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How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 6th 15, 11:50 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
(PeteCresswell)
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Posts: 1,933
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

Asus Zenbook - came with only 4 gigs.

Sooner or later, I will have to crack the case to replace the battery
and I am thinking maybe that would be the time to kick the memory up to
8 gigs.

But how does one determine if more memory will help?

I see a *lot* of 80-90% memory usage just running the couple of apps
that I run the most (home theater and Chrome).

Is it as simple as looking for situations where memory is 100% used?

Or is it more subtle?
--
Pete Cresswell
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  #2  
Old March 6th 15, 11:59 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ken Blake, MVP[_4_]
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Posts: 1,699
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:50:57 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Asus Zenbook - came with only 4 gigs.

Sooner or later, I will have to crack the case to replace the battery
and I am thinking maybe that would be the time to kick the memory up to
8 gigs.

But how does one determine if more memory will help?




How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
RAM you have keeps you from using the page file significantly, and
that depends on what apps you run.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory
will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance.
If you are not using the page file significantly, more memory will do
nothing for you. Go to
http://billsway.com/notes%5Fpublic/winxp%5Ftweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your page file usage. That should
give you a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how
much more.

  #3  
Old March 7th 15, 02:15 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Paul
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Posts: 18,275
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Asus Zenbook - came with only 4 gigs.

Sooner or later, I will have to crack the case to replace the battery
and I am thinking maybe that would be the time to kick the memory up to
8 gigs.

But how does one determine if more memory will help?

I see a *lot* of 80-90% memory usage just running the couple of apps
that I run the most (home theater and Chrome).

Is it as simple as looking for situations where memory is 100% used?

Or is it more subtle?


On WinXP, you'd use the Commit Charge Peak, to determine
whether more memory was necessary. If the Commit Charge Peak
was larger than Available Memory, the excess is likely sitting
on the Page File.

In this article, the author of the article uses Process Explorer
as a portable way to track Commit.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussi...7/3155406.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/blogfiles/m...e_thumb_14.png

Process Explorer is available here.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...rnals/bb896653

Try View:System Information.

You can leave it running for the day.

Windows 8 has a couple of utilities of its own (Task Manager
and ResMon), but I don't know if they show that exact counter
or not.

Paul
  #4  
Old March 7th 15, 02:25 AM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
DevilsPGD[_4_]
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Posts: 152
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

In the last episode of ,
"Ken Blake, MVP" said:

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:50:57 -0500, "(PeteCresswell)"
wrote:

Asus Zenbook - came with only 4 gigs.

Sooner or later, I will have to crack the case to replace the battery
and I am thinking maybe that would be the time to kick the memory up to
8 gigs.

But how does one determine if more memory will help?


How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
RAM you have keeps you from using the page file significantly, and
that depends on what apps you run.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory
will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance.
If you are not using the page file significantly, more memory will do
nothing for you. Go to
http://billsway.com/notes%5Fpublic/winxp%5Ftweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your page file usage. That should
give you a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how
much more.


"Nothing" is a bit of a stretch, more RAM can still help because a
modern OS will use it for caching. But the effect will be moderately
minimal, whereas obviously pagefile hits cause a very significant
performance impact.

The slower your drive, and the less frequently you reboot, the more it's
worth investing in extra RAM since the penalty of a cache miss is that
much higher, whereas if you're using SSD backed storage, cache misses
are less costly.

Unfortunately monitoring and understanding cache hits and misses is more
complicated since you can't easily predict the impact of changing total
available memory, whereas pagefile hits can (mostly) be predicted if you
add RAM (as long as you don't get silly and disable the pagefile)

--
The preceding post may have contained unsuitable materials
and should not have been read by small children.
  #5  
Old March 7th 15, 02:09 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
(PeteCresswell)
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Posts: 1,933
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

Per Wolf K:
If HDD access is close to continuous, max the RAM.


In this case, it is almost continuous - even when I am running stuff
that is not opening anything from the HDD (which is 99% of the time).

Sounds to me like, for the eighty bucks the RAM costs, I should just
forget about any complex analysis and put it in.
--
Pete Cresswell
  #6  
Old March 7th 15, 03:57 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
philo
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Posts: 4,807
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On 03/07/2015 07:09 AM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per Wolf K:
If HDD access is close to continuous, max the RAM.


In this case, it is almost continuous - even when I am running stuff
that is not opening anything from the HDD (which is 99% of the time).

Sounds to me like, for the eighty bucks the RAM costs, I should just
forget about any complex analysis and put it in.




Agree totally.


In the 15 years I've been building computers I never once said:


"Doggone it, I put too much RAM in that machine."
  #7  
Old March 7th 15, 06:00 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
philo
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Posts: 4,807
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On 03/07/2015 09:21 AM, Stormin' Norman wrote:

snip
As I refuse the buy the newest, latest and greatest computers / servers, most of
what I buy is one generation old (6 months to 2 years old) and acquired through
eBay.

