Is more RAM better even if it goes unused?

[lorkp]

When I'm encoding video on my current system, my system uses about 512MB of RAM. Since it's not using all of the 1GB I have, does that mean that mean adding more RAM would be of no benefit to this particular process?

 

[HannibalX]

That is correct.

If you don't use the extra ram you don't need it.

I have 3GB of ram so I am ready for Vista. I like to be prepared. The Vista beta idles at about 500MB usage. If I run BF2 it jumps to 1.5GB usesd.

 

[mb]

I don't think more RAM will help you unless maybe your system is unusable while encoding.

If your goal is to increase your video encoding performance, I don't think you'll be able to squeeze much more performance out of your current build without upgrading. I was going to suggest overclocking higher, but I don't know if your power supply or motherboard can handle much more, and you may need a better CPU cooler since I don't know what you're using now.

You could probably get away with upgrading to a socket 939 AMD X2 processor (X2 3800+ is $152 at newegg at the moment) without upgrading anything else and see higher performance.

If you really want to go all out, get a Conroe CPU (E6300 is cheapest), a new mobo ($150-200 range probably), new power supply (should be doable for under $100), a big HSF if needed ($35-60 there), and DDR2 RAM ($100-175) and overclock the hell out if it 😀

 

[bendixG15]

Video work is a CPU opertion...most guys quit at 1 gig even though they only use 512.
One trick is to use two hard drives, read on one and write to the other

For faster, you need to kickup the CPU...

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: Trinitron
That is correct.

If you don't use the extra ram you don't need it.

I have 3GB of ram so I am ready for Vista. I like to be prepared. The Vista beta idles at about 500MB usage. If I run BF2 it jumps to 1.5GB usesd.

And you think the beta is an accurate representation of how the finalized OS will run? The beta is bloated with tons of debugging code and crap that is not optomized in the least. In short Vista beta sucks hard.

 

[imported_goku]

Originally posted by: cmdrdredd

Originally posted by: Trinitron
That is correct.

If you don't use the extra ram you don't need it.

I have 3GB of ram so I am ready for Vista. I like to be prepared. The Vista beta idles at about 500MB usage. If I run BF2 it jumps to 1.5GB usesd.

And you think the beta is an accurate representation of how the finalized OS will run? The beta is bloated with tons of debugging code and crap that is not optomized in the least. In short Vista beta sucks hard.

I ran XP beta back in the day, while it was a bit buggy, it did use about the same amount of ram as XP does now, I forsee that vista will be 4X as bloated as XP is now, :thumbsup: to microsoft for making bloated software.