From Leo's mailbag:
> From: A Computer User
> Sent: August 17, 2005
> To: Ask Leo!
> Subject: Is Virtual Memory RAM?
>
> Leo,
> Hi Leo, I've got 3 questions, 2 of which is regarding RAM.
> Firstly, although your "virtual memory" article heavily
> implies that Virtual Memory IS RAM, I'd like to know for sure
> if it really is. Will increasing my RAM increase my Virtual
> Memory, which in turn prevent sluggishness? Also, the limit
> of RAM my computer can hold is 1GB. What would happen if I
> were to install 2 chips of 512mb of RAM in it?
>
> As to my third question, I have a program called OpenGL
> Acceleration that runs everytime on startup, but I can't find
> an uninstall for it. How do I remove it?
Virtual memory is NOT RAM. Virtual memory is hard disk space
used to "look like" RAM when you don't have enough actual
RAM in your system to support everything that's trying to happen
on your computer.
Increasing RAM will, typically, speed up your computer, and
reduce the need for Virtual Memory.
As to what happens for the specific RAM chips you mention,
you'll have to check with the manufacturer of your computer.
There's no hard-and-fast rule ... it varies based on machine.
OpenGL was probably installed by some other program on your
machine. Unfortunately I don't have a good way to trace back
which one. I would look at programs you may have installed
at around the time this started happening, especially programs
that are highly graphics intensive ... like maybe a computer
game.
Thanks for asking!
Leo
Article 9045
| Category:
Hardware
