How much RAM can Vista Premium 32 handle

[Yoendry Torres]

Hi,

Just wondering why my control panel computer info does not recognize the
4Gig of RAM that I have installed. Instead it states 2815MB. I am running
Vista Premium x32. I had window xp pro x32 before and it did not recognize
the 4Gig either. How much RAM can Vista x32 handle?

Is this a limitation of x32, will x64 recognize all the RAM, is there
something else I can do for the full amount of RAM to be recognized?

Yoendry

 

[f/fgeorge]

Hi,

Just wondering why my control panel computer info does not recognize the
4Gig of RAM that I have installed. Instead it states 2815MB. I am running
Vista Premium x32. I had window xp pro x32 before and it did not recognize
the 4Gig either. How much RAM can Vista x32 handle?

Is this a limitation of x32, will x64 recognize all the RAM, is there
something else I can do for the full amount of RAM to be recognized?

Yoendry

Yes 64bit Vista will see all of the ram UNLESS your motherboard has
issues. It does not sound like it does, but it might. Windows 32bit
will actually use all of it, just not report all of it, again if your
mb reports it. What does it say in your Bios?

 

[Joe Grover]

Please note that if your video card is integrated into your motherboard and
not an add-in card, part of your system memory will be allocated to it. For
example on a workstation I just installed with integrated video and 1GB of
memory, only 768MB is displayed in the System properties as the onboard GPU
"has" 256MB. That isn't the root cause of your problem (it's unlikely you
have onboard video with 1GB of memory!) but something to keep in mind in
case you do in fact have onboard.

To answer your question 32-bit operating systems will not show the full 4GB
memory. It will detect less than this (typically 2.xGB up to around 3.5GB)
depending on what hardware is installed in the computer. With 32-bit
addressing some space is allocated for things like motherboard resources,
system BIOS, configuration for PCI/AGP/PCI-Express bus slots, memory-mapped
I/O, etc. So for example if you had an add-in sound card, you could remove
it and the amount of memory that is listed in your system properties will
change slightly. This is all assuming of course that your system can
actually see the 4GB of memory (can you see all 4GB during system
startup/POST?) itself.

The good news is that the memory isn't being ignored, it just isn't being
allocated to Windows and the applications you're running...ok, maybe that's
not exactly good news. But it isn't broken.

Joe

 

[Guest]

Vista 32bit should take up to 4 gigs. Did your computer come with 4 gigs or
did you add it yourself?

 

[Guest]

Short answer is that this is normal! You will never be able to access much
more than 3gb of your 4gb for your sofware. This is a limitation of a 32bit
operating system. The remaining 1gb is being reserved and used by your
hardware, such as your motherboard.

The only way of utilizing more RAM is to get Vista 64bit or windows x64.
Unless you really, and I mean really need to utilize programs that use more
than 4gb of ram, I would not get them right now! Too many programs, and
hardware are not supported yet on them and from what I have been reading on
the forums, the casual user will have a very hard time with them!