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Windows Forum / Windows XP / Performance and Maintainance / July 200732bit OS Max 2GB memory
I have read something about that 32 bit OS like XP can't handle RAM memory over 2 GB. I have today 2 GB RAM memory and plan to upgrade to 3 GB.  Signature--------------------------------------- Was this post helpfull to you? --------------------------------------- >I have read something about that 32 bit OS like XP can't handle RAM memory > over 2 GB. I have today 2 GB RAM memory and plan to upgrade to 3 GB. There is the usual limit of 2 GB of virtual memory (which is not the same at all as physical memory). Physical memory is limited by the capabilities of the motherboard to 4 GB. The actual amount of physical memory which is available to the operating system is somewhat less than 4 GB. The reason for the situation is that some physical memory may be stolen by the graphics card, some other amount is stolen by non-paged pool, etc. The complete details of who gets what of the physical memory is not clear to me. Having posted all that, you may not find much improvement after the increase in physical memory unless you are using memory intensive programs such as Photoshop. Jim > >I have read something about that 32 bit OS like XP can't handle RAM memory > > over 2 GB. I have today 2 GB RAM memory and plan to upgrade to 3 GB. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > The actual amount of physical memory which is available to the operating > system is somewhat less than 4 GB. Yes. > The reason for the situation is that some physical memory may be stolen by > the graphics card, some other > amount is stolen by non-paged pool, etc. But not exactly. It's part of the *address space* that gets "stolen," not physical memory itself. With that address space unavailable, there's no place to map the extra physical memory to, and the memory necessarily goes unused. > The complete details of who gets > what of the physical memory is [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > in physical memory unless you > are using memory intensive programs such as Photoshop. Yes, it's a rare Windows XP user who can make effective use of the 3GB that he contemplates having. SignatureKen Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:10:02 -0700, Nicoliani <Nicoliani@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > I have read something about that 32 bit OS like XP can't handle RAM memory > over 2 GB. I have today 2 GB RAM memory and plan to upgrade to 3 GB. What you have read is *not* correct. 3GB should be fine (although why do you need so much RAM?) All 32-bit versions of Windows have a 4GB address space. However all of them (not just XP) have to use some of that address for hardware devices. After deducting that use (which varies depending on your devices) you normally get about 3.1GB of remaining usable space. So adding RAM up to 3GB is fine. SignatureKen Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup The thing is that is shows some problems for Vista users in games. As Vista demand more memory in some games the 2GB limit is not enough resulting in game crashes. There is a way to overcome the 2GB barrier but they way's would not be stable for the system. In XP can I use 3/GB switch to overcome it? Signature--------------------------------------- Was this post helpfull to you? --------------------------------------- > > I have read something about that 32 bit OS like XP can't handle RAM memory > > over 2 GB. I have today 2 GB RAM memory and plan to upgrade to 3 GB. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > devices) you normally get about 3.1GB of remaining usable space. So > adding RAM up to 3GB is fine. > The thing is that is shows some problems for Vista users in games. As > Vista [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > stable for the system. > In XP can I use 3/GB switch to overcome it? The comment about Vista is interesting, but most of us XP users are not concerned about Vista problems. Yes, you can use the /3GB switch for XP. Games are programs which use and need lots of physical memory so that the pagefile does not get used so much (if at all). Jim >> On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:10:02 -0700, Nicoliani T >> <Nicoliani@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] >> devices) you normally get about 3.1GB of remaining usable space. So >> adding RAM up to 3GB is fine. On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:04:03 -0700, Nicoliani <Nicoliani@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > The thing is that is shows some problems for Vista users in games. As Vista > demand more memory in some games the 2GB limit is not enough resulting in > game crashes. > There is a way to overcome the 2GB barrier but they way's would not be > stable for the system. There is *no* 2GB barrier, as I said. The barrier varies, depending on your hardware, but it's usually around 3.1GB > In XP can I use 3/GB switch to overcome it? > [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > devices) you normally get about 3.1GB of remaining usable space. So > > adding RAM up to 3GB is fine. SignatureKen Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup |
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