Ok to use 8 gig of ram in a 32bit os?

[TheNonchalantGamer]

Is ok to use 8 gig of ram in a 32 bit OS? I have found dual channel 8gb ram for cheap so i was going to get it,I will probably upgrade to a 64 bit OS in several months...

 

[AlexWheeler0]

Nope, 32 bit only works with up to 4GB of ram.

You need to upgrade to 64bit if you want to use any more.

 

[OhSnapWord]

You can throw 8GB of RAM in there and upgrade later. That's fine. Keep in mind that you will only be able to use about half of the RAM.

 

[TheNonchalantGamer]

Ok thx I will try that

 

[Celery]

Even though the 32 bit OS only can address up to 4 gigs in a process. Having more than one process however can take advantage of more memory if it's there.

Having 8 gigs or more of memory under the 32 bit OS will not be wasted.

 

[TheNonchalantGamer]

Thx! I am really new to computers so thx for ur input

 

[Celery]

You're welcome but that doesn't mean you can directly access more than 3.2 gigs of ram. Just that the OS will page out processes to the memory when available. This is why we have pagefiles on the hard drive but the memory is faster so it'll go there.

 

[TheNonchalantGamer]

Ye just wondered if I would have to buy 4gb then 8gb...Didnt want to do it twice.I am going to upgrade to 64 bit soon.

 

[BK_123]

32bit versions of Windows support up to 4GB where as 64bit versions support more..