Vista and 4GB of RAM

[SirBaron]

This is in response to a comment posted in my review and rather than cluttering the comment section i will post the reply in here.

Hi there,

I have the same system (instead of a X-fi Fatality I have an X-fi Platinum + 1 Tagan 900 Watt PS), an ASUS P5N32-E SLI motherboard and 4 GB of Corsair Dominator 8500C5D.
But I can use only 2 GB of RAM with 32bit Windows (both WinXP SP2 and VIsta Ultimate).
How did you setup your system to work stably with 4GB of RAM

Dimitris

Same i can only "use" 2GB of RAM in 32bit windows, they both see 2.35GB of RAM or something along those lines, however while it may not appear to be using 4GB of ram it will still use most of the extra RAM installed.

Say Oblivion used 2GB of ram up if you had some monster mods installed, the rest would be used still by Vista or XP. As 32bit systems can only use 2GB per application without a tweak, and that will only work if a application was made to use more than 2GB which there is virtually 0.

As for stable? I assume you mean your system is unstable due to the extra ram? The only way to truly use 4GB of ram is to install Windows XP or Vista 64bit versions.

My Vista install was previously unstable due to installing the extra 2GB of RAM, however a HOTFIX came out which made my Vista install 100% stable with 4GB of ram, sure it cannot see it all, but that's because it's a 32bit OS, and the only way to truly use 4GB of RAM is for a 64bit OS, which i have yet to purchase my self.

Hope this helps!

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929777

[FiggyG]

The only thing you need to do to move to 64-bit Vista is order a 64 bit DVD from microsoft. Your key works. I went about the keyboard drivers way to get my friend the 64-bit cuz they only retail the 32 bit. He just did the install, put in his 32-bit key, bam, activated and loves his money.

[Cassius]

Good to know SirBaron, I was myself unclear on how 4gb of memory would work with a 32bit OS, but from what you are saying all of the memory is still available to be used, just not all by the same app. That being said, what advantages have you found to having 4gigs vs. 2gigs in Vista specifically. I was considering adding memory, but I'm not sure if it'd just be overkill or not.

[Cjl64]

My next upgrade will be 2 more gigs. I wanted to do the whole 2x2 for 4.. but i am just going to go for the 4x1 as it will be cheaper and should still get the job done.