Too Much Memory???

[raydeo]

Am running WIN98SE w/128M of memory and have been told that win98se cannot manage more than 128m properly. Has anyone found this to be true? Is there any advantage to adding more memory?? I do use this system to run MS Combat flight sim. Thanx in advance, Raydeo

 

[wyvrn]

512 is the limit according to MS. 128 is usually the sweet spot for most people, unless they are heavy into games or graphics work. You should be able to go up to 512 without problems.

 

[Syborg1211]

More ram won't help you a bunch but there will still be a tad of a difference. Most differences would be felt in high memory intensive programs and perhaps games. I don't think that game needs more ram, I could be wrong. If you've always have a bunch of stuff running to the point where your comp runs out of system resources then maybe more ram is needed, but with the prices of ram, more ram is not a bad idea. Just don't expect any huge changes.

 

[bacillus]

Win9x can theoretically support 2 GB of physical ram, and another 2 GB
of virtual ram.
In current practice, most modern m/b's and chipsets have no trouble up
to 512 MB of installed ram. At that point, and with any larger amount of ram, one should add the line MaxFileCache=512000 to the [vcache] section of system.ini to limit vcache to 512 MB, preventing runaway sizes, which can disable, or hinder, performance, by preventing other necessary processes to occur in the first 2 GB of memory.

 

[Stealth1024]

I ran Windows 98SE and ME for a while with 256MB RAM and I thought everything was just great until I switched to Win2000Pro. Now the system handles much smoother.

 

[toph99]

i had 384mb of ram with 98SE, and along with MemTurbo to free up ram, it ran very well. win98 has so many memory leaks, having this much ram and the ram scrubber allowed me to have uptimes >1 week

 

[fishingeek]

I'm running 512 in SE with out a hitch.

 

[Syborg1211]

Having extra ram won't hurt, it just won't help much

 

[Bran]

I totally disagree with you Syborg. I think that extra ram helps quite alot, especially if you only have 128MB! You might not notice so mcuh in Win98/ME, but in games (and w2k), you really do; shorter loadtimes, games run smoother etc. I'm currently running W2k Pro on a P3 1GHz, with 256RAM, and i'm considering buying at least 128 more. It's pretty nice to have that little extra amount of RAM if you have programs running in the background, such as mIRC, ICQ etc.

I'd say that you can never have to much RAM, especially since the prices are so low
Anything below 256 is pretty unacceptable with todays games, that's my opinion.

My friend upgraded from 64-192Mb and he said it felt like a whole new computer!

 

[Conroy9]

bran - but he's asking about win98, NOT win2k..

 

[Scouzer]

128m -> 256m was a MASSIVE difference for me. WW 2 Online became playable, Anarchy Online became playable, and before they were unplayable...period.

 

[Helznicht]

Major difference between 128 and 256 in Win98se, you will notice a difference with even slight multitaking. Get the extra ram, its CHEAP!

Dont let these 2K junkies brow-beat you into getting another OS because yours wont use more than 64K effectivly (this is a joke)

I agree win9x can get a bit wobbly after being up 24-7. But unless your run a server or like to have entire newsgroups local on your PC, do you really need to run your PC longer than a couple days?

 

[Trader05]

Yeah, ram is fairly cheap, even at retail! I just picked up 2 128mb sticks at Staples for $30 a piece, plus there is a $10 rebate on both!

 

[Syborg1211]

Im just voicing my experience using windows 98 and going from 128 to 256. I read an article which did all sorts of tests and stuff and the performance gain from 128 to 256 was nothing compared to the gains from 64 to 128. I agree that more ram would help a ton in the most new games that require so much but in the game he mentioned more ram won't help much

 

[Snooper]

And the gain going from 256 to 512 will be smaller still. But it is a gain. And if you play games, then you really NEED 256MB on Win98. It makes a HUGE difference. On my system (a 450PIII at the time on an Asus P2B-LS with a GeForce card and fast IDE hard drives), Mech Warrior III: Pirates moon toom from 90 seconds to over 120 seconds to load each mission. One the missions were decompressed and I could launch the mission, it ran fairly smoothly with only a few glitches. I upgraded my system by adding another 128Meg stick of RAM to increase my total to 256Megs.

The first time I ran MWIIIM, I though something was messed up! It load the mission in less than 15 seconds! I almost rebooted the computer to see if anything funny was going on during POST, but I went ahead and launched the mission. It launched. And those few glitches I had w/128Megs was gone. As for me, 256Meg is the absolute minimum for me. And when I bought my second 128Meg stick, it was $150. So dropping $15 to upgrade is such a no brainer that I wonder why we are even discussing it....

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I just purchased enough RAM to double both of my systems. S/b here tomorrow and I can't wait to try it out. I think 128-256 Mb is reasonable for most uses and more than that can be overkill.

 

[lilnnjaboy]

OK I am here to dispell all the different stories that you have heard. All of you who are talking about Win2K...you can have a gig of ram, and it wouldn't really matter.

Win98 user...anything more then 512 will actually slow your system down. MS says 512...256MB is the sweetspot for Win98. Win98 kernel has a problem utilizing that much memory...and as it was stated earlier in the forum...they have a memory leak.
Just because memory is cheap, doesn't mean that you have to upgrade. If you are planning on going to Win2K or XP...think about making the purchase for future upgrades...but for Win98 256 is the maximum I would recommend. It doesn't need more then that...after 256 it will waste ram...after 512MB...it'll make your system unstable.

 

[AMDPwred]

<< I'm running 512 in SE with out a hitch. >>



Same here.