Vista's Memory Demands?

[Ed Sutherland]

I'm considering switching soon to Vista Home Premium. However, I've heard
the new OS places heavy memory demands and may not work with all systems. I
have a "Windows Vista Capable" Toshiba Satellite laptop with a 1.xGB dual
core processor and 1GB of system memory, part of which is consumed for
graphics.

Testing RC2 (5744) there is a noticable delay after launching an
application.

How much memory do I need for Vista to be as quick as XP when launching
applications? With modern systems which have gigbytes of processing speed
and memory, there should not be a noticeable delay.

Secondly, this laptop uses a portion of system memory for graphics. I know
Vista is graphics intensive -- could this be another reason for the
slowdown?

I don't want to invest hundred in upgrades, new software and whatever else
is needed to get Vista up to speed, only to discover it won't work properly
on my system. Thanks for any assistance.

 

[Chad Harris]

Ed--

The delay in launching your applications is not Vista related. It's Windows
hygeine related. Do the relevant things to speed your pc. Your hardware is
fully capapble of running Vista well and fast--any build through RTM. It
would be nice to have 2GB but beleieve me many of us can launch applications
immediately with 1GB RAM. You have a dual core processor on that
Toshiba--that's plenty processor.

A machine with a P4 and 1GB RAM can run Vista well if you clean it up.

Vista Requirements according to MSFT:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

Windows Vista Capable

modern processor (min. 800MHz)
512MB system memory
DirectX 9-capable graphics processor

Windows Vista Premium-Ready

1GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1GB system memory
Support for DirectX 9 graphics w/ WDDM driver; min. 128MB graphics memory;
Pixel Shader 2.0; 32 bits-per-pixel
40GB hard drive with 15GB free space
DVD-ROM Drive
Audio output
Internet access

You may find some of these tips fast and helpful. Most of them take seconds
and can solve your window load or application load time problems.

Speed PC and Control CPU Tips/Steps
SPEED AND CPU:
_______________
1) Trim processes you don't need in TM. Google them or "search engine of
your choice them" if you have to.

2) Go to

services.msc in run box and turn off services not needed and there are some.

3) Run System File Checker.

SFC: http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

In Vista run it from an elevated command prompt. Right click command on
start and run as administrator.

4) Run 3 or so spyware scans Windows Defender, , Adaware, and Spybot

5) Probably the most important for speed consistently and efficient resource
use DEFRAG with www.raxco.com or www.diskeeeper.com with 15% free space on
drive if DK and or >5% if Raxco's Perfect Disk.
http://groups.msn.com/windowsxpcentral/spyware.msnw Download Adaware and

Spybot from here.
GOOD Overall Review for Defending Your PC:
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
MSFT Defense Site MSFT Security:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/default.mspx
Protect Your PC from MSFT Security:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx
MSFT Windows Defender
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx
MSFT MSRT: (Malicious Software Removal Tool)
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx
MSFT "Windows One Care" in Wings (AV and Spyware Scans)
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/may05/05-13WindowsOneCarePR.mspx


6) Unck items from msconfig start tab you don't need starting and some
won't start--peoiple who think just uncking for many are naive because there
are 12 places things can be started including several reg keys like Run Once
keys and there are serveral.

7) Turn off Messaging service--it's a security vulnerability and it slows
you

8) Defrag very often every other day actually.

9) Turn off indexing.

10) Clear TIF and %temp% files (delete) and go to safe mode to get as many
as u can.

10) Do troubleshooting with msconfig.

11) Do Clean boot with msconfig utility and search for the directions here:

SERVICE CONFIGURATION REFERENCES*

Black Viper's Site
http://www.dead-eye.net/WinXP Services.htm

http://www.z123.org/techsupport/xpservices.htm
http://www.geocities.com/ziyadhosein/xpserv1.htm
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_content.php
This will be helpful
http://web.archive.org/web/20041128084144/www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm
______________________________________________________________________________________________
How to troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560/
Resources for troubleshooting startup problems in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308041/
How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434
How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/
How to Disable a Service or Device that Prevents Windows from Starting
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310602/

Also ck out these references:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,5155,00.asp
http://www.speedupyourcomputer.windowsreinstall.com/index.htm and
http://www.extremetech.com/search_r...=how+to+speed+windows+xp&filterapp=&site=4P.S.

Defragging with a decent defrag every day will make a huge dent inefficient
resource/CPU use.Good luck,CH
Perfect Disk has a 5 month full functionality trial on now for Windows
Vista.

Good luck,

CH

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

How much ram is shared with the video adapter and is the shared amount
fixed? Has Toshiba posted a Vista driver for the laptop (this really
matters in terms of performance)?

 

[MICHAEL]

I have an old Dell from 2001 with 1GB RDRAM,
a P4 2.4Ghz, and an old Nvidia 64MB graphics card
that is running Vista RC2, it works very well.

