# What can I do to take advantage of 4GB of memory? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 14, 2006, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509 "2006-02-14T19:28:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509/21 "2006-02-16T01:02:02Z")
Full renders take processing time, memory has little to do with it. Viewing your creation on screen with lighting and textures (Open GL) requires memory. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509/22 "2006-02-16T02:07:05Z")
Thanks for all of the cool ideas! I’m still not over the Media Center bells and whistles right now – just ordered a second TV/Video Capture card ($69) so that I can record one program while watching another. The memory is next on my list. Too many neat things that one can do with that much elbow room. > [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > **Question** ; > Will more Ram necessarily make video editing faster?, or is that mostly a function of the software and the processor? I use Pinnacle 9 for editing and it takes _forever_ to render stuff, would more Ram help? It depends. If you are doing stuff that is simply processing files in the gigabyte range, then you will likely benefit most from two hard drives, on separate controllers, so that you can read from one drive while writing to the other. This makes a huge difference in any machine for massive file operations. If you find that the hard drive is thrashing a lot while you are not actively processing a huge file, then you will likely enjoy a great boost in speed from more memory. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509/23 "2006-02-16T03:01:59Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I don’t believe that Windows XP will use more than 2 GB. Certain server editions will, though. And Windows XP-64 will. Just this past week I read an article about how the move to 64 bit and the consequently available extra memory made a real difference to 3D modellers - the modellers modelled spaceships etc in scifi programs. It cut rendering times down from an hour to 15 minutes IIRC. I think the article was on Slashdot, but I’m not sure. I can’t find a listing for XP Home, but XP Professional supports up to 4GB physical memory. The address space of any single application is limited to 2GB (or 3GB if you set a boot flag), but in order to use all of it, the system needs more physical memory than that (because the OS has to go somewhere). In short, applications are limited to 2GB, but you still benefit from more. I suspect, but don’t know, that .NET applications will benefit even more, since the framework/CLR itself should load in the OS’s 2GB rather than the application’s. ---
**Author:** ![Uncommon\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509/24 "2006-02-16T15:02:02Z")
> [@minor7flat5](#): > > Thanks for all of the cool ideas! I’m still not over the Media Center bells and whistles right now – just ordered a second TV/Video Capture card ($69) so that I can record one program while watching another. Yes MCE is very cool. I use mine as a Tivo unit too. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but did you make sure that the new capture card is MCE compatible (it must be or it wont work)? I couldn’t find one for under a $100. If you captured lightning in a bottle let me know so I can join in the fun. Check out Microsoft for the cool list of MCE tools and tweak software. I installed MTV overdrive. Very cool, you can watch any of thousands of videos in the MTV archive on demand. [Go here for the power toys.](http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/Results.aspx?collID=103) > [@](#): > > The memory is next on my list. Too many neat things that one can do with that much elbow room. Me too. > [@](#): > > It depends. If you are doing stuff that is simply processing files in the gigabyte range, then you will likely benefit most from two hard drives, on separate controllers, so that you can read from one drive while writing to the other. This makes a huge difference in any machine for massive file operations. > > If you find that the hard drive is thrashing a lot while you are not actively processing a huge file, then you will likely enjoy a great boost in speed from more memory. I don’t have that problem, I read from one and write to another. I’ve got two SATA hard drives (one 250 and a 200) on the machine and an 80 gig usb drive. I think I’m all set in that department. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509/25 "2006-02-16T16:15:27Z")
> [@Uncommon Sense](#): > > I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but did you make sure that the new capture card is MCE compatible (it must be or it wont work)? I couldn’t find one for under a $100. If you captured lightning in a bottle let me know so I can join in the fun. Easy. I opened the machine and got the manufacturer and model off the installed card: it’s a Hauppauge PVR-150MCE card. [Amazon has it for $69 and free shipping](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00064GI2O/sr=8-1/qid=1140105909/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-9174685-5567069?%5Fencoding=UTF8). You’re right about the SATA hard drives. A few weeks ago I looked up the model of the installed 250GB hard drive and ordered an exact match from somewhere for $100. I just copied a 4GB file from one drive to the other as I was posting this: it took almost exactly 60 seconds. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-can-i-do-to-take-advantage-of-4gb-of-memory/344509.md?page=1)