Upgrade Advice

[aimeeandbeatles]

Or you could just put in 3GB (or 4GB), and not have to close every single program whenever you want to play a high memory-consumption game.

I thought you said high memory usage doesn't correlate with performance.

 

[Zelig]

I thought you said high memory usage doesn't correlate with performance.

Assuming you have enough memory to cover either scenario.

 

[Turner]

I have 3gb on my desktop system, and I don't think I've ever dropped below 1gb. So in my opinion, 3 is fine for 32bit XP.

 

[Jazzmail]

Or you could just put in 3GB (or 4GB), and not have to close every single program whenever you want to play a high memory-consumption game.

Yeah, so? You won't be typing any reports in word or making an spreadsheets in excel, while you are gaming.
You can keep your firewall and AVG services running, with no problems. For applications it's always a good idea to close them, before you run a demanding game. 2GB is all you need here.

 

[Zelig]

Yeah, so? You won't be typing any reports in word or making an spreadsheets in excel, while you are gaming.
You can keep your firewall and AVG services running, with no problems. For applications it's always a good idea to close them, before you run a demanding game. 2GB is all you need here.

So:

Option 1: Close everything when you want to play a game, then open it up again afterwards.

Option 2: Pay the extra $25 and don't worry about what you have to close when you feel like playing a game.

 

[Mr. Keith]

How do you know how much memory your system is using at any given time? I brought up the Windows Task Manager but I don't know how to use that data.

 

[Turner]

Click on the performance tab. There will be a Physical Memory box. That will tell you how much memory you have and is in use.

There's also freeware programs that you can d/l that will tell you what you have available.

 

[Mr. Keith]

Click on the performance tab. There will be a Physical Memory box. That will tell you how much memory you have and is in use.

So system cache is how much I am using at the moment and available, obviously, would be how much more I have access to?

 

[Turner]

System cache is recently used programs, I think. I think it's a combination of recently used programs and virtual memory. Not sure, tho.

 

[Mr. Keith]

Thanks......

 

[ainwood]

Also in "task manager", with the "process" tab selected, under the "view" menu, there is a "show columns" option. You can use this to show other data.

I have "VM size" and "peak memory usage" showing as well.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I suggest using Process Explorer instead of Task manager. Integrates nicely with windows and has so much more info.
System Cache is what Windows itself is using methinks.