Can Vista 32bit use 4gb of Memory?

[LIVAN]

I have heard either way on this but can Vista 32bit address and use 4gb of system memory?

 

[blurredvision]

The answer:

32bit Vista does by design not(!) use the full 4GB of physically installed
RAM. Technically it could use 4GB (by using PAE to access the memory remapped by
the mainboard above the 4GB address boundary). By a marketing design
decision all Windows Vista 32bit editions are limited to 4GB address space.
Vista Starter ist limited to 1GB. "This is based on marketing decisions and
cannot be cheated with the PAE-Kernel."

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: LIVAN
I have heard either way on this but can Vista 32bit address and use 4gb of system memory?

Personally if you're going to use 4GB of ram then Vista x64 is the way to go ,compatibility is excellent in my experience and one of the reasons I went with x64 version is becasue I also have 4GB of ram.

That's if you have a 64 bit cpu .

 

[Piuc2020]

Well on my Mac Pro System Information recognizes 4GB but on the computer info screen only 2048 are recognized... I haven't bothered with it much since I only really need the 4GB in OSX and 2GB is perfect enough for Vista but I'd still be curious to know whats the real deal.

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: Piuc2020
Well on my Mac Pro System Information recognizes 4GB but on the computer info screen only 2048 are recognized... I haven't bothered with it much since I only really need the 4GB in OSX and 2GB is perfect enough for Vista but I'd still be curious to know whats the real deal.

Try putting it in a seperate channel and see if that makes a difference. XP was the same way, but I never followed up as to whether or not there was a solution. Are you running the 64-bit version? I'm planning on getting 4GB for my Mac Pro and will be pretty upset if it can't all be recognized in Vista, it swaps to disk constantly for me with 2GB (I'm running a lot of stuff at once).

 

[tboo]

I have 4gb installed but Vista is only showing 2gb

 

[LIVAN]

Originally posted by: tboo
I have 4gb installed but Vista is only showing 2gb

Really? I thought even XP addresses 3.5GB?

 

[tboo]

Originally posted by: LIVAN

Originally posted by: tboo
I have 4gb installed but Vista is only showing 2gb

Really? I thought even XP addresses 3.5GB?

Its now showing 2.85gb available after I enabled the memory hole in the bios.

 

[LIVAN]

Originally posted by: tboo

Originally posted by: LIVAN

Originally posted by: tboo
I have 4gb installed but Vista is only showing 2gb

Really? I thought even XP addresses 3.5GB?

Its now showing 2.85gb available after I enabled the memory hole in the bios.

This is crazy, what version of Vista do you have?

 

[Kalmah]

Let me get this straight, so only the 64-bit vista ultimate will support 3+ gb of ram?

 

[tboo]

Originally posted by: LIVAN

Originally posted by: tboo

Originally posted by: LIVAN

Originally posted by: tboo
I have 4gb installed but Vista is only showing 2gb

Really? I thought even XP addresses 3.5GB?

Its now showing 2.85gb available after I enabled the memory hole in the bios.

This is crazy, what version of Vista do you have?

Home Premium OEM. I think I am going to uninstall it & reinstall XP. Vista needs another year maturing.

 

[oldman420]

why would you need more than 2 gb of ram in a home system anyway?

 

[LIVAN]

Originally posted by: tboo

Originally posted by: LIVAN

Originally posted by: tboo

Originally posted by: LIVAN

Originally posted by: tboo
I have 4gb installed but Vista is only showing 2gb

Really? I thought even XP addresses 3.5GB?

Its now showing 2.85gb available after I enabled the memory hole in the bios.

This is crazy, what version of Vista do you have?

Home Premium OEM. I think I am going to uninstall it & reinstall XP. Vista needs another year maturing.

Well XP is not going to address 4gb either. From using VIsta past 3 weeks, I think Vista as it is right now is better than XP so I see no point of going back to XP quite honestly.

 

[InlineFive]

 

[Nothinman]

Let me get this straight, so only the 64-bit vista ultimate will support 3+ gb of ram?

Yes, the 32-bit versions are artificially limited to 4G meaning that they will never touch an address >4G no matter how much memory is installed even if PAE is enabled. The reason you only see somewhere between 2G and 3.8G is because the hardware requires some of those addresses to work. And it also seems that PCI-E video cards get their entire memory range mapped into the host's memory so if you have a card with 512M of memory you'll lose 512M worth of physical memory addresses.

If you enable the memory hole in the BIOS it'll remap the physical memory above the 4G mark so that it can be used again, but you'll need an OS that actually let you use those addresses and 32-bit XP and Vista aren't in that list.

