My current PC is running on 4gb of ram. I am running windows 7 pro x64
I am thinking of going up to 16gb as I do a significant amount of photo editing. Is such an upgrade going to show an improvement in the multi tasking & speed? Or do I save some money and just got for 8gb?
Upgrading to 8 will only cost me 60 bucks, but going to 16 will cost a little over 200
Any words of wisdom appreciated

First, take a look at memory usage in Task Manager. Assuming it's under 8GB, I would try an 8GB pair and see how it works. Does the motherboard have any empty RAM slots?

Unless you're editing several photos at once or they're 1GP in size, I doubt even 8GB will be necessary.

What is your memory breakdown, according to task manager/resource monitor?

I have 2 free slots. So I could put in 2x 2 for 8 or 2x4 for 12
Or take out the 2x2 and put in the 4x4
Memory break down is:
Total 4087
Cached 1831
Available 1792
Free 25
Typically my PSD files range from 50mb to 200mb

I would put 8GB in the two empty slots for a total of 12GB. At current prices, you should be able to pick up some good, name brand DDR2/3 for $60-$80. Try to match the other RAM as close as possible for speed and latency.

Just to check the obvious, I'm assuming you're using the 64-bit version of Photoshop?

I think image-editing remains one of those applications which can still be comfortable performed in a 32-bit environment. Having said that, DDR3 memory is very inexpensive these days, and I'd say upgrading to 8 or 12GB is an easy decision - not just for image editing, but to improve general Windows multi-tasking performance.

DDR2 memory, however, comes at a higher price premium. I'd put the money towards a future PC upgrade/replacement if DDR2 is what you have (unless, of course, you can find some for a good price).

I'd look at an SSD instead of adding RAM that is more than you need. With RAM, enough is enough, and the extra won't do anything for the system.

Check the specs of your motherboard to be sure it even supports 16GB. Many motherboards only support 8GB max. And I agree with Spensar's statement - you'll get a far better performance boost from an SSD.

I have 2 free slots. So I could put in 2x 2 for 8 or 2x4 for 12
Or take out the 2x2 and put in the 4x4
Memory break down is:
Total 4087
Cached 1831
Available 1792
Free 25
Typically my PSD files range from 50mb to 200mb
Perform this reading again with a typical number of photos open and in the midst of editing.

If 'available' doesnt go anywhere near 0 you're fine.

Though as others said, DDR3 is cheap. Wouldn't hurt your wallet to grab 4-8 more if you think you need it(and mobo supports it). Should be less than $75 to do so.

Yes I have CS 4 64x
Yes the mother board can support 16gb
Yes its DDR3
SSD is in the plans, but one upgrade at a time.
I will edit photos and check the numbers of memory consumption again.

ScaryBob had the best solution. Buy two 4 GB sticks and add that to the two 2 GB you already have for a total of 12 GB.

a nice tool to have on hand for somethign like this is Cacti (or mrtg/prtg)

they're freeware apps that monitor stuff on your network via SNMP

the main gist is that you can point it at your PC, get it to monitor cpu, ram usage, etc etc and then every 5 minutes (default, you can set granularity shorter) it plots that number on a graph


then you can see fairly accurately your hardware usage

it's saved me a ton of money over the years by proving hardware upgrades just weren't needed

or conversely proving to the Significant Other that it's totally needed, with graphs to back you up

Well I decided on the economical route. I upgraded my system to 12gb. 2x4gb sticks only cost me 50 dollars vs 120 for 4x4gb.
So now I can edit photos and multitask for my hearts content.
Thanks for everyones input. Sorry for the delay in letting you guys know what I ended up doing.