It isn’t noticeable all the time, but it will allow you to run more, with less lag time and not really notice it. It’s like increasing your gas mileage 3-5 MPG. It might not be glaringly obvious, but after a year, you may have saved $250 on gas.
Ilsa, simplistic IS wrong. You don’t build a computer based on simplistic rules. You follow a plan that is intelligently thought out.
More memory is good if and only if you are experiencing memory related slowdowns. Spending money on more memory is good if and only if it is the most cost effective way to get the performance gains you need.
Spouting off one line statements about what’s faster and what isn’t is misleading.
Note here that Astroboy followed your simplistic advice of more is better and got NOTHING out of it. For him, more was not better, it screwed up his system. Ergo, your statement was WRONG, at least with respect to his system.
There wasn’t a damn thing wrong with handy’s post either, seemed like an innocent little question to me.
Astroboy didn’t follow my advice. His problem was unrelated to my advice. For probably ~65% of people, increasing RAM would boost system performance at least a little bit.
His problem was that he thought extra memory would make his computer faster. I thought that as well. Neither of us got any appreciable performance gain from our purchases, and had to spend money and our time to find that out. Once you have enough memory in your system, adding RAM doesn’t help very much at all.
Classic bottleneck theory. Once you clear that bottleneck, you have to move on to the next one, because additional work in the first spot won’t help anymore.
See, Cheesteak, that’s the thing. The mess in this thread started with Chris’s ignorance and overreaction to Ilsa’s facetious comment in Astroboy’s thread.
How’d that happen? Cheesesteak’s post wasn’t there when I previewed.
Ooooooh. I love it when non-technical people try and explain, via analogy, the benefits of extra “magic beans.” I hope you don’t think you’re in IT, do you? That’s the crux of the problem that ended up spawning this mess of a Pit thread. Please Ilsa, if you’re going to lay bromides on the general public, keep them to MPSIMS.
There are a number of factors that cause system slowdown, and a lot of them are application-specific. A lot of them have to do with the worst applications of them all, the miserable GUIs were stuck operating, of which Windows 98 is a good example. If one is to diagnose the problems, one needs to take a thorough and accurate audit of the user’s system, computing habits and needs. Without proper analysis, throwing sticks of RAM at a problem solves virtually nothing. Pun intended.
HATE BAD PUNS! OG SMASH!
If you’re not going to address my earlier comments, your goat needs finishing.
I am more knowledgeable than the average bear about computers, inasmuch as the GTMHH and backsun.box.sk give you an edge. For most home users that have less thant 512MB of RAM, increasing RAM will boost sytem performance. That is the bottom line.
Adding memory and expecting your computer to run faster is like wearing baggier shorts and expecting yourself to run faster. It’s not going to work unless your previous pair are too tight.
See, this is why I am in IT. 
Heh. For a real thrill, ask an English usage question in GQ sometime. A complicated one, preferably one which would only occur once or twice a century. Three pages of non-insults, guaranteed. 
Your shorts are too tight?
I think a couple of people in my dear little train wreck have shorts too tight.
Lord!
I wanted more RAM because it would allow me to load more character models and zone faster when playing EverQuest… and also possibly speeding things up a bit when I have Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash all open at the same time (note: rather RAM intensive programs). Sheesh!
As I said, impulse buy. I didn’t check beforehand whether Win98 could handle that much RAM, as I had never heard that it couldn’t. Now I know!
Won’t someone think of my poor computer? The humanity!
How about that, CnoteChris? I was right the WHOLE DAMN TIME MORON!!
As I suspected, Astroboy was a gamer running graphics intensive sims, and PHOTOSHOP. and boosting his RAM up would speed that up. I have been right this whole train wreck.
You are a fucking idiot, and an asshole to boot.
No, you were stupid, and you continue to be stupid.
handy asked a simple question, “why do you need so much”?
Your response was: more = faster, why ask the question.
You assumed a memory intensive application, based on no information whatsoever.
It is only the fact that the OP finally answered handy’s question that enables you to do your little victory dance. Your assumption proved correct.
It doesn’t make you less stupid, though. It was actually handy that asked for the information you needed. Idiot.
Whatever, dude.
Funny how you want things dropped when it’s not going your way, but you’re all over it when it seemingly comes back around again.
Weaseling little fucker.
As Desmostylus already points out, it doesn’t change anything. Handy asked a question that needed to be asked for your assumption in that thread to be true. Which, if you really looked at the question in that thread, completely negates your stupid “more memory = more speed” comment, as Windows 98 can’t operate correctly with more than 512MB. Right?
But hey, you’re being vague, simplistic, and talking about things not related to the thread where you said that comment, right?
Kind of Handy-esque, isn’t it? Is that the complaint against Handy? And isn’t that why you ran to the bash Handy thread and talked about how much of a moron the guy is?
The irony in all that is simply stunning, especially when the guy you criticize, mock, and call a moron, was the lone person who asked the question that needed to be asked for your simplistic, vague, and misleading answer to be correct.
My initial assessment of you, and your comments, remains unchanged. You’re an idiot.
I was, and am still ready to drop it. I am sure, however, that you will still find a way to make this support your “initial assesment of me.”
I never said more memory equalled more speed. I said more memory made your computer run faster, which is demonstrably true and applies in almost all cases, save for extreme cases where 512MB is doubled to a whole gig on systems that can’t handle that much.
But you did flame handy pretty well for asking that question.
Will you at least admit that the question is a reasonable one?
Certainly. It was the comment on Windows 98 that irked me so much. The RAM question was related to the OP.