Should I upgrade from 2GB to 4GB on Vista for general purposes

Hi Folks

I've been contemplating the decision to upgrade for a while now since I bought my notebook and I'm unsure how beneficial an upgrade would do for me in my situation. (reason for undecidedness is due to warranty being void if my notebook is modified plus extra cost)

I've had numerous users post in on other thread with their opinion and I appreciate everyone of them who did.

But I wanted to outline it in more detail and get some more opinions based on my needs.

My everyday activities include Firefox (20 tabs open youtube)
Media player watching videos
emulation (play playstation games on here lol)
Microsoft Word
Excell
Adobe PDF
MSN
googletalk and thats about it.

I'm very light on the gaming side and only play Halo combat evolved but plan to upgrade to Halo 2 soon once I get some extra money. I'd play newer games but I don't need settings to be extremely nice just playable is all I need.

Here is a breakdown of my general usage from low medium to high (high being unrealistic for me to perform and that I would never open that many applications all at once)

Note: I generally would be running Microsoft Word and Excell at the same time along with Adobe but I haven't installed those yet on this notebook

Intense over usage

CPU @ 100%
RAM 60-75%

1. Internet explorer 10-15 tabs open (flv files played)
2. Fire Fox 10-15 tabs open (a few flv files playing)
3. Windows Media player playing video file
4. FLV player playing music file
5. Video game melty blood on
6. Video game Guilty Gear XX on
7. Video Game emulator MAME on
8. Video Game emulator ZSNES on
9. Numerous explorer windows open (about 8)

Note: despite all the junk I did RAM never reached over 80% at all, I couldn't get it there. There were slowdowns with the two PC games running at the same time but I'm assuming that it was limited to the CPU and not RAM (this is my guess) seeing how CPU was 100%

Videos played perfectly fine still, music played fine still everything else played well even the emulation I've had on. switching between different windows was fast as well.

I did notice though that once programs were closed RAM dropped significantly below 50% down to roughly 40%

Medium Usage

CPU @ ? (forgot)
RAM @ 51-55%

Surfing the net with 20 tabs on
Media player playing MP3
MSN
Google Talk

Note: Nothing special here things stayed pretty constant. Except when I start closing windows RAM would drop a bit too.

Light usage

CPU @ 3-4%
RAM @ 49-50%


Note: When computer is on no surfing no music no nothing but msn and google talk on

Other users have commented that upgrading RAM will only see an increase in performance when it comes to heavy gaming and graphical applications. An in crease in Vista performance is slightly noticeable.

Others have said that it helps increase Vista's performance, things are faster when booting etc. What I really want to know is how much better? Worth the upgrade?

Anyways what do you guys suggest for a user like myself anyways. I'd like my everyday experience to be top notch with the surfing, word processing and messaging. I know it never hurts to upgrade but am slightly affected by cost and warranty issues.

Thanks for reading and replying
Jimmy

Update Edit:
I'm running vista premium home 32bit I believe
LG p300 is my model UAPB1A9

 

If your laptop supports 4 Gb of memory, I would upgrade.
A good 2 x 2GB set of memory is only like $70, which is not that expensive.
You can then sell your 2Gb of memory for like $20, and then the upgrade would have only cost you $45.
example: (you need to tell us what laptop it is, for compatibility reasons)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231135

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145193

Please give us the model of your laptop, so we can verify what memory it uses.

K-TRON

 

Warranty will not be voided by changing the RAM.

 

If you look at the numbers you provided it is in there. You don't need. Your medium and light usage are about the same because of Vista design. If you doubled your RAM usage would still hover around 50%. In heavy usage which you said was not realistic you still are not stressing the RAM capacity. With 4GB If 32bit OS and 3GB is used maybe drops a little. It is not needed in in any way. But it doesn't cost much and won't hurt so you choose.

Also on a side note your test misses some elements of how memory works. Let us say you boot up, you go to open Word? Well you are going to hit the HDD (which is what you want to avoid with more RAM) more RAM will not effect this initial penalty you have to load into memory so it gets it from HDD. Now you open twenty more apps then go back to Word? Does it hit the HDD? that is where the amount of RAM comes into play. Don't look at the RAM usage as the OS is always trying to level to 50%. Watch for HDD hits while doing things. That will tell you if more RAM will help. Microsoft has a complicated document on how to determine if more RAM would help. My way is easier. If anyone thinks the MS doc is life or death I will find but if not that is all.

 

I have wondered about this topic for a while - would upgrading to 4Gb show any improvement even though I struggle to load 2Gb. So now I wonder, is there a method of increasing this default "50%" leveling such that I can reduce HDD activity without upgrading to 4Gb?

 

@ Toxic-I am no computer scientist so I may not know of what I speak. If Jalf sees this he might be able to answer correctly. But here I go! First unused RAM is wasted RAM? Correct? Well yes except, if my RAM is 100% used then if my CPU is modifying or changing anything and it does not go back to the original address or is larger than that address what is moved needs to go to page file involving all the problems (slow) with HDD. It must move out (at HDD speed) before new can move in therefor removing all advantage of RAM's higher speed.

