With 512MBs of Ram, will I get ANY HD accessing?

Lrd_Mince

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I currently only have one 128MB Micron DDR PC2100(mobo can't support higher frequency) stick in my computer. While playing the game Mafia, I keep 'System Monitor' open the in the background to see what my peak swapfile usage is while the game is running.

I found out that it consistently uses 280-300MB's of swapfile(along with the 50MBs of physical Ram that's leftover after Win98 loads) and fiercly stutters after about 30 minutes of playtime.

So I'm assuming that if I get a 512MB stick(instead of a 256MB stick), I'll get absolutely no swapfile access, which will make my games run smoother. Am I correct, or is more Ram just to make your games LOAD quicker?
 

AlphaFox

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it will reduce your swapfile use, but windows still likes to use it for some reason. it will still be there, but most of the ram will be used instead. the game should load faster too.
 

Lrd_Mince

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Thanks. I was searching around and there were some places that said you can completely turn off Virtual Memory, but in that one case where a program wants to use the swapfile, your computer will crash.

I think I'll just get the 512 and turn off the Virtual Memory while playing games, and turn it on during normal operation.
 

david__t

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Unfortunately WIndows 98 was never as good with memory management as NT / XP and therefore if you had 1GB of memory you would still have a swap file. This is mainly caused by software that uses a swap file as you mentioned.

But be careful with turning off the swap file during games as they use it too (X-wing vs Tie Fighter for example).

One good way I found to test the use of extra memory in Win98 was this: before you upgrade, load a paint program (preferably Paint Shop Pro) and create a new massive document (over 128 MB) then draw on it making it scroll. With your current memory config you will notice it slow down but when you get over 256 MB it can bung the whole drawing in to system RAM and it goes faster + PSP has options within the config section to let you make best use of the memory.

I think that reason for these problems is that back when 98 came out memory was still not that cheap and so programs assumed that you would be using the swap file and hence were programmed in this way. Nowadays with 256 & 512 MB being far more common place this can change and when combined with WinXP, dual memory systems will fly compared to old setups.

4.77MHz to 4.0GHz in 10 years. Imagine the space year 2020 :)
 

Pettytheft

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Dont disable virtual memory. If you have enough ram disabling it will only cause you headache and grief and possibly hose your system completely. You can reduce the size if you like but by disabling it you wont notice a difference.

Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.
 

Lrd_Mince

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Ok... Like I said before, while playing games, my swapfile usage hovers around 270MB's. If I only get a 256MB stick now, will that leftover 25-50MB (270ish - 256) swapfile usage degrade my performance substantially more than no swapfile usage would? Because based on Pettytheft's advice, even if I get the 512MB stick, I'm going to set my swapfile to 32MBs anyway instead of turning it completely off.

I need as much feedback as possible by Monday because that's when I plan on ordering the Ram.

Thanks
 

Lrd_Mince

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Welp, got my 512 stick today and I'm loving it. Up 640megs now. NO stuttering in Mafia whatsoever. No swapfile accessing.