Memory Limitations

[Guest]

I have 4 Gig of Ram in a custom built machine - Tyan MPX dual AMD boad -
s2466 - 2 AMD MP chips - 2+Gig speed. 4 Gig of Corsair Memory. FInding that
despite having a significant amount of memory, when I open up a lot of Word
files (15+) and a lot of Outlook contact cards, even though my "Commit
Charrge-Total" for Memory is more or less than a Gig, and I should have
plenty left, the machine starts to not react, windows do not open for
additional programs, programs will not run when executed, et al?

Is this a limitation of Windows in 32 bit? Windows XP Pro - Do I need to go
to 64 Bit? Do I need to go to Windows Server?

Thoughts? We keep a lot of data open tracking customer records - added more
and more RAM to address this issue - but it does not seem to be addressed by
more RAM - seems to be a systemic/structural limitation

 

[Chuck]

"The user-mode memory space is still limited to 2 GB"
This was a quote extracted from an MS note on memory usage and switches.
There is also a hint of some memory management issues/variations between the
various NT based Ops systems.

 

[Mak]

Sounds there is something wrong with the machine you are using or, more
likely, OS is misconfigured. (Do you happen to set LargreSystemCache to 1?
If you *tweaked* OS, please list what you've changed.)

What you observe is not what I see on much lesser computers than yours. On
this one for example, I open 34 word documents and about 18 contacts -
commit charge total went up by ~70MB, launching other programs doesn't feel
any slower. That extra 70 MB of commit charge is trimmed to almost nothing
as soon as I minimize Word and Outlook.

BTW, programs do not care about your RAM, nor they can use RAM directly on
virtual memory OS, programs use virtual address space and the limit for
32-bit process (doesn't matter if your CPU and / or OS is 32-bit or 64-bit)
is 2 GB (4GB of addressable space is split - 2 GB kernel and 2 GB user modes
by default).
This 2GB limit for 32-bit process (Office application for example) is the
same on 128MB RAM computer with XP 32-bit and 64GB RAM Windows server 2003
64-bit edition.

 

[Bob Harris]

Miscrosoft Office does not make good use of all available RAM. Admittedly
there is some minimum RAM that is required, but having used Office on XP
machines with 128 Meg to 1 Gig of RAM I can say that something else limits
Office. Unfortunately, I do not know what that something is. It is not CPU
speed nor disk speed either. I can only assume that it is a "feature" of
Office, left over from the days of Office 95, maybe earlier. In this regard
Office 2003 is barely better than Office XP, which is only incrementaly
better than Office 97. Perhaps Office needs to have some major components
written from scratch?

For example, I have created some single WORD documents, under 10 Meg, that
can cause WORD to freeze if I attempt to add or delete a page. These
documents use some graphics, like tables with outlines of the boxes, but I
would not call them highly graphic in nature, being 90+% plain text.

There is one thing that is under user control and might help a little, and
that is the automatic save function. Turn that off and WORD will behave
better. This advice also applies to other components of Office Of course,
be sure to so manual saves after making changes, and before leaving the PC
or starting the next PC operation.

Finally, you might want to consider trying some other office suite and/or
operating system.

 

[Ron Martell]

I have 4 Gig of Ram in a custom built machine - Tyan MPX dual AMD boad -
s2466 - 2 AMD MP chips - 2+Gig speed. 4 Gig of Corsair Memory. FInding that
despite having a significant amount of memory, when I open up a lot of Word
files (15+) and a lot of Outlook contact cards, even though my "Commit
Charrge-Total" for Memory is more or less than a Gig, and I should have
plenty left, the machine starts to not react, windows do not open for
additional programs, programs will not run when executed, et al?

Is this a limitation of Windows in 32 bit? Windows XP Pro - Do I need to go
to 64 Bit? Do I need to go to Windows Server?

Thoughts? We keep a lot of data open tracking customer records - added more
and more RAM to address this issue - but it does not seem to be addressed by
more RAM - seems to be a systemic/structural limitation

I would look at CPU usage rather than RAM as being the prime suspect
for your performance bottlenecks. Most apps, and a lot of Windows
components as well, are not really designed to make optimal use of
dual CPUs.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm