Some RAM doublers work, some don't, and Win95 doesn't need them
John M. Goodman
If you're not making the move to Windows 95, you can get more out of Windows 3.x with a RAM doubler utility. We surveyed the field and tested the four most promising products: RAM Doubler from Connectix Software, Hurricane from Helix Software, MagnaRAM from Quarterdeck, and SoftRAM 95 from Syncronys Softcorp. (Quarterdeck released MagnaRAM 2.0 as we were going to press. Like SoftRAM 95, it works with Windows 3.x and 95.) We then compared their memory-management skills with Windows 95.
Our tests show
that RAM Doubler and Hurricane are proficient at getting full use of your RAM, as is Win 95. Depending on your PC, there can be a performance trade-off with RAM doublers and Win 95: Program
s take longer to load from disk. But the delay doesn't offset the benefits of better-managed memory.
What's the Problem?
When running in 386 enhanced mode, Windows 3.x lets you run more programs than can fit in physical memory by swapping currently unused program data to disk and then pulling it back in when needed. This scheme is called virtual memory. However, several architectural snags typically keep you from using all of even the physical memory you have.
First, there's the limitation of global DOS memory. Although Windows runs in protected mode, it runs DOS and other real-mode code in Virtual-86 mode. In real mode, the CPU can address only the lowest 1 MB of RAM. Windows itself and every Windows application needs a small chunk of that megabyte to run. Unfortunately, Windows does nothing to reserve the lower 1 MB for certain critical uses. For example, Windows loads all DLLs as low in memory as possible, even though they would work fine in extended memory (above 1 MB)
. Until DOS memory is full, Windows doesn't put them higher.
A more infamous Windows limitation is the paltry amount of memory dedicated to system resources. In 64-KB memory regions called
local heaps
, the Windows components USER.EXE and GDI.EXE keep track of each item (such as menus, titles, icons, and buttons) that makes up a Windows display. When any of the heaps gets too full, Windows stops working.
Even with adequate DOS memory and resource space, your system may still resort to virtual memory. Typically, virtual memory is 10,000 times slower than RAM. So anything that can free up more physical RAM can greatly increase performance.
MagnaRAM and SoftRAM 95 both try to expand the apparent amount of total Windows memory. They first set the PageOverCommit variable in Windows' SYSTEM.INI file to a large value to make Windows create more linear memory (by increasing disk swap space). Then they set aside part of physical RAM as a buffer in which they can compress data that otherwise w
ould go to the swap file. They also may recover RAM that's no longer needed by programs but that the Windows virtual memory manager (VMM) wouldn't know to recover.
This strategy can substantially lessen Windows' reliance on the swap file. However, both programs spend a lot of time compressing data. If your hard disk is fast, and especially if your processor is relatively slow, it may take MagnaRAM and SoftRAM 95 longer to compress your data than it would to store it in the swap file uncompressed. Worse, by enlarging linear memory (which requires more RAM for the tables to track it), and by taking a substantial chunk of physical RAM for their buffer, these programs drastically reduce the amount of physical memory that the VMM can use for Windows programs.
Neither program helps with the problems related to global DOS memory or system resources. We couldn't load any more programs with them than we could without them. SoftRAM 95 doesn't do any better with Win 95. MagnaRAM 2 works with Win 95 but, acco
rding to the company, the new product is built on the same architecture as the Windows 3.x version.
Double Your Fun
Connectix RAM Doubler works well. It takes a minimalist approach by providing no user-settable parameters. The program reports only one number; namely, how much worse off you would be in terms of free memory resources without RAM Doubler. Though it uses compression, it does so differently than MagnaRAM or SoftRAM. RAM Doubler lets you load more programs by helping with global DOS memory as well as system resources.
Helix Hurricane
, in comparison, doesn't use compression, but it manages to free up significant amounts of physical RAM, which is just as good. It is the only one of the group we tested that can move free upper memory into the pool of physical memory that the VMM uses.
Hurricane's WinGauge utility monitors critical memory factors, and the included Discover for Windows is one of the finest PC exploratory tools we have see
n.
On the downside, Hurricane's complexity can work against it. Because it works more invasively than RAM Doubler, you're more likely to run into compatibility problems. We couldn't, for example, get its all-important Heap Expander capability to work with Dell Dimension XPS90 and Gateway P5-120 Pentium systems. Also, we noticed more Windows program crashes when using Hurricane than when using RAM Doubler (almost always when near memory capacity).
Performance Hit
Windows 95 does the best job of providing plenty of system resources, but it takes the most time to load programs. Among the real RAM doublers, Hurricane provided better performance than RAM Doubler on a system with 16 MB of memory. On a memory-constrained 8-MB notebook with lots of PC Card drivers, RAM Doubler was the better performer.
Our testing found that, compared to unadulterated Windows 3.11, applications loaded 10 to 50 percent slower with the RAM doublers installed and 80 to 100 percent slower under
Windows 95. All the Windows applications loaded with larger data files that often included OLE links (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Word, Excel, and Access also executed macros upon loading.
These performance hits are acceptable, though. It's much more important that Hurricane and RAM Doubler enhance Windows 3.x multitasking.
If you want better performance -- especially if you want to know what is happening inside your PC or want to tweak it to a tee -- buy Hurricane. If you just want to make Windows 3.x more stable without a lot of low-level control hassles, get RAM Doubler. Either way, Windows 3.x will run more applications than you probably thought it could.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Hurricane 1.0................$79.95
Helix Software
Long Island City, NY
(800) 451-0551
(718) 392-3100
RAM Doubler 1.0..............$99
Connectix Corp.
San Mateo, CA
(800) 950-5880
(415) 571-5100
sup
port@connectix.com
MagnaRAM 1.0.................$44.95
(Version 2 now available; free to owners of 1.0)
Quarterdeck Corp.
Marina Del Rey, CA
(800) 683-6696
(813) 523-9700
http://www.quarterdeck.com
SoftRAM 95 2.0...............$99.95
Syncronys Softcorp
Culver City, CA
(800) 691-7981
(310) 842-9203
illustration_link (16 Kbytes)
Hurricane and RAM Doubler let Windows 3.11 run more programs at once; SoftRAM and MagnaRAM did not. On both an 8-MB Sharp PC-8800 notebook (75-MHz
DX4) and a 16-MB Zeos Pantera (60-MHz Pentium), Windows 95 loaded the most programs into RAM. But more thorough memory management does exact an initial loading penalty. The size of the block representing each application is proportional to the memory resources consumed, as reported by Microsoft's Sysmeter utility.
screen_link (40 Kbytes)
The Helix Hurricane Control Center lets you switch on or off 10 distinct features of the product. The software uninstalls easily.
John M. Goodman, a Ph.D. in physics, is the author of
Memory Management for All of Us
(Sams, 1993) and othe
r books. You can contact him at
agoodman@realm.net
.
More RAM for Win 3 Holdouts
