How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

[Telera]

Seriously.

Back when I got into SWG, I went out and upgraded to SP2, only to have it nearly double start up and shut down times, and leave my computer unacceptably sluggish. So I Restored to before it was in, because frankly, I'd rather be able to game and it was taking up my fucking RAM.

Now that this lovely bug is back, and they only give the patch for SP2+, I thought I'd go ahead and get SP3, but if it's just going to install a bunch of bullshit and add 5+ processes that do fuck all to eat up my RAM and will require an hour+ of tweaking to get back to the way I need it, then I think I'll stick to taking the chances I've taken for years.

So how bloated is SP3?

[Mhurron]

Re: How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

SP2 was not bloated. If you had problems with it, you had problems before and the various patches simply exasperated the problem or you were running apps that were doing things they probably shouldn't. Each service pack for XP has improved system performance for the majority of people.

The short is you should be running the latest service pack.

If you think SP2 or SP3 are/were 'bloated' you're probably running a number of services you don't need.

[Telera]

Re: How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

I turned off the auto-updates, the firewall and other things. It was hanging at shut down particularly, with things not ending properly. I don't have a great many apps on this thing, and none that run perpetually along with the system other than AVG and stuff for my Vid card. Never had any virus infestation or spyware problems to attribute it to, either, and I've got 768 RAM. Not a 'womg' amount, but enough to run LotRO decently so I see no reason why a mere OS can cry.

I had another PC guru saying one of his machines just didn't like SP2 either, so maybe it's just my PC is a finicky bitch like it's owner. He told me it liked SP3 better though, so hopefully mine will.

It's partial OCD, too, I hate having 30 or more processes running.

[Jarre]

Re: How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

Buy more ram

works fine in my machine with 2Gb ram, no sluggishness, FFXI plays fine on full everything. Rams so cheap these days i might upgrade mine to 4gb just for the hell of it.

[Durahansolo]

Re: How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

It's partial OCD, too, I hate having 30 or more processes running.

I'm interested to know what the rest of your system specs are. You probably should do like Jarre says and toss in about 2-3GB of ram. I think the most that regular XP can read is 3GB. I added 4GB more to my main comp so I can have 8GB total in Vista 64. (I don't play FFXI on my main computer lol I play on my laptop.) BTW did you ever get that hard drive problem fixed a couple of months back?

[Feba]

Re: How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

RAM in incredibly cheap right now. You might as well buy some extra if you're that desperate.

[Szkol]

Re: How much of a RAM whore is XP SP3?

Yes, more RAM ftw. My gaming laptop (the one my work gave me) is loaded with 4GB - Windows XP only reads like 3.23 of it, but with that much RAM I never even notice that Novell, McAffee ENterprise VirusScan, VPN, AutoUpdate, or the various application "helper" processes (at least one each for Quicktime, acrobat, DVD player, disc burner) and all of the Dell "helper" programs for every useless hardware gizmo this laptop has, are all running simultaneously with FFXI.