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Thread: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

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    32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Hi all,

    S have recently shived another 2gb ram into my C2D rig, bringing it up to 4gb. Of course, I can only actually use 3gb of that ram due to 32 bit limitations. However, if I create a Ramdisk of 1gb will it use the spare 1gb that Vista/Windows 7 can't use, or will it take the ram from the 3gb thats available?

    Thanks for any assistance.

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    HEXUS webmaster Steve's Avatar
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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    You can't create a RAMdisk out of RAM that you can't address, so the RAMdisk will be made out of part of the addressable RAM.

    Or more simply... nope, won't work; it'll eat into your 3GB
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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk



    Guess I will try the 64-bit version of Windows 7 when the RC1 comes out next month. Cheers for the reply.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Best you could hope for is some kinda of virtualisation host, that was 64bit, hosted a RAM drive, and let you install a 32bit OS.

    Either that or you can stop living in the past, and move on to the better 64bit?
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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Skinleech View Post
    Hi all,

    S have recently shived another 2gb ram into my C2D rig, bringing it up to 4gb. Of course, I can only actually use 3gb of that ram due to 32 bit limitations. However, if I create a Ramdisk of 1gb will it use the spare 1gb that Vista/Windows 7 can't use, or will it take the ram from the 3gb thats available?

    Thanks for any assistance.
    Get yourself a copy of Vista x64. If it's OEM - hassle your OEM provider. If it's Retail, you can buy the Vista x64 media for like £4 from Microsoft.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Singh400 View Post
    Get yourself a copy of Vista x64. If it's OEM - hassle your OEM provider. If it's Retail, you can buy the Vista x64 media for like £4 from Microsoft.
    You just need to fill in the details at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvist...a/default.mspx The site will ask for your Windows product key to verify if your version can be regraded to 64-bit.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Cheers guys, appreciate the input.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Ok, so have not done much with this yet as have had no time. However, I have found out that whilsst my mobo supports 4gb ram, is can basically only assign 3.2gb at all times due to a chipset limitation - and yep, the post screen shows 3200mb.

    So, in this case, if I am mainly running 32 bit software, and 32bit Windows recognises and utilises all available ram, is there any real point in switching to a 64 bit OS?

    Thanks for your input...

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve View Post
    You can't create a RAMdisk out of RAM that you can't address, so the RAMdisk will be made out of part of the addressable RAM.
    Surely the solution is to arrange the RAM in a disk-like way, and only provide addresses to 4k sized blocks? Then you wouldn't need all that much address space...

    Regardless, I'm sure it's not worth the bother.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Skinleech View Post
    Ok, so have not done much with this yet as have had no time. However, I have found out that whilsst my mobo supports 4gb ram, is can basically only assign 3.2gb at all times due to a chipset limitation - and yep, the post screen shows 3200mb.

    So, in this case, if I am mainly running 32 bit software, and 32bit Windows recognises and utilises all available ram, is there any real point in switching to a 64 bit OS?

    Thanks for your input...
    Some BIOSes require setting "Memory Remap" or some such Option to "Enabled" for it to detect all 4Gb. Check your motherboard manual for more details.
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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Back in the days of Windows NT4 (Circa 1999) there was an extension that made it possible to boot on a system with more than 4Gb of Ram and having all that ram available to windows. Of course in those days only insanely expensive servers had that much ram, but the chances are that the same specal options are available in Windows XP, you just need to figure out what they are.

    You still can't allocate more than 2Gb to any one program, but the system as a whole can use the full amount of ram.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    Some BIOSes require setting "Memory Remap" or some such Option to "Enabled" for it to detect all 4Gb. Check your motherboard manual for more details.
    Thanks, but it's not there - it's a hardware limitation for sure.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Skinleech View Post
    Thanks, but it's not there - it's a hardware limitation for sure.
    Well actually it's a software (32-bit OS) limitation. Your Core2 is capable of addressing much more RAM than just 4GB, it probably has 36-bit addresses available, or something.

    Just remove your graphics card, and you'll soon get your RAM back

    2^32bits = 4,294,967,296 bytes = 4 Gb of available address space. Your GPU and other addressable items are subtracting from the top of this value. Simple as that.
    Last edited by Fraz; 28-04-2009 at 03:22 PM.

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Fraz View Post
    Well actually it's a software (32-bit OS) limitation. Your Core2 is capable of addressing much more RAM than just 4GB, it probably has 36-bit addresses available, or something.

    Just remove your graphics card, and you'll soon get your RAM back

    2^32bits = 4,294,967,296 bytes = 4 Gb of available address space. Your GPU and other addressable items are subtracting from the top of this value. Simple as that.
    Maybe so. The Asrock site says the following though:

    - Supports DDRII 667/533 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
    - Max. capacity of system memory: 4GB*

    *Due to the chipset limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® XP, Windows® XP 64-bit, Windows® Vista™ and Windows® Vista™ 64-bit.

    http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.as...Fire-eSATA2&s=

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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Yeah, Intel's site says the 945G chipset is only capable of addressing 4Gb...

    I guess you'll need a new mobo if you want to make full use of it.
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    Re: 32bit OS 4gb RAM limit & Ram disk

    Quote Originally Posted by Salazaar View Post
    Yeah, Intel's site says the 945G chipset is only capable of addressing 4Gb...

    I guess you'll need a new mobo if you want to make full use of it.
    And a 64-bit OS...

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