4gb of ram vs 32bit windows, is it unstable?

[RedBeard]

First off I know that windows cannot address all the RAM properly.

But if a system has 4gb of ram and is running 32bit windows, have there been any reports of system instability?

 

[InflatableBuddha]

From what I have read, Windows 98 and ME are unstable with more than 512 MB; I haven't heard of any stability problems with 4GB in 2000/XP.

 

[spyordie007]

200+ has no *current* stability issues running with 4GB of RAM (there have been some in the past submitted as bugs, usually related to specific applications and/or drivers).

 

[Yetiman]

I am running 4gb with XP pro and it hasn't had any issues whatsoever. I keep seeing that it will only show 3gb or less, but mine is showing 3.5gb.

 

[Nothinman]

But if a system has 4gb of ram and is running 32bit windows, have there been any reports of system instability?

It shouldn't, the whole 4G limitation was put in place by MS to avoid instability caused by bad drivers.

I keep seeing that it will only show 3gb or less, but mine is showing 3.5gb.

That's because most people have no idea what they're talking about, the amount of memory seen is determined by the hardware and how much address space is stolen for the hardware.

 

[Smilin]

Originally posted by: RedBeard
First off I know that windows cannot address all the RAM properly.

But if a system has 4gb of ram and is running 32bit windows, have there been any reports of system instability?

Windows can address all 4GB of ram properly. The reason you see less is a limitation of your hardware and the amount of memory it presents to the OS.

 

[Nothinman]

Windows can address all 4GB of ram properly. The reason you see less is a limitation of your hardware and the amount of memory it presents to the OS.

Not true, as long as the BIOS supports remapping the lost addresses above the 4G mark it'll present the right about of memory but 32-bit Windows clients will ignore anything above the 4G mark.

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: RedBeard
First off I know that windows cannot address all the RAM properly.

But if a system has 4gb of ram and is running 32bit windows, have there been any reports of system instability?

Nope. As someone else stated, the whole 4gig limit no PAE was done to deal with buggy drivers that WOULD have otherwise been a problem.

 

[pallejr]

just for the argumentation, xp and vista do have a pae kernel, but still have the 4 gigabyte limit