How to have faster loading times ?

**Starforge** · 08-18-2007, 13:49

Originally Posted by mcantu

More RAM always helps. 1GB for XP; 2GB min for Vista (I have 3GB)

Programs in windows won't use more than 2GB without some unrecommended tweaking.

Long set of articles but informitive for those who are interested.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3034&p=1

Until they start writing 64bit executeables - probably not worth spending an excess of cash on memory. I put 4GB in my new box but the last 1-2 was probably waste for the next year or two.

**Tellos Athenaios** · 08-18-2007, 13:51

Hehe, but what happens when you have a 64-bit processor?
Yep, 64-bit Vista...

**Starforge** · 08-18-2007, 14:40

Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios

Hehe, but what happens when you have a 64-bit processor?
Yep, 64-bit Vista...

Doesn't matter. Programs are still written to be compatible with the 32-bit systems and will continue to be written that way for the most part for the next year or 3.

**mcantu** · 08-18-2007, 20:49

Originally Posted by Starforge

Programs in windows won't use more than 2GB without some unrecommended tweaking.

Long set of articles but informitive for those who are interested.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.aspx?i=3034&p=1

Until they start writing 64bit executeables - probably not worth spending an excess of cash on memory. I put 4GB in my new box but the last 1-2 was probably waste for the next year or two.

That refers to virtual address space not the amount of physical RAM...

**Starforge** · 08-19-2007, 01:41

Originally Posted by mcantu

That refers to virtual address space not the amount of physical RAM...

Aye, and....?

Still good to know when determining optimal physical RAM to place into the machine unless, of course, you have unlimited funds in which case disregard

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**bovi** · 08-19-2007, 06:16

Each program won't get to spend more than 2GB, but different programs can use up to 2 GB each. So you still get an advantage with more than 2 GB physical RAM.

**Starforge** · 08-19-2007, 06:54

Originally Posted by bovi

Each program won't get to spend more than 2GB, but different programs can use up to 2 GB each. So you still get an advantage with more than 2 GB physical RAM.

Well, practically, it's highly unlikely that you'll be running 2 memory intensive apps at the same time when gaming. Again - if you have the money - spend it but there's really no need to plan for more than 1 intensive app at the same time on your gaming comp.

Not going to beat this one to death, just thought I'd offer up some input if people were trying to improve how EB runs by having them not spend excess cash on something that won't actually improve performance after a point. Certainly not telling anyone what to buy or how to spend their cash. If you want to plop 8GB in your box - feel free but it's not going to make EB run faster past around the first 2GB.

**bovi** · 08-19-2007, 09:18

Since Windows' own processes easily uses 1GB, having 3 is still a good idea. 8 is overkill indeed

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**Morte66** · 08-19-2007, 09:49

Originally Posted by bovi

Since Windows' own processes easily uses 1GB

But doesn't the XP32 virtual memory scheme mostly page it out to disk after boot, leaving maybe 100-200MB in actual physical RAM? So going from 2GB to 3 or 4GB installed RAM might get your one big application from 1.8GB to 2GB in practice.

Unless you have a 64 bit OS and a program written to actually use it, a single application won't go over 2GB. In the next couple of years, I think this mostly matters to people using Adobe Photoshop on a professional level.

And unless you run two big applications at once (probably on a multi-core), say a hefty game and a high definition video encoder each wanting 1.3GB, there's not much point to having more then 2GB installed RAM on an XP32 PC.