I have 512MB of RAM in my system... can I disable Virtual Memory?

[Whitedog]

Ah, It's all in good Fun Right BFG?

 

[Blackhawk2]

This is a good free program to leave running Rambooster it takes very little cpu & system resources, imo it is one of the best if not the best that I've found out there.

 

[BFG10K]

From that 2GB article:

Although Windows 95 has the ability to address up to four GB of virtual memory, it can access and use only two GB or less of physical RAM.

I knew I had read 4 GB somewhere. A 32 bit CPU can access up to 4 GB of memory in total, hence any 32 bit OS must be able to handle this as well.

The 768 MB problem must be related to the 512 MB problem, both of which can be fixed by tweaking the disk cache and/or the APG aperture size.

Also lets not forget the RAM problems old motherboards had. A lot of the older boards had problems handling Windows 95's memory addressing so they had a limit as to how much RAM they could make available for Windows to use.

This problem was incorrectly diagnosed as a fault with Windows instead of a problem with the hardware. Those problems have since been fixed but that 768 MB article might be referring to a situation of this nature.

Whitedog:

Ah, It's all in good Fun Right BFG?

Well, it would certainly help if we didn't have contradicting articles.

 

[StanTheMan]

4 gigabyte comes from 2 to the power of 32 = 4gigabyte

 

[sitka]

No Probs Whitedog...
There was some stuff I didn't quite understand but I liked how the guy included all settings even the ones that don't do anything.

Once again

Win2K Mem Tweaks and info LINK-A-ROO

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

Man i miss my good old win 95. it was so damn fast compared to this sluggish win 98se. Too bad it aint compatible with anything anymore. i still think it has a faster kernel, everything loads up much quicker.

 

[JellyBaby]

<< Man i miss my good old win 95. it was so damn fast compared to this sluggish win 98se. >>

Sudheer Anne,

You want speed? Revert to Windows 3.11 and 16-bit apps. They blaze at today's system speeds.

 

[BowDown]

Ya, or play some old dos games .

I loaded DOS 6.22 on my RAID before I loaded Win2k Pro. I'm going to load up Win3.11 just for kicks .

Any on know where I can find Geforce2MX Drivers for Win3.11? LOL! How about SBLive Platinum Drivers?

 

[BowDown]

Oh ya... that reminds me; anyone have Win3.11 around? On CD or Disk?

LMK...

 

[sharkeeper]

nVidia doesn't have drivers for Win 3.x!

I remember using 128 MB with Windows 95A back in 1996. I only saw 64 MB in the system properties page until I removed himem.sys from config.sys...

If you like 98 and want 95 speed, give 98 lite a try.

Cheers!

 

[johneetrash]

hmm... didnt read all replies..too lazy.. but you can track how much windows uses your swap file, and then set your swap file accordingly.

here

 

[Davegod75]

whitedog...I'm running w2k and i just put in my 512mb ram and set my pagefile to 20 mb. But sandra and windows are still reporting the size of the swap file to be 500mb. ??? What's the deal?

 

[Whitedog]

I wouldn't set the min swap file size to 20. I only did that for testing. Unless you do some tweaking, I'd set minimum to 100. It doesn't really matter anyway. It's only going to use what it needs to. Even if the file is 500 megs (which is rediculous) it's only going to use part of it.

It should reset to the minimum size after you reboot?

sandra? I don't know what that is?

 

[Davegod75]

sisoft sandra. It's a benchmarking program. When i go to accessories->system information it says the swap file is 500mb also....I did reset. I will try the 100mb thing.

 

[rommel]

for gaming hercules suggest that you set the minimum to 150 andd the maximum to 170.

 

[AMDfreak]

<< VM is No big deal when we are talking 6-50 MB's. These people that use 256MB of VM are insane! >>



Normally I would agree with you, but I've actually found it necessary to run 256MB of VM. My only reason is Everquest(the online game). With much less, I get an error that there is not enough VM and Windows will adjust to compensate. I know, I know, I've heard all the arguments about running games on a business OS, but isn't that what Whistler (read consumer Win2K) is supposed to be able to do.........

I just set it to a fixed 256 and have not noticed any performance difference between that and 100MB, and the game likes me a little better.

 

[Whitedog]

I guess in all reality when we are talking about windows 2000, it's not really going to matter what you have your file size set at. Windows is only going to use what it needs and the rest just sits there taking up space... I mean, windows 2000 rox when it comes to mem management! So that leaves us with the only question of &quot;how much of my hard drive do I want to giveup for a pagefile.&quot; I suppose if you have 20 gigs, a few hundred megs will Never be missed.

I give up on 9x... :| You guys that still think you need to run 9x do what you want. hehe

 

[Zucchini]

So really, where is the proof that windows 98se and lower can't &quot;manage&quot; over 128mb? I'm convinced it can use more, but whether it effectively frees up mem i'm fuzzy on. I'd love to use win me, but i'm stuck using old diamond supra drivers that manage my dual modem connection.(diamond went out of business, so no updates).

Of course i could upgrade to win ME if there were some way to setup my modem to automatically connect and reconnect my 2 lines as needed. (its a suprasonic II by the way).

 

[Davegod75]

ok ..that is most likely the case it's just annoying that is says it 500mb....ALSO is there a file you can look for that the pagefile is on w2k. I tried searching for pagefile.sys and win386.swp and they aren't on my w2k box.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Zuc, I think they finally admitted that it does handle more than 128MB, and even if he didn't, I can guarantee you that not only does Win9x handle more than 128MB JUST FINE, I also never had problems with it releasing memory, but it may only release as you need it. There are memory &quot;defraggers&quot; (major misnomer) which will force it to release earlier which may improve performance, or may not. I found that they didn't make a difference, so I opted not to use them. I ran Win95 with 192MB of RAM for an extended period of time, and I had 256 for about a month. Memory management was never an issue.
Now I'm using Win2k, no more 95.

 

[Zucchini]

ah k, i just bought more ram for a total of 384 Sounds almost absurd thinking back, but the stuff is so darn cheap now

 

[hungrypete]

my .02
more confused than ever about swap files

I run our Nt4 WS at work with huge (300-500) mb swapfiles cuz idiot users will open every friggin thing on there (64megs in most machines)
I try to have 300-400 total memory (physical+swap) for the machine. That's kinda what alot of people seem to be saying in a roundabout way.

i think whitedog has some valid points but he needs some *official* links to the 128mb thing.

bfg sounds like hes attacking whitey even though he may well be more *correct* about some things.

make love, not war, or something cheezy like that i guess!

 

[Whitedog]

hungrypete, I just want to say I'm not out to prove anyone wrong, or prove myself right.
I don't &quot;need&quot; anything &quot;official&quot; hehe Take what I say for what it's worth. If it's not worth anything to you, so be it, if it helps you, good.
I just tell people what &quot;I know from my own experiences&quot;. If I say something that is down right false and someone corrects me, I yeild. If I say something &quot;contravercial&quot; and someone claims it &quot;false&quot; rather than disagree, I ignore. It's a simple philosophy. I'm with you, I don't like confrontations either.

Davegod75, win386.swp is a 9x file, Windows 2000 uses pagefile.sys and you'll most likely find it in Root of the drive you have specified. You'll have to turn off &quot;protected operating system files&quot; in order to see it.

 

[BFG10K]

4 gigabyte comes from 2 to the power of 32 = 4gigabyte

Yeah no kidding.

 

[Davegod75]

aight i'm looking on more last time....