Working With Low Memory
Ah, yes. The bane of every computer user the world over: not enough memory. Everyone bumps into this limitation at one point or another when they use a computer to do anything worthwhile. The PC has been with us for well over ten years now, and to the dismay of the computing population, an unpleasant fact has come to light: No matter how much RAM you have, you need X amount more. X amount of RAM unfortunately costs Y, where Y is an amount of money equal to Z times your RAM budget, where Z is a number greater than 10 -- usually much greater. This fact is, unfortunately, also true of hard drive size.
Why can't we get ahead of the curve? Well, there are many reasons; we demand quite a bit more of our computers than we did just a few years ago -- operating systems get larger and larger (some would say bloated), and applications aren't far behind. And then there is the incredible resource demands of capturing true-color graphics: one 1500 x 1125 24-bit Snappy file requires 5 megabytes, for example. Even though there are amazing advances in technology just down the road, the situation will almost certainly remain static. By the time the one gigabit (!) RAM chips become available around the turn of the millennium, we'll probably be demanding real-time, full-screen playback of uncompressed motion picture-resolution graphics with Dolby Digital surround sound. Then again forget about the end of the millennium -- DVD is already here and available for your PC today!
All of this doesn't help you right now, however. The best answer for low memory was, is and will always be to buy more. A lot more. 10 times what you think you will ever need might just about do it, for a month or so. Of course, this is often a financially ruinous approach to the problem. If that is the case, then there are some compromises that may make the situation more livable.
First of all try closing all other applications. This can some times allow you to squeak under the memory limit and get the job done.
Virtual Memory. Virtual memory allows you to use part of your hard disk as if it were RAM.
Before those of you with a few hundred free megs of space who haven't tried virtual memory before start jumping for joy, you should be aware that this method is usually painfully slow. To use virtual memory, you must make sure your Microsoft Windows swap file is large enough.
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