4gig memory limit on Vista?

Hey everyone!!

I have a question about RAM. I'm getting a laptop that only has 1 gig and I really feel like it deserves more from what I'm reading on the forum. Then I somehow found out that there was a 4 gig limit on ram in vista?

Anyway, I read on this website..
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

That you can add 4 gig but it'll show less in the system settings? Like it's being used for the OS or video memory or other things. But is the full 4 gigs actually being used? Or is there like empty space? I was thinking about buying 2 2gb sticks..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211187

For use on the lap I bought that has this:
1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory

Do these match? I think they do. But I just want to buy the right amount and not get ripped off at all. Even if it says only 3.4gb or whatever, as long as the other 600 mb is there being used by something, it should be good?

Everything is a little confusing with laptops. lol

 

It depends on your processor. Do you have a 32 bit or 64? 32 bit' will read as 3gb ram even if you have 4, 64 can take 4 gb ram.

 

According to Microsoft..

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_vista

This is why everything is so confusing.. and I'm pretty sure it's 32 bit. The website doesn't even say if it's 64 bit or 32 bit so i'm assuming it is 32.

 

This is not isolated to notebooks. it is because of the OS it affects desktops, it affects all 32bit OS it is not a Windows limitation. You really should spend time reading the sticky's. You might gain much Knowledge. Now with that said I will explain. A 32bit OS can only address 2^32 which is 4GB. That is the real and theoretical limit. What happens is hardware might require some of those memory addresses. If they use, RAM cannot. That is why Windows at best might get 3.25GB. The extra RAM is not used. It is not like the hardware goes through the RAM, not how it works. With the correct chipset and a 64bit OS 4GB can be addressed and in fact much more. In theory 2^64 which is 16.8 million terabytes but no OS supports. So the long and the short is with a 32bit OS you can not make use of 4GB RAM and no your hardware will not make use of it. Many people buy 3GB because of it. If you have Intel I think that is a good idea.

 

What is your OS? That is all that matters (CPU has nothing to do with it if it is a 64). And yes if you do not know, 32bit, trust me. So as said above.

 

nice explanation +1

 

Yup, what powerpack said (nice and short explanation btw)
This is an issue for *every* 32-bit OS. There's no way around it, whether you run Windows, Linux, Mac OS or anything else. It's just how the hardware works.

There are a few tricks you can enable to use more than 4GB memory on a 32-bit system, but compatibility suffers, especially under Windows, and you lose a bit of performance too.

 

I have 4GB but i only shows as 3070mb in Vista Ultimate 32bit

I have tried the trick`s to get the full 4gb, but it seriously slows Vista down.

regards

John.

 

Great thanks for all the info everyone. Yeah, I have Windows Vista. I'm going to just buy 3 gb's for it. =)

 

There's also this Microsoft entry.

 

yeah.. tossin that spyware can help wit the ram usage

 

Just to be clear, "usage" not "detected". You do need more RAM I am all for getting 4GB if you want 3GB is also fine more than you have is better.

Just a heads up so you don't get confused by bad info later. Vista sp1 is going to "fix" the 4GB problem, not! Presently the OS XP/Vista report what they see/can use. SP1 will know report what you have installed, make no mistake it will make use of no more than it did before but hey must think it will cut down on the call volume at MS on this issue. I guess they have given up trying to explain so now they guess, "lets trick them".