Added more memory

[Marty]

Just wanted to post this, if anyone out there is contemplating
increasing memory on their machines and not sure it is worth it.



Installed Win 7 in Nov and for the most part liked what I
saw. I had only (!!! I remember 256KB but that's another story) 1 GB
memory installed and performance was OK.

Just upgraded to 2GB and what an improvement. Startup is 50% faster
as is shut down.

Application Windows open faster and all around performance is great.

 

[Jeff]

Just wanted to post this, if anyone out there is contemplating
increasing memory on their machines and not sure it is worth it.



Installed Win 7 in Nov and for the most part liked what I
saw. I had only (!!! I remember 256KB but that's another story) 1 GB
memory installed and performance was OK.

Just upgraded to 2GB and what an improvement. Startup is 50% faster
as is shut down.

Application Windows open faster and all around performance is great.

I have a new laptop with W 7 64 bit which came with 6 G. It really
flies. Memory is said to be more important than the processor but you
need 64 bit to access more than 3-4G of RAM.
Jeff

 

[Ophelia]

Just wanted to post this, if anyone out there is contemplating
increasing memory on their machines and not sure it is worth it.



Installed Win 7 in Nov and for the most part liked what I
saw. I had only (!!! I remember 256KB but that's another story) 1 GB
memory installed and performance was OK.

Just upgraded to 2GB and what an improvement. Startup is 50% faster
as is shut down.

Application Windows open faster and all around performance is great.

Thanks for sharing, Marty

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a new laptop with W 7 64 bit which came with 6 G. It really
flies. Memory is said to be more important than the processor

Assuming that the processor is at least of some decent speed, yes
that's generally true. But be aware that adding more memory is
beneficial only up to a certain point, and where that point is depends
on what apps you run. 6GB of RAM is more than most people can make
effective use of. Only those who run particularly memory-hungry apps
will see a benefit with that much.

but you
need 64 bit to access more than 3-4G of RAM.

Yes, but let me clarify what the situation is:

All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP/7) have a 4GB
address space (64-bit versions can use much more). That's the
theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go.

But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
3.1GB.

Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
RAM itself. If you have a greater amount of RAM, the rest of the RAM
goes unused because there is no address space to map it to.

 

[Jeff]

Assuming that the processor is at least of some decent speed, yes
that's generally true. But be aware that adding more memory is
beneficial only up to a certain point, and where that point is depends
on what apps you run. 6GB of RAM is more than most people can make
effective use of. Only those who run particularly memory-hungry apps
will see a benefit with that much.




Yes, but let me clarify what the situation is:

All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP/7) have a 4GB
address space (64-bit versions can use much more). That's the
theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go.

But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
3.1GB.

Note that the hardware is using the address *space*, not the actual
RAM itself. If you have a greater amount of RAM, the rest of the RAM
goes unused because there is no address space to map it to.

I am assuming that because this is 64 bit W 7 that my apps can use the
extra ram. Correct? I use a lot of graphic programs and have noticed
much speeding up in using them.

(I did not add ram. The laptop came with 6 G).

Jeff

 

[Van Chocstraw]

Just wanted to post this, if anyone out there is contemplating
increasing memory on their machines and not sure it is worth it.



Installed Win 7 in Nov and for the most part liked what I
saw. I had only (!!! I remember 256KB but that's another story) 1 GB
memory installed and performance was OK.

Just upgraded to 2GB and what an improvement. Startup is 50% faster
as is shut down.

Application Windows open faster and all around performance is great.

4 gig of ram with a 64 dual core processor and 64 bit WIndows 7 moves
along fairly fast.

 

[XS11E]

(I did not add ram. The laptop came with 6 G).

New laptops and desktops with 6 or 8 G of ram are becoming fairly
common. I see that as VERY good news, it means you needn't upgrade
your new PC in order to use it and it means it'll be good for future
software.

My last laptop came with 512 M of ram and needed an immediate upgrade,
that was typical a couple of years ago.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am assuming that because this is 64 bit W 7 that my apps can use the
extra ram. Correct?

Because it's 64-bit, yes. The fact that it;s Windows 7 is not
relevant.

I use a lot of graphic programs and have noticed
much speeding up in using them.

Yes, graphics programs are among those *most* likely to be able to
make good use of such a large amount of RAM. They are examples of what
I meant by "memory-hungry" above.

