2 or 4 GB for XP 32? - Tech Support Forums

Fumphis · August 6th, 2008, 09:41 AM

Looking at a new computer, and wondering if I should go with 2GB RAM over 4GB for XP Home SP2. Besides the inherent 3.4-ish limitation, I've also heard about people having performance issues from using 4 GB in XP. Do you recommend 2 or 4?

Atomic Rooster · August 6th, 2008, 11:08 AM

2GB is fine. That's what I'm running with XP Pro SP3 and I don't see any performance issues.

SeanC · August 6th, 2008, 11:42 AM

As Atomic Rooster said, 2GB is fine, 3GB would work too. But with 4GB you wouldn't see the full 4GB, because of a limitation in the way that 32-bit operating systems address memory.

ShyguyXPC · August 7th, 2008, 02:15 AM

ditto on what AR & SeanC Said (Just curious, up there, do you have many people mis-pronounce your name too? Same first name here, just have so many people who know who Sean Connery, Penn, Young, Bean etc are, but can't seem to pronounce the name when us "normals" have it, always pronounce it Seen instead of like Shawn?)

anyways, yeah 2GB will be fine, as SeanC said 3 will do too, but I'm running 3GB & XP, when I bumped up my RAM from 2 to 3, I didn't see any kind of performance jump from what I had before for games or regular apps & programs.

however the reason I did that wasn't for normal apps, but as additional RAM for a few extra apps/programs I run, mainly a couple of 3D Graphics programs, which I did see a slight drop in render times, but got the extra RAM so those can use more while the rest of the system still had some to use.

SeanC · August 7th, 2008, 11:37 AM

Yeah 3GB would be the max I would install for a 32-bit system.

And yeah I do have people mispronounce my name a lot still. And even more so on my last name.

RamonGTP · August 7th, 2008, 09:25 PM

Don't you guys think it would be wise to atleast ask what the OP intends to use the computer for, before giving your own personal gaurantee that 2GB will be enough? Granted that for the majority of the people it will be, but not for everyone. I know for me it wouldn't be.

SeanC · August 7th, 2008, 09:45 PM

He was asking because he was going to install XP Home SP2. The main choices are 2GB, 3GB or 4GB. Now for 32bit Windows 4GB isn't worth it unless you need every last meg of RAM and can't go to a 64bit OS. So 2GB or 3GB are his best choices.

RamonGTP · August 7th, 2008, 09:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanC

He was asking because he was going to install XP Home SP2. The main choices are 2GB, 3GB or 4GB. Now for 32bit Windows 4GB isn't worth it unless you need every last meg of RAM and can't go to a 64bit OS. So 2GB or 3GB are his best choices.

Umm, what does that have to do with what I said? You still don't know what his needs are. 3GB is 50% more than 2GB which is a significant difference and everyone said 2GB is plenty without knowing what it would be used for.

ShyguyXPC · August 8th, 2008, 12:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fumphis

Looking at a new computer, and wondering if I should go with 2GB RAM over 4GB for XP Home SP2. Besides the inherent 3.4-ish limitation, I've also heard about people having performance issues from using 4 GB in XP. Do you recommend 2 or 4?

That is Why we have stated 2GB... (the Bold, Italic, Underlined Part...)

Quote:

Originally Posted by RamonGTP

Umm, what does that have to do with what I said? You still don't know what his needs are. 3GB is 50% more than 2GB which is a significant difference and everyone said 2GB is plenty without knowing what it would be used for.

But Me & Sean both have said that 3GB will be fine too, as should 2GB. I basically also mentioned it, 2GB, should be enough for the OS itself & basic apps & most games.... But went into detail as to why I'm using 3GB, I'm running XP Media Center (basically XP Pro with out a couple features & some Media center addons)

he's asking for XP Home with SP2 on a new system... I'm guessing if he was going for something more demanding he'd have at least XP Pro 32-bit, if not XP 64 or Vista 32/64...

but since this is such a debate, lets let the Original Poster tell us what they intend to use this PC for then...

RamonGTP · August 8th, 2008, 12:40 AM

It's not so much debate, just that nobody asked what it was being used for before making the recomendations, that's all. If we're talking about DDR2, IMO, you might as well go with 4GB if you need more than 2,(even if you cannot use ALL of it) the difference in cost between 4GB vs 3GB is pretty small.