Windows and RAM

[Kazy]

Someone told me something I'd never heard of today.. just wanted to check if its correct. I searched around but couldn't find anything on it. I was told that Windows 98 can ONLY use up to 128 megs of ram, and ME can only use 256 megs of ram. Therefore having any more than that with either of those operating systems would be pointless. Is that correct? If so, how much can 2000 and XP use? Just curious.. I currently am *still* using 98 (haven't got around to upgrading...) and have 512 megs of RAM. Thanks!

 

[Ryan]

Well, then you didn't search hard enough. This topic has been discussed 1000000000043958365325665325603956324056x times

Or hell, your answer might even be found here: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=27&threadid=704354

 

[Maggotry]

Read the FAQ.

The short answer is, your source is a moron.

 

[ChampionAtTufshop]

actually i believe it doesnt make "good" use of ram over 512mb for 98
there is line to add in some .ini file maybe (its been a while since ive used 98 lol) to make it use less of the page file(or whatever its called) and more of the ram

//edit
from the faq
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=27

 

[amdskip]

If you run over 512, sometimes you're computer will have weird errors.

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: amdskip
If you run over 512, sometimes you're computer will have weird errors.

Which is why you do the system.ini tweak.

 

[Maggotry]

Originally posted by: ChampionAtTufshop
actually i believe it doesnt make "good" use of ram over 512mb for 98

I read a very good review of OS memory use a while back. Basically what they found was very little performance gain in 9x OS's (<5%) over 384MB. Kazy's source said that 98 can only use up to 128MB. That's just not true at all.

 

[AndyHui]

Originally posted by: Maggotry

Originally posted by: ChampionAtTufshop
actually i believe it doesnt make "good" use of ram over 512mb for 98

I read a very good review of OS memory use a while back. Basically what they found was very little performance gain in 9x OS's (<5%) over 384MB. Kazy's source said that 98 can only use up to 128MB. That's just not true at all.

That's right. The 384MB limit really comes from a resource limit, which
I wrote about here.