How Much RAM is too much RAM?

[Phjorg]

I read this great benchmark over a year ago and I thought the results were quite amazing...

Anyway, this site took all the RAM hungry apps out there (photoshop, 3d studio, etc) and did benchmarks with them and see how adding ram improved performance with win98. here a general breakdown of how the results worked... (*note - these aren't the actual results, just my interpretation of how they were, if i can find the site i'll post it here)

032Mb - 10
064Mb - 20
096Mb - 29
128Mb - 38
192Mb - 50
256Mb - 56
512Mb - 59

see what's happening here? Sure, if you have 512Mb of RAM every little bit of it is being used. But what's the point of having it if by doubling them ram from 256 to 512MB only give you less than a <b>5%</b> performance increase in return?!?!? Simply put, the win98 sweet spot performance for $ is right around 196Mb. For every increase after that, it's a case of deminishing returns..

[FlyingPenguin]

It depends on HOW you use Photoshop. A complex image with dozens of layers (like when I do a graphic layout for a web page) can easily use 100 Mb of ram. Often I'll have several images loaded. Then some filters also use a massive amount of ram while they run.

If you do web work like I do you also likely run Photoshop AND Image Ready at the same time and that's another 75 Mb or so.

I have an app called TClockEX that shows how much free mainboard ram is available while I'm working. On my 512Mb system, it's not unusual to see this fall to below 50 Mb when I'm working on a web page design with Image Ready, Photoshop, a web page editor, 3 or 4 browsers, and an FTP client all open at the same time.

Believe me - run a complex filter when you're skirting low on memory and things slow to a crawl. The whole reason I'm running Win2K is so I can do something else WHILE one app is number crunching. But if you're out of ram and using virtual memory, multitasking is pretty much hopeless.

I agree that for the average Win9x user 196Mb is more than enough (I'd want more for Win2K), Few games out right npw really improve in performance with over 128 Mb with the exception of Q3, but I suspect that will change in the near future.

[Edited by FlyingPenguin on 04-10-2001 at 08:43 AM]

[hammer01]

I also use Win2k and a CAD/CAM program called Unigraphics ver 16 and this thing will use as much ram as I want to throw at it, 256 is not enough and w/ 512 I am forced to shut down the program at least 2-3 times a day. I realize that this is extreme but this is a situation where 768-1024 meg of ram would be the exception. Just thought I would throw that in.

[FlyingPenguin]

Again, not everyone is a power user - most people never open more than one program at a time (especially in Win9x) but I would guess that most PcAbusers are at least a bit of a power user as well.

Here's a link to real screen shot from my desktop this morning. I'm working on a web page for a medical uniform store and this is pretty typical of what I have running when I work:

http://soldcentralfl.com/bob/desktop2.jpg

Lotus Organizer (always running even when I play games)
Bikini Photo of the day app (gotta have that)
Frontpage
Photoshop
Three instances of IE
Netscape
FTP Client
Clipart library
Outlook Express
Winamp (gotta have that baroque classical while I work)
Word (I keep notes on the design in Word)

If I was working on a site with CGI scripting I'd also have several instances a programmer's text editor running.

Look in the lower right hand corner to the right of the clock (TClockEx gives you a full feature clock with date and day of the week, as well as the available ram display) and notice that on this 512Mb system I'm down to 94 Mb free. So you know, with nothing running except the browser I'm using to type this post, I have 375 Mb free (yes, Win2K uses 128Mb just to run itself! Which is why I consider 256Mb the BARE minimum for a Win2K system).

TClockEx is very handy. I used to keep the resource meter running on the taskbar when I used Win98 but this is more useful. When free ram gets below 100 Mb Photoshop starts getting sluggish and if need be I'll close something if I want to run a filter that I know wants a lot of ram. Besides, I can't tell you how nifty it is to have the date available on the taskbar.

It's free and you can find it here: http://users.iafrica.com/d/da/dalen/

[b-man1]

fp-

what's up w/ 128mb for w2k? all of my systems show (in task manager) around 55-60MB just for w2k (pro) to run.

are you running w2k server or something? it sounds like you have a bunch of extra services running??

my memory utilization will go to about 105MB when i have IE, SETI, and virus scan running at the same time.


just curious!

[wvjohn]

our pcs at work are win98 hp brio 500 mhz katmai which came with 96 mb ram! these things had so much disk access they sounded like blenders! i pulled the 32 mb stick and put in 128 for 196 total and the disk access essentially stopped - swapped the 128 for a 256 (the damn cheap ram prices!)which hasn't made it home yet, and about the same disk access but now i can run 2x seti command line client in the background without any slowdown - this machine is used primarily for surfing and wp

on my home rig, 800e@992 512mb seemed to make it much smoother in games and when running multiple apps, such as photo editing proggies. I've been able to find good crucial or micron pc 133 256mb cas 2 stuff for ~95 - so there's really no reason to use less.

all the other puters in the house are currently running 256mb and seem happy.

[FlyingPenguin]

B-MAN1: Dunno how you're getting such a low figure. Running Win2K Pro here, standard services, and Task Manager shows 117Mb of ram in use with no windows running.

Not just this computer either. When I used to work at an office, my Win2K pro workstation there also never showed less than 100 Mb in use with nothing running.

Shouldn't be suprising - NT Workstation is about 76 and NT Server closer to 100.

[nexus_7]

my stuff is in line with that goofy bird that can fly. about 110. I have one system with 512 megs. it is a singel dimm I picked up for $140 shipped. so what if it is cas3 it is still pc133 and for thta price sweet! that will last me a LONG time!

Greg

[b-man1]

http://paradigmy2k.homestead.com/taskmanager.html

this is a puny c633 w/ 196mb ram...standard w2k pro install with all updates from MS. i haven't tweaked any of the services, etc.

59MB usage at idle with only the screenshot program running.

my main system at home is similar, but has more background apps (virus, seti, etc)...so the usage is around 80MB.