDR3 RAM, I think 8gb DDR5 would be similar. Appreciate any advice!
Check your normal usage on the current laptop and check the resource monitor to understand your RAM consumption.
I spend most of my time on the computer, typically with around 10GB of RAM, so having less than 16GB wouldn’t be ideal for me.
If I were using about 6GB, I wouldn’t need additional RAM at this stage.
I thought from some online searches that Windows would consume a large portion of available RAM to speed things up, making the memory usage numbers in Task Manager's performance section misleading (for example, showing a lot of page file space instead of real active usage). This is similar to what I see when I check my "Processes" tab and sort by Memory, where the actual usage seems to be around 2-2.5GB rather than the 8.4GB listed in the "Performance" tab.
presently it is generally thought that 8GB of RAM is the bare essential for everyday tasks and 16GB is sufficient for most contemporary games.
Your ASUS laptops are equipped with soldered RAM, which means they cannot be upgraded later, so my recommendation is to opt for the 16GB model.
I'm not sure if I'm really asking, but is a new laptop with 8gb DDR5 memory going to be more limited than my previous model with 16gb DDR3? Particularly when it comes to audio software—like mixing multiple plugins and synths—which I think mainly uses CPU power rather than RAM—and 2k gaming with an eGPU. I haven't experienced any bottlenecks with my old '13 MBP that had 8gb RAM for audio tasks, but I'm concerned that more RAM in Windows might mean more resource-hungry background processes over time. Still, I believe the faster speeds of DDR5 would at least help somewhat.
I don't have the notebook you're referring to. The ones I can locate typically come with 16GB of RAM, but notebooks that have 8GB soldered can be upgraded with an additional 8GB stick. My Vivobook X1502 is an i5 1240p model that originally came with 8GB soldered and was later expanded to 16GB.
I need to move to the 8gb version in the provided link, but the URL remains the same even after changing it. It seems older Vivobooks offered a RAM upgrade option, which isn't available in the newer Zenbooks.
With your newer laptop, it seems you'll probably handle more tasks than before with your older one. You might open additional tabs or delay closing programs for faster switching. Although the new device is significantly better, I wouldn't suggest reducing RAM in this case. So, I recommend going with 16 GB.