This means there will probably be a fair amount of compatible, used ram on eBay
and I will frequently get a great deal on the memory.

Even if my planned usage doesn't call for all the memory, I usually end up
re-purposing the machine down the road and more often than not, have found the
"extra" ram to be of value.




I consider a two year old machine "brand new" I often deal with machines
up to ten years old.


OTOH: It's often wise to get new equipment.


A friend of mine wanted me to max-out the RAM on his machine that took DDR-2


It was cheaper to just get a DDR-3 capable mobo and RAM


(I used an inexpensive all-in-one mobo with the non-replaceable CPU)
  #8  
Old March 7th 15, 07:03 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Stef
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Posts: 364
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

(PeteCresswell) wrote:

Asus Zenbook - came with only 4 gigs.

Sooner or later, I will have to crack the case to replace the battery
and I am thinking maybe that would be the time to kick the memory up to
8 gigs.

But how does one determine if more memory will help?

I see a *lot* of 80-90% memory usage just running the couple of apps
that I run the most (home theater and Chrome).

Is it as simple as looking for situations where memory is 100% used?

Or is it more subtle?


If your machine is using Virtual Memory a lot on regular basis with
only one or two apps running, you need more RAM. It's as simple as
that. You should almost never use VM. Its use should be the exception,
not the norm.

Stef

  #9  
Old March 7th 15, 07:28 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Gordon
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Posts: 309
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 22:47:33 -0500, Wolf K
wrote:

You may need another RAM if the first one didn't see the EWE turn and
ended up running over the edge of a cliff. ;-)
  #10  
Old March 7th 15, 07:45 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Gordon
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Posts: 309
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 18:33:33 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 12:28:53 -0600, Gordon wrote:

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 22:47:33 -0500, Wolf K
wrote:

You may need another RAM if the first one didn't see the EWE turn and
ended up running over the edge of a cliff. ;-)


That would be "ram" not "RAM"..............

Thanks for the correction. I never was very good as spelling those
long, complex words.

My wife just told me that I should have written U-turn, not EWE turn.
Oh, well. I'll try to avoid this kind of errors in the future.
  #11  
Old March 7th 15, 08:32 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Good Guy[_2_]
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Posts: 3,354
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On 06/03/2015 22:50, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Asus Zenbook - came with only 4 gigs.

Sooner or later, I will have to crack the case to replace the battery
and I am thinking maybe that would be the time to kick the memory up to
8 gigs.

But how does one determine if more memory will help?

I see a *lot* of 80-90% memory usage just running the couple of apps
that I run the most (home theater and Chrome).

Is it as simple as looking for situations where memory is 100% used?

Or is it more subtle?


It depends on which programs you are currently using and whether they
are 32 bit versions or 64 bit versions. If they are still 32 bit
versions then no additional amount of ram will help because the programs
won't be able to access any more ram than 3GB. This is the case even if
you are on a 64 bit machine because programs are also required to be 64
bit versions.

If you are using 64 bit applications then clearly some programs would
benefit. Adobe programs (CC, Photoshop, PSE 13 etc) would benefit from
8 GB ram because they are 64 bit versions and they are programmed to use
additional ram.

If you are still using the old versions of Microsoft Applications then
clearly additional ram won't be useful here.

Hope this helps.


  #12  
Old March 7th 15, 08:48 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Gene E. Bloch[_2_]
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Posts: 7,485
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 19:34:33 +0000, Stormin' Norman wrote:

On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 12:45:02 -0600, Gordon wrote:

On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 18:33:33 +0000, Stormin' Norman
wrote:

On Sat, 07 Mar 2015 12:28:53 -0600, Gordon wrote:

On Fri, 06 Mar 2015 22:47:33 -0500, Wolf K
wrote:

You may need another RAM if the first one didn't see the EWE turn and
ended up running over the edge of a cliff. ;-)

That would be "ram" not "RAM"..............

Thanks for the correction. I never was very good as spelling those
long, complex words.

My wife just told me that I should have written U-turn, not EWE turn.
Oh, well. I'll try to avoid this kind of errors in the future.


No, if you had used her suggestion of "U-turn" the pun would have been too
sophisticated for many.


Actually, Gordon's part of the discussion is off-topic here. It should
be in one of the alt.satellite.gps* newsgroups, where bad navigation is
on topic.

I think I might have missed the pun if he had said U-turn (said he,
sheepishly). Sometimes my brain makes its own kind of U-turn...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)
  #13  
Old March 7th 15, 10:05 PM posted to alt.comp.os.windows-8
Ken Blake, MVP[_4_]
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Posts: 1,699
Default How To Determine If More RAM Will Help?

On Sat, 7 Mar 2015 11:48:57 -0800, "Gene E. Bloch"
wrote:


I think I might have missed the pun if he had said U-turn (said he,
sheepishly).




I never gnu ewe were that sheepish.
 




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