Vista and Reading RAM

[dakxxus]

Well last night when me and my friend were helping another friend put together his PC, we got into an argument about whether or not any kind of vista 32bit sees and uses 4GB of ram. I had brought a.. copy of vista over for my friend to use but it was Home Premium, which he didn't want because it wasn't 64bit. So, Does any kind of vista utilize all 4Gb or do you have to have a 64bit to use it?

 

[Austinn1]

Vista 32 bit will support up to about 3.5gb's of ram. Vista 64 Bit will support anything over that.

 

[StratosP]

Vista 32 bit will support up to about 3.5gb's of ram. Vista 64 Bit will support anything over that.

Why not? That sucks...
What about XP I'm going to get 4gb for XP Pro 32bit SP3...so will I be able to use it all?
And if it doesn't and I switch to 64 bit what are the main differences?
Like gaming, speed etc.

 

[NEED WOW NOW]

You can get Vista Premium in 32 and 64 bit versions. I believe if you got the retail version you can call up Microsoft and request for the 64 Bit version for a shipment charge of 5 dollars. I'm thinking of doing that when I upgrade my computer to AMD's new CPU Socket(AM3) and get a FX Deneb core. New motherboard, CPU, and 4GB of DDR3 RAM is my next major upgrade.

Most oblivious pro's to the 64 Bit version is that it can use up to somewhere around 128Gbs of RAM. This does not mean you can find a motherboard that supports that much RAM(Yet), it just means the software can accept up to that amount of RAM. Many servers need to run large amounts of RAM so it benefits servers more than computers. As computer software gets more and more advance it is natural that it uses more RAM. All 32 Bit operating systems can only support around the area of 3Gb-3.5Gb.

I also believe there is some programs and things that do run better on the 64 Bit version but over all it mostly allows for more ram. I haven't looked up many of the differences between them, just know that some programs don't work on the 64 Bit versions that work fine on the 32 Bit versions(Small amount of programs) and that it allows you to use more RAM.

 

[A True Folder]

32bit operating systems can only address 4GB of memory in total, that includes video memory etc, so if you have a 512MB video card + 4GB of RAM Windows will only show 3.5GB of RAM because it is taking the video memory into account as well.

64bit operating systems do not have this limitation

 

[luca5371]

What limitation do they have? 8 GBs? Anyone know

EDIT: OK, guess I should learn to pay attention while I read.

 

[Austinn1]

Most oblivious pro's to the 64 Bit version is that it can use up to somewhere around 128Gbs of RAM. This does not mean you can find a motherboard that supports that much RAM(Yet), it just means the software can accept up to that amount of RAM. Many servers need to run large amounts of RAM so it benefits servers more than computers. As computer software gets more and more advance it is natural that it uses more RAM. All 32 Bit operating systems can only support around the area of 3Gb-3.5Gb.

.

Actually, Im pretty sure there are boards that support 16gb of ram. Will post an example in a few.

 

[NEED WOW NOW]

Actually, Im pretty sure there are boards that support 16gb of ram. Will post an example in a few.

I meant up to 128Gbs of RAM, not 16Gb. Hell, there's server motherboards that support. . . . .just checked newegg. What I meant is that software wise a 64Bit Operating system can handle up to 128Gbs of RAM. I just found out that there is in deed server motherboards out there that accept 128GBs of RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151162

Just as said before, a 32 Bit OS can only support up to 4Gb of RAM total including video RAM. Now that I looked it up, It seems that a 64 Bit OS can reach up to server systems of around 2TB of RAM! Even though this is considering that computers using 2TB of RAM are either supercomputers or DataCenter Computers, Vista 64Bit Home basic has a limit to 8Gb, 64 Bit Home Premium has a limit to 16Gb, and 64 Bit Vista Ultimate, Enterprise, and Business limit it to 128Gb.

It's not the Version (32 or 64 Bit) but the OS itself. But almost all 32 Bit windows software limit it to 4Gb. 32 Bit windows server OS's limit it to 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB.

Here's where I got that information:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx

Can't find the hypothetical limitation of 64Bit Software, but I know its really high.