RAM limit?

  • Thread starter Thread starter kilroy
  • Start date Start date
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kilroy

I am running XP PRO. I have to buy a new MOBO with new RAM, but want
to use same hard drive with all apps/data on it. I read of RAM limits
with some OS's. In fact it appears that I should not get over 3GB RAM
as this is all that this OS sees. Is that so?

To facilitate using 4GB RAM on a new MOBO, must I upgrade to another
OS version? Vista? 64-bit XP?
 
In message <[email protected]>
I am running XP PRO. I have to buy a new MOBO with new RAM, but want
to use same hard drive with all apps/data on it. I read of RAM limits
with some OS's. In fact it appears that I should not get over 3GB RAM
as this is all that this OS sees. Is that so?
Click to expand...

Yup, that's about the size of it. The reason is due to some
implementation choices made many moons ago, in short, a 32-bit x86 OS
can only access up to 4GB of address space, and with various hardware
needing chunks of that address space to itself, you're left with around
3.2GB or so available to physical memory.
To facilitate using 4GB RAM on a new MOBO, must I upgrade to another
OS version? Vista? 64-bit XP?
Click to expand...

To access more then 4GB of address space, you'll need to use a 64-bit
version of Windows, which requires 64-bit capable hardware and drivers.

There is no supported upgrade path for upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit,
the only supported path is to reinstall the OS from scratch.
 
I am running XP PRO. I have to buy a new MOBO with new RAM, but want
to use same hard drive with all apps/data on it. I read of RAM limits
with some OS's. In fact it appears that I should not get over 3GB RAM
as this is all that this OS sees. Is that so?

To facilitate using 4GB RAM on a new MOBO, must I upgrade to another
OS version? Vista? 64-bit XP?
Click to expand...

You can still install 4GB of RAM, you'll just only use 3.25GB or so of it.
RAM is so cheap nowadays you just don't worry about the little chunk you're
not using.

If/when you decide you need the full 4GB, then you can switch over to an OS
that can access the whole thing.

Jon
 
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