Stepping into the world of 2GB RAM

There is much debate over whether 2GB of memory is worth it over 1GB. Some says certainly, some says it is neglectable.

Most use Battlefield 2 as the prime example to justify the need for 2GB, since it is a very memory intensive game, and the difference between 1GB and 2GB seems to be very obvious. I do play Battlefield 2, but not that much, so it’s not such a big factor to me.

I’ve just bought a 1GB kit off ebay to add to my existing 1GB. Its set to arrive in the next few days, I’ll give an update of how much difference there really is when I’ve installed it.

Update: Well, and I’ve been using 2GB of RAM for about 4 days now.

The biggest benefit can be seen with Battlefield 2. Previously, if I had to ALT+TAB out of Battlefield 2 on to the desktop, it would take at least 30 seconds of pagefiling for the system to return to a usable state. Now, the switch is almost instant. As soon as I ALT+TAB, I’m back on the desktop and can readily launch applications.

However, Windows otherwise does not show any significant differences with the extra RAM. Bootup speed is unchanged, and neither does applications load any faster.

Even though it might not be as benefitial as it sounds, its still benefitial. I look forward to how Vista will perhaps better handle memory and maybe even make full use of the extra RAM available.

7 insightful thoughts

  1. I’ve noticed BF2.exe can use up to ~800mb of ram somtimes!
    it’s especially fast for me to join servers/load maps because everything get’s sucked straight into ram!

    2gb is great.

  2. Thanks for the blog.
    i’m contemplating whether 2GB of RAM is necessary for the MAC book i’m looking to order sometime in the near future πŸ™‚ The problem is that 1GB will cost me 175.00; sheesh way overpriced. But now 512 is not no where close to meeting my requirements, esp during the heavy work weeks when i have multiple data intensive applications running.

  3. @alam: You should look for third party MacBook RAM. They’re a lot cheaper. The more RAM the better πŸ™‚

  4. I use a copy of Vista Ultimate RTM on both my desktop and laptop. The laptop has 2GB of DDR2-667 and the desktop has 1GB of DDR-400. The laptop is MUCH smoother due to the RAM since the CPU and disk access performances are nearly on par.

    2GB of RAM is a must if you are planning on having a flawless Vista experience. It’s OK on 1GB but you will be disappointed if you are using 1GB on XP currently. All the extra goodies just kinda eat up the RAM.

  5. I aggree, having the 2gb RAM on Vista makes your system much more responsive and faster overall. It also gives a MUCH bigger cache and applications will start and run faster. On average with firefox, email, and a couple Skype windows open use about 51% RAM, giving it a whole 1gb to cash every thing which is really nice. I used to have 1gb, so i know what it’s like, and i like 2 much better.

  6. I have always used 2gb of ram… for me it makes gaming quicker and i tested the theory that it would make vista quicker so i added an extra gig the one of the computers i built here and it made the response time in vista a lot better so its worth every cent

  7. Look how much things have moved on since 2006! Now we are stepping into the world of RAM capacities of 12GB upwards! πŸ˜›

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