How fast is fast

[vidman3117]

I am going to upgrade my memory to speed up my photo progam. Currently, because of the large volume of photos stored, it is taking at least 30 sec to fully render. I have a 1 ghz amd processor, 256 mgs ram, xp home, a lean startup menu(4 items)I defrag, and disk cleanup regularly, and have 2 hd. with at least 1/2 free space left on my C drive(40gig) and 1/3 free on my 120gb G drive (where I store my pics). I was pricing pc2100 ddr ram, and 2 512's are reasonable, but when I go to 2 -1gb chips,more than 2x the price! Will I see that much more speed? Say at 2 gb, comes up in 15 sec?
Regards,
Millard

 

[19753]

upgrading from 256mb there will be a speed increase. you should be using 512mb min with win XP. i have 512mb myself and i use about 180mb of this just browsing internet. getting a cache program to free up memory is a good idea also.
other factors to consider when rendering video or photo's is the graphics card and processor speed.

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[mainegeek]

vidman3117,

You need to find out the specs of your mobo in order to know what memory type and limits it can handle.

What are you using for a display adapter and how much memory does it use? Is it intergrated or a stand alone card?

If your 1 Gig AMD is a Duron and your display adapter is on the low end, then throwing more RAM isn't neccesarily going to help if you have other "bottle necks".

 

[cdogg]

I would throw an extra 256MB in so that you have a total of 512MB. Don't expect a huge increase, even if you went up to 1GB. Like mainegeek said, RAM only goes so far. Once your system reaches a good equilibrium with the "amount" of memory, its speed and other bottlenecks like your CPU become bigger factors. That equilibrium is likely 512MB in your system.

If you want to upgrade further, consider changing out the motherboard and CPU, so that you can go with faster RAM altogether. No sense spending more than $50 now, or it's a waste taking away from a future upgrade...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[vidman3117]

Thanks folks!
Entraz:
I do a disk cleanup periodically, and every time I close my internet browser, I delete the temp.internet files, and cookies. Would your "chache program" do better, or just makes it more convenient? If better than I do, what program would you recommend? Thanks

Maingeek:
I am including "System Information" inc display adapter info. Will also call my tech support(about the mobo info,and whether the display adapter is part of the mobo or stand alone.I know it cannot be upgraded)This is a basic "off the shelf" HP 7742 with a 1394 card added later. If you see anything in this info that will further give me advice, I would appreciate it.Thanks for your attention

Cdogg:
If I were to upgrade my mobo, what would be recommended, for $250 I would spend on 2gb of ram? Or would I be spending more? Thanks

SYSTEM INFO:
OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Manufacturer HP Pavilion 06
System Model D7218P-ABA 774E
System Type X86-based PC
Processor x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1 AuthenticAMD ~1998 Mhz
BIOS Version/Date Phoenix Technologies, LTD AM37308, 12/16/2002
SMBIOS Version 2.3
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
Total Physical Memory 512.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 261.95 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.22 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
DISPLAY:
Name NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
PNP Device ID PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0253&SUBSYS_013210DE&REV_A3\4&3621FAAD&0&0008
Adapter Type GeForce4 Ti 4200, NVIDIA compatible
Adapter Description NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
Adapter RAM 64.00 MB (67,108,864 bytes)
Installed Drivers nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version 6.13.10.3190
INF File oem37.inf (nv4_novpe section)
Color Planes 1
Color Table Entries 4294967296
Resolution 1024 x 768 x 60 hertz
Bits/Pixel 32
Memory Address 0xE4000000-0xE5FFFFFF
Memory Address 0xD0000000-0xDFFFFFFF
Memory Address 0xD8000000-0xD807FFFF
IRQ Channel IRQ 16
I/O Port 0x000003B0-0x000003BB
I/O Port 0x000003C0-0x000003DF
Memory Address 0xA0000-0xBFFFF
Driver c:\windows\system32\drivers\nv4_mini.sys (6.13.10.3190, 977.56 KB (1,001,018 bytes), 10/28/2002 1:37 PM)

This forum rocks, You guys are great!
Millard

 

[mainegeek]

vidman3117,

Have a look in Task Manager (ctrl + alt + del) and see how many processes are running (displayed at bottom of screen).

You may have an application problem.
You also may have a heat issue with the display adapter.

Look in Control Panel,System if it shows 512 ram then your video is a separate (stand alone) card. If it shows 448 then it is intergrated.

Probably a 2400+ CPU
64 mb of video ram
512 mb system ram

 

[dakota81]

So wait, you said you've got a 1GHz Athlon with 256meg, but your system info listing says you've got a 2GHz Athlon (XP 2400+) with 512meg ram.

 

[vidman3117]

Dakota,
When you're right you're right..I stand corrected. I was going from memory, and when I printed the stats out, I didn't even check. Thanks for noticing. I am not sure it changes the general recommendation, though..or does it?
Regards,
Millard

 

[ceh4702]

Most motherboards can handle at least 1 gig of RAM. For photoshop some people try to use up to 2 Gigs of RAM.

If you had something like a XP2800 CPU or faster the Cache size on the processor would also be bigger.
Then look at the speed of the actual RAM you have. Is it DDR266, DDR333, DDR400?

A lot depends on the model of computer you have and what type of RAM (speed) it can use, and what model of CPU it can use (Speed and Cache Size).

Another factor is the speed of the Hard drive:
Is it 4,500rpm, 5,400rpm, 7,200rpm, 10,000rpm?
Faster is better. Faster hard drives read the files faster, and swap virtual memory faster.

The video card applies more to Frame Rates for Video. What you have is not too bad.

Might try upgrading to the newest version of MS Direct X. This sometimes improves the visual quality of even older video cards.

Try looking for newer Video Card Drivers.

You have to decide if it is worth it to upgrade or better to buy a new computer, or to build from scratch.


If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[vidman3117]

cheh, as Dakota pointed out my processor is 2gig. I am using pc2100 ddr ram (512 currently). Hd are both 7200, and the external hd is a usb 2.0 250gb. I will ck to see if I have the newest version of Direct X. Thanks for you advice!
Millard