RAM needed to run Excel

[bearcub]

I'm thinking about buying a laptop. I'm presently looking at a model that has 6GB of RAM, is this enough to run PowerQuerty, PowerPivot, etc? What would be the optimal system configurations for running Excel efficiently?

Thank you for your help,

Michael

 

[bearcub]

I ended up getting an HP with 12 GB of RAM and !T Hard disk. Better to be safe than sorry, eh?

 

[iliace]

Oh -- and I have Excel installed as 32 bit.

Even so, your OS max determines how much you have left for Excel. If you are anything like me, you probably have multiple instances of Excel running much of the time, and each one has its own memory limit. So despite 32 bit limitation, you are probably maxing out.

I ended up getting an HP with 12 GB of RAM and !T Hard disk. Better to be safe than sorry, eh?

Good choice. More RAM is always better; it's generally faster than even the super-fast solid state hard drives, so you'll have fewer hits to your page file.

 

[bearcub]

I have 64 bit not 32 bit. Does this make a difference?

 

[iliace]

I have 64 bit not 32 bit. Does this make a difference?

For the OS, you want 64-bit Windows. If you have 32-bit Windows, then you are limited to 4GB, period - once you're in Windows, it doesn't matter how many total memory gigs you have, it can only access the first 4GB.

On a 64-bit OS, your hypothetical total memory is unlimited - 2^64 = 16 exobytes, which is a ridiculously high number (16.8 million terabytes). The limitation will be more the physical hardware. Many systems will cap out at 16gb or 32gb. For most applications, 8gb is fine; 16gb is more than sufficient. If you want to work with really huge data sets, or run 10 instances of Excel with lots of data, go for 16gb. If you work in business intelligence as an analyst, you may want 16gb.

I thought I was one of those people, and when I got my upgrade, requested 16gb laptop. Reality is, in the last year of many spreadsheets open at the same time, I have rarely come close to hitting the 8gb level.

So: since you have 64-bit system, get at least 8gb RAM. Maybe more.

 

[bearcub]

I do have 12 GB so I think I'm safe, don't you?

 

[iliace]

I do have 12 GB so I think I'm safe, don't you?

That should be fine. Good safety net.