HELP ME! 32 bit - 4gb RAM

[wahjahka]

yo yo yo. i gots a question.

i currently have 2gb (5-5-5-18 @ 800 MHz) and windows xp 32-bit os
since windows 32 bit os only supports up to 4 gb and i have heard that it only reconizes 3 or 3.5 gb will windows read at least 3 gb with 2 sticks of ram (2 x 2048) including my video cards ram (896mb)?

im looking to upgrade my ram to 4 gb (5-5-5-12 @ 1600 MHz)

i would like to know how much RAM will be reconized by my os. Any help would be great, thanks.

 

[dagger]

Counting in i/o taken by vram and various components, it should be just under 3gb.

 

[darkguset]

yo yo yo. i gots a question.

i currently have 2gb (5-5-5-18 @ 800 MHz) and windows xp 32-bit os
since windows 32 bit os only supports up to 4 gb and i have heard that it only reconizes 3 or 3.5 gb will windows read at least 3 gb with 2 sticks of ram (2 x 2048) including my video cards ram (896mb)?

im looking to upgrade my ram to 4 gb (5-5-5-12 @ 1600 MHz)

i would like to know how much RAM will be reconized by my os. Any help would be great, thanks.

My PC has 4x 1GB RAM, i am running WinXP Pro 32-bit and my VGA is a HD4850 with 512MB onboard. The total memory BIOS reports at POST is 4GB, while in Windows it only reports 3GB. Hence i would guess with your configuration Windows would be able to see somewhere in the range of 2.5GB (your VGA has 896MB of RAM compared to my 512MB).

 

[4745454b]

Are you upgrading your motherboard as well? DDR2-800 is DDR2, while DDR-1600 is DDR3. They are both 240 pins, but the notch is different so they won't work.

I say do the upgrade and don't worry about how much you'll see. You already have the 2GBs, so you might want to consider buying 2x512MBs. I'd probably see about selling your current sticks and getting 2x2GBs.

 

[bobbknight]

I have 4 systems, all have 3.25 GB ram for system use.

 

[Zecow]

Are you upgrading your motherboard as well? DDR2-800 is DDR2, while DDR-1600 is DDR3. They are both 240 pins, but the notch is different so they won't work.
I say do the upgrade and don't worry about how much you'll see. You already have the 2GBs, so you might want to consider buying 2x512MBs. I'd probably see about selling your current sticks and getting 2x2GBs.

Thats no where near what the OP was asking.

As for the answer about the 4GB in POST - thats hardware wise. OP was asking about the OS being able to see the memory.

a 32bit OS will not see anything more than 4GB due to addressing limitations - this includes the VGA card as well. Avg mem your OS will see will be something like 3-3.5 GB.

 

[4745454b]

I was trying to warn him that while both DDR2 and DDR3 both have 240 pins, you can't simply upgrade from 800MHz ram to 1600 ram. He has to change the motherboard as well.

Seeing as he has a GTX260 which has nearly 1GB of Ram on it, he won't see 3.5GBs. Depending on the system, he probably won't see 3GBs either. 2.75GBs is probably more like it.

 

[wahjahka]

I was trying to warn him that while both DDR2 and DDR3 both have 240 pins, you can't simply upgrade from 800MHz ram to 1600 ram. He has to change the motherboard as well.

Seeing as he has a GTX260 which has nearly 1GB of Ram on it, he won't see 3.5GBs. Depending on the system, he probably won't see 3GBs either. 2.75GBs is probably more like it.

i am ugrading my mobo that supports 1066 ram

 

[wahjahka]

thanks to everyone whp replied. im guessing that my system will read anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 gb (3.5 seems very unlikely)
but thanks again

 

[4745454b]

3.5 is impossible if your video card has 896MBs of ram. 4GBs - .896 = 3.14 + other devices and I/O. You are definitely looking at under 3GBs.

 

[mikrev007]

3.5 is impossible if your video card has 896MBs of ram. 4GBs - .896 = 3.14 + other devices and I/O. You are definitely looking at under 3GBs.

Not nessacerily impossible. If you check how much vram is begin mapped, you'll see it usually tops at 256MB (per GPU)

 

[4745454b]

Why would it map less Vram then actually exists?

 

[dagger]

Not nessacerily impossible. If you check how much vram is begin mapped, you'll see it usually tops at 256MB (per GPU)

It's single gpu, not an x2 card.

 

[doomsdaydave11]

Whoa whoa whoa. I don't understand. Lemme ask a few questions before helping answering yours (which, heh, has already been answered like 10 times)
1. What motherboard are you upgrading from, and to?
2. Why don't you just upgrade you're current RAM? DDR3-1600 is barely faster then DDR2-800 in the grand scheme of things. You might gain 2-3 FPS in games. It just seems like a waste, especially with 4GB of DDR2-800 that can be had for $50.
3. Where are you getting 5-5-5-12 DDR3-1600?????
4. Are you completely prepared to reinstall windows and all of your software, as that is what usually needs to happen when installing a new motherboard?
5. Why don't you wait 2 weeks and grab a LGA1366 motherboard? With i7 being in the mainstream just around the corner, it doesn't really make sense.