 

[Al Smith]

I am assuming that because this is 64 bit W 7 that my apps can use the
extra ram. Correct? I use a lot of graphic programs and have noticed
much speeding up in using them.

(I did not add ram. The laptop came with 6 G).

Jeff

I've got 9 Gigs of tri-RAM, and I haven't really noticed any
performance wonders. I think more than 4 Gigs ran only makes a big
difference when programs are optimized to use it -- otherwise, it
doesn't do much. So I've read, anyway.

-Al-

 

[Chris Ahlstrom]

Ken Blake, MVP pulled this Usenet boner:

Assuming that the processor is at least of some decent speed, yes
that's generally true. But be aware that adding more memory is
beneficial only up to a certain point, and where that point is depends
on what apps you run. 6GB of RAM is more than most people can make
effective use of. Only those who run particularly memory-hungry apps
will see a benefit with that much.

Or those who run their 64-bit Linux boxes all day and all night:

top - 18:12:09 up 39 days, 4:57, 2 users, load average: 0.07, 0.04, 0.00
Tasks: 148 total, 2 running, 145 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 2.5%us, 0.5%sy, 0.0%ni, 97.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 4062936k total, 4036468k used, 26468k free, 221872k buffers
Swap: 1951888k total, 56k used, 1951832k free, 3374436k cached

Aggressive memory caching... ;->

Yes, but let me clarify what the situation is:

All 32-bit client versions of Windows (not just Vista/XP/7) have a 4GB
address space (64-bit versions can use much more). That's the
theoretical upper limit beyond which you can not go.

But you can't use the entire 4GB of address space. Even though you
have a 4GB address space, you can only use *around* 3.1GB of RAM.
That's because some of that space is used by hardware and is not
available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but can
range from as little as 2GB to as much as 3.5GB. It's usually around
3.1GB.

I will say that I generally like 64-bits, especially in Linux. Hardly any
use for ia32-libs these days.

In Windows, there's still a lot of 32-bit code around. Nonetheless, Win 7
64-bit ain't too bad.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken Blake, MVP pulled this Usenet boner:


Or those who run their 64-bit Linux boxes all day and all night:

The subject here is Windows 7. What happens in Linux is completely
irrelevant.

 

[Chris Ahlstrom]

Ken Blake, MVP pulled this Usenet boner:

The subject here is Windows 7. What happens in Linux is completely
irrelevant.

Steve Ballmer himself must have pinned the MVP medal on this
stuffed shirt!

--
The bone-chilling scream split the warm summer night in two, the first
half being before the scream when it was fairly balmy and calm and
pleasant, the second half still balmy and quite pleasant for those who
hadn't heard the scream at all, but not calm or balmy or even very nice
for those who did hear the scream, discounting the little period of time
during the actual scream itself when your ears might have been hearing it
but your brain wasn't reacting yet to let you know.
-- Winning sentence, 1986 Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest.

 

[chrisv]

Ken Blake, MVP pulled this Usenet boner:

Steve Ballmer himself must have pinned the MVP medal on this
stuffed shirt!

I wonder if "Hadron" will go after him for bragging about being an
"MVP". :-D

Actually, the thought of an "MVP" probably gets "Hadron" slippery.

 

[Chris Ahlstrom]

chrisv pulled this Usenet boner:

I wonder if "Hadron" will go after him for bragging about being an
"MVP". :-D

Actually, the thought of an "MVP" probably gets "Hadron" slippery.

"Hadron" will now post constantly about how I "continually"
call "fellow Windows developers" "bad names".

 

[Lee Waun]

Ken Blake, MVP pulled this Usenet boner:


Steve Ballmer himself must have pinned the MVP medal on this
stuffed shirt!

--
The bone-chilling scream split the warm summer night in two, the first
half being before the scream when it was fairly balmy and calm and
pleasant, the second half still balmy and quite pleasant for those who
hadn't heard the scream at all, but not calm or balmy or even very nice
for those who did hear the scream, discounting the little period of time
during the actual scream itself when your ears might have been hearing it
but your brain wasn't reacting yet to let you know.
-- Winning sentence, 1986 Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest.

PLONK

 

[Pulse]

No kidding. The minimum for decent Windows 7 performance is about 2GB RAM.
Less and it starts to slow down noticeably.

 

[Guest]

I am married and get laid whenever I want.

I doubt that.
But if you are, show your wife your juvenile posts, I bet she will be
embarrassed to be even associated with you.