XP 32 bit RAM Limitation

[xb2003]

I'm struggling to find details on how the XP RAM limitation works regarding VRAM vs system memory when you have more than 3.5GB combined memory. Supposedly it allocates VRAM first and the remaining of the 3.5GB limit goes to system memory.. So if I have a GPU with 4GB of VRAM in my computer does that mean XP gets no system memory (that was retorical, I had XP on a 3470/8GB/GTX970 system for a while and it worked fine)?

Can anyone explain to me how this works? Thanks!

 

[Barty1884]

The limitation is system memory/onboard graphics only.

4GB system memory, would be 'split' between system resources and onboard graphics (if applicable).

As part of the discreet GPU, VRAM has no such limitation.

 

[xb2003]

That makes sense. I think I read awhile back that dGPU vram counted in the 32 bit limitations and just assumed it was true.. Obviously that was a mistake. Thank you!