 

[pcgeek11]

Nothinman,

I hope you don't mind I pasted you excellent explaination of why Vista X86 appears to show "random " amounts of memory when you have 4 gig or greater... in the Dell Tech Forums. Again I guess I should have asked first, but.... It's done already.

I hope you are good with it.

pcgeek11

 

[tboo]

Originally posted by: pcgeek11
Nothinman,

I hope you don't mind I pasted you excellent explaination of why Vista X86 appears to show "random " amounts of memory when you have 4 gig or greater... in the Dell Tech Forums. Again I guess I should have asked first, but.... It's done already.

I hope you are good with it.

pcgeek11

Can you link that post?

 

[tboo]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Let me get this straight, so only the 64-bit vista ultimate will support 3+ gb of ram?

Yes, the 32-bit versions are artificially limited to 4G meaning that they will never touch an address >4G no matter how much memory is installed even if PAE is enabled. The reason you only see somewhere between 2G and 3.8G is because the hardware requires some of those addresses to work. And it also seems that PCI-E video cards get their entire memory range mapped into the host's memory so if you have a card with 512M of memory you'll lose 512M worth of physical memory addresses.

If you enable the memory hole in the BIOS it'll remap the physical memory above the 4G mark so that it can be used again, but you'll need an OS that actually let you use those addresses and 32-bit XP and Vista aren't in that list.

I already have 1 8800GTX with 768mb of ram & Im adding a second in a few days. If what you say is true Ill have literally no memory left over once my sli setup is up & running

 

[fyleow]

..

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: oldman420
why would you need more than 2 gb of ram in a home system anyway?

A few games already require 2GB of ram, 4GB games are not that far off especially once DX10 games get here,games just seem to need more ram with time.

 

[Nothinman]

Originally posted by: pcgeek11
Nothinman,

I hope you don't mind I pasted you excellent explaination of why Vista X86 appears to show "random " amounts of memory when you have 4 gig or greater... in the Dell Tech Forums. Again I guess I should have asked first, but.... It's done already.

I hope you are good with it.

pcgeek11

Not at all.

I already have 1 8800GTX with 768mb of ram & Im adding a second in a few days. If what you say is true Ill have literally no memory left over once my sli setup is up & running

How much memory is in your machine? The memory is taken from the total 4G no matter how much you really have, so if you only have 1G in there you'll see all 1G until you have over 3G worth of addresses used by hardware. If you have 4G in there now, yes you should see ~800M less after you add the second card.

 

[Steve]

Thank you Nothinman! I'm glad someone is here to clear up that seeing < 4GB of RAM in a 32-bit system is because it's a 32-bit system Nothing to do with 2000, XP, or Vista, all about being 32-bit (2^32 = 4GB). In other words, a 32-bit system isn't about 4GB of RAM, it's about 4GB of address space, in which you can fit your RAM as well as hardware, I/O and other subsystem addressing. Check this pic for example:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/sm8000/32bitRAM.gif

 

[Noema]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

Yes, the 32-bit versions are artificially limited to 4G meaning that they will never touch an address >4G no matter how much memory is installed even if PAE is enabled. The reason you only see somewhere between 2G and 3.8G is because the hardware requires some of those addresses to work. And it also seems that PCI-E video cards get their entire memory range mapped into the host's memory so if you have a card with 512M of memory you'll lose 512M worth of physical memory addresses.

If you enable the memory hole in the BIOS it'll remap the physical memory above the 4G mark so that it can be used again, but you'll need an OS that actually let you use those addresses and 32-bit XP and Vista aren't in that list.

Posts like this are the reason I visit this board everyday.

 

[Nick5324]

Originally posted by: sm8000
Thank you Nothinman! I'm glad someone is here to clear up that seeing < 4GB of RAM in a 32-bit system is because it's a 32-bit system Nothing to do with 2000, XP, or Vista, all about being 32-bit (2^32 = 4GB). In other words, a 32-bit system isn't about 4GB of RAM, it's about 4GB of address space, in which you can fit your RAM as well as hardware, I/O and other subsystem addressing. Check this pic for example:

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/sm8000/32bitRAM.gif

Great post, good link.

Kudos to Nothinman as well.

 

[Nothinman]

Thank you Nothinman! I'm glad someone is here to clear up that seeing < 4GB of RAM in a 32-bit system is because it's a 32-bit system Nothing to do with 2000, XP, or Vista,

Actually it does have to do with Windows. If your BIOS supports remapping the memory above the 4G mark and your OS supports PAE then it should be able to use rest of your memory just fine. Some editions of 32-bit Windows Server can do it since they support >4G memory. And of course all free OSes that support >4G on 32-bit systems will support it just fine too, it's just that MS decided to limit the workstation versions of those OSes to protect you from poorly written drivers or so they say.