More memory = faster encoding?

I have Win98se and 128MB. If I upgrade to 256MB, will I get more speed in DivX encoding?

Yes, but hardly noticable. It do you more good "speed" wise to upgrade to 2k.

As far as I know Win98 isn't made to handle more than 128MB, so putting in more isn't going to help you one bit. I believe faster memory helps more to speed up encoding than just more memory.

Not Really 

It depends morely in processor, but it gives you speed if it isn't after that using virtual(hd) memory all the time.

Upgrade to 512MB (maybe 384MB is enough already) and you can switch off virtual memory completely. That gives you a nice speed boost in Win98 SE (but not for encoding, only makes the OS more responsive)

Win98 can't handle more then 512mb of memory. This is a known issue. ht*p://www.aumha.org/a/memmgmtz.htm if u do have Win98/WinMe and 512mb of memory, go to start/run and type "msconfig". Then Advanced and limit your memory to 511mb. This, I believe would solve problems. When I had 768mb of ram, all the icon in windows were cdrom icons. Even in safe mode. Removing the extra ram and all was fine. Using WinXP Pro now :) Note:- I think memory speed is more important them amount.

That makes sense. Win2000 is intended as a LAN server and shutting off SWP would probably trash it. As to Win98, I have no damned idea what it's putting out there either, but I'm often fond of running lots of programs simultaneously, including a lot of open browser windows. The thing is: even when I find my swap going insane and shut down all sorts of windows, the swap still sits there at the same size. After a while, it'll come down, but I can't figure out what events make it do so. [By the way, computers have been my passion since I was twelve, and that was 40 years ago!] Anyways, let me ask you a few questions about your pre-"swap disabled" days. I've probably got 200 or more installs on this box and always monitor them with a program designed for full back-out. Very few installs have required that, and when it was necessary, it worked like a champ. That Win98 re-boot problem that everyone bitches about? For 2 years, I could pound(!) on this box for two weeks and then just re-boot to "clean things up". Of late, I have developed something I call "Explorer Crawl". Doesn't happen all the time, but when it does I notice it in 3 ways: 1) Emptying my Recycle Bin: Normally, about 200+ files per second. Explorer Crawl? 15-20 per second. 2) Windows Explorer: When Explorer Crawl is there, 15-20 seconds just just to change directories, even if I am only moving one level up or down. 3) Temporary Internet Files: I dump these often. With Explorer Crawl? I can have 80%+ user and system resources when I start. Suddenly I'm at 68%, and a few seconds later I'm at 1% on both. I don't crash, mind you, but even when it finishes, it gives me back 10-12% of that every 3-4 seconds. A long explanation, but do you recognize anything like this from before you dumped your swap file? And do you use anything like RAM-Idle (a memory recovery program)? :) Thanks for getting back on this too. The whole thing has been p#ssing me off of late, and none of my local gurus have a clue.

I've had this "Explorer crawl" before and after disabling the swap file. It only happened on the deletion of a big amount of files and suddenly blocked my Explorer windows for up to 30-40 seconds. I noticed something else (similar): Some programs, especially p2p programs were able to fill up gradually the memory until the system became very, very slow. With the swapfile enabled, I could still use the system further, but it didn't make any sense because the only memory left was swap memory, so I had to reboot. With the swapfile disabled, it would at that point just show a "not enough memory message" and refuse to open program windows. Especially against this symptom, even tools like FreeRAM didn't help. The memory seemed to be taken over by the system and FreeRAM couldn't clear that part of memory, it seemed.

Very curious indeed. Before AND after. I too thought it was only happening when there was a huge nuber of files, but have have seen it happen with only 200 or so files in my Recycle. Up pops the box; 15-30 seconds remaining (for 200 + files). It's like Windows suddenly doesn't even know where it is. I've checked my "disk access" LED during this time, and Windows is simply running around aimlessly in my RAM. I have an operating system that doesn't understand where the f#ck it is. Worse yet, if this problem is not annoying me a lot, I'll let the system go without a re-boot until I finish what I'm doing. Surprize, surprize! Sometimes before I finish, Explorer Crawl has gone away! I mean, either this asshole OS is broken, or it isn't. And even it can't figure out the answer to that question.