Jul 08 2008
What 3 GB RAM On Vista Feels Like
Not much, really. On my previous post I’ve told you that I am planning to boost my Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit system from 2 GB to 3 GB – and so I did it yesterday without second thought just when my funds got enough to buy a 2 GB memory stick for my laptop. The result: there was a measurable increase of responsiveness on most applications – but not really much to awe.
System Configuration
My laptop (Neo 540NVP2i) runs with 1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 processor (two cores) and Windows Vista Home Premium. It came with 1 GB RAM default but I upgraded it to 2 GB after few months of purchase because I realized that it was not good enough for multitasking of my commonly used productivity software (in addition to our knowledge that Vista is a memory hog). Now, the RAM is upgraded again to 3 GB as mentioned above.
The image below tells more about my mobile computer’s processor features.
This one tells about the additional DDR 2 RAM stick I bought for the upgrade. The RAM upgrade costs Php 2,050 (more or less $50 US dollars).
Windows Vista or Motherboard BIOS Bug?
I wonder why but if you look at the image below taken from Windows Vista’s Welcome Screen, it reported 5 GB RAM. It was wrong since I only installed a total of 3 GB on both slots. When I rebooted my system and entered the BIOS configuration, my motherboard correctly detected 3 GB RAM – telling me that this might be another Vista bug or something.
How 3 GB RAM Vista Feels Like
After adding the new 2 GB DDR2 RAM to achieve a total RAM of 3 GB, the boot-up process is tad longer than before because of the bigger capacity of RAM which makes boot-up RAM test longer. I noticed that applications running on my Windows Vista Home Premium are now faster and they don’t feel “choked” with RAM resource shortage. However, it did not increase the total speed of the system – though the little lags when you switch on different programs are noticeably gone. Windows Vista feels better with 3 GB RAM – period.
Now, web browsing at the same time running Adobe Dreamweaver, Photoshop and all instant messengers from Yahoo Messenger to Skype, is a breeze. It would have been much faster if the processor in-built with my laptop is upgradable, but it’s not.
Related Post
July 8th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
[...] am doing multiple tasks. I’ve never encountered an operating system as resource hog as Vista is. Next month, I am thinking of upgrading again to 3 GB. I hope it will work for me, otherwise I could conclude that the problem is not my system but [...]
July 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I’m staying away from that OS. Or at least till the next gen comes out.
July 8th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Yeah, I would suggest same as well. But I am trying to love the resource-hungry OS now.
July 30th, 2008 at 2:39 am
My vista desktop reports 8gb of ram even though it has 1gb while my vista laptop correctly reports 3gb ram.
July 30th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Hi Simon, what version of Windows Vista do you have? Service Pack 1?
July 30th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
both are running 32bit Home Premium with service pack 1. i upgraded the ram on my desktop, so that might have something to do with it.
July 30th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Yeah. We have similar case. I just went to Microsoft site and used their customer support service for Windows Vista regarding this problem.
I’m still waiting for their reply as this blog post is being referenced. They were quite helpful so far.
August 19th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
[...] have downloaded the software myself, installed it on my Windows Vista and it really rocked! The free download comes not only with the 3D modeling software, but with [...]
August 22nd, 2008 at 11:56 am
[...] I felt that my Windows Vista Home Premium still getting slower and slower each day, although my laptop’s specs are a lot better now than what it once was, . And I highly suspect that my outdated laptop BIOS and near-full hard disk drive are causing [...]
August 31st, 2008 at 3:36 am
I do not believe this
September 26th, 2008 at 6:45 am
[...] causes. I am on a decent laptop with Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a SATA hard disk drive and 3 gigabytes of RAM, so it’s a bit mysterious as to why Firefox 3 still slows [...]