Will more memory help? Or PC100 vs DDR

safari_tim wrote on 4/14/2002, 11:12 PM

I have two 128 meg PC100 memory chips in my 1.6G P4, running Win98se.

I am thinking of changing out to a 512 DDR chip.

Will I see much differnce in performance? Will VF use the extra memory?

-Tim

Comments

Hammer45 wrote on 4/14/2002, 11:49 PM

The issue is not whether VF will use the extra memory - the issue is Win98SE will not! Win98SE does not really "see" any memory above 128 MB, although it will report it's presence. For that matter, the whole Win9x series does a very poor job of memory management.

I believe you would see a much better performance gain by upgrading to either Win2K or WinXP. Both are based on the NT kernal, and handle memory much better. Then, if you are going to add memory, I would add maybe another 128 MB. The reason is: in the interest of finding out just how much memory I was actually using, I started up every program I own. This included some real 'hogs': PhotoShop, Visio, VF, all the MS Office apps, etc. The absolute MOST memory I used running all of them at once was approx. 400 MB (I had 1 GB of physical memory installed at the time). As a result of my findings, I actually decreased the memory on my machine to 640 MB (which is still a good deal of overkill) and put the extra memory to use on other machines.

Hope you don't mind the long-winded reply - I also hope it helps.

safari_tim wrote on 4/16/2002, 4:00 PM

Thanks for the info.

I went ahead and ordered a 512 ddr chip as I cannot put any more PC100's in my system.

If I don't see any improvment, I will look into XP.

-Tim

HeeHee wrote on 4/17/2002, 4:23 PM

I am assuming you currently have PC100 SDRAM DIMMS. If so, you may not be able to use DDR memory in your system. The DDR DIMMS are physically different and are keyed so you can't place them in non-DDR memory slots, so unless you have SDRAM slots as well as DDR slots on your board you are SOL. You may be able to install PC133 memory instead if you can't get PC100. However, the PC133 will only run as fast as your system board will allow or fast as the PC100 memory already installed.

I would try to cancel your order and get the correct memory type.

safari_tim wrote on 4/17/2002, 4:54 PM

Thanks for the feedback and making sure I am on the right track.

I have checked my motherboard manual, plus I installed my motherboard myself. It's a P4 motherboard only a couple of months old.

My motherboard has both types of slots. Two slots for PC100 and two slots for DDR266. You cannot run both types at the same time, only one or the other.

I used my old memory from when I upgraded. At the time I upgraded the computer store guy said I would see a 30% increase in speed by going with the DDR.

-Tim

HeeHee wrote on 4/18/2002, 1:19 PM

Sounds like you got things covered!:)