3GB switch in Windows XP Pro

[deebs]

Hello

I've just upgraded from 1 Gig RAM to 3 Gig. It is (I understand) the
maximum this MSI mainboard will accommodate.

The board runs 4 SATA by 250 GB disks with a 4000+ AMD thingy

Are there advantages in toggling the 3G switch? Or is it best left to
Windows to manage as it presently does.

Thank you very much to all considering a reply

 

[Wesley Vogel]

/3GB
[[This switch forces x86-based systems to allocate 3 GB of virtual address
space to programs and 1 GB to the kernel and to executive components. A
program must be designed to take advantage of the additional memory address
space. With this switch, user mode programs can access 3 GB of memory
instead of the usual 2 GB that Windows allocates to user mode programs. The
switch moves the starting point of kernel memory to 3 GB. Some
configurations of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 may require this switch. ]]
Available switch options for the Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003
Boot.ini files
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;833721

/3GB
[[Increases the size of the user process address space from 2 GB to 3 GB
(and therefore reduces the size of system space from 2 GB to 1 GB). Giving
virtual-memory- intensive applications such as database servers a larger
address space can improve their performance. For an application to take
advantage of this feature, however, two additional conditions must be met:
the system must be running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows NT 4
Enterprise Edition, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Datacenter Server and
the application .exe must be flagged as a 3-GB-aware application. Applies to
32-bit systems only. ]]
Boot INI Options Reference
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/info/bootini.shtml

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

You may find this article of interest.
Virtual Memory in Windows XP
http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Wes

Can you toggle the switch ON and OFF as deebs is asking? Is it practical?

Can you modify the boot.ini file to prompt a choice?

--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

/3GB
[[This switch forces x86-based systems to allocate 3 GB of virtual address
space to programs and 1 GB to the kernel and to executive components. A
program must be designed to take advantage of the additional memory
address
space. With this switch, user mode programs can access 3 GB of memory
instead of the usual 2 GB that Windows allocates to user mode programs.
The
switch moves the starting point of kernel memory to 3 GB. Some
configurations of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 may require this switch. ]]
Available switch options for the Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003
Boot.ini files
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;833721

/3GB
[[Increases the size of the user process address space from 2 GB to 3 GB
(and therefore reduces the size of system space from 2 GB to 1 GB). Giving
virtual-memory- intensive applications such as database servers a larger
address space can improve their performance. For an application to take
advantage of this feature, however, two additional conditions must be met:
the system must be running Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows NT 4
Enterprise Edition, Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Datacenter Server and
the application .exe must be flagged as a 3-GB-aware application. Applies
to
32-bit systems only. ]]
Boot INI Options Reference
http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/info/bootini.shtml

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

Hello

I've just upgraded from 1 Gig RAM to 3 Gig. It is (I understand) the
maximum this MSI mainboard will accommodate.

The board runs 4 SATA by 250 GB disks with a 4000+ AMD thingy

Are there advantages in toggling the 3G switch? Or is it best left to
Windows to manage as it presently does.

Thank you very much to all considering a reply

 

[David Candy]

Do you have any programs that are designed to run with the /3gb.

 

[deebs]

Do you have any programs that are designed to run with the /3gb.

Adobe Photoshop?

Thank you to all for the responses.

I think I will leave it for Windows to manage as is prefering system
optimised over program optimised.

I really have greater demand on switching between applications rather
than devoting resources to a single application.

Discussion in another forum was along lines of how to best optimise the
OS to cater for applications working with large digital image files (RAW
from, for example, high MP DSLR cameras and subsequent processing of
those images.

Thanks for a great response and excellent pointers.

 

[David Candy]

/3gb is designed for server apps like Exchange or SQL Server. Remember that reduces the system address space by 1 gig. You system may not load if it can't get enough address space. The more home type thingies hanging off a computer means generally the more system address space it needs to work.