Very wise I can fully understand your thinking but you also want users with newer computer systems to appreciate just how good your program is. So with that in mind, how about option 3 ? [:)]

Instead of writing complex code to check a users memory or swap file availability, produce 2 Windows versions for download or Online use, by changing just the small area of code that requests either 512 or 1024MB.

Could be advertised as something like the following:

1. 1GB version (For power users) provides greatly improved rendering speed.
2. 512MB version (Designed for computers with less memory and for older systems) rendering speeds will be slower.[/list=1]
   db4tech