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Is it true that RAM requirement for games automaticly increased by 128 MB when you use Windows XP ? How much RAM are enough to run games smoothly on Windows XP ?

If you switched from Win9x, the answer is yes. WinXP needs for itself around 128 MB, therefore more than 256 MB is recommended.

Yes, I would have to agree. An out of the box winXP install is going to eat ~100MB RAM on boot... an out of the box winNT 4(sp3) uses ~20mb and I would guess win98se install uses ~30mb.

However, most people run so much crap on their computers anyway im not sure if it really matters. On the other hand, you can also disable some of winXP/2k's default services to get it to boot at under 80mb...

So It's not neccessarily the game that is using more RAM, its the underlying OS taking more RAM.

is there a way to tweak/optimize winXP?
lately it's become very sluggish (more than the ususal). i don't know what's the problem.
right now, with only an internet connection, 6 browser windows, i have 236MB physical memory free out of 512!!! seems like too much memory is used up by the OS.

blackerwry, how do you disable services in winXP? how do i know what to disable, what is ok to disable and won't mess windows up if i do disable it?

Let's see what my fountain shows...

http://www.pcmech.com/
http://www.sysopt.com/
http://www.winguides.com/
http://www.speedguide.net/
http://www.arstechnica.com/
http://www.rojakpot.com/ (mirror: http://www.itcp.net/~awsh/ )

That's just a few of them. You'll have to dig a little. I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting stuff there...

Han wrote:Let's see what my fountain shows...

thanks, Han
unfortunately, i'm swamped with work, no time to dig...
but i will later when i get some free time.

http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/service411.htm

black vipers winxp services 411....very good info

here's another format that will probably be more what you're looking for.
http://www.blkviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

thanks, blakerwry
when i have some spare time i'll delve into this...