RAM upgrade from 1gb to 2b

[kenmo]

Would I notice much of an improvement in video editing and image editing (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro) upgrading my Athlon barton 2500 from 1gb of DDR memory to 2gb? I'm running Windows XP Pro...

Thanks

[Doramius]

I would say using those prgrams you would see improvement, but I'm not exactly sure what speeds you'd like to obtain. Again, there will be noticable improvement, but I doubt it'll be twice the speed. You're also at the mercy of the speed of your RAM, as well as your processor, MoBo, video card & also importantly your HDD. I know many people who upgrade MoBo, RAM, & CPU just to find out the improvement was not much at all without realizing they only have a 5400RPM HDD and a 16MB video card. :/

[lordsmurf]

Not really, no.

[deadrats]

Would I notice much of an improvement in video editing and image editing (Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro) upgrading my Athlon barton 2500 from 1gb of DDR memory to 2gb? I'm running Windows XP Pro...

Thanks

the only way you will notice an improvement is if the app can use as much ram as you throw at it. photoshop is one of the few that can use as much ram as windows will let it (NT based windows has a 2gig max ram usage per app, 3gigs if you use the /3gig boot option), but this much ram will only be usful if the work you are doing requires it.

in other words, if the pic you're editting is small and the effects you want to apply only require 500mb ram, then adding another 1 gig won't make any difference at all.

as for video editing apps, few can use all the ram you can throw at them and of the ones that do, none seem to benefit from additional ram.

[jagabo]

Bring up Task Manager (Alt+Ctrl+Del). Switch to the Performance tab. Watch Available Physical Memory as you work. If that consistantly falls to low levels you need more RAM.