2GB to 4GB, how much of an improvement?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Alfred Kaufmann
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A

Alfred Kaufmann

I am thinking of going to 4GB ram and I wonder if it is worth it? The
only reason I am thinking of doing it is to turn off virtual memory
and eliminate swapping on the hard drive.

Please let me know your experience if you have done this upgrade.

Al
 
Since you are using Vista installing a fast 2GB lash drive or card and
configuring it for Ready Boost, which serves as a high speed cache drive for
your virtual memory, may be a lot less expensive solution.
 
Little to no improvement if you run "normal" applications.

You will still need the pagefile.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)
 
He will not need to use the page file until the programs/data required to be
kept in memory use up all of the extra 2GB in his system.
Alfred,
If you are running Vista 32 you will probably only get the benefit of a
little over 1GB of the extra memory you add. See the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605/en-us


..
 
I have a Core Duo 2350 laptop with 2 gig and when I use an
almost 2 gig ReadyBoost Drive (its a pretty fast SanDisk) the
difference is noticeable especially as I open multiple programs
and several IE tabs. If you use a lot of RAM hungry programs,
such as PhotoShop or Databases, then you will notice the
difference with the extra RAM. Note if you have a 32 bit
version of Vista you will only be able to use 3.12 Gig total
of the 4. A FAST readyboost drive might be a good alternative.

http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/

http://www.activewin.com/reviews/hardware/memory/vista/readyboost.shtml
 
Thanks for the information everyone! I have Vista 64bit, an AM2
motherboard and an AMD X2 64 processor but I can't find this "memory
remap" option in my bios. Also from what I have been reading this
upgrade is best avoided. :-(

Al
 
What's your brand and model of MB? It's new enough (AM2) and it should
have that option. If not, there may be a BIOS update for your MB that
adds that option to the BIOS setup.

The main problem with going to 4MB is that some of the earlier versions
of nVidia Vista graphics drivers did not work properly with SOME
graphics cards and 4 GB of system RAM. Else, there shouldn't be a
problem with Vista x64.
 
It is an Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard and the documentation reads
that it supports up to 8GB of ram. I do have their lastest bios
installed but their is no such option of memory remapping. They
advertise the motherboard for Vista so maybe they will have a fix with
their next bios update.

Al
 
The MOBO Bios may be coded not to show the option unless 4GB of memory is
installed.
The problem is you don't know unless you try upgrading to 4GB.
 
This motherboard is "Vista Certified" and supports up to 8GB max.
Maybe when the extra memory is installed the "remap" is automatic. It
is a bit too expensive to buy the memory just to test this, so I won't
bother with this right now.

It seems you can't get a clear answer on the Asus support website
either. I was hoping to hear from people that have 4GB installed on
this motherboard with Vista 64bit but either they are not reading the
forum or there are none. :-(

Al
 
Vista 64 or XP 64 can make use of the 8 gig of memory your mother board can
support. With comming updates to Vista and fixes to certain video drivers,
it is possible to benefit from up to 4 gig of memory with a 32 bit version
of Vista; perhaps. Stick with 2 gig until you read that the fix is in and
that it makes a real difference. Soon it may be cost effective to go with
solid state storage which should make a real difference in performance.

Richard
 
I'm sure there would have been a huge difference just going from 1 to
2 GB. It is the difference of going from 2 to 4 GB that I am
wondering about.

Al
 
The problem only occurred with earlier betas of the nVidia graphics card
drivers for Vista x64 and 4 GB RAM. You may not need to "remap the
memory", especially if the BIOS setup is the most recent and doesn't
show an option like that. Try the ASUStek message board and or:

http://asustech.15.forumer.com/index.php?act=idx

which is a pretty decent independent message board that covers only ASUS
motherboards.

JB
 
Hm,

yes, the pagefile is still usefull. Not needed if you use "applications".
This depends on what you call normal applications!

Little to no improvement is absolute BS!
I definatly got a big performance increase when I went from 2 to 4Gb in my
Opteron185 with 8800GTX.

Photoshop got faster, Word2007 starts faster, most games I play perform
better.
 
JW said:
Since you are using Vista installing a fast 2GB lash drive or card and
Click to expand...

Those 2gig "lash drives" can really hurt, though! Something for the S&M
lovers!
 
Where does it improve things, then?

I have an instance here that it did.

1gig ram on a P4 3Ghz here upgraded from XP to Vista Business. Machine was
running not so good but then I expected I would need another gig of ram and
hadn't gotten it yet. What I did find, by accident, was a 4 gig flash drive
that is readyboost OK. I put it in and used it as "extra ram" as the
motherboard will be replaced later this year and has only DDR on it. I will
need DDR2 for the next one.

When I put that 4gig flash drive in and configured it for readyboost, it
made a noticeable difference though it wasn't a FABULOUS difference.

I would appreciate knowing in which cases you think extra ram WOULD make a
difference. Eg, video editing, sound editing?
 
Ready Boost does not provide extra Ram, It creates a high speed cache memory
between your MOBO memory and your paging file so that when your system does
need more main memory it can can page out currently not in use memory pages
faster so that the main memory can be used for another file or app and it
also causes memory pages to be retrieved faster when they have been paged
out.
Just the fact the Ready Boost helps your system indicates that you need more
main memory in order to reduce the requirement for paging.
Of course even if paging is not required extra memory acts as a disk cache
reducing the amount of time to retrieve currently inactive apps or files
that have recently been used such as edited files that need to be reused.
 
Maybe this is too simple........ If your using Vista 32 Bit OS; only 3 GB is
available to the OS..... So my experience is 4GB wasted money.... but I
didn't know it until I installed the RAM........ Add a pair of 512MB cards to
a 2GB equiped computer and call it good........
 
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