Can Windows Support 4 gigs of Ram ?

[MACHINE]

I don't remember quite when it was but I remember I was reading this post about how Windows can't support more then 2 gigs of ram I wanna use 4 gigs of DDR 1 ram with Windows XP can it handle it ?

[LewisWu]

I have 3 gigs of PC3200 in a dual channel configuration running Xpsp2 no problems at all...so I would think that it could support four...

[theblue1]

XP is limited to addressing 4 GB of physical memory by spec. I don't know if there are practical considerations.

Win 64 has a current limit of 128 GB -- but a 64-bit computer can address about 18 billion GB (18 exabytes) in theory, so the 64 bit gen of OS's should set us up on memory addresses for a while...

[manning1]

just a likkle sumfin to be aware of...lol...
one reason i'm not a fan of huge gigabyte monster storage hard drives is that
there are certain win overheads i understand as one fills up such a monster drive.
a laymans analogy might be to think of a telephone directory....
eg...its faster to search through a directory index via letting your fingers do the walking the smaller the index is. as the index grows so does the search overhead.
now apply the same conceptual thinking to memory....
i suspect thus that in large memory models we will see certain overheads creeping in. think about it logically. everything in a computer architecture
has to have an address...much like a telephone book.....
in summary....to qoute one of my old physics/engineering profs...
you push in a balloon to solve a leak problem in one area...and poof !!...
a different leak problem occurs in another area of the balloon...
thus no free lunch. i'll be mighty curious to see how 128 gb or even larger memory arrays are managed efficiently by any OS....
without certain overhead issues arising....

[abit]

Originally Posted by MACHINE

I was reading this post about how Windows can't support more then 2 gigs of ram I wanna use 4 gigs of DDR

Forget it.
2X1gig
2x512
Total 3gb here.

Some pips with newer mobos claim they can.
I would not bother.
64 sys will.


Meanwhile, some known plugs with big libs work DFD now -Direct From Disk.
So RAM doesn't get filled as much as before.

[Psyko/Acoustics]

I have a friend using a dual core AMD Windows XP machine with 4GB of RAM and he's lovin' it, so it's not without precedent.



However, his software is FruityLoops...


Oops, I should be less judgemental.

[Blenn]

I have a dual opteron 270 mchine with 4 gig of ram on windows XP pro - but windows can only see 2.5 gig. As far as I am aware Windoes 32 bit can do up to a max of 3 gig no matter how much you have installed.

Paul

[Naren]

Originally Posted by Blenn

I have a dual opteron 270 mchine with 4 gig of ram on windows XP pro - but windows can only see 2.5 gig. As far as I am aware Windoes 32 bit can do up to a max of 3 gig no matter how much you have installed.

Paul

I was told by a local computer assembler that Windows XP can only recognize 2.7 gigs which is close to Paul's quote above of 2.5 - 3 gigs. People are certainly free to install 4 gigs (which will go somewhat unused), however I would take into account Manning's warning in this thread.

I recently ended up buying a turnkey system from a certain audio computer company. Perhaps Scott of ADK would care to chime in here? ;-)

-Naren

[theblue1]

I got my info (4 GB, XP) from MS's site.

Of course, THAT doesn't make it correct...





But, seriously, XP is widely cited as supporting 4 GB. What you're probably thinking of was mobo support for 'large' amounts of RAM, which (typically) lagged the specified limits of the OS. (This is cyclic, of course.)

Here's a bit from http://www.wizcrafts.net/ram.html

The current crop of motherboards, which are built to support Windows XP, often contain chipset support for up to 4 Gb of DDR RAM. Both Windows 2000 and XP, which are 32 bit operating systems, can support 4 Gb of RAM, maximum.

With regard to "too much RAM"...

There are so often unintended consequences. I'm not deep enough to give a good answer, here. I'm not aware of any "slowdown" caused directly by having more RAM, but anything's possible.

