Vista Ultimate 32-bit & Ram

[Haui]

Hey everyone. Yesterday I took the plunge and upgraded from XP Pro to Vista Ultimate 32bit. My current config is as follows:

Dell E521
AMD X2 5600+
2GB Kingston DDR2 PC2-6400
EVGA 7600GT PCI-E 256MB
2X 200GB Seagate 7200rpm SATA

My question:

Should I upgrade to the 4gb barrier of ram to maximize my performance? Will the 4gb help just for running Vista alone? Will it help if I game at all (TF2)?

Please let me know what you think!

 

[Nothinman]

Since you're running 32-bit Vista you'll only be able to use 4G minus however much address space is stolen by your hardware.

 

[Haui]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Since you're running 32-bit Vista you'll only be able to use 4G minus however much address space is stolen by your hardware.

What do you mean "stolen" by my hardware?

You also didnt answer my question - will it help at all?

 

[Schadenfroh]

TF2 = Team Fortress 2 = Half-Life 2 engine?

I really doubt it would be worth the cash to upgrade from 2gb to 4gb for a source game (assuming it stresses your system the same as Half-Life 2).

You will not be seeing any improvement in standard desktop tasks (office, web browsing, etc.) by moving from 2gb to 4gb.

 

[Nothinman]

What do you mean "stolen" by my hardware?

Drivers need a way to talk to hardware and usually that's directly via memory addresses so the BIOS reserves a range of memory addresses starting from the 4G mark down and it extends as far down as necessary for all of your hardware to work. The average stolen seems to be between 500M and 800M as most people get somewhere around 3.2G. But if you have a larger hardware setup more memory will be stolen, for instance a PCIe video card with 1G of memory on it will steal a little over 1G of address space just by itself.

You also didnt answer my question - will it help at all?

More memory is almost always better but it depends on your working set as to whether going from 2G to 4G (or more likely somewhere around 3G) will help.

 

[blackangst1]

Yep what ^^^^^ he said. I would encourage you to add another 1 gig for 3 total though.

 

[Nothinman]

Since he got Ultimate he should be able to request a 64-bit disc from MS for the cost of shipping so it would probably be smarter to go to 4G and Vista64.

 

[Aznguy1872]

Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

 

[hans007]

well the e521 has 4 ram slots, and i'm assuming you are only using 2 of them. i tried 4gb in my machine and its 32bit (XP though) and it only see 3.25 gb. you should just get 2 x 512mb more.


the extra 256mb is really nothing, and by the time you really need to go 64bit you will probably be in your next computer.

i would not recommend going to 64-bit. a lot of stuff software and hardware still doesnt work on it, and unless you really really need 4gb+ ram its just not really gonna do anything for you.

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

It runs great. I wish I got it first instead of bothering with 32bit.

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: mb

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

It runs great. I wish I got it first instead of bothering with 32bit.

I agree. I built two computers for other people with 64 bit Vista and so far nothing thrown at them has failed to run. I wished I would have known before I had bought my 32 bit copy of Vista.

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: mb

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

It runs great. I wish I got it first instead of bothering with 32bit.

I agree. I built two computers for other people with 64 bit Vista and so far nothing thrown at them has failed to run. I wished I would have known before I had bought my 32 bit copy of Vista.

Why? Beside the obvious memory limitation, what can't you do on 32bit Vista that you can on 64bit?

 

[soonerproud]

Originally posted by: Canterwood

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: mb

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

It runs great. I wish I got it first instead of bothering with 32bit.

I agree. I built two computers for other people with 64 bit Vista and so far nothing thrown at them has failed to run. I wished I would have known before I had bought my 32 bit copy of Vista.

Why? Beside the obvious memory limitation, what can't you do on 32bit Vista that you can on 64bit?

Use more than 3 gigs of memory. What if I decide I want more memory? Even if I upgrade to the max supported memory on this motherboard (4 gigs) I can not use it all.

 

[Golgatha]

Originally posted by: hans007
well the e521 has 4 ram slots, and i'm assuming you are only using 2 of them. i tried 4gb in my machine and its 32bit (XP though) and it only see 3.25 gb. you should just get 2 x 512mb more.


the extra 256mb is really nothing, and by the time you really need to go 64bit you will probably be in your next computer.

i would not recommend going to 64-bit. a lot of stuff software and hardware still doesnt work on it, and unless you really really need 4gb+ ram its just not really gonna do anything for you.

He speaks the truth. I have exactly 1GB of wasted RAM due to 256MB of address space reserved for hardware and 768MB of space used by my 8800GTX. Good thing DDR2 is dirt cheap.

