How can I increase performance w/o buying better stuff?

[Odm]

Firstly, is there any way to significantly increase your "Free Physical Memory"? Secondly, are there any other ways to increase performance?

[Freakonaleash89]

You can increase it by shutting down apps that you arent using. You can increase performance by making sure your disk is optimized and all your drivers are updated but other than that there isn't alot you can do.

[Odm]

Ok, I know how to turn off unneccessary apps and optimize my drive, but where can i get the updates for my drivers? Do I have to go to each website individually, or can my computer do it automatically?

[RAY16]

can my computer do it automatically


I should smack the shit out of you for saying that. Anyways, on to your question. Tweak, Tweak, Tweak, all day long. Close programs that are running in the background if you don't need them (Don't close it if you don't know what it is). Download tweaking software like RivaTuner for your video card, and Tweak-XP if you are using WinXP. You should also search for tweak guides on Google. Besides tweaking software, the only other ways to get more power is to either overclock or upgrade your computer. And unless you have good cooling, overclocking is out of the question.



*Edit*

About drivers, just go to the site of the company that made whatever product you are tryign to get drivers for. www.nvidia.com, www.asus.com, www.ati.com, etc. And yes, you do have to download and install all the drivers seperatly... I don't know of any way to get all your drivers at once. Also go to windows update to get patchs for all the goddamn securtiy holes M$ left in windows, they also have other crap on there.

[sushi128]

tell us what OS u have, and that's a start. and to create more free "physical" memory....you buy more RAM.

most important is the OS though....

and modest overclocks are possible with any cooling that isn't passive.

[Odm]

I have Windows ME... and my problem is that this is the family computer, and my dad won't let me add things or pay for upgrades.

[RAY16]

Then you should bitch slap your dad.

[Odm]

I'm afraid I enjoy living in a house and I don't want to get kicked out... so no

[Yian]

hehehe...

[Odm]

Exactly! lol

[Yian]

seriously, though, I have some suggestions for you. They are kind of risky, but if you're good with your system, then it worthy a shot...

Go to megagames.com and go to their Tweak section, there are various types of memory tweaking utilities, letting you to gaining more control over the memory usage. Theooratically these third party programs can boost up you ram's efficiency by 300% but there are a lot of bullshit on the internet these days...

I never tried any of those but I don't think megagames will give you any programs that will seriously fuck up your machine, at least not too much, so you might want to check them out. I have 512 DDR rams and I never worry about these kinds of things...

[Method1]

those memory managers dont work, well for me, maybe i dont know what the hell i was doing. adding ram is the cheapest way to increase system stability and performance.

...thats my 2 cents.

[IkYiolul]

maybe this is the wrong time to say anything...but...
anyone with 512 ram or above should rid of your slow
swap file...it is said to increase performance, kinda obvious
since memory is faster than hard drive..
This is how I set up my system, and things do run alot more
smoothly. I just forgot to get a memory cleaner-outer,
cuz I have had the problem of the memory filling up.

Since u have WinME I think you should get speed-hack :D

[Yian]

Gee, matt, why bother killing the swap when you can just make your virtual memory to zero? Wouldn't that be safer?

[Freakonaleash89]

I have Windows ME... and my problem is that this is the family computer, and my dad won't let me add things or pay for upgrades.

Then you gotta scrounge up the money to buy yourself a new PC. I was lucky enough my dad has always kept me with a pretty good PC to keep from fucking up the family one lol.

[Method1]

hahaha same hir!