2 gig mem in xp enough?

My old AMD dual core system has 4GB of RAM and I have Vista x86 installed on that, and an 8800GTX graphics card, and it can address 3.5GB of the 4GB..

I would definitely use 4GB even though your only using XP, I remember when I was using 2GB of RAM and running XP, it was fine for games and stuff, but when I upgraded the RAM to 4GB I saw a nice boost in general system performance.

Like when I wanted to Alt-Tab to the desktop out of a game, when I had 2GB of RAM this just wasn't possible, it took forever to get back to the desktop, and when you tried to go back into the game, it took just as much time for the game to start back up.

But once I fitted 4GB this was no longer an issue, and everything else just felt snappier to..

Definitely worth going for 4GB over 2GB imo..
 
Definitely *not* worth going for 4GB over 2GB if Windows XP if your not gonna use it!

Don't spend good money on something you may not need? . . . If you need it then buy it.

I don't believe anyone could tell the difference between 2GB and 4GB in Windows XP *unless* there playing some very serious game or performing some uBer multitasking and juggling lots of multimedia!

It's quite easy to tell when you have run out of physical memory as the disk swapping begins and everything lags up, up until that point it's superfast!

If in doubt bring up task manager (Ctr+Alt+Del) and look at the [Performance] tab in the section called Commit Charge > > Peak

maxmemused.gif


If in real word usage the figure there is close or greater than your physical memory amount fair enough treat yourself to a new shiny 4Gb kit, if its like the screenshot above then obviously 2GB is more than enough! :)

Anyone who tells you different is misinformed or trying to sell you something! :cool:
 
I have 2x2gb and using winxp 32-bit. My gfx card is only 512mb so my windows can address 3.5gb on it.

However Ive noticed that the page file is still 1gig, I mean right now with only firefox loaded and foobar, msn messenger, steam, and notepad++, and the pagefile is 1gig but my memory is only 31% used.

Is this normal or should I be looking to make the pagefile as low as possible?

From what I have seen though with 4gb over just 2gb there is a performance increase, also 4gb is dirt cheap now. Definite improvement in games for me.
 
Hi Guys. I am Thomas.
I read your post and here I post my comments.
I think 2 GB RAM is sufficient. Actually for this you need good graphics card.
So I suggest to install graphics card instead of RAM. This way you can increase performance of your game.
Have a nice day.
 
When I was running 32 bit, i had 4GB RAM and a 768MB graphics card. For this reason, my system would show about 3.25GB in system properties.

So yes, it is 4GB total. Depends entirely on what other hardware you have installed :)
 
Big.Wayne said:
Definitely *not* worth going for 4GB over 2GB if Windows XP if your not gonna use it!

Don't spend good money on something you may not need? . . . If you need it then buy it.

I don't believe anyone could tell the difference between 2GB and 4GB in Windows XP *unless* there playing some very serious game or performing some uBer multitasking and juggling lots of multimedia!
Click to expand...

Isn't flight sims really taxing games?

Or am I misinformed?

I can tell you this, when I moved from 2GB to 4GB when I used to run 32bit XP, the differences I saw were huge, everything was a lot snappier, and I could alt-tab out of games without waiting for days on end to get back to the desktop and vice versa.
 
DavyBoy said:
I can tell you this, when I moved from 2GB to 4GB when I used to run 32bit XP, the differences I saw were huge, everything was a lot snappier, and I could alt-tab out of games without waiting for days on end to get back to the desktop and vice versa.
Click to expand...
Hi DavyBoy,

when you switched from 2GB to 4GB did the memory speed remain the same?

What you define are Snappy is different from what I call Snappy, I don't think Alt+Tab'ing out a game is what Snappy means but if thats what you mean then your right, 4GB will Alt-Tab a lot better than 2GB, the question is who ALt+Tabs out a game? :confused:

What my point was in the early posts is that if SsSsSsSsSnake (hiss) needed more memory he would know it because his game would begin Stuttering if he ran out of physical memory and the system starting paging info to the swap file on the hard disk, failing that he could check the task manager to check his physical memory useage . . .

If the game is lagging or the task manager shows humuga memory useage then he should part with his hard earned money and upgrade the RAM capacity, if the game is not lagging and the physical memory limit isn't breached then there isn't a real need to upgrade as I don't think the game is gonna suddenly start running faster having more memory in the system which it isn't accessing under Windows XP
 
if you're on DDR2 then I think getting 4GB is a good idea because, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the prices are rising... about 6 months ago I bought 4GB (2x2GB) for my laptop and it cost £40... now it costs around £65! and same with desktop... about 1 month ago I bought 4GB for around £50, and now it costs around £75 :S

and in terms of performance, 4GB is very worthwhile having these days no matter what OS you use... but I dont think there's much gain in having 8GB... I don't know, if someone could prove me wrong then overclockers might just have another order from me lol
 
The alt-tabbing was just one of the many improvements I saw when moving from 2GB to 4GB.

I don't know about you, but I find myself alt-tabbing out of games quite a lot, I doubt I'm the ONLY person that does this!!!

The RAM frequency and timings stayed the same, as I just bought another 2GB of the same RAM I was already using.

Other things that I felt had improved was how quickly applications would open, like Photoshop, it used to take forever when I was only running 2GB, but after upgrading, it definitely appeared to be faster at starting up.

When I said things were snappier, I meant overall system performance, I didn't mean my system was snappier just because I could alt-tab out of games quicker!!!
 
You know the thing is we all use computers in different ways, I can honestly say I have never alt-tabbed out of game? but if you do that then sure more memory is gonna help. Same for photoshop although the extra memory won't be an advantage until you begin working on pro sized 200MB images and have half a dozen of them open etc

I worked a lot with testing memory, latencies, bandwidths etc and from my POV I can honestly say I never witnessed a speedup in Windows XP from having additional memory *If* any task I did remained within the memory limit i.e a 2Gb machine and a 4Gb machine operate at the same speed if using 1GB of active memory . . .

I'm not saying your wrong I am just stating the case from my experience the last 13 years. I am only wanting my fellow forum members to get maximum value for money while at the same time not working with a handcapped PC

In short, Buy a Memory upgrade when you *know* you need it . . . . not *if* you think you need it, thank you! :)
 
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