My understanding is that Vista Ultimate wants 2 GIGS of RAM to run smoothly and reasonably fast.
Is that incorrect?
How much VRAM for Good Performance?
DSH
"BSchnur"

It depends on what you are doing. For most people Vista runs just fine with 1 GB RAM.
Kerry Brown Microsoft MVP - Shell/User vistahelp.ca
"D. Spencer Hines"

That's fully incorrect, but it's a popular statement.
Depending on what you're doing Vista runs quite well on 512mb of memory. For light-use home users who do email, Internet, a little light word processing and such AND who have a graphic adapter that has dedicated memory, 512mb is perfectly useable.
I would recommend that most folks use 1gb as a starting point, especially if they have shared memory between video and system use, then evaluate performance and watch to see if they're getting a lot of pagefile use going on. If not, then 2gb would be a waste.
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] rgharper gmail.com * NEW! Catch my blog ... msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/ * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * The Website - rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
"D. Spencer Hines"

I found it sluggish under 1Gb and fine anything above that. After 1½Gb I didn't notice a great deal of difference.
Bobby
"D. Spencer Hines"

I use Ultimate for office apps, CD/DVD burning etc & no games & I had to upgrade from 512 - 1024mb RAM. 512 was way too slow, but 1024 is fine.
"D. Spencer Hines"

More detail please.
What can one do and not do with 1 GB of RAM.
The "Most People" Argument is not helpful.
Video RAM?
DSH
"Kerry Brown"

"Richard G. Harper"

What's "light word processing"? How much VRAM? So those are the MS defined "Light Users".

ADDING 1 GB of RAM to a laptop that already has both slots filled with 512 MB sticks is no easy or inexpensive task.
Why do you make it sound as if it's an Easy Option "Later"?
You've only discussed "Light Users".
NOT "Medium Users" [or whatever moniker you choose to tag them with] and "Heavy Users" or your chosen tag.
Of course "Light Users" can easily gravitate to "Medium" and "Heavy" so you want them to buy all NEW hardware and software when they do that?
DSH

"D. Spencer Hines"

It runs fine for me with 1 GB and I'm sure it would run fine for most people with 512 MB. The ones that would want more are probably those who play a lot of games or do a lot of multimedia.
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM fjsmjs.com Answer in newsgroup. Don't expect an answer to email.

Bingo!
Now THAT is a useful answer FREE of Bafflegab and Lightspeak.
Thank You.
What do you do with that box?
DSH
"Bobby"

Thanks.
No Games Noted.
How about movies and YouTube?
DSH
"Richard"

I am currently using buisness, so I do not know how much extra Ultimate requires. But, I can easily have all my office apps open along with lotsa tab's in the browser, and a movie running, and then I use like 50-60% of my 1Gig RAM. Furthermore I have had no difficulties playing a resource hogging game like Oblivion.
So unless you planning on doing heavy operations like video-editing, or 3D-drawing/rendering I'd say 1Gig is perfectly fine.

I run 2gb Games........great Decode video............great copy DVD/Rip CD/etc..........great YouTube......waste of my time but it works smoothly with a good fast Internet connection.
I used to run it with 1gb and it was just fine..but anyone will definitly see an improvement with 2gb.And I am still running an Evaluation copy RC2 build 5744..64bit peter "D. Spencer Hines"

You don't specify "IT"...
Vista Ultimate? -

Such as watching an HD film on the laptop or letting the grandson play his favorite game on it?
Or watching YouTube?
"A lot of games" How about ONE state of the art TODAY game fast and reliably no hangups no pauses with frozen screen and so forth?
How much Video RAM to run Vista Ultimate FAST & RELIABLY.
It's like pulling teeth one just keeps trying...
DSH
"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM"

"D. Spencer Hines"

i got 2gb of ram, and vista run far from fine for me, its very sluggish sometimes it still crashes

Thanks.
Useful Answer.
ALL those running at the SAME time RIGHT?
What if you then tried to download the latest Vista Update at the same time or install the daily AV update?
What if you want to walk through the Louvre in 3D at the same time?
Or send an English email and then one in French and then one in Japanese?
Would you have to stop the movie? <g>
I see you are a doctor or say you are.
Let's say you are a physician rather than a Ph.D.
Let's say you want to view a video of some physician describing how to take out your own appendix in an emergency, because you think you might need to know that some day.
The movie is stopped but can you keep it open and also stop the stroll through the Louve but keep that open and waiting too and then pick up on both later at the exact point you left without losing the entire shebang?
DSH

I answered a post asking about Vista Ultimate,, so that's what 'It' referred to.
"D. Spencer Hines"

Never been there

My Vista is fast and reliable. No games beyond Solitair and Mine Sweeper. Almost no video. When I have run video it runs fine. But it was almost always a waste of my time to watch it.

