256 or 512 megs of DDR ram? Extra 256 any benefit for 98SE, Gaming ?

[whistleclient]

256 or 512 megs of DDR ram? Any benefit for the extra 256 megs for 98SE, Gaming ?

 

[GameQuoter]

No.

 

[InFecTed]

256mb is plenty for win98 and gaming, save some cash

 

[HansXP]

Can I suggest you upgrade to W2K? It can actually take advantage of more RAM.

 

[konichiwa]

Win98 won't know what to do with 512megs of RAM. Get win2k.

 

[MadRat]

Win98 uses 512mb of RAM fine if you use 133fsb. The higher the FSB the more you notice. With PC66 memory it was pointless to go past 192mb because of its latency. A similar drawback seems to hit PC100 past 384mb. The latency of PC133 is noticeably less, but don't think more than 512mb is worth it one bit in Win98.

Make sure you turn off the fileswapping if you go that much of RAM.

 

[HansXP]

Uh, what does the memory speed/latency have to do with how much RAM he has? Obviously, higher speed and lower latency RAM is better. But just because you have a 100 MHz bus, doesn't mean your system can only deal with so much RAM.

 

[md300]

well you prombly wont notice too much diffrence but with memory prices the way they are you better offf before or if they go back up also it just makes more since if you can aford it do it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MadRat]

Hans-

Actually the optimal amount of RAM does to a degree depend on the speed/latency of the sticks you use. Memory also seems to have a sweet spot in size versus performance. (Points to own machine running Win98 with 384mb versus formerly using 640mb.) Beyond a certain sweet spot the performance goes backwards. (Points to TX chipset beyond 64mb.) Sometimes people unknowingly use the biggest stick of memory in a buffered slot. (Points to 4 Dimm BX motherboards.) Sometimes the chipsets are limited to address 512mb, too. (Points to VIA Apollo Pro chipsets.) The speed of your memory definitely factors into the performance and where that sweet spot lay.

Simply put, alot of factors go into your memory performance.

 

[HansXP]

I agree that there is no point in adding more memory to W98. But to say that, as a general rule, if you have PC100 or PC66 or PC133, this is how much RAM your system can handle before it passes the "sweet spot" is absurd.

 

[MrHelpful]

MadRat - Somehow I get the feeling that the room you are in is wallpapered with motherboards. :Q

 

[SpeedTrap]

512MB works fine, get what you want

 

[VBboy]

Uhh YES. You can turn off the nasty slow Swap file and use only the physical memory. You cannot (should not) do it with only 256 MB RAM because most multimedia applications and games (which I do not consider to be multimedia applications ) need memory 5x or 10x larger than the size of the file you open (Photoshop, Paint Shop, etc).

 

[VBboy]

I wouldn't recommend upgrading to Win2K - if you have a slower machine it will make it seem even slower. Win ME is weaker but crashes a LOT less (almost never here) than Win9x, and is faster and less memory-intensive than Win2K. I am personally running Windows Whistler Professional (aka WinXP) and it rocks. (I beta-test for Microsoft, so don't go calling the piracy hotline )

It's friendlier than Win2K and more stable than any Windows OS I've ever tried.. well, maybe not more stable than Win 3.11 for Workgroups... Just kidding

 

[VBboy]

Don't forget that in BIOS you probably set AGP memory allocation to 64 MB, meaning you will lose up to 64 MB of your RAM when a game or another program requests it.

 

[VBboy]

Don't remember anyone mentioning this here.. Some chipsets only support caching of 64 MB of RAM (although I'm sure you have a somewhat newer machine ) In that case, performance will suffer by a few percent if the program uses memory over the 64 MB because the computer will not be able to cache it.

 

[BFG10K]

There's no benefit to having 512 MB over 256 MB in current games.

 

[VBboy]

BFG10K

<< There's no benefit to having 512 MB over 256 MB in current games. >>


For one thing, you have Windows and all its drivers and services, as well as an antivirus program running in background, which can up 64 MB or more. So you already have 256 MB - 64 MB = 192 MB. Say you don't like closing your 5 open Web browsers and Windows Exploirer windows, and that's another say 30 MB because of the IE's memory cache. Now you have 192 - 30 = 162. If you have an AGP videocard with little memory, it may use say 30 MB of system memory in many games. And you have 162 - 30 = 132 MB RAM left.

What, you have a 1280x1024 wallpaper? That's another 5 MB. A few programs crashed and leaked some memory? 20 MB Now you have ~ 100 MB RAM left.

I want more than 100 MB of free RAM

 

[VBboy]

Don't forget that 256 MB DDR memory is like having 512 MB of regular memory.

Just kidding

 

[bozo1]

<< Don't forget that 256 MB DDR memory is like having 512 MB of regular memory >>



huh?

Oh, nevermind. I didn't see your &quot;just kidding&quot; remark!

 

[Sugadaddy]

<< Don't forget that 256 MB DDR memory is like having 512 MB of regular memory. >>



bah, just get 32MB of PC800 RDRAM, the speed makes it equal to like 256MB of ordinary ram...

 

[cbuchach]

LOL SugaDaddy!!!!

 

[jeffrey]

If this is under 98SE you won't get your money's worth out of 512mb of RAM. I'd stick with 256mb or even 384mb if you just have to have more than 256mb.