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Max usable memory on XP Home and Pro.

Forum Motherboards & Memory : Memory - Max usable memory on XP Home and Pro.

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robmurphy   08-08-2006 at 03:47:32 PM

What opinions do people have on how much ram the 32 bit XP pro and home can "usefully" use?

I am 99% sure its at least 2 Gig. The information I've seen is that it will support upto 4 Gig, but then only sees part of that.

If you have XP home on a motherboard that supports upto 4 Gig of ram would it be better to equip it with 3 Gig i.e. 1 Gig + 2 Gig.

Is it worth going from XP home to the 64 bit Pro version for more memory support?

The reason I ask is that I've an AMD athlon 64 machine in socket 939. At present it has 2 * 512 Meg DDRs, to give 1 Gig dual channel. How much difference woud be made by going to 2 Gig, 3 Gig, or even 4 Gig. I know the mother board supports upto 4 Gig, but it does caution that you will not see all of it.

Thanks in Advance.

Rob. Murphy

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maury73   08-08-2006 at 04:22:17 PM
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4GB is the total virtual memory.
The real physical RAM you would see id, as wusy correctly told, between 2.5 and 3.5GB, it depends on the number and types of the peripheral you installed in the system (physical or virtual, even a CD emulator will use many MB of RAM for mapping its I/O addresses).

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hawkeye22   08-08-2006 at 04:27:51 PM
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Quote :


The reason I ask is that I've an AMD athlon 64 machine in socket 939. At present it has 2 * 512 Meg DDRs, to give 1 Gig dual channel. How much difference woud be made by going to 2 Gig, 3 Gig, or even 4 Gig.

Rob. Murphy



It depends on which apps you use, their memory requirements, and how many apps you run at the same time. For me, going from 1 gig to 2 gig of ram made a big difference, especially when alt-tabbing between apps since the swap file didn't need to get used as often. 2 gig also makes a big difference if you play BF2.

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Kerdal   08-08-2006 at 04:34:15 PM
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I have 4gb of RAM (all the same type) and my WinXP Pro detects around 3.20GB.

I must admit there's not that much of a difference between 2 and 4 (I tried 3gb but it seemed slower than 2 because it screwed up Dual Channel).

Kerdal

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jamesgoddard   08-08-2006 at 04:48:42 PM
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With Windows XP use the /pae switch in boot.ini to use all 4GB of RAM....

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maury73   08-08-2006 at 05:02:06 PM
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As I said... 4GB of VIRTUAL memory, not physical.
You must have a 64bit OS in order to see at the same time over 4GB of total memory (RAM + ROM + I/O).
PAE paginates the virtual memory, but it can't see the total 4GB at the same time and is slower than having it disabled

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elbert   08-08-2006 at 05:04:30 PM
- 0 +

Quote :

What opinions do people have on how much ram the 32 bit XP pro and home can "usefully" use?


The amount is between 256 to 512Mb's or RAM for the OS only.

Quote :

I am 99% sure its at least 2 Gig. The information I've seen is that it will support upto 4 Gig, but then only sees part of that.


2Gb's is the about the most that any program needs over OS's needs currently but that number will only go up as programs get more RAM hungry.

Quote :

If you have XP home on a motherboard that supports upto 4 Gig of ram would it be better to equip it with 3 Gig i.e. 1 Gig + 2 Gig.


This is a 32bit problem with older CPU's and may have some problems in the 32bit OS but its being addressed in the 64bit OS's and Vista.

Quote :

Is it worth going from XP home to the 64 bit Pro version for more memory support?


Currently no due to Vista unless you just cant wait.

Quote :

The reason I ask is that I've an AMD athlon 64 machine in socket 939. At present it has 2 * 512 Meg DDRs, to give 1 Gig dual channel. How much difference woud be made by going to 2 Gig, 3 Gig, or even 4 Gig. I know the mother board supports upto 4 Gig, but it does caution that you will not see all of it.


Due to you already having 1Gb, and the fact the 939 is on its way out, I would just go up to 3Gb's to save money.

I dont know if this helps you but I wish you luck in what ever you decide.

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