And more RAM means more power consumption, among other things. I DEFINITELY noticed an increase in fan activity and a slight dip in charge life on my laptop when I went from 2 256's to a 256 and a 1 GB.

[aussie_techie]

4GB will be recognised but in practice only about 2.7GB will properly. however that said on some system you may actually be better to get 4 GB so you can have a single matched pair or 4 1GB modules all the same.

ability to run it aside why do you even need 4GB? honestly you will be surprised with with how much can you do with 1GB, most people just seem to want it because they can with out a real need. you will get more mileage out of setting you page file correctly and tuning memory usage than you will out of adding huge amounts of physical memory.

to much RAM isnt usualy a problem, as everything is addressed and programs hold the logical address there isnt a huge amount of searching. however you do start to increase memory fragmentation and slack space as programs arquire and release memory and this can slow performance.
the more modules the more power is used its been an issue on my laptop but it not usualy an issue with desktops as long as you have adequate cooling.

[jcschild]

HI,

windows can address 3.8Ghowever there are numerous issues that can cause it not to use it.

1) Mobo bios' varies from board to board as to how it alots memory.
EG: tyan 2885/95 will take 256 meg per PCI/PCIe card including the Video.

2) most if not all audio programs cant see past 2G (most are like 1-1.8)

3) there are a number of tweaks to help with this EG: the 3G switch. all tweaks are hit and miss depending upon the software.

4) even if the program cant access all ram, having 4gig in there has shown to help stability overall when running numerous programs with a heavy load.

5) programs can use some where another may use a different alocation of ram.

6) my answer 4 is better than 2 if and only if your a upper medium to heavy hitter.
lets not forget that 64 bit OS will be prime time within a yr or so....

Scott
ADK

FYI i tried posting this yesterday only to have it disappear on me and the forum too

[apefist]

Damn! I wonder if that's how I ****ed up my workstation. I installed 4GB of RAM and now I get no audio or video when it boots. I went back down to 3 GB but I can't reverse the damage.

[aussie_techie]

as long as your board can take it wont cause hardware damage. it is possible that one of the new modules is bad, try booting with just your original memory modules installed. if it still doesn’t work its likely a serious hardware problem.

[T.RayBullard]

I am running 4gigs on my AMD 64 3500 with no problems.

one of the things you have to do is go to "run", type MSCONFIG,

then under the "BOOT INI" header, click advanced and UNCHECK the "MAXMEM" box.

[George Necola]

thats the tweak.. right..

4 gigs no problem depending on the motherboard

[allencollins]

Windows doesn't support 4 like it claims. I think the actual available address space of the heap is under 3 gig. I believe that the stack or static variables do not utilize this same address space. So in reality it is more than three gig. But dynamic memory will only use under 3 gig in XP

But having huge amounts of memory can be a good thing for a DAW.
Just like Hard drives memory get fragmented.
DAW plugins can use large amounts of memory especially the poorly written ones.
Having large amounts of ram can help reduce memory fragmentation issues. Even though the average person using a DAW will never actually use even close to 4 gigs of ram, having it allows programs/plugins that use the heap to consistently find unfragmented space.

This in turn will help keep your machine running faster. It will also reduce the need for the OS to use VM which can really slow things down
Unless your doing lots of samples and 100's of tracks 4 gig is really overkill

[theother]

Originally Posted by George Necola

thats the tweak.. right..

4 gigs no problem depending on the motherboard

Yes, true. But at the same time useless!

ie. Nuendo can only use 1.7GB RAM and so can any application. That's a Win XP 32 limitation.

You won't benefit from more than 3GB RAM.

I have 4GB fitted but it never gets used.

I have many many VST modules that beg for more RAM, but until we see drivers from RME, UAD-1, etc for 64-bit OS's like Win XP 64 or Vista we are out of luck!

My mobo could take 16-32GB easily, but what to do if you can't get drivers for most thing you need.