I don't get the Aero Glass and have not tried forcing Glass
to work. Even without the Glass or maybe because of it-
that Vista machine looks good and runs remarkably well.
Although, it has the same slowness with transferring files
across a network, but so have all the machines I have
tested Vista on.


-Michael

 

[Chad Harris]

Before I got my new Vid Card, I ran Vista really well with faster IE speeds
than on my XP boot with a 32 MB card. I tried to force Glass but it was no
go. I have seen people reporting running Aero Glass on 64MB cards, but I
suppose it depends on the particular card and chipset and slot--and possibly
the mobo in some cases.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Colin--

I thought (although much more may be in play with some of the newest
Nvidias, ATIs), that a basic rule of thumb was to go to a bios setup setting
that was listed as the video card slot and ***aperture size and make sure it
was set to half of the video card's RAM to optimally distribute the workload
between the card's RAM and the pc's ram. And that this means that the
aperture memory from the card wouldn't be used until the
pc's memory is running low.

Set apperture size too small and you run out of texture memory, with this
more likely on low memory video cards.

I would expect during games or graphics intesive app use for this to come
into play but not ordinarily to be a problem for apps loading.

CH

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Don't some systems have the amount of shared ram fixed and some dynamic? I
stay away from shared ram myself.

 

[Chad Harris]

Colin I think so. But I know my Nvidia card is controlled by an Aperture
setting in the bios and it's 512MB RAM and when I checked the bios setting
it was already defaulted or some how set itself maybe via the mobo to 256 MB
RAM so there was nothing else for me to do.

You can google for shared RAM fixed and dynamic. As I understand it, many
of the new cards fluctuate a bit depending on the demand from a game or a
graphics intensive app.

http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/43

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=video+card+sharing+ram

I imagine that the bios setting name would change based on the type
card/slot on the mobo.

CH

 

[Guest]

"Do yourself a favor and add a gig of RAM. Vista will purr like a kitten,
promise! One Gig is not enough. Maybe for base minimum requirements. My PC
has 4 gigs of RAM. Vista runs very smoooth.

 

[Guest]

As already mentioned, going to 2GB of RAM might be useful, depending on what
you run. Other than that, you're in good shape. I'm running Vista Ultimate on
a Dell Latitude D800, with a 1.6GHz Pentium M, 2GB RAM, and only 32MB video
RAM. It's a pretty heavily loaded system (IIS, Adobe CS2, Visual Studio,
Office 2007, SQL Server, etc.). Memory use idling is around 700MB. I only get
Vista Basic UI, but I'm fine with that. Boot time is slow, but once it's up
and running, performance is fine.

The system has enough pep to run a second copy of Vista (Ultimate) in
Virtual PC in a 1GB space; that system uses just under 300MB idling, with
basically no extra software installed except IIS. That's probably a good
benchmark for a full Vista install in a 1GB machine.

The one gotcha with laptops is about graphics; Aero (and especially Aero
Glass) will use lots of power, and cause the graphics chip to run hot.
Laptops aren't built to cool graphics processors. When running on batteries,
you may want to drop back to Vista Basic UI.

 

[Chad Harris]

Good perspective on what can run Vista well.

CH

As already mentioned, going to 2GB of RAM might be useful, depending on
what
you run. Other than that, you're in good shape. I'm running Vista Ultimate
on
a Dell Latitude D800, with a 1.6GHz Pentium M, 2GB RAM, and only 32MB
video
RAM. It's a pretty heavily loaded system (IIS, Adobe CS2, Visual Studio,
Office 2007, SQL Server, etc.). Memory use idling is around 700MB. I only
get
Vista Basic UI, but I'm fine with that. Boot time is slow, but once it's
up
and running, performance is fine.

The system has enough pep to run a second copy of Vista (Ultimate) in
Virtual PC in a 1GB space; that system uses just under 300MB idling, with
basically no extra software installed except IIS. That's probably a good
benchmark for a full Vista install in a 1GB machine.

The one gotcha with laptops is about graphics; Aero (and especially Aero
Glass) will use lots of power, and cause the graphics chip to run hot.
Laptops aren't built to cool graphics processors. When running on
batteries,
you may want to drop back to Vista Basic UI.

 

[Tiago Fonseca]

1GB ram is enough...
My laptop (LG S1) got 4,5 Rating with 1GB of ram...

 

[Guest]

My PC got a 5 rating. I can simultaneosly burn a CD, watch a movie, and have
2 or more programs open at the same time with no drag on performance. I have
Dual 3.4 GHz Xeons, 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 512 MB Video card with DDR3. Even on a
laptop I would advise more than 1 GB. If all your going to do is surf the
web, then yes, 1 GB should do. Again, there are alot of other factors, like
processor, programs running in the background etc...

 

[Chad Harris]

Nice machine indeed. But I can take 1GB RAM on most boxes and make Vista
smoke with all those running.

CH