98se and amount of ram

[Coyote]

Doom III got me thinking more about this. 98se is suppose to have problems with poor memory management and amounts of ram over 512MB (which is what I've got).

Given that some of the recent games perform better with 768MB or more, I'm wondering if adding more to my 98se rig will actually help.

From what I can see by researching this on-n-off the past year:

1)There is an adjustment one can make to vcache for amounts of ram over 512MB

2) Some people use more than 512MB in their 98 ( even first edition) rig w/o probs.

3) Found a Tech site googling this where they claim performance flattened out for amounts of ram in excess of 160MB (odd number?). In other words, ram in amounts higher than that provide little/no benefit.

Since I can't seem to find sites that cater to 98se, I thought I'd do my own investigation/benchies.

FPS differences in games for varing amounts of ram would be a good indication, I think. I'm guessing FRAPS w/b the proggie to use here.

Would a proggie like Sandra be good for testing mem bandwith. If so, would that be significant? Again, all I really care about is gaming performance.

Will prolly get around to benching against XP, but that w/b later. BTW, please don't post about switching to XP, I tried it on my rig (dual boot setup) earlier this year. This is, to my thinking, more of an acedemic-type attempt to get some solid answers on 98se with today's hardware.

Thanks,

Mobile XP 2600+ (11X200)
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
BBA 9800 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE

 

[4Ryan6]

Hey Dude!, How've you been doing?

It'll be interesting to see just what you discover here with the test you're going to do so below is something I believe will be most helpful to you, taken from the Emulators website, about running more RAM in Win98.

Hope all is well! I'll check back later! Ryan

Windows 9x/Me memory management tips

JANUARY 15 2002

I've mentioned a number of times in the past the various problems with 16-bit Windows memory management, caused by limitations in the underlying DOS operating system. Limitations that those of us using Windows NT/2000/XP don't have to worry about (we just have Code Red to worry about!) but limitations which still affect millions of Windows 98 and Windows Me users.

Especially with RAM being so inexpensive and people upgrading their PCs to hundreds of megabytes, one thing I keep pointing out is to avoid loading up too much memory on a DOS machine, since DOS (and Windows 95/98/Me) actually don't handle large amounts of memory very well. Anything over 512 megabytes, and you'll have problems.

A very alert reader, Matija Krnic from Croatia, sent me this great tip. And you thought Croatians were just good at basketball! Think again. I'll let Matija just explain...

> ... vcache ... can't
> handle anything above 512 MB of memory. however, the trick is easily
> solved: edit system.ini in the [vcache] section and limit the
> maximum file cache, like this:
> [vcache]
> MinFileCache=16384
> MaxFileCache=524288
> or substitute 512*1024=524288 with a smaller value, just to
> be sure; 384 MB sounds nice, so that's 393216. i like to keep
> minfilecache at 16 MB at all times, but it can be left out
> and let for windows to decide (which is probably a bad idea
> lo and behold, all problems are solved. windows 9x can now
> run even with 2 gigs of memory!

I still wouldn't recommend putting 2 gigabytes of memory into a Windows 98 machine, but hey, you might. I'll let Matija continue...

> to reduce hard drive wear & tear in win9x, type
> ConservativeSwapFileUsage=1
> into the [386Enh] section. that will keep
> the swap file tidy & clean until all of your physical memory
> is filled up. if you have tons of it, you may never even
> experience swap file usage - but the virtual memory is there
> should you need it.

Excellent advice. Remember, if you don't have any other editor, you can edit your system.ini file (which is usually located in the WINDOWS folder of the C: drive) using the built-in Windows Notepad accessory. Be careful not to modify other parts of system.ini, as this may cause your machine to not boot properly

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2541" target="_new">My Rig</A>

 

[Coyote]

Hey 4ryan6! How ya doing,

I've been away for a few days, so I'm late to answer.

This week end I went ahead and stuck in a 512MB stick to go with my 2 X 256 twinx ram. Seemed to work fine, I didn't even have to do the "vcache" adjustment (yet-cuz I'm gonna follow those instructions sooner or later and see how it works out).

I ran the mem benchies in Sandra and one other BenchMem. They showed lower scores with the extra 512MB in (the 512MB stick is "value ram" so my timings loosened from cas 2.0 to cas 3). So, these benchies are inappropriate for my purposes (I guess they show the speed at which your ram is operating, not the effects of additional or more ram).

I tried the far Cry demo with the extra ram and it looked smother. So, perhaps 98se can benefit in games with ram in excess of 512MB. But I need to document that with some FPS/benchies. Haven't attempted that b4, so I gotta figure it out.

Thanks for the data, trying to get my rig ready for Doom3

Mobile XP 2600+ (11X200)
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
BBA 9800 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE

 

[4Ryan6]

Those management tips may increase performance, it would be interesting if you applied the tips with the 512 value stick still in and ran the benchmarks again to see if there was a change in performance.



I rebuke you dhlucke, in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and I pray for the conviction of your heart and soul through the Power of the Holy Spirit!Amen

 

[4Ryan6]

Theres a long story behind my sig so don't let it flip you out!



I rebuke you dhlucke, in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and I pray for the conviction of your heart and soul through the Power of the Holy Spirit!Amen

 

[Coyote]

Those management tips may increase performance, it would be interesting if you applied the tips with the 512 value stick still in and ran the benchmarks again to see if there was a change in performance.

I'll give it try this weekend.

Yeah, new sig. I didn't notice till you pointed it out. dlucke's been rebuked!


Mobile XP 2600+ (11X200)
Abit NF7-S v 2.0
Maxtor 60GB ATA 133 7200RPM
512MB Corsair Twinx 3200LL
BBA 9800 Pro
Enermax Noisetaker 420 watts
Win98SE