Memory over utilisation point?

[alexbruce]

Hey,

I know that this will have probably been asked a fair bit before, But I wanted to ask indefinatley and ask if there are any other circumstances to consider...

I'm running Vista Ultimate 32bit, with 6gb of memory, 4gb of Patriot extreme + 2gb of OCZ Titanium (from an older build) all DDR2 800, system is running perfect, really can't argue with gaming/photo editing anything I throw at my PC is a joy; However I also have 2 other PC's one a spare modding PC and one a media PC.

The media PC has 2x1gb and is running vista also, the modding PC is running 4x512mb on Windows XP, all DDR2 800

Now I know that Vista only utilises 4gb of memory and XP 3.5gb, So my question in a long winded way is:

Will taking out 2gb of the OCZ ram from my main PC make any difference? Is there anyway that vista/any other applications like photoshop, games ETC be able to use that 2gb of RAM or will it simply have no idea that it's there?

If the answer is that it will make no use whatsoever then I can put the 2gb in my modding PC and run it with 3gb and have it running as good as can be.

Cheers in advnace,

Alex.

 

[Upendra09]

1.No, taking the 2 gigs out will make no difference

2.The apps will not recognize the two extra gigs of RAM since the platform, the OS, doesn't recognize it.

It's like having a big room with one part hidden and telling a guy to use the whole room. And then u have an extendable piece of furniture but it can't be extended because there isn't enough room space since part of the room isn't visible.

3. Yes, u can put the xtra 2 gigs in ur other pc.

hope the analogy worked

 

[Outlander_04]

No 32 bit OS uses more than about 3.3 gig of RAM , and that includes the RAM on your gfx card . makes no difference if its XP or Vista

Read this
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/memory-module-upgrade,2264.html

no statistically significant improvement of any kind by using more than 3 gig in games or apps even when using Vista 64 bit .

Big sad "ooops" to all the powerheads wasting money on RAM their computers will never use

 

[alexbruce]

It's like having a big room with one part hidden and telling a guy to use the whole room. And then u have an extendable piece of furniture but it can't be extended because there isn't enough room space since part of the room isn't visible.

Best Ever Comparison... Sheer Genius :-D

Thanks both, confirmed what I thought.

 

[mikrev007]

It depends on what software you are using. A 32bit OS in general is in no way limited to 4GB. This is just a software-limitation that Microsoft has put into xp and vista.

For instance, some ram drive products allows you to create the ram drive out of ram located above 4GB.

 

[505090]

It depends on what software you are using. A 32bit OS in general is in no way limited to 4GB. This is just a software-limitation that Microsoft has put into xp and vista.

For instance, some ram drive products allows you to create the ram drive out of ram located above 4GB.

Actually all 32 bit systems are limited its a matter of address space there is 4 gig of space that goes first to devices (video pci sound...) then what left goes to mem, my computer show 3.5gig of mem.

Think of it this way if you have two spaces on a piece of paper the highest number you can write is 99 if there were 3 spaces you could go as high as 999. the diffrence between 32 and 64 bit OS's is the length of the command lines are 32 and 64 bits long respectively. The highest address "number" you can write in a 32 bit space is 4gig the highest address you can write in 64bit is 128gig.

Ram drive products are accessed as harddrives circumnavigating the address problem but droping speed exponentially, they are an entirety separate matter.

 

[mikrev007]

Intel invented PAE many years ago to break with that barrier.

The type of ram drive I talk about are those made out of RAM and are not addressed as a harddrive (you still go through the CPU).

 

[505090]

I hadn't seen PAE before but after a few articles it seems m$ fixed the problem since xp sp2 but applications and drivers have never been set to take advantage of the fix hardly m$'s fault

what ram drive are you referring to exactly

 

[mikrev007]

There is this one http://www.superspeed.com/servers/ramdisk.php

 

[Dekasav]

Seems to be addressed (though we may be thinking of different definitions of "address) as a hard drive to me. Yes, it's going through the CPU, and it's in normal memory location, but it's not being used as memory, it's being used as hard drive.

 

[505090]

ah i see what you mean now, i thought you were referring to a hardware solution not a software one, my mistake.

Well once again it seems m$ has created yet another solution to allow it's customer to access more ram without switching to 64bit.

I don't think I've used a ram drive since dos was running win 3.x. At that time the only use was to work on computers without having to install harddrives and outside of server applications that is still the only use i see today.

It is accessed as memory in the physical perspective it is controlled by the memory controller and routed through the north bridge just as memory is. Then the software emulates it as a harddrive. There will be a drop in performance by moving it form the bios level all the way up to a application level but no where near the loses in a hardware solution.