Win XP and memory question

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pheasant16

Santa was nice and brought me 2 x 2GB extra RAM for newly built (6
months ago) box.

Had 4GB RAM already installed.

Like Ralphie and his Little Orphan Annie secret decoder ring, I
anxiously stuck 'em in, and found it reports only 4GB RAM. Then I
seemed to remember something about a memory limit for XP. (last box I
put together was a Barton cored Athalon XP 2500)

CPUID reports 8GB, so know they are working.

My question is: Do I derive any benefit from them as long as I'm using
XP as my OS?

If not, guess I'll take 'em out next time I've got the box open.

Remember to drink your Ovaltine. LOL

Thanks

Mark
 
Santa was nice and brought me 2 x 2GB extra RAM for newly built (6
months ago) box.

Had 4GB RAM already installed.

Like Ralphie and his Little Orphan Annie secret decoder ring, I
anxiously stuck 'em in, and found it reports only 4GB RAM. Then I seemed
to remember something about a memory limit for XP. (last box I put
together was a Barton cored Athalon XP 2500)

CPUID reports 8GB, so know they are working.

My question is: Do I derive any benefit from them as long as I'm using
XP as my OS?

If not, guess I'll take 'em out next time I've got the box open.

Remember to drink your Ovaltine. LOL

Thanks

Mark
Click to expand...

32 bit OS have the RAM limitation. XP's limitation is 4GB, theoretically
(YMMV). A 64 bit OS can see all your RAM.

No, you don't gain any benefit from the extra RAM the the OS can't see
and can't use. It will just map up to 4GB and use that.
 
pheasant16 said:
Santa was nice and brought me 2 x 2GB extra RAM. Had 4GB RAM already
installed. I anxiously stuck 'em in, and found it reports only 4GB
RAM. Then I seemed to remember something about a memory limit for
XP. CPUID reports 8GB, so know they are working.

My question is: Do I derive any benefit from them as long as I'm using
XP as my OS?
Click to expand...

See the lengthy discussion at:


Your NSP must carry the microsoft.public.windowsxp.general newsgroup
where is a complete copy this thread.

Google Groups copy of thread:

http://tinyurl.com/25qlzkr
 
TVeblen wrote:
[snip]
32 bit OS have the RAM limitation. XP's limitation is 4GB, theoretically
(YMMV). A 64 bit OS can see all your RAM.

No, you don't gain any benefit from the extra RAM the the OS can't see
and can't use. It will just map up to 4GB and use that.
Click to expand...

It's an unreasonable limitation of Windows.

Some (apparently most current) hardware has a mechanism (PAE) that allows a
32-bit OS to address up to 64GB RAM. However, 32-bit Windows won't use that,
probably only because MS wants more money (for a 64-bit version).

BTW, Ubuntu will use PAE.
Click to expand...

There's a performance hit for going into that extra space and driver
complexity--the drivers aren't written for it so all data being passed
from/to drivers must be in the lower 4gb.

XP64 was the solution to this but it never got adequate driver
support.
 
Santa was nice and brought me 2 x 2GB extra RAM for newly built (6
months ago) box.

Had 4GB RAM already installed.

Like Ralphie and his Little Orphan Annie secret decoder ring, I
anxiously stuck 'em in, and found it reports only 4GB RAM. Then I
seemed to remember something about a memory limit for XP. (last box I
put together was a Barton cored Athalon XP 2500)

CPUID reports 8GB, so know they are working.

My question is: Do I derive any benefit from them as long as I'm using
XP as my OS?

If not, guess I'll take 'em out next time I've got the box open.

Remember to drink your Ovaltine. LOL
Click to expand...

No value whatsoever. You need a 64-bit OS to go above 4gb of memory.
 
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