What's new
  • Please do not post any links until you have 3 posts as they will automatically be rejected to prevent SPAM. Many words are also blocked due to being used in SPAM Messages. Thanks!

Will vista 32 bit read more RAM for me?

shayan288

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 17, 2008
Messages
908
Location
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Hi all,
I have Vista 32 bit and I have 4 gigs of Extreme viper.. Something.. Something..
And I have been thinking on getting another set of the RAM I got to add so that I will have 8 gigs. And some guy has been telling me that its fail and that vista 32 bit can only read 4 gig or somthing like that, and that getting another set of ram would be useless. Is this true, if so what should I do?
Thanks.
-Shayan.
 

chrisk

Folding Captain
Joined
Jul 12, 2008
Messages
7,702
Location
GTA, Ontario
Any 32-bit operating system can only read 4GB of ram, including Vista 32-bit.

You would need to get a 64-bit OS if you want to see greater than 4GB.

However, it is really hard to use 8GB of ram, even if your OS can address it. You would have to be doing some pretty heavy-duty video editing, etc to actually use it.
 

rjbarker

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 19, 2008
Messages
7,248
Location
Courtenay, B.C
As Chris said.....in most cases you do not need more than 4GB Memory on a 32 Bit System.....and you won't notice any overall performance gains by installing it.
 

Chilly

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
2,625
Location
Ontario
More than 4GB is cool and all, but... Very few things need/can use it, only ones that come to mind for desktop usage would be video/audio editing and Virtualization/VM's. Frankly the main reason you'll see alot of people moving to 8GB and above is because, RAM is cheap, not because they can actually use it.
 

Silvgearx

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2008
Messages
2,063
Location
Toronto
Hi Shayan!

I have Vista Ultimate 32bit and 4gb mushkin redlines, like others said, its still read as 3GB :blarg:
 

death_hawk

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 8, 2008
Messages
438
Any 32-bit operating system can only read 4GB of ram, including Vista 32-bit.

Until you get into Windows Server OSes. They can address (I think) 128GB RAM.



Oh and keep in mind that Vista Home Premium has a cap of 12GB.
 

Mr. Gruntsworthy

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 16, 2008
Messages
749
Location
Courtice, ONT
well, by the time 12GB becomes standardized, Windows 7 will have filled Vistas place in the OS world. Im assuming they removed the cap.
 

Chilly

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
2,625
Location
Ontario
Until you get into Windows Server OSes. They can address (I think) 128GB RAM.



Oh and keep in mind that Vista Home Premium has a cap of 12GB.

Using PAE, but even then your still limited to a max 4GB addressing(per program) and a total of 64GB(not 128GB). Frankly if you have a need for more than 4GB of ram, chances are your app need more than 4GB as well. In that case (while rare in the desktop world I'll admit) then you might as well go to a 64Bit OS.
 

artistpavel

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 25, 2009
Messages
823
Location
Toronto ON
This is an example of CHKDSK utility using 15GB of RAM on my rig, I have no idea why a simple task required so much memory but it did:

282m2oo.jpg
 

Latest posts

Top