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    4 gigs of ram?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by sunchaser99, Apr 4, 2008.

  1. sunchaser99

    sunchaser99 Notebook Consultant

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    I currently own a T61p with 2 gigs of ram (1x2). I also have vista 32 bit edition with sp1. I was wondering
    1. if going to 4 gigs has any noticeable improvement?
    2.I know sp1 now shows when 4 gigs is installed, but does it actually utilize the extra ram, or does it just report it (big difference)?

    I ask this because I need all the extra power I can get for my video editing, etc.
    Thanks
     
    sunchaser99, Apr 4, 2008
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  2. techboydino

    techboydino Notebook Evangelist

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    you really have nothing to lose except a little coin out of your wallet. 2 more gigs wont hurt, even if it is not all used. some people complain about heat issues, but rest assured i have yet to see a machine decline in performance as a result of adding more ram. should be an easy decision at under $75 for 4 gigs.
     
    techboydino, Apr 4, 2008
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  3. nobscot6

    nobscot6 Wise One

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    get the ram, cheapest upgrade you can do for a laptop.....

    it will show 4gig, but only use 3.5, but hey, that's still a nice increase......
     
    nobscot6, Apr 4, 2008
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  4. McGrady

    McGrady Notebook Virtuoso

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    its not 3.5, more like 3.25
     
    McGrady, Apr 4, 2008
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  5. Apollo13

    Apollo13 100% 16:10 Screens

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    1. It depends. If you never utilize all 2 GB right now, 4 GB is not going to give you any better performance. Maybe a few more things loaded with Precaching so marginally faster program loading for a few programs, but in terms of performance once programs are loaded, you will see no gain at all.

    To check how much RAM you are using, load up Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), and look at the Physical Memory usage on the Performance Tab. If this is going up to 1900 MB or more then it probably would be a good idea to get more RAM.

    Also note that to get an accurate measure of how much RAM you're using you'll need to know how much you're using during peak times. Rather than Alt-Tabbing out to Task Manager when you've got 42 things running (as this is really slow if you're using all you RAM and dipping into virtual memory), just leave Task Manager up in the background. Then once you've closed most of your programs, Alt-Tab to it and check the "Peak" section under "Commit Charge" in the performance tab. If the peak usage is below 2048 MB (2,097,152 KB), then you're not using all your RAM and there's no reason to add more (unless it's very close to that - I'd say about 1900 MB). If you test this for several days of multitasking and always stay below 2048 MB then more RAM won't help at this point.

    Note that it's been three months since I've used Vista and the terminology may be slightly different in Vista. But that's what you want to look for.

    2. No idea. I think Windows Server 2003 (32-bit) can actually utilize 4 GB with Physical Address Extension (PAE), but I don't know if they added Server 2003's functionality into Vista SP1 or not.
     
    Apollo13, Apr 4, 2008
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