Where I'm currently working (computational neuroscience / data analysis) we've just had to upgrade our servers and 512GB is only just enough for some datasets.

Where I'm currently working (computational neuroscience / data analysis) we've just had to upgrade our servers and 512GB is only just enough for some datasets. A couple of the labs nearby (genomics) share a cluster of ~10 machines with 1.5TB RAM each. So no, 512GB isn't stupidly high (though it's still uncommon!). (Large SQL servers, etc, often have this much RAM)