Tag: system memory
With the availability of the Release Candidate for Windows 7, Microsoft has also made public the system requirements for the operating system. The good news? Users who have already moved to a Windows Vista-tailored machine will not need to upgrade their hardware yet again just to accommodate Windows 7. In fact, the system requirements for the next iteration of Windows are roughly the same as for its precursor, with Beta testers indicating that Windows 7 outperforms Windows Vista on the same hardware.
Without further ado, the System Requirements for Windows 7 are “1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor; 1 GB of RAM (32-bit)/2 GB of RAM (64-bit); 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit)/20 GB (64-bit); DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or higher driver,” according to Microsoft.
The Redmond company emphasizes that the system requirements presented above represent the bare minimum required to run Windows 7. Read More»
Posted in Hardware, Windows 7 | No Comments »
January 21, 2009 by
Jason What, exactly, are supercomputers? The clue is in the name, really: they’re powerful computers capable of calculating many millions of floating operations per second (FLOPS) essentially, they’re very, very fast.
While any array of powerful computers, such as a modern-day web server which consists of several motherboards (the main circuit board of a computer) running in parallel can be considered a supercomputer, generally the term is reserved for machines that dedicate their entire hardware to one complex task at any given time.
Take the NEC Earth Simulator in Japan, for example, which was created specifically for modelling weather problems associated with global warming. Or the world’s fastest computer, BlueGene/L at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, which simulates the behaviour of biomolecular structures and protein folding. It’s capable of 600 trillion FLOPS (tera-FLOPS or TFLOPS), whereas, the six-year-old Earth Simulator is only capable of 36TFLOPS. BlueGene/L won’t hold the top spot for long, though. Supercomputers twice as powerful will be online soon. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Hardware | No Comments »
November 08, 2008 by
Jason For most users, Firefox doesn’t use an abnormally large amount of memory. For others, however, Firefox’s memory consumption is a major problem. Typical Firefox memory usage reported by Windows is around 50-100 MB, with virtual memory usage at 100-150 MB. These numbers will vary because Firefox is configured by default to use more memory on systems that have more memory available and less on systems with less.
1. System Extensions
WindowBlinds can dramatically increase memory use. To continue using WindowBlinds and Firefox without memory issues, add Firefox to WindowBlind’s exclusion list.
2. Download History
Firefox can slow down or hang if the download history is allowed to accumulate. Clear the download history (you may need to exit Firefox and delete the file “downloads.rdf” from the profile folder in some cases) and change this setting to solve the problem: Read More»
Posted in Firefox | 2 Comments »
Windows Memory Diagnostic is a free utility available for download from Microsoft designed to sniff out flaws in a machine’s RAM modules. The fact is that the source of the now ubiquitous blue screen is not always Windows, or any piece of code for that matter. The fault could just as well reside in system memory, and this is where Windows Memory Diagnostic comes in. The tool is capable of evaluating the RAM on a computer and identifying any error.
“Windows Memory Diagnostic supports x86-based computers with the following microprocessors: Intel – Pentium or Celeron families; AMD – K6, Athlon, or Duron families; and microprocessors compatible with those listed above. You can test all types of RAM that run on x86-based computers with the supported microprocessors,” reveals Microsoft’s description of the tool.
Both Windows Vista and Windows XP users will be able to create bootable media (either a floppy or a CD) which can be used in its turn in order to boot the computer. Windows Vista already features the tool integrated as a default component under Administrative Tools, or accessible via the Repair option in the operating system’s installation media. Read More»
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Windows Vista computers that come equipped with more than 4 GB of system memory have limited shut-down options. Essentially, the Hibernate option is no longer available on Vista machines that feature in excess of 4 GB of RAM. This scenario affects both the 32-bit and the 64-bit editions of Vista, but at the same time also Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Microsoft has confirmed that the issue is related to the large quantity of random access memory.
“This issue occurs because hibernation is disabled on computers that have more than 4 GB of RAM. Hibernation requires sufficient disk space to contain the contents of the computer’s memory. Performance is poor on a computer that has more than 4 GB of memory and that has support for hibernation. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | 6 Comments »
February 25, 2008 by
Jason Managing PC memory isn’t as big an issue as it used to be, but freeing up memory can still provide benefits. Rather than spending a lot of time closing old processes, installing Instant Memory Cleaner is a quick solution.
Once installed, this tiny app (and it really is tiny at 1.8MB) sits in your system tray and if you hover your mouse, it will tell you how much memory is available. To free up memory all you have to do is right click on the icon and select ‘Clean Memory’. Within seconds your PC will have more memory available, which will make all those resource hungry apps you run, move along that little bit faster. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Software | 1 Comment »
February 21, 2008 by
Jason When it comes down to the 32-bit Windows Vista vs. 64-bit Windows Vista, the comparison generally focuses on the added benefits synonymous with handling system memory. Because the address space of 64-bit Vista is not limited to 4GB, users are able to use a maximum of 128 GB of RAM with the Ultimate, Business and Enterprise SKUS. But at the same time, there are added benefits, and one of them is in terms of security. The 64-bit editions of Vista come to the table with PatchGuard (Kernel Patch Protection), Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR), Heap and Stack randomization, and even heap corruption detection.
As far as Heap Based Buffer Overruns are concerned, both 32-bit and 64-bit Vista offer protection, but only in the x64 versions of the operating system is the even heap corruption detection enabled by default. Michael Howard, Senior Security Program Manager in the Security Engineering group at Microsoft, explained that, in x86 Vista, software developers have to call the HeapSetInformation API in order to enable heal corruption detection. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | No Comments »
October 08, 2007 by
Jason Although it is virtually handicapped in terms of the options it actually provides to the user in comparison to Windows XP, the hard disk defragmentation utility in Windows Vista is an evolution of the equivalent from the predecessor operating system. But the enhancements come essentially under the hood of the tool. In this context, the actual defragmentation engine was tuned up, as well as the management of the fragmentation process.
“By default, the defrag tool only defragments files smaller than 64 megabytes (MB). Therefore, files larger than 64 MB are not moved unnecessarily. In earlier versions of Windows operating systems, if the defrag engine was in the middle of a large move request, it could take lots of time to cancel defragmentation. In Windows Vista, the defrag engine processes input and output requests in smaller portions. Therefore, you can avoid situations where the defrag engine is busy with processing large move requests when you cancel a defragmentation session”, Microsoft explained. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | 10 Comments »
September 16, 2007 by
Jason Windows Vista is a resource hog. Microsoft’s latest operating system will swallow every last bit of hardware resources you throw at it in the race for a top user experience, a concept synonymous with high performance. And yet, there are scenarios in which Vista will eat away CPU cycles, huge amounts of random access memory, completely hug a ReadyBoost USB device and still underperform. The operating system will choke even on the most common of tasks, abandoning the user to slowdowns in system performance and to unresponsive processes catalyzed by nothing more than routine and mundane actions. No doubt, Vista has a few rough corners in terms of reliability and performance, but there are a few solutions available, until Microsoft delivers the first Service Pack in 2008. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Hardware, Windows Vista | 5 Comments »
February 01, 2007 by
Jason
In Windows 9x/Me, the system cache setting is not always optimised. A software called Cacheman will do this for you. In Windows 2000/XP, try changing the I/O lock page size. To do this, you can use Xteq Systems X-Setup. Choose the appropriate setting under System » Memory.
Read More»
Posted in Hardware | No Comments »
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