 

[mb]

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: Canterwood

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: mb

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

It runs great. I wish I got it first instead of bothering with 32bit.

I agree. I built two computers for other people with 64 bit Vista and so far nothing thrown at them has failed to run. I wished I would have known before I had bought my 32 bit copy of Vista.

Why? Beside the obvious memory limitation, what can't you do on 32bit Vista that you can on 64bit?

Use more than 3 gigs of memory. What if I decide I want more memory? Even if I upgrade to the max supported memory on this motherboard (4 gigs) I can not use it all.

Pretty much. Drivers, hardware, and software support are exactly the same (for me) in 64bit as they were in 32bit. I've got 4GB of RAM (and a 640MB video card), so I might as well have my OS be able to use all of it. I think if I went SLI, 32bit Vista would see even less system memory IIRC.

 

[Nothinman]

Why? Beside the obvious memory limitation, what can't you do on 32bit Vista that you can on 64bit?

IIRC 64-bit Vista only allows signed drivers by default so if you leave that on you have less chance of anything kernel level being installed without you knowing it.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Canterwood

Originally posted by: soonerproud

Originally posted by: mb

Originally posted by: Aznguy1872
Just a quick question how updated is Vista 64 now? Does it run very well now?

It runs great. I wish I got it first instead of bothering with 32bit.

I agree. I built two computers for other people with 64 bit Vista and so far nothing thrown at them has failed to run. I wished I would have known before I had bought my 32 bit copy of Vista.

Why? Beside the obvious memory limitation, what can't you do on 32bit Vista that you can on 64bit?

Number of reasons,slightly better security for one,able to run 32 bit and 64 bit software,longer lifespan then 32 bit version,no legacy 16 bit software in the OS which I have read makes it leaner so less chance of problems.

 

[Canterwood]

Originally posted by: Mem
able to run 32 bit and 64 bit software,

The vast majority of home users are probably only running 32bit software anyway.

longer lifespan then 32 bit version,

According to Microsoft, 32bit and 64bit Vista both have the same product support lifecycle.

no legacy 16 bit software in the OS which I have read makes it leaner so less chance of problems.

Could sway some folk to choose 32bit Vista if they have legacy apps or games they use.

I think by the time 64bit becomes mainstream, Vista will be old hat anyway.

 

[soonerproud]

I think games are going to push 64 bit into the mainstream by the time Windows Seven comes out. Microsoft still intends to release a 32 bit version of Windows Seven, but I think that is just for helping to ease the transition to 64 bit for those who are not gamers or enthusiast.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: Canterwood

Originally posted by: Mem
able to run 32 bit and 64 bit software,

The vast majority of home users are probably only running 32bit software anyway.

longer lifespan then 32 bit version,

According to Microsoft, 32bit and 64bit Vista both have the same product support lifecycle.

no legacy 16 bit software in the OS which I have read makes it leaner so less chance of problems.

Could sway some folk to choose 32bit Vista if they have legacy apps or games they use.

I think by the time 64bit becomes mainstream, Vista will be old hat anyway.

1:That's the beauty of Vista x64 you can run both 32bit and 64 bit software.

2: 64 bit is the future ,you want to stay on 32 bit forever,not like 64 bit version costs more or can't run 32 bit software.

3:You can get to use 16 bit legacy support by using software like Virtual PC2007 etc..

4:Not really (look at XP which is 7 years old now) also not long before you need 4GB+ for games,remember Vista has a long life(not even a year old yet) and you can bet 4GB+ will be very common in a few years,even now there are gamers using it.

There are more plus points for Vista x64 then Vista x68 and all for same price.

 

[Nothinman]

1:That'as the beauty of Vista x64 you can run both 32bit and 64 bit software

Although you need 32-bit copies of all of the dependencies in addition to the software itself so you end up with at least 2 copies of virtually everything.

3:You can get use legacy support by using software like Virtual PC2007 etc..

At the cost of a second Windows license to run inside of VPC...

 

[amdhunter]

I ended up trading 2x1GB of RAM for 2x512MB to bring my system down to 3GB to avoid the 3.25GB limit. It was just annoying to see the loss of RAM.

I'd have gone to 64-bit, but my Adaptec SCSI card craps out with XP/Vista 64 and 4GB RAM... I didn't want to give up my 15k drives for a few MB RAM...lol

 

[Nothinman]

I ended up trading 2x1GB of RAM for 2x512MB to bring my system down to 3GB to avoid the 3.25GB limit.

Just being pedantic but the limit is not 3.25G. The limit is 4G minus whatever address space your hardware has stolen for MMIO.