[WEB4LIB] Memory upgrade question

[Walt_Crawford at notes.rlg.org]

Robert Hiebert asks a good question:

>I have a Pentium III running Windows 98 (2nd ed) with 64Mb ram. Is there
an
>operational limit to the amount of ram I should put in the machine? I.e.:
the
>machine may physically accept 512Mb (say), but is there some limit to the
amount
>of memory the operating system will actually use effectively? Thanks.

I'm going to suggest an answer based on my own informal knowledge; others
may have more formal knowledge.

1. There's no real limit: W98 can address and use at least 2GB of RAM
(that's the W95 limit; the W98 limit may be higher).

2. Unless you're doing big-time photo editing or video editing/compression,
the "sweet spot" for most W98 systems is 128MB. That is, you get an
enormous application boost going from 32MB to 64MB and a substantial boost
going from 64MB to 128MB--but relatively less bang for the buck with extra
RAM.

3. Still, if you've got the RAM, add it: it can improve performance, both
by increasing disk caching (which W98 handles automatically and
effectively) and pretty much eliminating any use of virtual memory (the
opposite of disk caching, when W98 saves RAM contents to disk).

That's the situation as I understand it, at least.
Walt Crawford
text-only: br.wcc at rlg.org
fancy: wcc at notes.rlg.org
Home page: http://walt.crawford.home.att.net