The not recommended method to force using RAM and not pagefile is to eliminate (or reduce) pagefile. This can cause stability issues and I don't bother. But some have had success, I have done and have not crashed but just think since I have no issues why risk.

 

digital8doug@ I'm running vista premium home 32bit I believe
K-Tron LG p300 is my model UAPB1A9

Wow guys thanks so much for replying. I opened this thread up to better understand myself with RAM and other notebook components.

During my earlier days using a computer, I'd assume that the processor was slow if things were slowing down, my understanding back then was the faster the processor the faster your computer well I was wrong on that lol. I later learned that a fast hard drive and more ram can increase performance drastically and that it wasn't Dependant at all for what I was doing at that time.

However though my understanding of how an operating system utilizes all the component is very limited and so having you guys respond with info does help me clear up my understanding a lot.

Thanks for the detailed reply. powerpack

btw ToxicBanana thats a hilarious pic

 

Your laptop does support 4Gb of Pc5300 memory, so the links I provided will work with your system.

Good luck upgrading, if you so choose to.
Since you have 32bit Vista, do not be mad if you only see 3-3.5Gb of memory. 32bit operating systems cannot see 4Gb of memory.

As powerpack mentioned, if you are not using more than 1.25Gb of memory, than upgrading to 3.25-3.5Gb is unnecessary and may not show any speed advancement.

K-TRON

 

If 64 bit OS is in use=YES, or if using as listed in Subject, otherwise NO. 4GB will run slower in your OS! I have tested it myself in similar usage to yours!

What are you using to monitor with {WTM only}??? Have you looked @ Page File use. Probably have not had any, thus vice new RAM = PLEASE send me the money I just saved you!

What are your Vista EXperience numbers, not just the lowest, please EDIT/modify post & list all 5!

Jimmy, Make sure your Task Bar & Quick Launch only have the items you need. If an installation put them there, BUT you do not use frequently (CAN USE START menu option OK), then delete them, or modify your start up programs.

 

K-TRON @
digital8doug @

thanks again for the added info

Yhaa decided earlier based on user input that its a wise decision to stick with 2gb for my personal needs.

Things are great, I guess I should follow the old saying if it an't broke don't mess with it

 

2GB is fine for me, no matter how much stuff I've run. 20 tabs open in FF, playing music, streaming videos, word processing, GIMP running, 10 windows open, file transfers, RAM is cool with it.

 

Okay
I decided to come brows again and I noticed that digital8doug had edited his post. (I think, it wasn't clear to me earlier but I see it now) I'm shocked to hear that 4gb RAM runs slower than 2gb

No I never looked at page filing at all. Can you help me out with that?
I see it in the task manager. Usually fills right up sky high when I'm loading tons of stuff.

What steps would you like me to perform to confirm with you? This is what I did sorry if I didn't quit understand

I used Task Manager only and I used Resource Monitor to look at the changes. I didn't install any new software to monitor changes.

I'm running Vista 32

I never checked page filing but I could go and do that again just let me know what to look for.

And the rest of your post I was having a hard time understanding I'm sorry
especially the part where you wanted money sent and being saved lol.

Alrighty thanks for posting
Jimmy

 

I tried to tell you, I have more. But do you really want to read it? I have read it 50 times. It has already bean said, not really a good test but heck, disable pagefile if you want to see what happens. The MS doc is not worth the read for most people. I can not explain it to you for two reasons. I think I can't but it opens up "Virtual Memory". You Know what I can explain it is not very hard but I don't think you really want to know? No offense it just really does not affect the average user.

 

powerpack

I'd love to learn more about RAM and other components. I'm open to reading it if your willing to write it

AS for my my decision I'm gonna stick with the 2GB of RAM right now. Maybe later down the road I'll upgrade once I grasp a better understanding of how to configure my system.

Never hurts to learn more though thats a given.

oh yhaa and as for digital8doug I'm still trying to figure out what he wrote lol

Jimmy

 

I will find it for you! It could take a little time as it Saturday night and I am not 100%. It is a boring read but if you want it I will do!

 

powerpack take your time
I appreciate everything you've done so far. It's a saturday night should be enjoying it. I got an exam to study for this monday so I most likely wont be reading much on it until I finish my exam.

anyways cheers
Jimmy

 

Try switching from WMP to VLC Media Player for video, from FLV Player to foobar2000 (or Winamp) for audio, from Adobe Acrobat Reader to Foxit PDF Reader, MSN/Google Talk to Digsby (or Pidgin, Trillian, or Miranda IM). That will definitely decrease your RAM usage. When Firefox 3 comes out in June, RAM usage for it will drop greatly as well, as the memory leaks will have been fixed.

You could also try switching to XP, that would definitely help decrease RAM usage.