Maximum amount of Ram for Win Xp

Alan

Alan

New member
What is the maximum amount of ram Win Xp 32bit can handle for gaming? IIRC it 4GBs including Video Ram.

Posted this on MYBB and got varying answers
 
32bit will only see and "use" 3.2 -3.4GB's of System Memory.

As far as I know Video memory is all card / Game Dependant. So if you have a card with 2GB of memory and there is a game that can utilize it, it will irrespective of O.S.
 
It supports up to 4 Gb of RAM (and this is the limit for 32-bit operating system). If you put in 4 Gb though windows will only recognize aprox 3.5 Gb, because thats how windows XP was designed (all that is above 3 Gb is used for PCI I/O and other system resources.) (same applies to Vista too).
 
Alan said:
What is the maximum amount of ram Win Xp 32bit can handle for gaming? IIRC it 4GBs including Video Ram.

Posted this on MYBB and got varying answers
Click to expand...

it also depends if ur using onboard vga and allocation a portion of system ram ie 256 or 512 towards that.
 
In Windows XP if you install 4GB of ram it effectively show that you only have 3.5GB, the rest is unsued.

In Windows Vista if you install 4GB of it shows 4GB but that is the max effective ram that the operating system can handle

This is for 32bit systems
 
Yea it would be to 3Gb i suppose :)

4GB for any 32-bit OS. Only get +-3.5GB recognised
Onboard gfx would obviously take more away from what is recognised in XP.

64-bit OS is for anything over 4GB
 
So for example 64-bit XP would hypothetically take up to 40GB of ram?

Why did they not just build windows with an unlimited capacity for RAM?
 
Yeah i can understand that, but are they just so stupid that they didn't think: "hmmm, maybe this operating system will be stable enough that people will still be using it in the next decade?".

I mean really...?!!?
 
DuncanBell said:
So for example 64-bit XP would hypothetically take up to 40GB of ram?

Why did they not just build windows with an unlimited capacity for RAM?
Click to expand...

That is the ultemite capacity for ram that can be handel in 32bit. its to do with address space.

wonders why windows 7 has a 32bit version
 
Yes, as stated earlier, any 32 bit system will not recognize more than 3GB of RAM. Very unfortunate, but 64bit systems are becoming more popular and supported.
 
Its currently impossible to create an operating system that supports unlimited RAM.

It has to do with maximum integer size recognized by 32bit systems vs 64bit systems. In simple terms, in a 32 bit system, the largest number that is recognized and can be used by software is 4,294,967,295. In a 64bit system, that is drastically increased to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615, which should be enough for RAM upgrades for the next few weeks.

Basically, 32bit systems ARE going to fall by the wayside, much like 16bit did before that. 64bit is eventually going to be the standard and 32bit systems will cease to exist.
 
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