R1 Win 7 32bit help!

I have R1 with QX9300, 280m SLI and 4gb 1333 mhz ram. I really dont like 64 bit that much so I installed 32 bit but when I check the memory amouny, only 1.7 gb is allocated so I am getting a bad performance compared to 64 bit.
Any tips or tweaks?

Thanks

 

You can try to disable hybrid gfx in your bios that should kick up your memory to about 3gigs

 

32 Bit will only recognize 3 gig ram where 64 bit in the m17x is 8 gig. Also Win 7 in 64 bit is more stable than 32 bit hope that helps.

 

You mean disable the integrated gpu and run only dedicated one??

 

Yes only run the dedicated gfx that should get you back to 3gig

 

32 bit operating systems don't have the ability to address that much space with the video cards being included. The whole reason for 64 bit was to allow for more addresses which allows not only more ram but more memory for everything else as well, since every bit/block requires a hardware address . At least that's how I understand it.

 

alienwolf is right!

 

Probably more like 2GB since he has two video cards. Each of his video cards has 1GB of memory on board. A 32 bit OS can only handle up to 4GB of memory total, which includes the memory on various devices.

4GB - 1GB (GTX 280) - 1GB (GTX 280) - 9400M (256MB) =~1.792GB


So if you have more than 4GB of total memory in the system use a 64 bit operating system. 32 bit operating systems simply can't handle as much memory.

"I don't like 64 bit much" isn't a valid reason to go for a 32 bit operating system. In fact, it's just stupid. I really don't get why so many people appear to be so frightened about 64 bit operating systems. Probably some bad propaganda/superstition from back in the day.
A reason to go for a 32 bit operating system would be if you need to use some vital specialized software that requires a 32 bit operating system. In that case you can a virtual machine to run a 32 bit operating system inside your 64 bit operating system.

 

I just wanted to go to 32 bit coz I am having some issues with the software which cannot run on 64 bit. Its some software from my university. So, I was thinking to downgrade. Even if I go with 1.792 gb of RAM, will that affect my gaming that much since having 2 gb of video memory? Also, anyway to keept Win 7 32 as well as 64 bit in a same partition?

 

You can either create two partitions and dual boot the x64 and x86 versions or try Windows Virtual PC (or any other virtualization software if you have access to it) to run a 32 bit version of Windows within the 64 bit version.

Which software are you trying to run that requires a 32 bit OS, anyway?

And yes, having only 1.7GB of RAM at your disposal will greatly reduce your system's performance, in games and otherwise.

 

I agree the duel boot is a great way to go for you. You have 2 drives put an OS on each and keep every thing separate.

 

Can a XPS M1730 hdd be used in M17x?

 

yes it should work.

 

ummm...are the hdd same or different of m17x than that of m1730?

 

They both use 9.5 mm Sata Drives

Sata drives are the defacto standard in laptops these days

 

I would recommend using a virtual machine over dual-booting. The biggest problem with a dual-boot is that unless you install an app on both copies of the OS, it usually won't run. This means that you have to install all of your main apps twice in order to make sure they're always accessible.

You can use free software like VMWare Server to create the virtual machine. The process is fairly painless, and you can easily drag and drop files between the guest OS and your main OS.

If you really want to dual boot, Windows 7 has the ability to boot from a virtual disk image (the same kind used by Microsoft Virtual PC). It's a little tricky to set up, but you only have a single file sitting on your hard disk rather than multiple sets of duplicate folders. This makes it easier to clean up when you no longer need the 32-bit OS.