2 or 4gb Ram?

So my question is , is there any real perfomance improvement when adding 2 more gigs?
And if "yes" where can i notice it in booting gaming or multitasking ...?

My system is XPS M1530 , 2Gb Ram , GC GF8600 , Processor T8300.

Thanx in advance everyone!

 

Huge increase in performance. I suggest you get 2gb and buy an additionnal 2gb from a different source. Usually saves you 30$.


P.S Make sure it works with ya notebook.

 

well, depends on the OS of ur Vista.
if it's a 32bit, u dont need to get a 2GB upgrade. why? well 32-bit OSes, the last time i checked, only support up to 3GB RAM. now I heard Vista can support up to 4GB, but you have to tweak all sorts of junk here and there just to make it work.

so just get a 1GB upgrade, and save urself an extra 10-20.

 

It would read 3.25GB in XP 32-bit so probably the same with Vista.

Plus if you buy 2GB from DELL they will put in 2 x 1gb sticks, so you will lose 1 stick when you put in the 2GB stick you buy. Giving you 3GB of RAM and 1 spare 1GB stick to sell or keep as a spare...

 

Just to clarify some misconceptions....

Vista 32-bin NON Service Pack 1 recognizes 3.5GB of ram, however if you upgrade to Service Pack 1, then it recognizes the whole 4GB of ram.

 

O'rait. I'm usin Vista 32 , so i'll stick to one more gig.

As for Forte

I've heard that Vista SP1 makes things worst instead contrary. So for now i'll skip it.

Tenx guys! Best forum ever!

 

Vista 32-bit with Service Pack 1, recognizes and reports all 4 gb of ram but still can't address more than 3.12 gb (minus the video card memory) because of the 32-bit address space.

Windows 64-bit is the only answer. Well besides PAE, but that isn't an acceptable answer to almost anyone except those running servers.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605

 

yup, but 3,5 avaliable.

i'd go for 4GB (that's what I got on my M1330): reason? dualchannel and those 512MB more than 3GB

 

32-bit = 4 GB. ~3.5 - 3.6 GB is available because of graphics memory, OS load, etc etc. This means that you're only getting 90% of what you paid for should you get 4 GB vs 100% if you get 2/3 GB. However, if you do choose to go the 3 GB route, since you get both efficiency and volume, do realize you're getting 3 GB in 1x1Gb and 1x2GB, meaning single channel. Considering the performance loss in single vs dual channel, you're probably better off going 2 GB rather than 3 GB. 3 GB isn't even an option here. You'll notice a "performance" gain in all three of the listed tasks should you choose 4 over 2, however marginal. 4 GB is more or less future-proofing, since the newer programs seem to consume more and more memory for reasons beyond my comprehension.

FYI, SP 1 doesn't recognize "more" persay, it just changes the way Windows displays memory (RAM installed instead of RAM available).

As a final note, this

tweak is a lot simpler than he makes it sound.

Start -> Run
Type "cmd"
Type "bcedit /set pae forceenable"

Yeah, tough, isn't it?

 

At that point doesn't the software require special flags and/or drivers to get them to access the PAE memory? -- With some refusing to access it at all?

 

There's another way of looking at this: Look at processor prices. If you want 10% more power, you often have to pay +30%. If you know that your apps (e.g. virtual machines) eat a lot of memory, then you are willing to pay a higher price / gigabyte just to get the 3 -> 3,5GB jump.

That's wrong!

Read intel chipset information regarding flex mode. Page 66 section 5.2.1.1:

Intel Flex Memory Technology (Dual Channel Interleaved Mode with Unequal Memory Population)
http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/316273.pdf

XPS M1330 supports that

There is no tangible performance loss. Even in the single channel case (shared memory graphics excluded from this statement).

I disagree. 2, 3, 4GB are all perfectly fine configurations. Each one makes sense depending on the usage model.

The switch is the easy part. Read PAE-mode-induced driver compatibility issues
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B929605&x=17&y=9
and tell me which drivers are compatible.

No seriously: I'd really like to know whether all M1330 drivers are PAE mode compatible. There are just to many and I don't want to test them all. Think of Webcam, Bluetooth, fingerprint, cardreader, ...

I don't have a Dell install (got the Ubuntu edition), but I read in dell's forum that somebody received a Dell Vista with PAE enabled. I can hardly believe that. Can anybody confirm that?

 

Ill clear a few things up aswell.

Vista 32bit can only utilize approx. 3gb RAM. They decided to show the full physical RAM installed with SP1 to stop consumers wondering why their ram is missing. SP1 will still only utilize 3gb

As for ram:
1 stick installed - single channel
2 sticks not of the same size - Asymetrical dual channel
2 sticks of the same size - Symetrical (true) dual channel

The memory controller gets more bandwidth running dual channel

As for PAE:
Dont bother with it! Just get x64

 

Yeah, thats why I said recognize. Sorry for not being clarifying.