How much RAM do I have

[DeonH]

Hi there.

I have a PC with XP Pro on.
I get conflicting reports on how much RAM my PC has.
The General Tab under System Properties tells me: 960MB of RAM.
When going to the task manager, is says 2313M.

Which one is right?

Regards,
Deon

 

[Nod]

The system properties one is correct. So looks like 1Gig.

The task manager's value includes the size of the pagefile.

 

[LancelotSA]

Do a scan with crucial.com

http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/

 

[DeonH]

Excellent, thank you very much. I see my machine can handle 2Gig.

Regards,
Deon

 

[Chevron]

Or you could've the memory tab of cpu-z.

 

[Sparkz0629]

The system properties one is correct. So looks like 1Gig.

The task manager's value includes the size of the pagefile.

what is the page file? i always see this yet im not sure

 

[Nod]

what is the page file? i always see this yet im not sure

It is virtual memory that are used when your PC runs out of physical memory. Programs in memory, that re not used, might also be swapped to the page file in order to make room for a new application.

It has the same basic functionality as the "swap" partition on Linux/Unix systems.

 

[Budza]

It is virtual memory that are used when your PC runs out of physical memory. Programs in memory, that re not used, might also be swapped to the page file in order to make room for a new application.

It has the same basic functionality as the "swap" partition on Linux/Unix systems.

Gets swapped from normal RAM to your hard drive. Called back into RAM when needed, as it's slow to read from HDD

 

[Dolby]

Since this is a RAM thread, I've got a RAM question :

People say with Vista you can use SD Card memory as the memory. Does it work like 'real' memory?

For example, I have 2GB in my system and want 4GB - can't can't afford another real 2GB. Can I plug in a 2GB SD card and it'd run the same?

 

[ponder]

Can I plug in a 2GB SD card and it'd run the same?

No, much slower seeing it is flash memory.

 

[KhoisanX]

Since this is a RAM thread, I've got a RAM question :

People say with Vista you can use SD Card memory as the memory. Does it work like 'real' memory?

For example, I have 2GB in my system and want 4GB - can't can't afford another real 2GB. Can I plug in a 2GB SD card and it'd run the same?

No, you are thinking of readyboost. Your pagefile is simply stored on the memory card or flashdrive, still slower than RAM but alot faster than a HDD(dependant on various factors e.g. file size).