Going from 2 Gb to 4 Gb RAM usefull?

[Guest]

I have Vista 32 bit with 2 Gb RAM. AFAIK a program won't use more than 2 Gb on its own. And I know that Vista won't see more than 3.12 Gb. But I wonder if adding 2 Gb, adding up to a total of 4, will give me some more 'headroom'? Right now all programs have to share that 2 Gb. If I add 2 GB all programs will have 3.12 Gb to share, meaning there will be more headroom. Right or not? And maybe that trick to let use FSX more RAM will help too. At this moment I only play FSX and sometimes LOTRO. The only reason to upgrade is to get even more from FSX than I already get, hence why I ask this here. ;)Memory is so awfully CHEAP today (compared to when I bought my system), that if it even gives a LITTLE improvement (maybe a little bit smoother flying) I wouldn't mind buying 2 Gb right now. But if it makes no difference AT ALL, it would be a waste of money of course...EDIT:P.S. Right now I have 2x1 GB PC4200. I am even thinking about removing that and getting 2x2 GB PC5300 or even PC6400... That way I could maybe try some overclocking with my E6600 (I also have a 8800GTX, both on the MSI P965 Platinum). Is there a difference between 2x2 or 4x1 btw?

[Guest SanH]

I am in the same position and thinking of going up to 4gb. No idea what benefit i might get but i do notice that when flying FSX, if i check the system monitor, at least 1.5gb of memory is being used.I probably will increase the memory but will wait a little while. I just bought a new quad 6600 and dont want to spend any more just yet.

[Guest]

You might have some minor advantage when moving between scenery areas as there's more RAM to preload textures.Whether it'll be used though I don't know.I didn't notice much difference when moving from 2 to 3GB, but I didn't stress the system to its max before so I didn't expect it.I prefer to have FS set up to give smooth performance under all conditions, so it's not usually running the machine into the ground :)

[Guest SanH]

Very true, as an alternative you might want to get AlacrityPC. Its free and a very good piece of software. It shuts down all other unneeded processes. When i use it i free up around 250MB of RAM which is useful.

[Guest]

I tried AlacrityPC but it didn't do anything for me. Yes, it did free up memory, but it didn't result in higher fps (well, mabye 1...) or smoother flight.

[Ramasurinen 0]

Going from 2 to 4 gigs did provide a nice little boost in performance for me under heavy load conditions, but the emphasis is on 'little'. Normal day to day use didn't improve much for me other than being slightly smoother and the small fps boost only comes in extreme cases where I'm over ultra complex scenery or flying in multiplayer.If you're going to go that route and use the /3GB switch be sure to set the userva value as well in the boot.ini, something like userva=2800 works well. Going without that extra switch FSX will have access to the full 3GB at the expense of the OS and other background processes and I can tell you that XP and especially the nvidia driver don't like being squished into that much smaller remainder. ;) A few very odd graphical artifacts can show up, especially on panels and specular maps.Is it worth it just for FSX? Hard to say in my opinion, but if you're also into a lot of photoshop and video work as well, definitely. It's also beneficial if you have a videocard with a lot of vram, like a 768mb 8800 card. Having 4 gigs lessens the vram shadow hit.Regardless, you can't really exploit the memory fully unless running a 64bit OS and those still seem to be just slightly on the far side of my headache tolerance. ;)Cheers,-mike

[Guest Nick_N]

>"Going from 2 Gb to 4 Gb RAM usefull?"YESEspecially if you use FSX SP2 and like to push the scenery sliders upAnd make sure you apply the proper address space cache edit to Vista along with having all the Vista performance updates, one of which applies to PCIe memory mapping if I remember correctlyFirst and foremost... make sure Vista has been fully updated at Windows UpdateWINDOWS VISTA ONLY: 1. Open a command prompt with Administration rights. You find the command prompt box under "Programs->Accessories->Command prompt" or somewhere around there 2. Right Click the command prompt and select "run as administrator". 3. Enter in the box at the prompt: (copy/paste if you wish) bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 2560 and press enter 4. Reboot TO set that back to default in VISTA (if you ever want to) just start the command line prompt with Admin right again and type: bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVA 2048 Hit enter and reboot

[n4gix 4,947]

Among the many "misconceptions" that I addressed in my thread about "OOM Errors..." was this:Even though your programs and the OS won't use the "left over memory" above what Vista32 "sees," that "left over memory" CAN AND WILL be used by the hardware, most especially the video card's memory mapping...

[Guest Nick_N]

Yes, it is a common misconception the amount 'seen' is the amount 'used' this is not the case... it will be usedThanks for bringing that up Bill. An important point many do not understand

[Virtualwombat 4]

So, Nick, what system settings do you need to have in place if you're running 4GB RAM in XP rather than in Vista? I'm running XP SP3...Cheers,Noel.

[Guest Nick_N]

Not a system setting.. its a boot.ini file editSP3? Your running a beta service pack. Brave soul! LOLI dont think anything changed in that with reference memory handling. I use XP-VISTA x64 and have not played with x32 in a very long timeAnyway, here is the edit:On the C: drive there is a hidden file named boot.iniOpen that file in notepad and add the following:/3GB /userva=2560 to the line that shows the OS boot location:[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn <--------- right here So it looks like this:[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn /3GB /userva=2560 <------------- Save, reboot and that should cure the OOM issue in XP x32 and allow the memory to be used as it shouldNOTE: You may need to adjust that. If OOM still occurs, reduce the value by 128 and retest. You can fine tune as well and use smaller values .. I would use 64 to do so.

[Virtualwombat 4]

Thanks Nick! Much obliged!I have tried two release candidates of SP3 for XP and both have been rock solid with no issues at all. Perhaps the changes are not dramatic compared with Vista SP1? After all, XP has been around a lot longer.Cheers,Noel.

[Guest thx1137]

It didn't do a thing for my PC. No smoother or higher FPS.I did get an improvement when I went from 1GB to 2GB though. Task manager says that FSX isn't using the extra memory either.Steven.