I have a bunch of Unused Ram!

Trevzilla

New Member
Hey all, sorry about the "noob" question.

I just installed an extra gig of RAM in my computer, and Windows XP recognizes it being there. Since the install, I have not noticed a huge increase in performence. I recently installed the google desktop, and it has a performance analizer on it. Watching this, I've realized I'm never using much more than 40% of my available RAM. Why is this? I know unused ram is wasted ram, so how can I start using the remaining 60%?

Thanks!
 
Yeah, I'm complaining! I just spent $70 for an increase in performance. I've always heard that RAM is the cheapest upgrade for the largest performance increase, yet I haven't seen any performance increase whasoever! Maybe my performance would increase if I was using all my Ram.

Am I wrong?
 
Adding RAM to increase performace is the worst marketing ploy ever. It WILL help if you have some machine with only 64M that's basically only using virtual memory. However, if you have say 512+, there's no REAL increase in performace.

Now, if you have say 2G, you could probably disable the paging file and have no worries. If you don't have that much, then there's not much to brag about :P You could disable the paging file(I don't have it on my laptop with 512M) but you'll most certinally run out of memory when you try to play a game. Many today do require more than 1G...
 
RAM only helps performance if you overclock it and run it in dual channel...you'll need to have the SAME manufactered RAM sticks that are of equal memory. If you start mixing RAM chips together and stuff you will just see a loss in performance rather than a gain.

$70 for a RAM chip is nothing ;)
 
RAM only helps performance if you overclock it and run it in dual channel...
Not true, in what situations...??

If you start mixing RAM chips together and stuff you will just see a loss in performance rather than a gain.
That depends on what your mixing and the setup of the board.

$70 for a RAM chip is nothing ;)
If you mean that it wouls be a rubbish RAM chip for $70 then you would be incorrect, it depends where he/she got it from.
 
Back
Top