Well, maybe if You told US what YOU want to use it for we could be more specific.

But are you running the same apps and such as him? Ram usage and is dependent on user habits. If all you do is surf and email, then 1GB, even 512MB, is sufficient. Office apps and light gaming? Playing with family photos? 2GB might be more your style. Hard core gamer? Autocad? Heavy photo and video work? Move to 4GB (or more if you are running x64).
What you do is watch to see if the system is paging heavily. If so, then more ram will be of benefit. If not, then you'd be wasting money.
Best of Luck,
Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP mvp.support.microsoft.com/ Windows help - rickrogers.org
"D. Spencer Hines"

Thank You!
It sounds as if 2 GB of RAM IS the correct answer except for "The Light Users" whoever they are the "Most People" Crowd who often turn out NOT to be REAL PEOPLE just Marketing Cutouts & Categories.
But other opinions are Most Welcome.
How about your Video RAM and card?
DSH
"pete"

INTERESTING!
What are you doing when it crashes?
Or, are you just a cunniculan-pygan troll?
DSH
"Squibbly"

RAM is a very touchy subject and can vary greatly depending on what you do with your computer. My system has 1.5GB of RAM and I never see the usage go above 50% even when I have Windows Media Player running, Internet Explorer, five or six instances of paint open, and Microsoft Digital Image or Adobe Photoshop all running at the same time. So for me, 1.5GB runs Vista without a hitch. You could probably do all that well with 1GB also, but probably not much below a gig. If you're the kind that just reads e-mail, surfs the web, plays solitaire, and the like, 512MB probably would work fine. Now if you're a heavy gamer, I'd say that 2GB would be a good place to be. And you're also asking how much video RAM for good performance... Do you want to know how much video RAM for running Aero Glass well or gaming? For Aero Glass, if you're running at a resolution around 1280x1024 or lower, then 128MB should be fine. If you're running at 1024x768 or lower, you might even do fine with the bare minimum of 64MB. If you're going to run higher resolutions than 1280x1024, I'd get 256MB of video RAM. If you do light gaming - in other words, occasional gaming where you're not playing games every day and play older games such as Quake III, 128MB should not be a problem. If you're doing "newer" games starting with Doom 3 on Vista, 256MB should be fine. "D. Spencer Hines"

1. Thank you.
2. The Subject Line is just:
Re: Vista RAM Requirements
No Version Specified I use "IT" is Meaningless.
3. "A lot of games" is also meaningless. How about ONE state-of-the art game?
4. O.K. Unsophisticated User who doesn't run multimedia or decode multimedia files or run complicated games or multi-task extensively. Got It! He doesn't watch movies or YouTube either. Got it! He has very little Video RAM and doesn't use Video very much. Got It!
5. Plays Solitaire and Minesweeper. Got It!
6. Considers Video a Waste of Time Text and Still Pictures Only? Boring.
5. "Light User" = 1 GB RAM.
DSH
"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM"

O.K. Unsophisticated User who doesn't run multimedia or decode multimedia files or run complicated games or multi-task extensively. Got It!

Thank you kindly.
It looks as if 2 GB RAM is the sweet spot ON 25 February 2007*** Oscar Day but leave room for expansion to 4 GB as MS and others issue more bloated software with Heavy Video Requirements.
***Note Caveat Above...
Such expansion may not be possible on a laptop.
Heat & Weight and Size Problems.
DSH
"Rick Rogers"

Thank you kindly.
I mean that Most Sincerely...
But have you ever heard of the invention of the PARAGRAPH? <g>
Travis from Texas?
DSH
"Travis King"

Yes, please & which version of Vista are you running?

Yes, that's where I am on resolution. I'm currently running on an NVIDIA GeForce 6800 with 256 MB.

But next year at this time, God willing, I may need 512 MB to run a state-of-the art game with grandson, or granddaughter Right?

I just tend to not write paragraphs in newsgroup. I started a bad habit... I am using Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit on an AMD Sempron 64 2800+ processor overclocked to 2GHz. I'm using an Ati Radeon X1600PRO AGP 8x video card with 256MB GDDR2 video RAM. I'm using 1.5GB of PC-2700 RAM. My primary hard drive that Vista is on is just a Western Digital 120GB IDE 8MB cache 7200RPM hard drive - nothing real new. I'm running the system at a 1280x1024 resolution, but the video card is capable of running up to much higher resolutions than my monitor can support. (My monitor's maximum resolution is 1600x1200.) According to the properties, my video card can handle up to 1920x1080 resolution with Aero. I've run my card at 1600x1200 with Aero on before and it had no problems running it - it's just that things look way too small on that resolution for my CRT. Having more video RAM most definitely wouldn't hurt if you're wanting a video card that will go into the future gaming, but 256MB should work fine for the next year or two for modern gaming. My Windows Experience Index Rating on my computer is a 4.0 with my overclocked processor, and the CPU is what's holding my score down the most. Here's a list of my ratings for the Windows Experience Index: CPU: 4.0 RAM: 4.3 Graphics (Aero): 4.4 Gaming Graphics: 4.8 Hard Drive: 5.0
Without an overclock, my score is around a 3.4 or 3.5. I can also tell that my processor is indeed the part that is holding my system back the most on Vista, but even so, it still runs smoothly. "D. Spencer Hines"

