Can I use all my RAM?

T

T. Waters

I am upgrading to 2GB of RAM because I do photo editing. Some panorama
programs can use up to 3GB of RAM!
However, I am hearing rumors that XP Home can only allocate a maximum of 1GB
per program. Is this the case?
Any help gratefully appreciated.
 
U

Unk

Sorry, none of this is applicable to my situation!
Click to expand...

You asked if 2GB would work....
quote from the "Cause" paragraph http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=888137

"Any system RAM that is greater than the 4 GB barrier would be made unaddressable by Windows and
be unusable in the system. By limiting the address space to 4 GB, devices with 32-bit DMA bus
master capability will not see a transaction with an address that is greater than the 4 GB
barrier."

How is that not "applicable to my situation"? You can use up to 4GB.
 
T

T. Waters

Unk said:
You asked if 2GB would work....
quote from the "Cause" paragraph
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=888137

"Any system RAM that is greater than the 4 GB barrier would be made
unaddressable by Windows and be unusable in the system. By limiting
the address space to 4 GB, devices with 32-bit DMA bus master
capability will not see a transaction with an address that is greater
than the 4 GB barrier."

How is that not "applicable to my situation"? You can use up to
4GB.
Click to expand...

At the risk of seeming ungrateful, you did not read my question:
 
A

Ahmad

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/memory/base/physical_address_extension.asp?

Typically, a process can access up to 2 GB of memory address space
(assuming the /3GB switch was not used), with some of the memory being
physical memory and some being virtual memory. The memory manager uses
PAE to provide more physical memory to an application, which reduces
the need to swap memory to the page file and increases performance. The
application itself is not aware of the actual memory size. All of the
memory management and allocation of the PAE memory is handled by the
memory manager independently of the application.

Applications that are 4GT-aware are likely to remain in physical memory
rather than be paged out, which increases their performance. The
exception is when the /3GB switch is used in conjunction with the /PAE
switch. In this case, the operating system does not use any memory in
excess of 16 GB. Therefore, if the system restarts with the /3GB entry
in the Boot.ini file, and the system has more than 16 GB of physical
memory, the additional physical random access memory (RAM) is not used
by the operating system. Restarting the computer without the /3GB
switch enables the use of all of the physical memory.
 
T

Tim Slattery

Each process in XP runs in its own 4GB virtual memory space. In the
normal configuration, 2GB of that is reserved for the OS and 2GB is
available for the program. ***This has nothing to do with the amount
of physical RAM that's installed.**** Virtual memory pages for all
processes are swapped in and out of physical RAM by the OS all the
time, as need dictates.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

T. Waters said:
I am upgrading to 2GB of RAM because I do photo editing. Some panorama
programs can use up to 3GB of RAM!
However, I am hearing rumors that XP Home can only allocate a maximum
of 1GB per program. Is this the case?
Click to expand...


No it's not.
 
B

bigdawg

you can install as much as you want to the board can hold. BUT XP can only
use 2.84 good luck
 
B

Bob I

Sorry, but "2.84" is not a "correct number". It varies with the specific
hardware involved.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

Upgraded RAM 3
Dual-channel mode vs. more RAM 3
Can XP use 3GB of RAM? 8
How is RAM Different with 64bit OS ? 5
MUST I use TWO Memory Sticks? 19
Can XP cope with 2gb of RAM 18
Install more 1GB RAM 8
Win Xp x64 with 8GB RAM 2

Top