How much RAM should I have to run XP at best?

Well I recently bought Windows XP Professional but I only had 128mb of RAM. I purchased another 128mb and now have 256mb of RAM. It runs perfectly but I just wanted to know what you guys have for RAM with XP. Is 256 a pretty good amount? Would more make it drastically better? I only have MSN, AIM, MSN Messenger and Norton running in the backround.

 

depends on whether you want to do any graphics intensive programs ... 256MB should be plenty for surfing the net and playing mp3s ... but if you play alot of games, especially new ones i would suggest upgrading as whenever i play games it hits around 3-400MB of used RAM space and i use alot of RAM tweaks apps as i have slow memory

i used to have 128MB of RAM and when i got a 256MB module there was such a noticable performance boost ... but when i upgraded again to 768MB the performance was negligable other than in 3D games

 

i'd say 256 megs is enough. like, if you like playing games on this, or running heady apps (like photoshop, premiere, audition, or any picture/video/audio editing program), or having everything run in the background, then you will want at least 512mb. I have 1024 megs right now and am using around 470 megs of ram (50 each of which go to foobar and explorer, 33 to IE, and 20 to gaim). I also have lots of windows stuff cached to my ram (which explains why it's a lot being used up), which probably wastes about 20-50 megs more than it should. i then have about a billion more processes in the background.

so the moral goes: if you want a lot more stuff running, get another 256. otherwise, the 256 already there works just fine.

 

How do I find out how much RAM is being used?

 

press ctrl + shift + esc on your keyboard. then go to performance. in the "physical memory" section, total is the amount of ram you have total in kilobytes. available will be how much is available (duh!).

 

260592 total

109680 available.

Its jumping around but its close to those numbers, is that good? Whats PF Usage? It's at 166mb right now.

 

pagefile is basically stuff that could go on the ram, but the computer decided to stick in a virtual ram file on the hard drive. you won't need to worry about that, as it shouldn't exceed the maximum size (which should be around 384mb). And don't think you should get more ram because windows decided to leave the stuff in the hard drive; it actually belongs there.

 

I'm sorry but can you maybe explain that a little different, I'm having trouble understanding what you mean.

 

ok... yeah, i'm a little sleepy right now, so my explanations suck, so here's a retry: The page file is a special file used by windows for holding temporary data which is swapped in and out of physical memory (ram). It does that to give windows more room to play with stuff that goes in and out of ram. stuff basically goes into the pagefile so it can be found easier. so instead of looking through the whole hard drive for the stuff, it will look through a single file of the hard drive to find the same stuff to put in the ram.... dang i'm still too sleepy. i hope that works.

 

Yup thanks I understand. Whats the difference between XP Home/Professional? Whats better? Also I almost didnt even upgrade to 256mb of RAM..how would my computer be running with 128?

 

Virtually ta put it simple ,, 512 Megs of Ram on Xp is good , anything under is adequate , but will significantly slow performance
Suggestion .. ta go at least 512 Mg Ram..
AND at low prices of ram , will boost ya system ..
Cheers....

 

as i cant edit..
Ps , I personally run 512 XMS Meg Ram , Plus 1 and 1/2+ swapfile[pageflie]Fixed.
WinXpSp2.....

 

I only have 2 slots for RAM on my mother board. There both filled with 128mb sticks (1 that came with the computer and 1 that I bought recently). My Commit Charge Peak is 222332 and my Physical Memory Total is 260592. My computer has been on for 3 days. So my Commit Charge Peak isn't higher than my Physical Memory total, so I should be good right?

 

Yes, basically that means the computer never needed more RAM than was available, so you should be good.

 

I had 256, but i just added another 512.
So, i think you should get more.

 

That sucks because I only have 2 RAM slots. And I just spent 55 bucks on another stick of RAM. To add more RAM i'll have to buy more and what I just bought would go to waste.

 

Thanks. Basically what i'm doing now is all I will ever do on my computer. So the numbers will stay the same right? And if they do then I should be all set.

 

Hmmm my Commit Charge is now at a peak off 276576 and I have a total of 260592 Physical Memory. My CC peak is bigger than my PM now. My computer is still running fine. Guess i'll NEED to buy more RAM. grrrrrr