It makes your very informative posts very hard to read on a monitor.
I fear some folks will just give up and move on, thereby missing out on your Wisdom.
I'm going to paragraph it a bit below so I can read it.
DSH
"Travis King"

Right!

The 'it depends' answer makes some sense here are some considerations.
If you have a notebook with 1G of memory which has a video card using shared memory (taking it from the 1G) of say 128M or more, then Vista is going to be sluggish doing some things including graphics heavy things like playing a movie or video under IE. For word processing and spreadsheet work it will be ok. For email well if you have HTML enabled, it might seem slow.
Now, if instead you have a workstation with 1G of memory and a video card which has 256M of memory and doesn't use shared memory (for the 1G installed), you'll not see some of the memory based performance bottlenecks.
Barry Schnur

Oh, sorry. I'm not from Texas either. Not even close. ; ) "D. Spencer Hines"

Perhaps if you described fully what you intend to do with your system then folks wouldn't be engaged in a series of 20 questions which you might see as non-responsive.
The experience an individual has with a particular OS is really as much a function of what they specifically use the computer for as the actual configuration.
Installing 2G of memory on Vista is one of those 'just in case' sort of responses that is, given an unknown user doing any number of things on the computer, 2G will be fine. For most users, 1G will be quite acceptable. But you've indicated you are unhappy with that response, so for starters, what are you currently using now for a system and what are you currently doing with that system.
When you ask an unfocused answer, and get unfocused replies, you really shouldn't consider the replies to be unresponsive.
Barry Schnur

Travis was from Texas.
THE Travis...
<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barret_Travis>
DSH
"Travis King"
> Oh, sorry. I'm not from Texas either. Not even close. ; )

[...]

Hmmmmmmmm...
Farblondjet.
Nope, been there done that.
My present system has little or nothing to do with it.
I may buy an entirely NEW system if people can tell me TEN reasons to upgrade to Vista.
So far they have struck out. Repeatedly.
Don't focus on ANY current hardware/software system mine or someone else's.
Focus On The Capabilities & Limitations Of VISTA.
Tell me what VISTA can do that XP Pro SP2 can't that is something more than fluff, smoke and mirrors.
I already knew my XP system can be used with Multiple Languages but NOW know a Vista system cannot unless you buy Ultimate.
Then, you may still have to pay for language packs and activate each one or some similar ruddy time-wasting thing.
No one will tell me about that.
So, for Multi-Language XP Pro is FAR better unless someone can tell me otherwise and they have not.
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Fortem Posce Animum
Exitus Acta Probat
"BSchnur"

You can do anything Vista does with only the minimum amount of RAM (512 MB) installed. More RAM may make Vista faster. There is no way of knowing where the sweet spot is for any given computer and user. Most people would notice a big difference going from 512 MB to 1 GB. Improvements above 1 GB are less noticeable, again depending on the speed of the CPU. hard drive, and hat you are using the computer for.
In all versions of Windows more RAM is better. How much better can only be determined by using the computer. No one can tell you in absolute terms.
Kerry Brown Microsoft MVP - Shell/User vistahelp.ca
"D. Spencer Hines"

Again, with respect, I say you are focusing on the WRONG issues...
Involving some hypothecated hardware/software issues associated with a particular user and his or her usage habits.
Please:
Don't focus on ANY current hardware/software system mine or someone else's. I may buy an entirely NEW system if you can tell me TEN Good Reasons why Vista is so much better than XP Pro SP2.
Focus On The Capabilities & Limitations Of VISTA.
Tell me what VISTA can do that XP Pro SP2 can't that is something more than fluff, smoke and mirrors.
I already knew my XP system can be used with Multiple Languages but NOW know a Vista system cannot unless you buy Ultimate.
Then, you may still have to pay for language packs and activate each one or some similar ruddy time-wasting thing.
No one will tell me about that.
So, for Multi-Language XP Pro is FAR better unless someone can tell me otherwise and they have not, so far.
But we live in Hope.
DSH
Lux et Veritas et Libertas
Fortem Posce Animum
Exitus Acta Probat
"Kerry Brown"