Requesting info on "too much ram" theory

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VampiricuS

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I just recently did an upgrade. I purchased a MSI kt3 Ultra 2 non raid board with the amd xp 2000+ chip. When it came time to choose the ram, I bought the ddr 512 333mhz pc2700 Kinston ram by advice of what i read and told by a tech. I was ready to buy 2 sticks of that ram to give me at least a gig of ram.

The board specs say it supports up to 3 gigs of ram.

Here is where im confused:
Im told that if i run 2 sticks of that ram, i may do more bad than good due to something im still not clear on. too much to handle for the board, thats the reason you only find 3 slots for ram and not 4 anymore type reasons.

So am I at a safe limit? can i make ANY kind of ram upgrade, maybe even 256 stick of the same ram?

So in lamens terms or in a way, will someone be so kind as to explain how this works for me?

thanxx a lot :)
 
when i had one 256mb stick... and added a 512mb stick, i had to change my "DRAM Read Latch" in my bios from like 0 to 1... which cost me about 100 3dmarks.

the reason for this is, when you have more than one stick, it takes the motherboard a little time (1 nanosecond or so) to go from one stick, to the other.

as far as having actually too much ram (say, 1 1gb stick), i'm not sure if there is any performnce hit. someone else can probly clear that up.

if i were you. i'd just stick with 512 for now. that enough for all the newest games and most applications. if you do audio or video editing, then go ahead and get the other 512mb. you won't really notice a slowdown.
 
Right I had 768 DDR ram, a set up of 1 x 512 DDR 2 x 128 DDR

1 of the 128's went wrong and I had to take them both out as I could not work out which one was wrong, unless they both are messed up

now I have 512 until i can order another 512 stick and believe me the performance difference is odd, u can have any arrange of ram mate u won't be penilised for it by much or anything at all not noticeble anyway,

768 seams heaven now, but just bought a new joystick and round ide cables so will take me a few weeks before I can buy another 512 ram :(

-=edit=- ow yea and if 3GB is limit, well thats what the board can handle go for 3GB's mate :D I have max of 3GB too :p

SkaZZy:D
 
thanxx for the replies, it makes a bit of sense about the transfer rate from one stick to the other. Ill wait and see what other type of replies i get as well as what news i can read up on it :)
 
Well in the real world anything over 256 results in only about a 2 to 5% performance increase. Unless you're usuing your computer for some high end graphics work, 512 is more than enough.
 
Well this isn't a real answer to your question as I've sort of wondered about that myself. My reason I used to figure out why some boards have two, three or four slots was based on how much each slot could handle I don't know if this is true or not. I do know one thing at least for a little while longer most boards you see will max out at 4 gigs as that is all the processor can use based on current technology. So if anybody as a better answer goo ahead and post it. More then say 512 MB is not going to hurt you really but for most people its over kill unless you do a lot of high end graphics work or audio/video editing
 
I have a similar board/memory/cpu in my rig as you do... I started off with 512mb... and just recently got another clip of it...

differences in performance? well everything opens instantaneously... did before as well but it is noticeably smoother...

I have not noticed anything slower about my using the dual clips... my theory was I wanted to use the nforce2 boards and their dual channel... :)

anyhoo... all my benches concerning memory are quite a bit higher... the argument about too much memory slowing down your rig... dunno.. I have noticed no hits on performance...

I do a fair amount of editing et al and so yah I was using uptp 450 or so mb on my old clip so I got more memory to prevent running out of it :)
 
Maybe this was the reson: -

On systems with 512 MB or more of physical memory, the large initial size of the page file can consume excessive amounts of disk space. On a system with 1 GB of RAM, for instance, the starting page file size is 1.5 GB, and under normal circumstances it’s likely that this file will never be used. The best strategy for page-file management in this configuration is to set Initial Size to be relatively small-say, 512 MB-while setting a large maximum size so that Windows can increase the page file size if necessary.

If you install >512 Mb and are a single user running the usual stuff (not graphics editing software) going beyond 512 Mb won't be noticed.
 
Is there any noticeable difference between sdram and ddr?
 
well, i have 768mb and my pagefile is nonexistent. i turned it off about a month ago and play large games like battlefield 1942 and the ut2k3 demo... as well as have multiple windows and programs open and windows hasn't asked me to enable it yet. games and programs do load faster with it off, cuz it doesn't use your harddrive to store memory at all.

i don't think you can get away with it with 512mb, though.

just sharing. }:>
 
not really, westy1. if you switched from an sdram configuration to a ddr one, and kept the same processor and everything else, you'd get maybe a 10% increase in performance.
 
Lets just take a look at how much RAM windows XP takes up with no applications running.

After booting XP, I have 345MB/512MB of free RAM. Thats more then I will need unless I open up something like Lightwave. Bottem line? Windows is taking up about 167mb of RAM, give or take a few. But the key is that XP can run at 100% and I still have RAM to spare.

The thing is, that if I were to use 256mb of RAM, my PC would not be able to run as fast. First of all, if you subtract 167mb from 256 you will get 89mb of RAM.

Not to hot if you ask me... You really plan to run software on about 90mb of RAM ? Sure, Office might run the same along with IE, and AIM. But try playing a game or using any program that takes up RAM (ex: Photoshop). Your going to notice a big difference then, way over 2 to 5% Gus.


But seeing how some of you are pretty smart, you know that XP uses less RAM if there is less available. So out of 256mb XP might only use 120mb, or less, leaving you with quite a bit of RAM, but still not enough to make you a multi tasking guru. Plus, XP wont run as fast now that some of its features are not loaded into memmory.


Just my thoughts :-/

Still on day to day tasks you probably won't notic or care...
 
Posted by taurus
well, i have 768mb and my pagefile is nonexistent. i turned it off about a month ago and play large games like battlefield 1942 and the ut2k3 demo... as well as have multiple windows and programs open and windows hasn't asked me to enable it yet. games and programs do load faster with it off, cuz it doesn't use your harddrive to store memory at all.

i don't think you can get away with it with 512mb, though.

just sharing. }:>

You might htink that you can disable the page file in XP, you can't. It still exists as it's a vital element even if not accessed, it's just hidden. If you have 1G memory the page file is not used that often but it's part of the core of XP even if you think you have disabled it. STOP errors can't be produced without the page file.



:) :)
 
yeah, you're probly right. but disabling it keeps windows from exploiting your poor harddrive and running amok... keeps it in check, if you will. }:>

either way, i notice an increased smoothness with it disabled.
 

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