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Do I need 512mb DDR ram?

G

Gomce

Senior member
I have Gigabyte KT266A mobo, 1.4 tbird and 256 mb samsung DDR ram, using windows 2k pro, I play games, surf, etc.
Should I buy another 256mb stick or?
 
I wouldn't run less than 512MB or memory on a Win9x system or less than 1GB of memory on a Win2k/XP system. Why? Because I can!
 
I think people don't seem to notice the difference between 256 and 512 mb ram, many of the forum members have said that they only upgraded from 256 to 512 only for the heck of it
 
If you don't run into much hard drive thrashing (hd light constantly blinking) then I'd say don't bother.. What video card do you have..?
 


<< Gainward GF3 golden sample (capable of 300/600) >>



Ok, do you experience hard drive thrashing..? Do you often run MULTIPLE (like 5-6-7 more?) apps at the same time..? If neither then don't bother -- spend it elsewhere..
 
Usually you don't need more than 256mb ram unless you have multiple apps open at the same time or run 3dsm, maya, lightwave, etc. which tend to like lots of ram
 
What games do you play? Everquest/Darl Age of Camelot run a lot smoother and are more responives with more than 256MB of ram. Going to 384MB can smooth out a lot of the jerky places in those games. 512MB makes the whole game smooth, except for camelot in DAoC. The cityof camelot there is just plain bad news. Even with 768MB of ram.

So if you play a heavy 3D rendering game, adding more ram will probably help. If you don't and like was stated above, if your harddrive is not thrashing during running the game, then I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Yeah, I upgraded to 512MB just for the heck of it. And also because I got the 256MB RAM for $27 shipped from Crucial 😀
 
I'm contracting for a company that is running about 24 P3s with Win XP and 256megs of ram. They run it without problems. I'm running my computer with XP and 256 megs of ram and have no problems whatsoever
 
If you are running W2K then I would upgrade another 256 megs. Unless you run mutiple programs or huge database files there is no need for 1 gig of memory. The extra 256 megs of memory will help alot. The difference will be noticable for sure.
 


<<

<< I think people don't seem to notice the difference between 256 and 512 mb ram, many of the forum members have said that they only upgraded from 256 to 512 only for the heck of it >>



You're running Win2K now. 256MB is still enough. I saw a very basic system, though with powerful Athlon XP 1500 and only 256MB of RAM, that was running WinXP crappily slow. WinXP does need at least 512MB to function properly. Less RAM just doesn't cut it. Though, if U plan to use 2K for heck knows how long - good luck with little RAM. >>



My winXP runs beautifully with 256 megs of RAM. I have this baby so tweaked that after it's done with the initial load it consumes 99 - 109 megs of ram with nothing else running. Pretty damn sweet if you ask me. That leaves most of RAM available for use, and not tied up in stupid processes that i don't need. So i would disagree with you. A well tweaked XP system is incredibly fast on 256 megs RAM.
 
WinXP will run just fine with 256mb of RAM. Unless you use an app that is memory hungru, like Photoshop or any image manipulation program,
huge Excel files, etc..256mb is just fine.
 


<< What games do you play? Everquest/Darl Age of Camelot run a lot smoother and are more responives with more than 256MB of ram. Going to 384MB can smooth out a lot of the jerky places in those games. 512MB makes the whole game smooth, except for camelot in DAoC. The cityof camelot there is just plain bad news. Even with 768MB of ram.

So if you play a heavy 3D rendering game, adding more ram will probably help. If you don't and like was stated above, if your harddrive is not thrashing during running the game, then I wouldn't worry about it. >>



Hm, so someone on Anandtech *does* play things other than FPS's like me 🙂!
 
<<WinXP does need at least 512MB to function properly>>

I ran WinXP just fine with 256MB. If you disable most of the useless UI enhancement crap, WinXP pretty much uses the same amount of RAM as Win2K.
 


<< I have this baby so tweaked that after it's done with the initial load it consumes 99 - 109 megs of ram with nothing else running. Pretty damn sweet if you ask me. That leaves most of RAM available for use, and not tied up in stupid processes that i don't need. So i would disagree with you. A well tweaked XP system is incredibly fast on 256 megs RAM. >>


99-109MB?!? Woah... Isn't that a bit a lot? Where do you get the readings from? Task manager? I've got WinXP pro on a P3 500 with 128MB in it and it only take up like 60MB...
 
90-100 megs sounds about right...i'm not too sure which services i could shut off without causing some features to not work so i don't really bother since i have 512 RAM
 
hah, none of you stands a chance against me...

I have Win XP running on a Pentium 233MMX with Non-EDO 96mb RAM.

top that guys...
 
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