3GB and XP Pro (32 bit).

[sprucebr1]

I did look through the category before comming to this. I am sorry If I didn't look hard enough, cause its probly already been asked. I want to know if I would be able to use 3GB or Ram in XP pro? I found a great price on a 1GB stick of OCZ RAM that I thought I could use. I read an article on Microsoft about this and XP Pro can use 4GB of RAM. Also it talked about using the /3GB switch in the boot.ini file. If I could get confirmation on this it would be appreciated. 3GB RAM in XP pro with /3GB switch is that gonna work? Thanks.

 

[GSTe]

3GB will work in XP Pro.

 

[thuan]

The 3GB switch will only works with certain compatible softwares (like Oracle DBMS) and this is meant for the virtual addressing space, has nothing to do with your real RAM size. Shouldn't be used normally as you may run into problems with normal software.

32bit XP pro can recognized RAM up to 4GB but the final result will be less as the other HWs taking up the addressing space. I think with 3GB you won't lose any or very little so don't worry.

 

[GSTe]

The average I have seen on various systems is 3.2GB, it is dependent on your hardware apparently, but I know a few people who have 3.2, so you should be fine.

 

[TeraMedia]

If you have two sticks now, and add one single stick, then that single stick will not be in dual-channel mode. For that matter, you might lose dual-channel mode on your current two sticks. Given your system specs, you might experience performance degradation from the addition, instead of improvement.

You might be better off getting 2 x 512 MB sticks, or if you don't mind the extra change and the fact that you won't be able to see all of it, get 2 sticks of 2 GB instead of one.

 

[burn-e86]

duel channel increases performance by 3~5%. The 1 Gb extra will increase performance a tad more. Though that of course depends on what apps your gonna be running

 

[sprucebr1]

Thanks for all of your input. Maybe its not quite the best idea if I'm gonna loose the dual channel performance. Anyway Its good to know that 3GB will work. I still can't believe how cheap DDR2 is! Thanks again.