 

[wahjahka]

Whoa whoa whoa. I don't understand. Lemme ask a few questions before helping answering yours (which, heh, has already been answered like 10 times)
1. What motherboard are you upgrading from, and to?
2. Why don't you just upgrade you're current RAM? DDR3-1600 is barely faster then DDR2-800 in the grand scheme of things. You might gain 2-3 FPS in games. It just seems like a waste, especially with 4GB of DDR2-800 that can be had for $50.
3. Where are you getting 5-5-5-12 DDR3-1600?????
4. Are you completely prepared to reinstall windows and all of your software, as that is what usually needs to happen when installing a new motherboard?
5. Why don't you wait 2 weeks and grab a LGA1366 motherboard? With i7 being in the mainstream just around the corner, it doesn't really make sense.

here are your answers:
1. i currently have an asus p5n32-e sli upgrading to a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard, its a good o/c board for my q6600 (my asus is not at all, have tomany problems going higher then 2.7)
2. my ram that i hav now is a little slow and its two sticks of 1024 so i can only upgrade too like 4 i think
3. im getting 5-5-5-12 ddr3-1600 here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3757080&CatId=2531 and it says its ddr2 but is it actually ddr3?
4. yes i am prepared to do that, (im 95% sure i am haha)
5. will the new lga1366 mobos suport socket 775?i would think so but just asking and would they be in the 100-200 price range? im kinda tight on money. also do they support ddr2?


=

 

[tcsenter]

Why would it map less Vram then actually exists?

Due to address space constraints, as well as configuration limits imposed by PCI specs. It has never been the case that PCI devices or busses get as much address space as they want. They get no more (and often less) than the maximum allowed by the PCI specs. Otherwise, hardware resource needs would have eaten into RAM addressability years before most people began to encounter it circa 2005 ~ 2006.

 

[wahjahka]

Due to address space constraints, as well as configuration limits imposed by PCI specs. It has never been the case that PCI devices or busses get as much address space as they want. They get no more (and often less) than the maximum allowed by the PCI specs. Otherwise, hardware resource needs would have eaten into RAM addressability years before most people began to encounter it circa 2005 ~ 2006.

'

ummm what?

 

[doomsdaydave11]

here are your answers:
1. i currently have an asus p5n32-e sli upgrading to a GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard, its a good o/c board for my q6600 (my asus is not at all, have tomany problems going higher then 2.7)
2. my ram that i hav now is a little slow and its two sticks of 1024 so i can only upgrade too like 4 i think
3. im getting 5-5-5-12 ddr3-1600 here: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3757080&CatId=2531 and it says its ddr2 but is it actually ddr3?
4. yes i am prepared to do that, (im 95% sure i am haha)
5. will the new lga1366 mobos suport socket 775?i would think so but just asking and would they be in the 100-200 price range? im kinda tight on money. also do they support ddr2?


=

Thanks for answering my questions sir
That ram is in fact DDR2-1066, not DDR2-1600 (DDR2-1600 does not exist). Listen to me when I say that you will not notice any difference when going from DDR2-800 (which you have) to DDR2-1066.... seriously. Even when pitting DDR2-533 against DDR3-1600, there is a very minor difference performance wise. The DDR2-800 that you have should be plenty. If you are worrying about overclocking with that DDR2-800, then you need not. DDR2-800 will not need to be overclocked until you hit 3.6Ghz on your Q6600 (1600FSB), which is excellent.

If you have 2x1GB of DDR2-800, I would go ahead and upgrade the board, and then grab another 2x1GB pair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590
$22 bucks shipped after rebate is awesome, especially for good RAM like this (I have the same set). There's no point in investing in a lot of DDR2 right now, as your next upgrade will almost certainly involve DDR3. 4GB is plenty for the time being.

LGA1366 boards will NOT support LGA775, at all. I was under the impression that you were upgrading your CPU aswell- my apologies.

 

[wahjahka]

Thanks for answering my questions sir
That ram is in fact DDR2-1066, not DDR2-1600 (DDR2-1600 does not exist). Listen to me when I say that you will not notice any difference when going from DDR2-800 (which you have) to DDR2-1066.... seriously. Even when pitting DDR2-533 against DDR3-1600, there is a very minor difference performance wise. The DDR2-800 that you have should be plenty. If you are worrying about overclocking with that DDR2-800, then you need not. DDR2-800 will not need to be overclocked until you hit 3.6Ghz on your Q6600 (1600FSB), which is excellent.

If you have 2x1GB of DDR2-800, I would go ahead and upgrade the board, and then grab another 2x1GB pair: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590
$22 bucks shipped after rebate is awesome, especially for good RAM like this (I have the same set). There's no point in investing in a lot of DDR2 right now, as your next upgrade will almost certainly involve DDR3. 4GB is plenty for the time being.

LGA1366 boards will NOT support LGA775, at all. I was under the impression that you were upgrading your CPU aswell- my apologies.

your welcome.
if i wanted to my mom/grandama hah can buy me 8gb of 1066 ram but it seems i should just stick with 800

 

[doomsdaydave11]

your welcome.
if i wanted to my mom/grandama hah can buy me 8gb of 1066 ram but it seems i should just stick with 800

good luck with your build and whatever you decide to do.