My wasted memory

Black_Knight

As some people know, Windows XP or Vista 32bit doesnt recognise more then 3.5Gb. Ive recently bought a new dell (see sig). It have 4Gb of ram, of which vista only recognises and uses 3.5Gb. AGHH! So its a waste, 512mb of ram just laying idle so to speak.

Ive seen ways to get Vista to recognise that I have 4Gb of ram, but AFAIK it only sees the ram, it doesnt utilise it, still leaving me with, 3.5Gb of memory available for usage. Pointless!

I know vista 64 bit will recognise up to 8Gb (i think) but im worried about compatibility if i do use vista 64bit. And I just hate vista anyways, id prefer XP but for the hassle of reinstalling and getting drivers again. Also I hear XP is going off the shelves soon enough.

Anyone go down this route to solve their "missing ram" issue? Or any other route? Im sure theres some way, otherwise all those motherboards that suppore 16Gb of ram are mainly pointless unless you use a different OS.

zod

The performance of 32bit XP is really affected by more RAM up to 2GB RAM , from 2GB to 3GB not really. above 3GB hardly at all.

So unless your going 64bit I wouldn't worry about it, RAM is cheap.. you're wasting maybe €15

Black_Knight

Its not wasting money im worried about. Ive bought the laptop so the money is spent.
Id still like to get 4Gb of memory out of my 4Gb of memory. Not just 3.5Gb.

Ginger

Windows can recognise 4GB of Mem you just wont be able to use your PC. The limit is on the total amount of system addressable space on a 32bit machine which is 4096 megabytes.

So starting at that you get the get the following

4096 - (128ish for system resources. Add the total amount of RAM in GFX card, sound card and any other devices with RAM) so thats the reason for the 3.5GB. Windows will recognise them in your System Information tool by detecting the sticks of RAM, you just can use that addressing space as its reserved as you can see from the above sample.

There are certain switches in the boot.ini that can allow more addressable space in the user space, but this only works when the program that can use it is ran.

The link for these switches is here. if you dont know what you are doing in this scenario DONT USE THEM! Its purely for info and if you do anything its at your own risk peril and mental anguish!

THe /3GB switch wont help you use more than the RAM you can, just moves 3GB into user addressable space mean certain programs will benefit from it.

A fairly comprehensive explanation can be found here

To get your 4GB, you need to use 64Bit Windows XP or 64bit Vista. Simple as..

L31mr0d

Just for your information, a 64bit OS can address around 18 EB's of RAM, that's basically 18 billion GB's. However MS has limited the different versions of Vista to support different amounts of RAM, i.e. home basic only allows 8GB's of RAM, home premium allows 16GB's of RAM and Ultimate allows 128GB of RAM.

Regardless of this, your motherboard will be the limiting factor because, currently, on average they only support up to 8GB's of RAM.

Overheal

Personally I'd sit on the issue. Your machine should run peachy for a few years, then along comes Windows 7 or XP-64/Vista-64 will be a cheaper/available alternative. You could of course try pirating a version of 64-bit now... but I wouldnt. Windows Genuine Advantage and all that jazz.

Cabaal

Lads I don't want anyone suggesting pirated software

Stephen

Overheal: MS generally don't discount their older OS's when new ones come out either.

Capt'n Midnight

Stephen wrote: »

Overheal: MS generally don't discount their older OS's when new ones come out either.

I've never heard of them doing that. Also downgrade rights changes mean that buying a later product doesn't always guarantee you rights to use an earlier one.

Overheal

Ah right. 'pologies.

But anyway, if its not there already, a step-up package from 32-bit to 64-bit could be made available in the forseeable future, thinks anyone? Much like an upgrade license.

bbbbb

Not sure that you're missing much, but you could try:

1) Use a 64 bit operating system. Could go for a linux variety instead?

2) Virtualization. Turn your machine into two with 2GB of ram each! VMWare.com is the leader here, but there are some free ones out there. Might be worth looking at xensource?

Peteee

Your 32-bit license key will work with the 64-bit Vista.

Theres a link on MS's site that you can fill in to get MS to send you a 64-bit disc, for about $10

humaxf1

zod wrote: »

The performance of 32bit XP is really affected by more RAM up to 2GB RAM , from 2GB to 3GB not really. above 3GB hardly at all.

eh, by adding more RAM upto 2GB, performance is affected in a positive way? so, anything over 2GB is a waste?

cheers.

Overheal

Peteee wrote: »

Your 32-bit license key will work with the 64-bit Vista.

Theres a link on MS's site that you can fill in to get MS to send you a 64-bit disc, for about $10

woa....seriously??

ressem

Overheal wrote: »

woa....seriously??

Only if you purchased a retail version of Vista Home/Premium/Business.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/2057/ordermedia/default.mspx

Overheal

retail = gay

Capt'n Midnight

OEM = owned

Tar.Aldarion

Is this talking into account dual channel?

If I have 4gigs of ram running at more due to dual channel what is my effective ram?

Overheal

3.5gb or so.

Tar.Aldarion

Overheal wrote: »

3.5gb or so.

That means the most anybody should have is 2 gigs as it won't go any faster than that?

Overheal

No the most you should have is 3.5gb because it wont go any faster than that. Theres no denying you still get boosted performance out of owning 4gb.

Tar.Aldarion

I say two gig because with dual channel your bandwidth is doubled and you said that if I have 4gig running on dual channel then I will still only have 3.5gig.
Therefore the max ram you should have is 2gig in dual channel as this will run as 3.5 gig.

Ginger

Nothing to do with it, its to do with addressable space in the memory manager. It can access 4GB total . See my original post.

mathias

The Memory Bandwidth is how wide the channel is for getting data to and from the memory controller , or to put it simply , how fast your ram works ,

So Dual channel doubles or increases the bandwidth , not your actual memory. The amount thats physically in there is all there is , and the amount a 32bit OS can use is limited.

Tar.Aldarion

Ah ok. I read some document on it there, it was explained badly to me.