On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:23:28 -0500, "Toni" <Toni24@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Laptop with Windows XP Pro, 1.66GHz/Duo with 2G of RAM.
>
> If I upgrade to 4G RAM - is it always good to upgrade WinXP from 2G to 4G RAM?
No, not at all. In fact for most people, even 2GB is more than you can
make effective use of.
How much RAM you need for good performance is *not* a
one-size-fits-all situation. You get good performance if the amount of
RAM you have keeps you from using the page file significantly, and
that depends on what apps you run. Most people running a typical range
of business applications under XP find that somewhere around 512MB
works well, others need more. Almost anyone will see poor performance
with less than 256MB. Some people, particularly those doing things
like editing large photographic images, can see a performance boost by
adding even more than 512MB--sometimes much more.
If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory
will decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance.
If you are not using the page file significantly, more memory will do
nothing for you. Go to
http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your page file usage. That should
give you a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how
much more.
--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
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