Vista x86 and 4GB of RAM??

[Cannyone]

Hello all, I been a lurker around this site for years but I just signed up with these forums, and this is my first post.

I was reading the preview article on Intel's new X38 chipset when I stumbled across the following:

We selected the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 as our processor of choice since it represents one of the better price to performance values in the midrange processor market, and it is also the CPU we will focus on in future reviews. We are utilizing Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32-bit as our operating system along with a 4GB memory configuration. Even though Vista 32-bit cannot take advantage of the entire 4GB of memory address space (3.326GB), we found the additional 1.278GB of memory available provided improved performance during multitasking events and gaming. We would not recommend anything less than 2GB with Vista Home Premium.

At present my primary system is running Vista x64 Ultimate Edition (courtesy of Microsoft - as a reward for my participation in their beta program). When I was setting this system up I was able to get a decent deal on 2 x 2GB DIMMs, so I decided to go with the 64-bit version of Vista. I have 2 DVDs with both the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Vista. But since the 32-bit version appeared not to even recognize the additional 2GB of memory, I've done nothing with it. (My secondary system will retain it's copy of MCE 2005 - doesn't make sense to upgrade it's hardware, or OS, as that setup works wonderfully as is...)

My question centers around making sure 32-bit Vista won't simply let half of my memory just Idle. Are there any settings I need to change? Any special configuration steps I should take? If any of you are running 32-bit Vista please give me your advice and input. About the only thing worse than letting half of this system's current memory idle, would be to replace it with a 2GB pair and no use it at all! Yet, I'm not satisfied with the performance of Vista x64 in some of the games I play (In particular I'm in Tabula Rasa's Beta and find I get superior performance with technically inferior hardware that is my secondary system).

 

[bsobel]

I think I'm confused. Your runnign X64 now and want to switch to X32? If you have 4gig of memory, don't. X64 is the version you want to be running and will use your memory better than x32.

 

[Rebel44]

If you want to use all of your RAM (4GB) your only option is 64bit OS. There is also workaround for 32bit OS (PAE) but it will cause performance hit.

 

[Cannyone]

Ok, I suspect that 64-bit drivers are less "optimized" at this point than 32-bit drivers. The one thing I know is that, when playing the Tabula Rasa beta, I get better performance from my secondary 32-bit system than I do from my main system. So I was willing to consider switching to Vista x86 on the off chance the drivers might be better. I'd keep an image of my current OS just in case making this change results in a "drop in performance". But perhaps I should have addressed these questions to Gary Key, who was the author of the referred to article.

Part of what leads me to my present pre-conceptions is my poor experiences with 64-bit XP. There I was an early adopter and, though I was able to get most of my hardware "working", I heard far too many company representatives tell me there was "No Demand!" for 64-bit drivers. When I installed this version of Vista I was under the misconception that Microsoft my try to actually promote "64-bit". Now that does not seem to really be the case. Then again I haven't been having major issues with anything other than this one "beta" game. But then I saw this article http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=3077&p=2, where it gave me the impression there might be some viable alternative.

 

[bsobel]

The 64bit builds are just recompiles of the same source base, unless you have a vendor who's driver release numbers are much higher on the 32bit side (ATI and nVidia are identitical) the drivers are optimized the same.

 

[obeseotron]

If you're concerned about drivers/max performance, just dual boot with XP32, don't bother with Vista32.

 

[Cannyone]

I wonder if I could run XP32 in a Virtual Machine, or would that hinder my game performance?

 

[Nothinman]

VMWare Workstation 6 has experimental 3D acceleration support, Parallels was supposed to have it with their last release but I have no idea if they do, so you might be able to get a few to run but I bet the performance will be terrible.