3GB switch on Win7 Pro 64-bit machine?

sirhawkeye64 · Nov 23, 2015

I remember back to the XP days when a 32-bit machine with 4GB of RAM could utilize 3GB for applications using the "/3GB" switch in the BOOT.INI file.

Can this be done on a Windows 7 64-bit machine?

I have an older desktop that can only hold up to 4GB of RAM (DDR2) so I need all the free RAM I can get as this computer runs SQL Server 2012 Express for a small office.

thx1138v2 · Nov 23, 2015

Maybe, but you may not want to use it because of the larger resource requirements for Win7. The following article covers it pretty well.
Memory Management - Demystifying /3GB

The /3GB switch was developed due to the restrictions inherent in 32-bit memory addressing. I doubt that it would have any effect in a 64-bit system.

Eximo · Nov 23, 2015

Does nothing for a 64bit Windows install. All 4GB would already be present.

Still applies to Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 32bit installs though.

ex_bubblehead · Nov 23, 2015

The /3G switch does no good at all if the software wasn't written with IMAGE_FILE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE in the process header.

sirhawkeye64 · Nov 24, 2015

From what I can see in most systems that I've dealt with, about half of the used physical memory in a given system, regardless of how much memory the system has physically installed, seems to be allocated to the OS. I thought the 3GB switch was to release some of this memory (that I believe is cached by Windows) back to the system for application usage...?

So basically I see there is Cached Memory and AVaialble memory. Is the available memory what is available to the applications? Because then there is FREE memory, which is basically near zero. I never could fully understand the impact of these items (Cached i understand is cached by the OS for use for drivers and other system services). Available is what i thought was available to the OS for application usage??

hang-the-9 · Nov 24, 2015

You can get a solid state hard drive and put the paging file on that (so you don't need to re-install everything by simply replacing the hard drive). You will still need to use the disk for page file but at least it will be on a much faster disk.

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3GB switch on Win7 Pro 64-bit machine?

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