1gb or 2gb Ram?!? - Page 2

It's up to you when you want to get 2GB of memory. I bought my XPS 600 with 2GB, and I'm happy that I did. FEAR and Battlefield 2 run a whole lot better with 2GB of RAM. I'm not a big fan of DDR2 and its higher latencies, but I had no choice. The DDR2 667MHz is equivalent to DDR 400MHz.

you can disable your pagefile w/ 2 gigs of memory, so you could play hl2 switch task and it wouldn't page it out to disk... pretty cool.

Don't do this. Windows NEEDS a page file, don't let anyone else tell you differently.

No one seems to have experience? Read this thread and the dozen other threads about upgrading memory. Its been explained for you in detail where 2GB will help.

I have 1.5g...1.25 is enough i say. There's no point in upgrading really unless you are experiencing performance trouble.

when i play FEAR apparently my computer demands peak of around 1.4gb sometimes, and i notice some stuttering in single player, so i'm getting 2gb

the OP is asking if he should get 1 or 2GB of ram.

Do you know what you can GET 2GB OF RAM FOR $120???

Lets say you wanted to get 1GB, that would cost you $60.

How much of a sacrifice would you have to make in order to afford another $60 1GB stick???

Lets say you plan on keeping the 9300 for, oh i dont know, 3 years. Thats over 1,000 days.

Another 1GB stick or ram is going to cost you 5 CENTS A DAY!!!

if you plan on keeping the laptop for just 1 and a half years it would cost you only 10 cents a day for 2gb of ram.

i cant belive you even asked this question, its not like you're asking if its worth it to upgrade to two 7800gtx SLI.

People and their ram questions .. Like they haven't ALL been answered already.

if you have 2.5gb of ram, then how small of a page file should you have?

well, you can't have 2.5gb of ram in an i9300/XPSM170 but personally i'd never have a pagefile under 1gb, since Windows and a lot of programs like to address memory they don't always use, and with a pagefile they address it there instead of wasting ram that might be needed during a game

How the hell do you have 2.5GB on a 9300/XPS?

And even with 2GB+ of RAM you should have about a 1GB min/max page file. I mean, come on, even with an 80GB HD you can spare 1 gig of space for stability. It should also be among one of the first things you do when you format and reload a system to make sure the file is as close to the innermost part of the drive as possible.

The REASON Windows needs a pagefile is not every program takes advantage of 2GB of physical RAM, so once it hits its programmed limit, it goes for the virtual memory - if it doesn't FIND anything to tap, you get a hang and probably a BSOD/reboot.

This can happen on the "dynamic" paging files (where it's set from 1MB to xxxxMB, for instance), too - since if a program suddenly demands a MASSIVE amount of virtual memory (most likely in the throes of a crash) to stay stable/active, and Windows can't provide, you also get screwed and get either an error, BSOD, or reboot. Static paging files (such as 1GB min/max constantly keep a chunk available for Windows to use). The only downside to a static paging file is it CAN become fragmented, but there are ways to deal with that, and it doesn't become an epidemic problem over a long period anyway on a laptop/home PC.

Memory leaks are also a VERY good reason to have about a 1GB pagefile...games might be taking advantage of 2GB now, but that still doesn't mean they don't have MASSIVE leaks in them from hasty releases. And like it or not, no matter HOW well-coded something is, run it long enough and you'll start filling up your physical memory.

So - long story short, you need a paging file.

2 gb is still overkill and it has no effect on BF2

Thats just plain not true, ctrl alt dlt and see how much ram was used after an intense game of BF 2, I guarantee its more than 1 gig.

Well...this is coming from someone that had 512mb that upgraded to 2gb. I think 2gb is over kill and I play BF2. I say just get the 1gb stick and throw in another stick of whatever dell ram you have. That should be more then plenty.

Not to be rude, but the 6800 vanilla you're using can't kick up the settings for BF2 on high which is where the 2GB of RAM is necessary. Med/Low settings do not require as much memory. 2GB of RAM is pointless for those whose video card can't keep up.

This is simply not true. Way to spread misinformation. Read ANY BF2 forum and see what they have to say about 2GB removing the stuttering problem when using high settings.

That's true. With 1gb it will take a long ass time to load the game on high. But I set my settings on medium and never on high. I guess if you want to run at high with 4X AA then you will need 2gb. But the 6800Go can't keep up at that rate anyways.