Member Avatar for chopficaro

hi everyone
im building a new 32 bit dual moniter 8800gt e3110 gaming pc and i think i want to install 4gb of ram. however, i have read about some problems with 4gb ram. i understand that the physical memory is shared between device drivers and applications, so i figure the more memory i have, the more will be available for both. however, i have read some things that state to the contrary, that having 2gb ram is good for 32bit systmes, and having 4gb is bad for 32bit systmes, and it has something to do with the memory of the drivers. this doesnt make sense to me. could anyone help me understand?

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Dani AI

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Brief addendum for (and thanks to for the initial pointer): a few practical points and options that weren't covered yet.

How the remaining memory is actually used

  • On 32‑bit x86 systems the CPU, OS and chipset together divide up the 32‑bit physical address space. Part of that space is taken by device memory maps (video card framebuffers, PCI devices) and so is unavailable to general RAM. That reservation happens in hardware/chipset land, not because Windows "eats" RAM by itself. There are two common ways people deal with the limits: run a 64‑bit OS so the full physical range can be used, or accept that some of 4GB will be reported as hardware‑reserved on a 32‑bit install.

Recommendations for your 8800GT gaming box

  • If you want the best chance to use all 4GB, install a 64‑bit OS (XP x64 or a 64‑bit Vista/Windows 7) and confirm 64‑bit drivers exist for the 8800GT and other devices.
  • If you will stay on 32‑bit XP, buy 2x2GB matched sticks (dual‑channel) for best performance. Installing 4GB on x86 is harmless — you simply may not see the full amount available to applications.
  • Avoid the /3GB boot tweak unless a specific game or app needs a 3GB user address space; it reduces kernel space and can break some drivers.
  • Check the motherboard manual and BIOS for a "memory remap" option (useful only when you later run a 64‑bit OS) and keep chipset/GPU drivers up to date.

If driver compatibility or the idea of DRM features in Vista is the reason you reject newer OS versions, note that DRM components do not prevent ordinary games from running; the real constraint for full RAM use is 32‑ vs 64‑bit addressing and driver support.

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Member Avatar for Serunson

32-bit Operating systems can only cope with at best 3Gb of RAM. 64-bit OS's are the only ones capable of using all 4Gb of RAM. Having 4Gb in a system running 32-bit is not 'bad', it's just that most of the RAM won't be able to be used, depending on your system, anywhere between 2.5Gb and 3.5Gb will be shown. What Operating system do you run, XP or Vista?

Member Avatar for chopficaro

i heard vista has anti protected content / anti hacked games / anti bootleg dvd software on it. so i will never get vista. xp is the best!

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