How much memory do you really need?

[Marc4]

Is it worth it to buy an extra 256 megs of ram, to add to my 256 megs? Or is it just a waste of time and money?

Someone told me that after you get to 256, it's pretty much useless if you spend the extra cash to get more ram. Is this true?

 

[Boonesmi]

two ways to look at the question, first..... it all depends on what apps you run, or how many you run at a time

second, 4 years ago everyone said that anything over 16mb was more then you would need, and had little or not advantage, and they were right!!!! but that was 4 years ago

hopefully you get the idea even if you dont need 512mb now you may need it in the future. and with the prices of memory its a great time to buy,

if you wanted to buy 256mb of edo memory today it would cost you an arm and leg

 

[Marc4]

I generally use my computer to play games, mostly Q3A. But I can see your point. Just not sure If I want to spend an extra 95 bucks for some more ram.

 

[Supradude]

as said above, it's dirt cheap right now, so if your thinking about it, you might as well do it... it can only aid in performance to have more

 

[Noriaki]

It depends on a lot of things.

In Win2000 I would say 256MB is the "Sweet spot"
In Win98/NT4 I would say 128MB is the "Sweet spot"

If you are doing graphics design or anything like that, depending on how complex it is, you could want gigs....

As for you for gaming and what not, it depends how long you plan to stay with SDRAM.

If you think you'll still use SDRAM a year from now I'd go up to 512MB while it's cheap.
If you think you'll move to DDR or Rambus before then I'd stay with 256MB, I think it will be at least 8-12months before games show any imporovement with more than 256MB of RAM, and even longer before they *need* more than 256MB.

 

[Jex]

All that has been said is true. I have 512 MB and I would recommend it. Plus, I've been told that if you have a ton of extra RAM in Win2k that it will take some of that that you don't normally use and make a swap drive out of it to speed up general operations.

 

[MCS]

I have 512MB and under Windows 2000 and more recently Windows XP it does make a difference. Even under 98 its useful because on boot up I have about 380MB free and no matter what I run Windows does not touch the swap file, which stays at 0MB. This increases performance obviously.

 

[lilnnjaboy]

OK memory for Win 98. 256 MB is the prefect amount. Anything more will just hang around and in some cases will slow your computer down. This is what makes Windows such a horrible operating system. It doesn't utilize memory very well. It will rather use the virtual memory then hardware memory. So if you have 512 in Win98, it might only use up to 256. I'm running 2000 server with 640. After 512, I dont' really see a difference. Unless I was seriously multi-tasking my system, it's not very necessary.

I would buy the extra memory for the hell of it cuz it's so cheap, and if there is another earthquake in taiwan or some shortage....prices will double if not triple.

 

[rommel]

well depends...but having enough to remember to put your clothes on before you leave the house is prolly good

 

[birddog]

If you run win 2K, it may be worth it. If you are on 98, it will not do much good at all.