Windows Vista Forums

ram--not enough?
  1. #1


    Donald Shelton Guest

    ram--not enough?

    I bought a new machine with vista home premium. It came with just a little
    over 1 GB of Ram installed.



    On my sidebar I have the memory gauge. With just a few programs running in
    the background and using IE, the gauge goes up to 80+%.

    Do I need to get more memory? Is 1GB just the bare minimum needed to run
    vista?

    Thanks to all

    Don

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  2. #2


    Dustin Harper Guest

    Re: ram--not enough?


    It depends on what is running in the background. Some manufacturers load
    the OS with a bunch of crap that runs in the background. You can run
    MSCONFIG to stop some processes from starting when you boot up.

    I have 1 GB in one of my machines, and it does fill up quick. The
    absolute minimum is 512MB, but that is slow. 1 GB is normal for most
    users, and 1.5-2GB for gaming or Photoshop type users. As always, more
    is better!

    --
    Dustin Harper
    dharper@vistarip.com
    http://www.vistarip.com


    Donald Shelton wrote:
    > I bought a new machine with vista home premium. It came with just a little
    > over 1 GB of Ram installed.
    >
    > On my sidebar I have the memory gauge. With just a few programs running in
    > the background and using IE, the gauge goes up to 80+%.
    >
    > Do I need to get more memory? Is 1GB just the bare minimum needed to run
    > vista?
    >
    > Thanks to all
    >
    > Don


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  3. #3


    Reggie Dunbar Guest

    Re: ram--not enough?

    If you're not running anything too taxing, I'd opt for the cheaper
    Flashdrive/Readyboost option. If you're a gamer or doing multimedia work,
    then the faster RAM is indeed better.


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  4. #4


    Travis King Guest

    Re: ram--not enough?

    Donald Shelton wrote:
    > I bought a new machine with vista home premium. It came with just a little
    > over 1 GB of Ram installed.
    >
    > On my sidebar I have the memory gauge. With just a few programs running in
    > the background and using IE, the gauge goes up to 80+%.
    >
    > Do I need to get more memory? Is 1GB just the bare minimum needed to run
    > vista?
    >
    > Thanks to all
    >
    > Don

    I've got a gig and a half and I never see my RAM usage go above 50%
    except for when I first start my system. My RAM usage is typically in
    the 30's or 40's.

      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  5. #5


    Lakesidezx Guest

    Re: ram--not enough?


    "Travis King" <Anonymous@none.com> wrote in message
    news:%236CF867SHHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
    > Donald Shelton wrote:
    >> I bought a new machine with vista home premium. It came with just a
    >> little over 1 GB of Ram installed.
    >>
    >> On my sidebar I have the memory gauge. With just a few programs running
    >> in the background and using IE, the gauge goes up to 80+%.
    >>
    >> Do I need to get more memory? Is 1GB just the bare minimum needed to run
    >> vista?
    >>
    >> Thanks to all
    >>
    >> Don

    > I've got a gig and a half and I never see my RAM usage go above 50% except
    > for when I first start my system. My RAM usage is typically in the 30's
    > or 40's.


    Same here, I've got 2GB RAM and my ram usage for vista home premie is almost
    always at about 29-36% except upon initial startup when it goes higher but
    then settles back down.

    As far as bare minimum, I believe that 1GB is the bare minimum for vista to
    run acceptably, 2GB being better and usually enough for the most common of
    users.


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  6. #6


    Steve Thackery Guest

    Re: ram--not enough?

    Don't worry - as the saying goes, unused RAM is wasted RAM. Basically,
    Vista helps itself to lots of RAM in order to speed things up as much as
    possible. As soon as an application requests it, the OS relinquishes it.

    So it isn't a problem.

    Of course, 2G is better!

    Thack



      My System SpecsSystem Spec

  7. #7


    thetruthhurts @homail.com Guest

    Re: ram--not enough?


    Get more RAM, I ran Vista for two months with 1 GB and it was usually
    around 70% mem utilization. The biggest mem hogs on my machine are
    Office 2007 apps.

    As far as Readyboost, forget it, spend the money on RAM. To get
    Readyboost to work you need a fast flashdrive, which is not much
    cheaper than another GB of memory. The memory will help a lot more.

    On Thu, 8 Feb 2007 07:52:01 -0800, Donald Shelton
    <DonaldShelton@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

    >I bought a new machine with vista home premium. It came with just a little
    >over 1 GB of Ram installed.
    >
    >On my sidebar I have the memory gauge. With just a few programs running in
    >the background and using IE, the gauge goes up to 80+%.
    >
    >Do I need to get more memory? Is 1GB just the bare minimum needed to run
    >vista?
    >
    >Thanks to all
    >
    >Don


      My System SpecsSystem Spec

ram--not enough? problems?