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Optimum RAM for Win98

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9 replies

by lynne

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At what point is the threshhold reached where adding more RAM to a Windows 98 box won't give any additional benefit. With the price of RAM so attractive right now, I want to be sure that I'd don't over buy! I'm thinking the number is 256 but wouldbe interested in links to documents that describe testing of this.

9 replies

by carryon

Hi Lynne Just upgrades mine to 256mb Ram all ok and was able to open up and have 12 applications running at once with out system performance being effected

Bob

by cd

It depends what you're using your PC for.
For eg., using Adobe Photoshop with 192 MB may not be enough. PC gets sluggish.
Or using many instances of Netscape and Explorer simultaneously.

However for the regular users, tests say 55% of the usersare satisfied with 64 to 128 MB.

My answer is decide what you are using your PC for and then think of how much RAM. Or buy between 128 and 256 because of the cheap price.

by dmiles

A Micrsoft-Theoretical article amount of memory supported by win98 is 512mb.
Theoretical stated qualities is that in test,system performance is impaired above 128mb.Suggested the way operating system provides memory through logical mapping,may be most optimized for 128mb and below.
Using memory above 128mb most users will tweak the settings to best optimize the memory.
Also ref.Tech question posted on Jan1,2001

by shanghai sam

Also: "The critical factor in assessing the benefits of additional RAM is
swap file usage - the actual writing out of memory pages from RAM to
the swap file and reading them back in again when they are needed.

If there is any significant amount of swap file usage then adding more
RAM will improve performance because this will reduce or even
eliminate the swap file activity completely. And RAM can be up to
1,000 times faster to access than the swap file.

Note that it is not the mereexistence of a swap file that is the key,
and not the total size of the file either. What counts is actually
writing out to or reading in from the swap file.

To asses this activity, run the System Monitor utility that comes with
Windows and use the Edit - Add function to have it track "Memory
Manager - Swap File In Use".

A small amount of reported swap file in use, say 10 megabytes or less,
can often just be routine housekeeping and not really indicate a
significant degree of writing and reading. However, when the value
gets up to 20 mb or more on a regular basis then there is pretty well
always some heavy traffic back and forth and at that point a RAM
upgrade will show some benefits."

http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?icp=GSS&slcid=us

Ron Martell
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

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