4GB On 32bit OS (Gaming): How many have noticed a difference?

Performance difference in gaming on 32bit OS - 2GB RAM to 4GB RAM

  • Noticed a big difference.

    Votes: 3 25.0%
  • Noticed a minimal difference.

    Votes: 7 58.3%
  • Noticed no difference at all.

    Votes: 2 16.7%

  • Total voters
    12

ObscureTerror

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 29, 2007
Messages
145
Upon seeing two discussions in this forum on the issue, and the fact that I'm considering upping my RAM to 4GB, I'd like to hear from every gamer possible about this.

I've seen myself a lot of people, especially around here, say they've noticed a difference in gaming performance going from 2GB to 4GB on XP 32bit.

Before I bother with the hassle, I'd like to hear from gamers themselves who have noticed a difference when upgrading to 4GB on XP 32bit.

I've been checking around before posting this, and have seen a lot of other people saying the same things on other tech sites, and even gaming sites.

Please vote and post your experiences. There are obviously a lot of people here and elsewhere who need to know and could use the info.

Cheers.
 
I'm not sure how you'll possibly make any decision based on the responses you get. They won't be any different than the reports you've been reading.

People use computers differently. They notice different things; and going based on their perception of something after it has changed without controlling both the before and after cases carefully is very much an unscientific and unrepeatable measurement of the performance you wish to influence by changing the amount of memory you're using and the OS build you have.
 
I understand your point, but this is meant to be more a "general overview" to see whether or not people have actually noticed any performance increase in gaming, specifically, after upgrading the amount of RAM they're running.

From so much of what I've seen, people can at least notice, even if just slightly or generally, an improvement if there's been any, and can also notice if they've not.

Because so many claim they have noticed improvements, just upgrading RAM -not any other hardware- this can certainly give an idea.

Of course, if they changed any other hardware, it wouldn't be valid, and this is specifically for 2GB to 4GB on a 32bit OS, not for those who were running too little RAM to begin with. So again, it can give a relative idea of whether or not just the RAM upgrade from 2GB to 4GB actually did make a difference.

Since there's been so many claims about it, this just gives people a specific place to vote on the issue and state that it has or has not made a difference.
 
I'd sort of like to see more feedback on this as well, as I've never noticed a difference. I know you don't get use of the full 4GB as on a 64bit OS, but I was actually surprised that I never saw a difference with anything (that I've noticed) when I moved up to 4GB.

RAM is cheap these days, and most say it's worth having even with XP 32, so I went for it eventually, but I've never seen any benefit. Not that I'd expect some huge difference, but I actually thought I'd notice a "little something".

I'm currently running XP Pro 32 myself, C2D E6700 and 4GB Corsair XMS2.

So why do so many say it's worth having on XP 32?
And what about those who have actually claimed to see a difference (even if slight) in gaming on XP 32 when they upgraded from 2GB to 4GB?

I know people see the biggest difference on Vista with more RAM, but I see a lot of people around here claim they've seen improvement on XP 32 as well, specifically having gone from 2GB to 4GB, but I never have.
 
I notice a few votes here, and I know I'd like to know...

For those who voted that you noticed a difference, was it strictly going from 2GB to 4GB on XP 32?

Could you also tell me what you noticed a difference with?
Just things such as boot time etc.? Gaming performance? Other apps?

Were you running in dual channel, or 2x2GB in single channel?

I'd like to get a feel for what exactly, and how (if you can tell me) you noticed a difference with, even if the OP has no reply. Especially because, as I've said, I've personally noticed no difference.

Thanks.
 
I replaced 32bit OS on all my computers some time ago....

Why would anyone have PC with 4+ GB RAM and 32bit OS ?:rolleyes:
 
Well, you still get to use 3 or 3,5gb of ram, depending on how much VRAM your video card has.
 
XP itself uses no more than 512MB's of RAM. Vista uses about 1 gig on its own.

which is why most vista rig's have 4 gigs of DDR2..

XP can get by with 2 gigs, even 1.5. heck, 5 of the 6 six computers here run XP, and 3 of them ahve no more than 2 gigs (one has 2 gigs because of a cheap 2 gig stick i found :D).

my rig: E2180 @ 3.250 ghz, Vista 64bit, 4 gigs
Mom's Rig: Pentium 4 520, 1GB of RAM, XP Pro.
Sister 1's rig: Opteron 146 @ 2.6 ghz, 1.5GB's of Value RAM, XP Pro.
Sister 2's Rig: Celeron D 331 with 2 gigs of Value RAM, XP Pro
sister 3's rig: Athlon XP 1700+ @ 2.2 ghz, 768MB's of RAM, XP Pro

ever since getting voer 512, all these computers run great. theres no difference between a 1 gig rig and a 2 gig rig on XP.
 
XP itself uses no more than 512MB's of RAM. Vista uses about 1 gig on its own.

which is why most vista rig's have 4 gigs of DDR2..

XP can get by with 2 gigs, even 1.5. heck, 5 of the 6 six computers here run XP, and 3 of them ahve no more than 2 gigs (one has 2 gigs because of a cheap 2 gig stick i found :D).

my rig: E2180 @ 3.250 ghz, Vista 64bit, 4 gigs
Mom's Rig: Pentium 4 520, 1GB of RAM, XP Pro.
Sister 1's rig: Opteron 146 @ 2.6 ghz, 1.5GB's of Value RAM, XP Pro.
Sister 2's Rig: Celeron D 331 with 2 gigs of Value RAM, XP Pro
sister 3's rig: Athlon XP 1700+ @ 2.2 ghz, 768MB's of RAM, XP Pro

ever since getting voer 512, all these computers run great. theres no difference between a 1 gig rig and a 2 gig rig on XP.

Unless you do any sort of real work on it. :p

My vmware stuff for work will chew through 3 gigs easy (running 4 vms at once will do that). Programming IDEs (VStudio 2005/2008 notably) use a lot of ram these days too. For me, 2 gigs is the bare minimum, 4 gigs is the comfort zone. My Mac workstation has 6 gigs of ram. :p
 
Back
Top