How Much RAM Will Win98 USE
I get a lot of questions about RAM and I've heard a lot of different opinions by "Experts" about how much Ram Windows 98 will actually "USE". I'm having no problem with 128.
I recently talked with a teacher in computering and she says that Windows 98 actually does not use more that 64meg. There's a lot of debate about this and I need to know what is true. So I asked my friend Dennis the question:
Chip sets aside, how much Ram will Windows 98 utilize??? He says:
Depending largely on the motherboard design (type of chipset), the type of memory (EDO, Sdram, FPM etc, etc, etc) and the CPU, Win98 will use just about all you can give it. I repeat, "depending on the MB, memory and CPU".
Rule of Thumb #1, there is no rule of thumb!
There is no one basic machine setup that will work wonderfully for everyone, as machines are not applications oriented. You can have one machine that will handle most Microsoft applications well, but add Adobe Image Ready or Photoshop and it quickly turns into a dog. All of this is the result of the base design of the machine. While Sdram is faster than EDO, EDO will shine when you need raw horsepower and large expansive memory areas. The first mistake most people make is trying to "assume" that one set of hardware parameters will work in all cases, and they won't. The second mistake is that they do things backwards, first by building what they perceive as a powerhouse and then they add the apps, instead of figuring out what they want to do and then build the machine around those parameters.
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Well, that settles it for me. But I was in the middle of another article where I read this from a MVP in a discussion group who said:
"<<The cacheable limit of the BX chipset mainboard is really high, at least 512 meg and I think way higher. So put in RAM to your hearts content, but unless you are editing huge graphic files or some other memory intensive task, expect to see diminishing performance increase for every upgrade.>>>"
Again I asked Dennis about this "diminishing performance" issue.
He responded:
"I really don't know who writes this stuff, but they have little or no concept of motherboard chipset architecture and how it relates to memory, the different types of memory as well as the functions of the CPU. A BX chipset motherboard can cache a total of 1 GB EDO memory at 66 MHz or 1 GB Registered DIMM or 512 MB unbuffered SDRAM memory at 100 MHz. An LX chipset based MB can cache a total of 1GB EDO or 512 MB SDRAM at 66MHz."
"For the most part, people buy memory with little or no concept of what memory they have (EDO, Sdram, Fpram, FPM, RDram etc) and they just stick any old thing on the board with the expectations that it will work. Moreover, everyone looks at price as opposed to what they want achieve and then they get mad when it doesn't work as expected. I've seen people mismatch ECC with NON-ECC, Parity with non-Parity, different clock types and expect it to run and wonder why it doesn't."
For more see System RAM Cacheability"
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