Comments on: 4GB RAM in Windows?

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:18:20 +0000

Sorry, just to clarify my above comment a bit better:

The mapping area that an OS uses to talk to devices does NOT have to overlap the physical memory of a machine, but it is FORCED to do so (causing the issue) when the physical amount of RAM in a machine equals or exceeds its limits.

The PAE function actually works in a similar fashion, if I remember correctly. It takes a block of RAM and re-maps it to an upper memory block (above the 4GB) limit. It then addresses this window to different locations as needed, allowing access to the extra RAM a few pages at time. The problem here is that this incurs some considerable processing overhead.

For those that remember far back enough, PAE could be compared to Expanded Memory (EMS), as opposed to the Extended Memory (XMS) that we now use as standard.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:02:52 +0000

Arkadiy, the reason why 64-bit is so useful is its ability to map memory up to 64-bits in length (in relation to answering your question). The 32-bit versions can only see 32-bits worth of memory. At this point everyone is going “duh!”.

Where this is relevant is in how an operating system talks to devices. An OS maps the addressable space of a device into the region of memory that it can address, whether there is physical memory present in the area that is being used for the mapping or not.

What this means for the 32-bit platform is that since it can only “see” up to the 4GB limit, it puts the “mapped” memory spaces just below that limit, rendering the physical memory that overlaps that area unaddressable.

64-bit does still have the same issue, but as its possible mapping space is up just below its memory addressable limit, now 16 exabytes (or 16.3 billion gigabytes), it will be a while before any machine will have to worry about the same issue again.

Hence going 64-bit allows the PC to actually “use” all 4GB that is available.

By: wolfey2424

wolfey2424 — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 00:06:09 +0000

He fails to mention overclocking RAM if it’s DDR2 or DDR3 to make the idea of adding more RAM less necessary. To simple readers who couldn’t understand the basic words like kernel, etc– poor you.

Honestly, I think 4GB, even at 800MhZ is pretty shitty, even in Windows 7 (though the best of all systems I’ve tried), so once I get home, I’m gonna overclock the 4GB to however much it will allow that is safe. Yep, I’ll need to read some things first.

By: DL

DL — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:56:21 +0000

It would be nice if Aqud could speak English or at least have someone edit his comments before sharing with everyone.

By: Arkadiy

Arkadiy — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 18:58:45 +0000

Folks
I have a very very basic question. We cant use 4GIG because memory is taken up by devices so we may end up with 3GIG or less. Totally understand.
1) What does this have to do with 4GIG? If i had 3gig, would not same 1GIG be taken away? How will 64bit OS help here unless i increase above 4GIG? Can you please let me know – i am trying to decide whether to get 4gig in new PC on 32bit Vista, but i am afraid of getting 64bit OS…
Thanks,
Arkadiy

By: Steven Michaels

Steven Michaels — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:07:35 +0000

Pirillo is one cool dude ! He is the hippest “geek” I’ve ever seen.

By: Malignedtruth

Malignedtruth — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:02:26 +0000

Whenever the discussion becomes too technical for you Sanjay, just insert the word ‘Pants’ as a substitute for any of the big words.

“This allows windows to make use of ALL the (Pants). What doesn’t change is the (Pants) mode. Windows has a built-in maximum of 2GB for (Pants) mode. By using the /3GB switch the (Pants) mode even gets decreased to 1GB.”

Makes sense, actually! Let’s substitute calories for all references to GB. Even funnier, and easier to comprehend!

At least it will give you a laugh. The rest of us enjoy the depth of discord, because we are rocket scientists. Technical discussions? Big words? Amazing concepts? Bring it on!

I prefer to run my Athlon 64 on a diet of FOSS using Mepis64 bit GNU/Linux. It’s faster. More secure. Most stable. FREE.

By: sanjay

sanjay — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 03:10:03 +0000

what the hell is this about? I mean if we wanted white papers wouldn’t we be reading them in the first place? This is not only not useful to anyone who wants to do anything about memory addressing, but honestly, what’s the point of this mental machination? It says nothing practical to anything about anyone.

By: I-user

I-user — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:04:30 +0000

What about us po’ folk with laptops that only expand to 2gb ram max. (still quite common in the market)?!? 4gb+ and 64bit is really a waste of money for us!

By: BHUPZ

BHUPZ — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:40:40 +0000

basically there are soo many options of using a 64 bit platform i wouldnt know why you would want to use more than 3gb or even 2gb ram on a x86 platform. with 2 gb ram any x86 platform rocks and with all that memory it is hard to even use all of it. i knw cuz i installed 4gb of ram in my amd machine. x64 rocks but long way away from being ready. windows xp rocks and will do until it slowly dies away.

By: John Lesnak

John Lesnak — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 01:27:59 +0000

What did he say?

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