Post - 4Gb of RAM recommended for optimal Vista performance (By IBM)..
Quote:
Microsoft's on-the-box minimum RAM requirement "really isn't realistic," according to David Short, an IBM consultant who works in its company's Global Services Divison. He says users should consider 4GB of RAM if they really want optimum Vista performance. With 512MB of RAM, Vista will deliver performance that's "sub-XP," he warned.
Short has been beta testing Vista for two years and was at the IBM-oriented Share user group conference in Tampa, Fla., last week discussing some of Vista's performance requirements. His XP system has 2GB of RAM, which he calls the "sweet spot" for that operating system, but on Vista, 4GB of RAM may be closer to its "Nirvana," he said.
That's due in part to Windows SuperFetch, which takes data from the hard drive, stores it in the available RAM and makes it readily accessible to the processor. SuperFetch depends a great deal on user predictability and takes snapshots of user activity. If SuperFetch determines that an application is launched at a particular time, it will have it loaded into the available RAM. With more RAM, there's more caching and better software response, said Short.
Woa...4GBs is quite a lot...from what I've heard 2GB is good but 4GB is the recommended...I'm not getting Vista on my PC until I have at least 2GBs of RAM...I'm getting a 512MB video card next week...an Nvidia 7600 GS!
I am running VISTA-32 Ultimate with 2 GIGS RAM, its runs pretty good. I can run Aero or Flip3D without issue. Though I am sure 4 GIGS is better suited for heavy applications. VISTA is a RAM pig. All Microsoft protects are.
For those that don't have much RAM there is a solution. Use Windows READYBOOST.
READYBOOST is a new feature in VISTA that allows use to use a USB key as virtual memory. Any USB key will work but you'll get better results if you get one that his READYBOOST-Compatible.
People that have > 2GIGS won't see a tremendous difference, but people with <= 1GIG RAM will think its a godsend.
UPDATE
You must use the 64-bit version of VISTA for 4 GIGS. There is a known problem with the 32-bit, it will not recognize the 4 GIGs
It is amazing they could give away free upgrades on systems that have 512mb of ram and expect it to work. I really think that Vista is going to have some trouble for a good amount of time, until 4gb of ram becomes the standard.
Wow! That's a lot of RAM just to decently run an OS. I got the chance to play a bit with Vista in a Dell Inspiron Core Duo 1 GB RAM the other day. It was fast but I wasn't able to fire-up graphics software so I'm not sure how 1 GB of RAM would stand-up to heavy use.
Wow! That's a lot of RAM just to decently run an OS. I got the chance to play a bit with Vista in a Dell Inspiron Core Duo 1 GB RAM the other day. It was fast but I wasn't able to fire-up graphics software so I'm not sure how 1 GB of RAM would stand-up to heavy use.
The author didn't exactly say what apps he was running. If your running VISTA with Photoshop or encoding video then 4 GIGS RAM will help. I don't think you'll need it to do internet, Normal MS Office usage (except if you do heavy Powerpoint), or games however.
