Is More Memory Better?

Avto - 549 days 6 hours ago

Man just about any PC is considered old the moment you buy it, there is always a faster, bigger, shinier kit out there, this is how the things are and I got used to this fact as for more RAM I'd say it never hurts to have more of it.

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bumnut - 549 days 3 hours ago

my 1st pc was a 16mhz 286 with 1 meg ram and a 40meg hard drive.

more ram is always good especially now the prices are so low.

for those that don't know you need a 64 bit os to see more than 3.5 GB ram ( but you need to buy 4 gb to get 3.5 gb in a 32 bit os)

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JonhnnyAkiba - 549 days 2 hours ago

You have to get a 64 bit OS to use full 4Gb. Go to the task Manager and you will see the amount of memory you are using. The System properties shows the memory you have install in our system and you are not using it.

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Testo - 548 days 22 hours ago

"You can increase your vRAM up to 4GB per drive partition and greatly improve your PC's performance."

How do you go about increasing your VRAM?

I would assume that since its VRAM that it would have to be fast and when I think of a paging file I don't think fast.

I have 4 gigs in my PC and I'm running no paging file.
writing to RAM is much faster then relying on the HDD.

But to be honest most applications won't even use the 3.2 gig limit of 32bit.

BUT, on another note Photoshop/ other graphic intense programs DO require a PF to run and XP uses the PF to write a dump to the HD before crashing, so really it's up to you

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SaiyanFury - 548 days 20 hours ago

@Testo

I'll make it straightforward for you so there shouldn't be any confusion. And contrary to your belief, writing to paging files on separate partitions can dramatically speed up your PC. Basically, when you have multiple partitions and only one paging file that is on your main "C" drive that Windows is installed on, all of the partitions that you are running files and programs off of are competing for that single paging file. If you have a paging file on every partition, the drives no longer compete for a single file which increases access speed for all of your drives. Anyways, enough education, I'll show you how to do it.

- Open Control Panel and select "System".
- In the System window, select the "Advanced" tab.
- Under the "Performance" tab select "Settings".
- In the Settings tab, select "Advanced".
- Next, under "Virtual Memory", click "Change".
- Click on the drive you want, and then select "Custom Size".
- Enter your desired value and then click "Set".

Easy as pie once you know how to do it. The maximum setting you can have for a drive in a 32 bit environment is 4GB, so 4092 is the maximum setting you can get in Windows XP 32. Believe it or not this can improve your PC's performance by up to 15-20% if you're using more than one partition. Even if you're only using one, simply increasing the size of the main one on the "C" drive is enough to improve some. Give it a shot and see for yourself.

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Testo - 548 days 16 hours ago

LOL, no need to show me how to setup a page file. I'm more then capable to do that thanks. I do work in the business.

I'm just confused with your definition of VRAM?

Because VRAM usually stands for Video RAM which like I said has to be much faster then a paging file. Hell its faster then regular RAM.

Are you referring to a page file as VRAM? If so, sorry, like I said I was confused with your term. But I do have to mention that a page file might be classified as virtual memory but its not RAM. ---> It might try to do the same function as RAM but it falls short on the performance side.

"Believe it or not this can improve your PC's performance by up to 15-20% if you're using more than one partition."

Do you have a link to show this?

This may be true when running an older system. XP with 512mb of RAM or less. But to today's PC's, the benefit is not nearly as beneficial with 90% of computers out there.

It's nice to have a page file just to be prepared for a system dump but I don't notice any benefit whatsoever.

I also noticed you said "If you use more then 1 partition"

Do you mean more then 1 HDD?

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Testo - 548 days 22 hours ago

I don't think your looking at it the way he is.

I think he is trying to say, what's the point in ponying up $500 for 8 gigs when 95% of software and OS's don't support it.

"But with the increased availability and decreased price, enthusiasts are faced with a new question: is a 4GB kit or even an 8GB kit worth the cash splash over a basic 2GB? What scenarios warrant the extra memory? "

With the 32bit limit of 3.2 gigs would you want to pay the extra for the "wasted" memory?

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