How to make use of your full 4GB RAM with 32-bit Vista/7

W

WickedTA

Adept
Some points to consider (for those who don't know it already)
  1. 32-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 (and for that matter, all previous versions of Windows) can typically use only a max of 3.25GB RAM even if you have 4GB physically plugged in
  2. The remaining .75GB is reserved for I/O address space and other similar purposes by the OS
  3. What follows next will NOT allow you to use *that* unused .75GB of RAM (if you have it) as RAM itself, but as a RAMDisk, which can be used for ReadyBoost purposes
  4. SuperSpeed has a product line called RamDisk/RamDisk Plus that will allow *that* unused .75GB of RAM to be used as a RAMDisk
  5. This will only work if your mother board's BIOS supports and allows you to remap memory above 4GB. Most Asus boards have this as "Memory Remap Enable/Disable" under the ChipSet/NorthBridge settings
  6. The Plus version provides an option to save RAMDisk contents to an image file at shutdown and restore from it at startup
  7. It can supposedly use RAM even beyond the 4GB limit, but I don't know this for sure (need to check with another 2GB stick, in which case this can be used as the disk for the paging file, instead of using for ReadyBoost)
  8. When I added a 768MB RAMDisk with the "Memory Remap" option disabled in BIOS, I saw that amount decrease in the amount of free RAM shown by Task Manager. This decrease did not happen when the "Memory Remap" was enabled in BIOS and RamDisk Plus was configured to use this (what they call) "unmanaged memory" of .75GB
  9. After a few hours of usage (GPU folding + 4 x CPU-VM folding using up 100% CPU and RAM) along with usual browsing, downloads and what not, I felt that the system was snappier than usual (due to the heavy amounts of paging typically involved on my rig due to folding). But this could have been my imagination and YMMV :)
 
Latest service pack only displays the right amount of RAM physically installed.... but it doesn't mean that system will fully use that RAM. Earlier it would show how much actual ram was allocated to system to utilize, that is 3.25GB ram... but latest Vista Service pack shows how much RAM is physically installed, and that's about it.
 
no you cannot use full 4 GB. it will show up as 4gb, but it will also tell that only 3.25 GB is available - just now tried on Windows 7 - 32 bit/ So have to download the x64 version
 
Yeah best thing use 64 bit version of Win 7, now that almost all software supporting 64 bit OS now there are no more issues, you can easily use it without getting the feeling of being left out....

I have been using it for lat 5 month and am taking full utility of my 4 GB RAM.... Later!!!!
 
himanshuaieee said:
Yeah best thing use 64 bit version of Win 7, now that almost all software supporting 64 bit OS now there are no more issues, you can easily use it without getting the feeling of being left out....

I have been using it for lat 5 month and am taking full utility of my 4 GB RAM.... Later!!!!
Click to expand...

cooll..how about games - does recent games and old (2005 -2008) playable in win7 flawlessly ?? any performance gain in gaming in compare to winxp 32bit
 
satyanjoy said:
cooll..how about games - does recent games and old (2005 -2008) playable in win7 flawlessly ?? any performance gain in gaming in compare to winxp 32bit
Click to expand...

Nah, Rather a performance Drop! And Games 2005-08 are not as stable on Win7 as on Xp.
 
Try Crysis Warhead on XP and then on Windows 7. Windows 7 is a lot faster in games due to optimization which XP lacks for the newer games. :)

sato1986 said:
Nah, Rather a performance Drop! And Games 2005-08 are not as stable on Win7 as on Xp.
Click to expand...
 
clown_abhi said:
Try Crysis Warhead on XP and then on Windows 7. Windows 7 is a lot faster in games due to optimization which XP lacks for the newer games. :)
Click to expand...

Win7 for Dx10+ gaming and Winxp for Dx9 gaming

btw - does Win 7 32bit/62bit matters in gaming in terms of compitibility and performance ???

which OS are you using for gaming ???
 
I've got a Q. My lappy has no onboard memory whatsoever. if i install a 32bit OS with 4GB RAM, will I get whole 4GB?
 
Mostly, every 32 bit modern OS will use 4 GB fully.

Off course not whole 4GB will be visible to you.

A certain x MB of mem will be reserved by the OS for itself.

It will give rest (4K-x)MB to you for general use.

So correctly speaking you cannot use 4GB no matter how hard you try on a 32bit OS, unless you use something called as PAE, but it is better to move to 64 it os rather in that case.
 
satyanjoy said:
Win7 for Dx10+ gaming and Winxp for Dx9 gaming

btw - does Win 7 32bit/62bit matters in gaming in terms of compitibility and performance ???

which OS are you using for gaming ???
Click to expand...
It is not like that ! win 7 runs some Games like Crysis,Crysis warhead in DX9 mode better then Win Xp.
 
32Bit Cannot utilize complete 4GB and cannot recognize RAM over 4GB. Its a limitation of 32Bit addressing and hence you require a complete 64Bit platform with Hardware and OS.

If you are into gaming upto 4Gb RAM should be sufficient IMHO.
 
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