Why does my system seem more sluggish with more ram?

[Informant X]

Hey, my computer seems more sluggish with more ram. I have 2 128 Sticks of mushkin rev. 1.5. I have a Tyan Trinity mobo 133A chipset motherboard, with a celeron 466. I recently added the 2nd stick of ram to bring my total up to 256. It seems to be more "sluggish" now. Like for instance when i minimize UT it hangs up for a couple seconds. It seems worse then when i had 1 stick of ram. Is it better to have 1 256 sticks of ram then 2 128's?

BTW I use Win98.

 

[Informant X]

Lo'?

 

[bacillus]

have you actually tried benchmarking it to quantify if there is indeed any difference?

 

[Zero]

I don't think Win98 can properly manage that much RAM. But I'm not too sure.

Zero

 

[divinemartyr]

There are some other threads which will tell you how to optimize Win98/Me to take advantage of more than 128mb of ram. The first thing to do is go into your system.ini file and in the [386Enh] section add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 and make sure that you have windows set to manage virtual memory. What this does is lets windows use all available ram before going to a swap file. Windows uses a larger swap file when you have more ram so this could be part of your slowdown. With 256mb of ram you might not ever have a swapfile larger than 30-60mb.

As to your question, yes 1 stick of 256mb of ram is definitely slightly better than 2 sticks of 128. You'll notice on most configurations nowadays you can pick 1 256mb stick or at a slightly cheaper rate, 2 128mb sticks in pre-configured systems. This is because of its advantages.

dm

 

[Rellik]

Try to put the second ram stick in the third, not second ram slot. On a four slot board. it is often the case that the banks(0 for slot 1+2, 1 for 3+4) are more efficiently used if used in a 0+1 (first and third slot)config.

But in general, u should have a smoother system. try defragging your harddrive and check your swapfile. The tip with conservativeswapfile is not recommended by a lot of users and tech supports. Try to use other solutions first.

About the infamous windows limit: You can start a flame war about this, (I certainly don´t intend to) but in microsofts knowledge database, it is stated that 512 is the most it will address.

Hope this helps

 

[Taz4158]

<< I don't think Win98 can properly manage that much RAM. But I'm not too sure. >>


Then why make the statement? As for the CSFU=1 I highly recommend and use it. Compare your sytem with and without it.

 

[rbV5]

One BIG advantage of having 2 sticks of ram is that if one stick craps out, you still have ram.

The price difference is economics, 1 stick should be cheaper, it takes less material, but the price is soley determined by supply/demand, 512mb chips should be cheaper than 2 256, but the demand is less, they produce less, so 512 mb chips are more expensive.

In the long run you are better off with 1 256 mb chip because of upgrading..you only have so many slots.

 

[Taz4158]

<< One BIG advantage of having 2 sticks of ram is that if one stick craps out, you still have ram. >>


This however cannot be overlooked.

 

[Informant X]

This could start a flame war? Also, i don't understand how to do that trick thing. I'm not a Win98 guru. So could you splain in more detail?

 

[Pakman]

<< About the infamous windows limit: You can start a flame war about this, (I certainly don´t intend to) but in microsofts knowledge database, it is stated that 512 is the most it will address. >>

Does someone have a link for this? Man, I hate searching through that knowledge base.

 

[divinemartyr]

Not really a trick thing but this is the easy way to do it.

Start -> Run -> sysedit

This will bring up a window with tons of other windows in it, find the system.ini file among these windows.

Scroll down until you see [386Enh].

Once you find this section, underneath it, add the line ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1 on its own line. Click File -> Save then close it.

Reboot your system and you should be set.

dm

 

[Quickfingerz]

You should still have a permanent Swap file. I have 256 mb of ram and when I leave my computer on long enough with conservativeswapfileusage=1 i still get a swap file of 100+ megs. In that case, conservativeswapfileusage=1 will SLOW down a computer.

 

[rommel]

yeah manually force your swap files...see if that improves your situaton son...lol
system properties
performance
virtual memory
specify my own settings
minimum 150mb
maximum 170mb

and if you got alot of ram...well just do away with virtual mem all together

make sure you are runnin dma mode on your hard drive too

 

[divinemartyr]

<< You should still have a permanent Swap file. I have 256 mb of ram and when I leave my computer on long enough with conservativeswapfileusage=1 i still get a swap file of 100+ megs. In that case, conservativeswapfileusage=1 will SLOW down a computer. >>



I disagree with that statement. The larger the swap file gets, the slower windows will become. Don't set a permanent swap file usage, when I ran win98 it was VERY rare I would have a swap file, the largest I ever saw it get was about 60 mb, but that was only once, aside from this incidence, the largest it got was 35mb. A 100mb swap file will not slow down your computer.

dm

 

[Crovakiet]

If you have 256+ megs of ram, the setting &quot;ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1&quot; is a godsend(Windows will use all the physical memory it can utilize before hitting swapfile). After you set that, disable virtual memory(in order to get rid of the existing swap file ie winswp.386), restart, then reenable virtual memory(let windows manage it). After that, your swapfile(winswp.386) should be 0 bytes. You dont want windows to hit the swap file, so restart the computer when necessary to get back your lost memory due to memory leaks, etc. I have 384 megs of ram, and my computer never hits the swap file, at least for the apps I use(games, etc).

 

[Guvvy]

DM:

Perhaps you can help me regarding RAM.

My machine is old - 486 120Mhz. with only 16Mbyts of RAM

To avoid hard disk being used as &quot;virtual memory&quot; I upgraded to 64Mb of RAM.

My graphics almost ceased to function! If I 'clicked' with my mouse, something would happen in maybe 30 seconds - maybe!

Do you have any answers?

Guvvy.

 

[Informant X]

Cool, thanks. How do i check my swapfile size?

 

[Shadowian]

Pakman,

You can find the information in Article ID: Q253912.