Vista 32bit, 64bit, and RAM

Hello apparently 32bit Vista only recognizes 4GB RAM as 3.6GB.......I was wondering what 64bit Vista sees it as and how much difference it actually makes . Thanks.

 

64 bit can recognize all 4gb and use it. i didnt kno 32 bit can use 3.6? i thought it was only 3.24 or so...
it makes somewhat of a diff if u use all of it

 

Vista SP1 32bit will recognize all 4GB, and will display that 4GB is installed, but can only address ~3.2GB,

as for the difference, it all depends what you are doing with it.

edit: ...iespell sucks... It erased all my numbers...

 

I got the 3.6GB info from a Dell support tech that I talked to, since Dell offers 4GB RAM but only 32bit Vista. So is it basically the same with XP? 32bit can only use 3GB?

 

yea around 3.2gb

 

For XP it could vary between 3.2 and 3.6, but for Vista they locked it to 3.2. It's a limitation of all 32-bit systems, and there will never be a patch or any way around it.

64-bit will see all 4GB.

 

I use 8 GB with Vista HP x64 and it works fine. If you are just using 4 GB I'd stick with x86. It does suck you lose a few hundred MB, but x64 is probably best for more than 4 GB. Plus I don't know of many manufacturers using x64 yet.

 

x64 works just fine except in some specific cases. There's really no reason to stay away from it. 800MB is a pretty big chunk of that expensive RAM to not be able to access.

 

Only Dell (and so alienware) doesn't ship X64 when you configure with 4GB of RAM yet.

 

Couldn't agree with you more!

I've been converting everyone I can to x64 no matter what their RAM size simply because the drawbacks are nilch from what I've seen personally.

The biggest potential issue is with codecs and IE plugins, but since they default to 32bit anyways the average user won't notice a problem at all.

On my two computers with 4GB and 8GB of RAM respectively it would be mentally insane to not use x64, but my serious question to people is "why not?". Unless you can't find the drivers do it already!

 

check out my specs .. when i ordered my laptop in July from B&H Photo Video Inc. last year in the specifications section they said that the ram capacity is 2GB. i was wondering is there any way i can at least increase to 3GB? Is that possible? And what about DDR3? Can vista 32bit systems support them?

 

yes you can increase it, just open it up and swap one of the 1gb sticks out for a 2gb stick, or if you want 4gb, switch both modules.

 

They misquoted you the specs. Previous HP models (anything less than 6500) did not fully support 4GB of RAM (only about 3.5 or so). HP had been saying "2GB" for a long time, mostly due to BIOS issues. Since your model number is higher than 6500, you have the "Santa Rosa" chipset which supports at least 4GB of RAM, so you should have no problem upgrading.

No, it does not work with DDR3. The fastest RAM you can use is PC2-5300/PC2-5400 (for laptops). The fastest it will go is 667MHz.

 

KOOL thanks for the info

 

I personally love 64-bit now, especially due to the RAM issue. I have a T61p and with the 4GB of RAM, I have been able to disable my page file with no reprecussions, even when doing some heavy gaming (FSX and CoD4 both on high). I would highly recommend 64-bit now; it even runs faster in some instances for me.

Cheers.