Hiya,
have just been on the phone to my local dealer here in Spain to order memory. My OS is Vista 32.
He said that 4 gigs of ram could be problematic as Vista will only use 3.5 gigs and that 2 gigs would be better.
Is this a load of bull ?
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Hiya,
have just been on the phone to my local dealer here in Spain to order memory. My OS is Vista 32.
He said that 4 gigs of ram could be problematic as Vista will only use 3.5 gigs and that 2 gigs would be better.
Is this a load of bull ?
I think it's more a case that it's possibly a waste of money, as there isn't a lot of performance boost in most applications above 2GB in Vista32.
No 32-bit system, including Windows XP and Vista, can provide addressing for more than 4GB of memory. But, remember that many other devices on your system has its own on-board memory. All these thing get first rights to the available addressing, leaving about 3.5GB left for your memory. The exact amount varies depending on your system.
Note that your system will run completely stable with 4GB of memory, it's simply that some of it won't be used.
A 64-bit OS can handle much more than 4GB of RAM.
If you're a gamer you will have somewhat less available than 3.5Gb, because the biggest user of memory addresses is your GFX card - so that's half a gig gone, or worse if you insist on SLI.
Also no one program can get more than 2Gb RAM. This is probably less of a problem except in special cases, but some games are already pushing in that direction. I've seen The Witcher using 1.4Gb on my PC.
This is why most of us would recommend going 64bit if you use Vista (which nabs a fair bit of memory itself).
Bottom line: Your dealer is either treating you like an idiot or is scaremongering based on half the story.
4GB of RAM will not be problematic but as others have said, you will not get the use of all 4GB.
As he is doing himself out of money, I think it more likely that he is an idiot... :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
Thanks for the replies.
I suspected that he didn't know what he was talking about. Will go for the 4 gigs and upgrade to vista 64 as soon as I can afford it.
Cheers.
Exactily. His kind of logic is that since you cannot use all of your 4GB, you should instead have appx 1.5GB less addressable memory than you would otherwise have by buying just 2GB.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thorsson
Its like saying that since 2 parents only have 1 child, they should just buy a 2 seater car rather than a 4/5 seater.
Might as well go for 4gb just for the reason that they're all but giving it away and the chances are you can use it in another build for someone when you next upgrade.