Will 4GB make a difference?

My favorite game (by favorite I mean I am constantly on it!) is Rome: Total War. I got a new(used) laptop recently from a friend, and thus I am kind of stuck to this laptop for at least the next two years. The specs are:

Dell Inspiron 9400
Windows XP Pro
Intel T7200 Processor (2.0 GHZ, 4MB Cache)
Nvidia 7900GS Graphics Card
Hitachi 7K200 200GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
2GB 667 MHZ RAM (2x1)
17" LCD WUXGA+, 1920x1200 True-Life Display

Should I go ahead and install 4GBs of memory on this? I know the Dell Bios will limit me to 3.25GB - will I see a difference in gaming, etc?

 

The BIOS isn't what limits you to 3.25 GB, it's the 32 bit OS. But if you like strategy games, more RAM is almost always better. Go for the upgrade, I say.

 

That's not a bad setup to get from a friend. Guessing you got a goo deal on it? Honestly, I wouldn't see too much of a point, but it sure isn't going to hurt to upgrade to 4G.

 

I doubt you would see too much improvement, but you will acquire some with added ram.

 

Unless R:TW is getting laggy in big fights... you should be fine with 2gb. If it stutters when you want to move a bunch of units... go for the 4gb.

 

Yeah, the only time R:TW lags is when I have Huge unit size, and I fight a big battle in 3x Speed - which is always

So I should go with the 4GB?

 

I doubt it'll make any difference. Each application (like a game) running on a 32bit windows OS can't utilize more than 2GB.

This is a different limitation from the 32-bit/4GB addressing thing.

You can perform some crash prone tweaks to raise it slightly.

The only difference you might see is slightly faster loading/quitting of the app.

 

nope it wont..that would be complete overkill for xp

 

3GB won't hurt, but it really won't help much. I have a machine that I built especially for 64-bit Vista with 4GB, which shows 3GB in my XP 32-bit partition, and shows no noticeable improvement with anything.

1GB to 2GB definitely, but above 2GB isn't that beneficial with XP.

 

I read somewhere that even if you upgraded to 64-bit, 4GB memory would not be too significant because of all the apps are getting bigger due to 64-bit data execution or something. The best way to go for 64-bit is 8GB ram. it this right?

 

Most notebooks right now don't support 8GB RAM because of CPU and motherboard limitations (if I'm not completely wrong). 4GB RAM for 64-bit is quite optimal at present.

 

Bring up Task Manager before you start playing, and check it afterwards. See what the Peak Commit Charge is under the Performance Tab after you finish playing. If it's below 2,097,152 KB, then you are not using all your RAM and adding more won't help you very much.

The lagginess could be either RAM, or graphics struggling to keep up with Huge armies at 3X speed, or the CPU struggling to keep up with Huge Armies at 3X speed. Especially if you're playing it at 1920x1200, it wouldn't surprise me if it were the graphics. The 7900 GS is a good card, but that's a huge resolution.

Not a bad laptop to get from a friend and be stuck with, btw. Very good to get from a friend actually.

 

Well, about this 4gb topic...I can ONLY see and receive the benefits of a 4gb RAM if I use a 64 bit windows, isn't it? Well...The only 64 bit windows that I see right now in the lenovo web is Bussiness. Is the ultimate 64 b too? Wich windows vista do yo recommend to full use a 4gb ram?

thanx

 

I say it's a waste for XP. If it were Vista that's a different story. I had 1GB of ram in my desktop computer and it ate up Rome: Total War. Windows XP isn't nearly as bloated as Vista so as others have said 2GB is more than enough.

 

Getting more than 2GB RAM can definitely be worth it. Yes, the game itself can only use up to 2GB, but other applications as well as Windows can then use the remaining 1.5GB.

And of course, RAM is so dirt cheap right now, it'd be silly not to upgrade.

 

Yup, always fun to have a game open and be running ff and other apps without lag

 

My Asus G1S came with 2x1G. I swapped them for 2x2G, as my RAM usage was in the early 90's when gaming. Afterwards, less usage of course, but absolutely no noticeable improvement whatsoever, although I always game on full screen, so I'm not qualified to comment on the multiple-Ap aspect. For this reason, I actually returned the 2x2G sticks to the retailer, and put the original ones back in.

 

It also depends on your habit like other mentioned. I know someone that runs their machine on pretty much all the time, and have all sort of application opened when they game, so 4 gb in that case will definitely be beneficial.

 

i have an e1705 and i remember reading (because i wanted to upgrade as well)
on dells site that the e1705 only supports 2gb max anyway
so you'd just be wasting money