And to think, I thought that OS X was a RAM hog. While Apple’s OS can generally run comfortably with around 1GB of RAM, it turns out that Vista might be significantly more memory-hungry. Around four times more, to be exact. While Microsoft officially supports Vista on PCs with as little as 512MB of memory, most vendors have been recommending 2GB for users looking to enjoy the optimal Vista experience. David Short, an IBM consultant who has been testing Vista for two years, warns that Microsoft’s system requirements for Vista “really [aren’t] realistic.” While he agrees with vendors and analysts who have touted the 2GB “sweet spot,” Short has found that for optimal performance, as much as 4GB of RAM may be required. As evidence, he points to Windows SuperFetch, which stores data from a user’s hard drive in the available RAM, in order to speed up applications. Naturally, the more RAM a user has installed, the more such features will be able to boost the system’s overall speed. As for those users running Vista on systems designed around Microsoft’s minimum requirements spec? Short imagines that they’re enjoying a “sub XP” experience.

For more on Vista’s hunger for RAM:
– see this ComputerWorld article [1]