WinXP, 4gb mem and 512mb video card

[Rhezuss]

Hey all,

As we all know, WinXP 32bit only sees/recognize/use around 3gb of RAM.

Comp:
-WinXP Pro SP2
-Athlon64 X2 5200+
-4gb DDR2-800
-Palit 9600GT 512mb

As of now, my system have a total of 4.5gb of memory and evidently Windows only shows 3gb.

If I was to buy a new video card with say, 1gb of memory on it, what would be the effects, negative or positive?

Would I be using less system memory and would slow my computer? Or on the contrary, more video memory is best?

Thanks!

 

[mmntech]

Just upgrade to Windows 7 64-bit. That will solve any problems. Remember that the 4gb cap includes all memory in the system including GPU.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: mmntech
Remember that the 4gb cap includes all memory in the system including GPU.

He's counting that...

Originally posted by: Rhezuss
Comp:
-WinXP Pro SP2
-Athlon64 X2 5200+
-4gb DDR2-800
-Palit 9600GT 512mb

As of now, my system have a total of 4.5gb of memory and evidently Windows only shows 3gb.

 

[TheStu]

Right, but does the OP realize that if he bumps up to a 1GB GPU (which according to this article on Tom's Hardware may not be necessary), he may gain 512MB of RAM for his GPU, but he will lose 512MB of system available RAM.

 

[vailr]

If I had a similar system, the priorities would be:
1. Update to XP SP3
2. or better yet: Windows 7 x64
3. Do more research on whether upgrading video card memory would actually benefit the particular applications I was trying to run. Maybe wait a while (Black Friday?), until the price of a Radeon 5850 1 Gb card gets closer to $200.

 

[Rhezuss]

Originally posted by: TheStu
Right, but does the OP realize that if he bumps up to a 1GB GPU (which according to this article on Tom's Hardware may not be necessary), he may gain 512MB of RAM for his GPU, but he will lose 512MB of system available RAM.

Oh thanks for this article TheStu. I often read Tom's Hardware articles but I missed this one.

Answers mostly all my questions!
Thanks again!

 

[Rhezuss]

Originally posted by: vailr
If I had a similar system, the priorities would be:
1. Update to XP SP3
2. or better yet: Windows 7 x64
3. Do more research on whether upgrading video card memory would actually benefit the particular applications I was trying to run. Maybe wait a while (Black Friday?), until the price of a Radeon 5850 1 Gb card gets closer to $200.

I plan on upgrading to Windows 7 64bit by the end of this year since I heard good things about this OS.

Thanks to you for your advices.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: TheStu
Right, but does the OP realize that if he bumps up to a 1GB GPU (which according to this article on Tom's Hardware may not be necessary), he may gain 512MB of RAM for his GPU, but he will lose 512MB of system available RAM.

Doesn't work like that. He might lose at most an additional 256MB system RAM, possibly no additional RAM.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: TheStu
Right, but does the OP realize that if he bumps up to a 1GB GPU (which according to this article on Tom's Hardware may not be necessary), he may gain 512MB of RAM for his GPU, but he will lose 512MB of system available RAM.

Doesn't work like that. He might lose at most an additional 256MB system RAM, possibly no additional RAM.

I thought it would allocate GPU RAM first. I remember my friend telling me that whe he (very) briefly had XP 32 on his desktop he only had around 2.5GB of system ram (this was with dual 768MB GPUs in SLI). But maybe I am remembering incorrectly.

 

[tcsenter]

Dual GPUs are a different case. There are two separate cards, plus the SLI broadcast aperture.

 

[Gunbuster]

I have never heard of graphics ram counting towards the 32bit system Ram addressable limit. Are you guys sure?

 

[s0ren]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
I have never heard of graphics ram counting towards the 32bit system Ram addressable limit. Are you guys sure?

the 32 bit address bus limit applies to all hardware in a given machine. System memory, video card, tv card, sound card, etc.

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
I have never heard of graphics ram counting towards the 32bit system Ram addressable limit. Are you guys sure?

It does to the extent that graphics memory is mapped into physical address space. Typically, not more than 256MB ~ 512MB will be mapped into address space, no matter how much RAM the graphics card has.

 

[Schmide]

I just wanted to add that there is no reason to push the kernel into the upper 1gb space unless you're running programs linked with the LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag. The one notable program being photoshop cs3+. Even then it is doubtful you will notice any difference.