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How much Memory do I need?
Name: Ryan Date: November 15, 2002 at 06:24:04 Pacific OS: xp home CPU/Ram: pent 4
Comment:
I am running windows xp home on my new computer and use it mostly for games and web browsing. I curently have 128mbs of pc2100 DDR NON-ECC ram. Things are a little slow so i'm going to buy another 128mb or 256mb. I found so really good deals on both but will going with the 256mb be worth the extra money?
Name: Optix Date: November 15, 2002 at 06:46:58 Pacific
Reply:
Look its better to get teh 256, that will boost up your system's overall performance but if u wantit for games you have to focus on your video card, what video card do you have??????
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Response Number 2
Name: Ryan Date: November 15, 2002 at 06:54:44 Pacific
Reply:
First i made a mistake in my first post. I have 256mb of ram now not 128mb. I have a Radeon 7000 32mb card. My games are usually fine, it's just he overaly windows response time that is slow.
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Response Number 3
Name: Sabot Date: November 15, 2002 at 07:21:01 Pacific
Reply:
Lets put it this way...not many people go over 384MB loads...even with gaming...and I am referring to the people who have clean systems and not alot of useless startup apps and stuff running in the background. Also you can tweak up a system for how it pagefiles so your not always caching onto the HDD. If the 256 doesn't cost much more...then what the hell...why not...if your looking at alot more...than stick with the 128MB upgrade and 384MB is a good place to be. For me...I see $30 diff between the 2...so I would stay with 128MB personally. Hehe...thats 15 damn whoppers man!!! laff
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Response Number 4
Name: ... Date: November 15, 2002 at 08:36:54 Pacific
Reply:
i've been using xp with 256mb ram. yesterday i bought 512mb more ram, so now i have 768mb ram. I really don't notice a difference still...windows response time is the same
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Response Number 5
Name: Dave Date: November 15, 2002 at 08:37:36 Pacific
Reply:
You could check in the system monitor to see if your system is going to virtual memory at all. If it does, you cold use more memory. Recommended ram for xp is 512. Go with the 256.
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Response Number 6
Name: mick Date: November 15, 2002 at 14:57:59 Pacific
Reply:
Have you turned off the visual effects. Turn all the visual effect crap off and it should be smoother & quicker (and looks a lot like 2000). I can't remember from memory but it's in the control panel somewhere...
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Response Number 7
Name: mick Date: November 15, 2002 at 15:00:32 Pacific
Reply:
oh, and the sweet spot for games is still 256MB. Increasing this won't do much for you at all. Check your startup programs with msconfig and make sure you don't have a lot of crap running. BTW, windows will ALWAYS use some virtual memory, regardless of whether you have 16MB or 2 GB of memory...
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Response Number 8
Name: Dave Date: November 16, 2002 at 09:36:25 Pacific
Reply:
The current reading on my "swapfile in use" box in system monitor is 0 and it remained at 0 until I loaded Wordperfect, Quattro Pro, PaintShop Pro and about 9 large graphic files. If you have not set the minimum and maximum the same, you will get constant activity in the swapfile as windows adjusts the settings. I only have 256MB RAM, but I also have WinME. I agree with turing off all the crap. I also think setting the limits on the virtual memory at minimum and maximum at 2.5x your memory is a good idea, so that windows isn't constantly checking and adjusting this.
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