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32 bit OS, GPU's and RAM?

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John Connor

John Connor

Lifer
So you are limited to 3.5 or 4 GB of RAM in a 32 bit OS. That includes (I guess) the video card and anything else that uses RAM. What would happen if I install a 3 GB GPU in a 32 bit OS? Will I have only 1 GB of RAM to use?

Thanks!
 
You guess wrong. The Video card uses only a small slice of the address space, something like 60MB the last time I added it up.
 
I dunno.. I've run into situations where 32bit O/S with 4GB RAM wouldn't allow the colour settings to go above 16 colours (or 256, can't remember).
 
I don't remember all the things that subtract from available memory but I can tell you that the video card memory doesn't directly subtract... while I'm typing this on a 32bit system with 4GB main mem, 1GB on video card, and having 3.25GB accessible, maybe even more if the bios is still allocating away some to the integrated video that isn't being used.

I've never seen any 32bit Windows system with 4GB installed that had any color or resolution settings problems. It seems like a driver bug to me.
 
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Videocard memory is as far as i know not mapped into the same address space as where the main memory resides.
You can have more GPU memory then CPU memory and your system will still be running. I do wonder if that would have a negative effect on gaming though... But i guess that depends on the game engine. It will work fine.
 
John Connor said:
So you are limited to 3.5 or 4 GB of RAM in a 32 bit OS. That includes (I guess) the video card and anything else that uses RAM. What would happen if I install a 3 GB GPU in a 32 bit OS? Will I have only 1 GB of RAM to use?

Thanks!
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No. It's not directly mapped. Losing half your RAM generally took SLI/Xfire rigs. But, if you're getting that kind of hardware, quit dealing with those OSes. There's nothing you need a 32-bit OS for that a 1GB or lesser video card will not do quite well for.
 
I don't have a 32 bit OS other than the laptop that I follishly installed 32 bit Win7 to. I have Win 7 Ultimate 64 on the desktop where I play all my games. Sim City 4 is installed on the laptop though. I just wanted to know what would happen in a 32 bit OS as I have always pondered the question.
 
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