4 gig ram on Vista 32

[Gremlin_flg]

I am running vista 64 bit and have no issues. to see 4 gigs you need to have 64 bit OS

[BenKenobi]

According to this, your graphics card takes up a lot of this "unused RAM". It is either equal or greater to the amount you have on your graphics card... and since I have 768mb I can see why it is so low, because other things also need to be taken for the bios and pci slots etc.

Oh well,

[juneau]

According to this, your graphics card takes up a lot of this "unused RAM". It is either equal or greater to the amount you have on your graphics card... and since I have 768mb I can see why it is so low, because other things also need to be taken for the bios and pci slots etc.

Oh well,

Bang on the money there. It'll still feel very nippy.

[Dead...Again]

I've been running Vista x64 for months and have no compatibility issues. You would be surprised at the number of vendors that have Vista x64 drivers.

As for why you only see part of the memory: 32-bit OSes can only access 4GB of memory space. This memory space is used by motherboard resources and PCI devices in addition to system memory. The chipset/motherboard reserves a good bit of the top 512MB. In addition, most PCI devices use memory-mapped IO. If the BIOS is good, it will stick as much of the resources mapped by PCI into the little bit of the top 512MB not used by the motherboard. Anything else will have to be placed below this.

In addition to this, there may be other limitations specific to the particular OS.

64bit OSes don't have this limitation. The limit when using 64-bit OSes is currently either the CPU or chipset. Most CPUs have 36-bit addressing. This limits the available memory space to 0xF FFFF FFFF or 64GB. As far as I know, no chipset available can address more than 64GB. Most support 16GB or less. (Like you'd even need that much for anything other than a server! )

[Grisu]

I use Vista32 with 3 GB of Ram and all is available.

[darth_nevus]

2 fold problem.
first part is has to do with "virtual address space". your pc has 4gb. of that it can address 4gb. but the "virtual address space" is consumed by hardware devices. vista 32 has another bug. its called the 2x video memory req. so this is what your left with:

4gb
-~800-400mb for addresses for devices(This is ANYTHING your mobo can address. from ram to com ports)
-whatever your video card ram is.
=whats left.

good example.

4gb.
~500mb(average lower single card not too spectacular)
768mb GTX card.
=
~2.8gb usuable space.


Thing is the virtual address space for drivers is "reserved" so you won't see it until you start breaking the 3gb barrier.

Vista, to my knowledge has not yet fixed the fact that it pools the address space for the video card about twice. beause of this, in the main address space, there is some of the space being used for the card. but, vista turns around and uses the exact size of the vram and scheduales it as well from the address space. this is why an xp pc will have "more" ram available than vista.

The second problem is the /3gb switch in the boot ini file doesn't do anygood nless the software already knows it can use more than its 2gb private "virtual address" space. you you wind up having to hex exit your stuff to make it work right if it doesn't.

most games (there are a FEW VERY new ones that don't) aren't programmed to use more than 2GB of ram(due to address space from the private pool). so the /3gb switch doesn't help much there either. in the coming years, with vista x64 and true x64 games, will a pc be able to use more than the standard amount of ram.

fact is, its not worth having more than 2gb of ram in a pc, since nothing, short of an optimized set of code and the proper OS, will be able to use it.

Supreme commander is a perfect example of what happens when sloppy coding meets memory limitations. if anyone has played it on vista, at 1900x1600 with the settings maxed, with 2gb of ram or 4gb, you can't pass the 3rd map in most of the campaigns. your pc literaly runs out of address space, and the game doesn't check to make sure its not either.

the BF2 engine is another good example. their inherent memory leak would allow the amount of ram being addressed to exceed the 2gb barrier for "private" space, and then BONK! CTD baby! and all with a variety of errors or lack their of with no apparent cause, simply because the programming never took into account what would happen if they hit their limit.(anyone remeber the "-4096mb. doesn't seem sane" message? rofl)

no one ever thought this would happen. SURPRISE! it did!

[WalkinTarget]

3gb addressable ??? Pfffttt, I'd be HAPPY to see that !!!! With the Asrock board upgraded to 4gb, I can only see 2.3gb available, even tho the BIOS reports it as 4096 RAM.
It doesn't help Windows is reserving 1gb (is this insane or what??) of RAM for the 7950gx2 video card (512mb RAM per card, but Windows keeps the full 1gb to supply both cards) so I am thinking of pulling the 2gb sticks and putting my 1gb sticks in there ... makes more sense to use the 2gb sticks elsewhere.

[Dead_And_Gone]

Yeesh...

XP Pro shows as 3.5gig.
Vista 64 is showing full 4gig.

One Happy dude here.

[darth_nevus]

3gb addressable ??? Pfffttt, I'd be HAPPY to see that !!!! With the Asrock board upgraded to 4gb, I can only see 2.3gb available, even tho the BIOS reports it as 4096 RAM.
It doesn't help Windows is reserving 1gb (is this insane or what??) of RAM for the 7950gx2 video card (512mb RAM per card, but Windows keeps the full 1gb to supply both cards) so I am thinking of pulling the 2gb sticks and putting my 1gb sticks in there ... makes more sense to use the 2gb sticks elsewhere.

Case in point. depending on the system resources, will depend on how much is available. you have the additional worry that you addon card doesn't replace the other "devices" addressable on the main board, but adds more to it. so you have 700mb reserved of the address pool.

[BenKenobi]

Yeah, this realy sucks because If I decided to go SLI with my 8800gtx which I designed my system so I would be able to someday, that would be the 2814mb that I have now - another 768mb........... thats almost 2g. rofl.

[Dead...Again]

Vista x64 FTW!

[darth_nevus]

Vista x64 FTW!

true, you can see more ram, but most games still aren't programmed to use more than the old 32 bit 2gb barrier for "private" address space. new games will though, starting with Allan Wake....