Windows 7 32bit vers 64bit

[mariomario]

I have a dual core 4gb of ram gateway desktop. I am currently running 64bit windows 7 but want to switch back to 32bit as alot of my programs will run off 32bit and not 64bit. I know it will be a year or two before alot of programs will run on 64bit but my computer can not run anymore ram then 4gigs.

What do you suggest I do?
Michael

 

[one-shot]

Dual boot with both OSs. Use 64 bit Vista and 32 bit Win 7 for the Apps that need a 32 bit OS. Usually a 64 bit OS will run 32 bit Apps, but some won't. I have an older AutoCAD 32 bit version that won't run on my 64 bit OS. I have to use my old 32 bit Win XP for that.

 

[apache_lives]

32 bit apps all run on 64 bit - what do you mean "alot of my programs will run off 32bit" - if anything, 32 bit apps work better in 64 bit.

I dont know why people bother with xp and dual boot setup's

 

[marike]

I have a dual core 4gb of ram gateway desktop. I am currently running 64bit windows 7 but want to switch back to 32bit as alot of my programs will run off 32bit and not 64bit. I know it will be a year or two before alot of programs will run on 64bit but my computer can not run anymore ram then 4gigs.

What do you suggest I do?
Michael

Seriously dude? People need to just throw there 32bit OS's away. Windows 7 64bit is capable of running all the 32bit programs. If it cant install it in 64 bit then install it with 32 bit compatability.

 

[Maziar]

32 bit OS recognizes max 3.5GB of 4GB RAM,but 64bit OS recognizes 4GB RAM and more,some games/apps benefit from 64bit OS and run faster(not much though) so if you have 4GB RAM or more go for a 64 bit OS.
About programs compatibility,when i had XP 64 i had some compatibility problems with it,like it didn't recognize my printer and there was no driver for it and problems with some games so i had to use XP 32
But when i switched to Vista 64/7 64 i haven't had any compatibility issues,all of my games and apps ran well with 64 bit.

 

[huron]

Like Maziar, I had used XP x64 and had some battles with drivers and apps, but since Vista x64 and Windows 7 x64, I have had no problems at all. I don't think I would head back to 32 unless I had to (Intel Atom has been the one case for me).

 

[one-shot]

32 bit apps all run on 64 bit - what do you mean "alot of my programs will run off 32bit" - if anything, 32 bit apps work better in 64 bit.

I dont know why people bother with xp and dual boot setup's

Obviously you have never tried installing 32 bit AutoCAD on a 64 bit OS. Please, check it out before commenting like that.

 

[mariomario]

32 bit OS recognizes max 3.5GB of 4GB RAM,but 64bit OS recognizes 4GB RAM and more,some games/apps benefit from 64bit OS and run faster(not much though) so if you have 4GB RAM or more go for a 64 bit OS.
About programs compatibility,when i had XP 64 i had some compatibility problems with it,like it didn't recognize my printer and there was no driver for it and problems with some games so i had to use XP 32
But when i switched to Vista 64/7 64 i haven't had any compatibility issues,all of my games and apps ran well with 64 bit.

Thanks for the response. I have another question for you; When my computer was switched from xp to windows 7 it was done by the individual with a partition program. When I boot up, my boot up manager comes up and asks each time, which program do you want to run in.

How do I get rid of on so when my computer boots up, it will go right into the desktop and will not ask which program to run in???

 

[mariomario]

Thanks for the response. I have another question for you; When my computer was switched from xp to windows 7 it was done by the individual with a partition program. When I boot up, my boot up manager comes up and asks each time, which program do you want to run in.

How do I get rid of on so when my computer boots up, it will go right into the desktop and will not ask which program to run in???

 

[Kewlx25]

"32-bit recognizes at most 3.5GB"

that's *at most*, it may see less.

EVERY device in your computer consumes a memory range. The biggest being your video card. If you get a dual 1GB SLI/xfire video card that shows 2GB total, then your 4GB of ram will only be 2GB of ram.

Remember, it's 4GB of *Address Space*, not memory. Your memory shares this Address Space with other devices.

Very few 32bit programs shouldn't run in Vista/Win7 64. If they don't run it's because they're poorly programmed.

 

[tcsenter]

"32-bit recognizes at most 3.5GB"

that's *at most*, it may see less.

Actually, it could be slightly more than 3.5GB. Keep in mind the OS is not responsible for "seeing" or "addressing" memory. The BIOS and hardware (chipset) does all that, then reports what is available to the OS via industry standard memory map (e820). The OS just uses whatever the BIOS says is available for it.

EVERY device in your computer consumes a memory range. The biggest being your video card. If you get a dual 1GB SLI/xfire video card that shows 2GB total, then your 4GB of ram will only be 2GB of ram.

Not so. The biggest consumer of address space are the Southbridge devices. e.g. Intel's documents describe that its recent ICH Southbridges require approx. 750MB address space with typical integrated or onboard devices, before any expansion cards are installed including graphics.

Graphics cards with more than ~256MB RAM do not map VRAM into processor address space on a 1:1 basis. Typically, they reserve a 256MB window for each GPU, and implement techniques such as bank-switching to reach all the RAM. See:

The Growth of VRAM

Another factor in the PC memory equation has been growing as well: video memory size. In the early days of Direct3D, the typical video card had 16 or 32 MB of Video RAM (VRAM). High-end video cards now have 512 MB, 640 MB, 768 MB, or more VRAM. When video cards had 16 or 32 MB of Video RAM, this memory was mapped directly into every process that used Direct3D for efficient access by the application and video driver.

As video cards grew larger, this became unsustainable. A 768 MB hole in the 2-GB virtual address space of each process would leave very little space for applications. Similarly, taking 768 MB out of the 4 GB physical address space would be too constraining. This problem is exacerbated in dual GPU configurations (SLI®/Crossfire™).

Therefore, video card manufacturers typically implement a 256 MB physical memory window for the video graphics memory, and modern drivers do not create direct process mappings for the entire VRAM size. Process address space is still consumed for working with the AGP aperture (64 MB, 128 MB, or more typically on modern game systems 256 MB in size). While PCIe uses a dynamic aperture, it too is mapped into each process that uses Direct3D. -- RAM, VRAM, and More RAM: 64-Bit Gaming Is Here

Very few 32bit programs shouldn't run in Vista/Win7 64. If they don't run it's because they're poorly programmed.

Or because they still use legacy code such as 16-bit that are commonly found in installers, et. al. I have a couple dozen BIOS and other utilities that still use 16-bit code, and there are no good 32-bit or 64-bit alternatives to them.

No matter what the reason is, if you've spent $1700 on applications a couple years ago that don't work correctly on 64-bit OS and the software vendor's solution is for you to purchase their newer 64-bit compatible version, then you still need 32-bit OS or must run 32-bit OS in a virtual machine (which isn't always possible, either).

 

[huron]

Thanks for the response. I have another question for you; When my computer was switched from xp to windows 7 it was done by the individual with a partition program. When I boot up, my boot up manager comes up and asks each time, which program do you want to run in.

How do I get rid of on so when my computer boots up, it will go right into the desktop and will not ask which program to run in???

To fix this, go to System Properties.

Go to the Advanced tab

There should be a section called Startup and Recovery. Press the Settings button.

You can adjust the time to display Operating Systems, or just uncheck it so it won't even ask.

I think that should fix that little annoyance.

 

[mariomario]

Thank you so much it worked and now I don't have that screen popping up!

 

[huron]

Happy that fixed it for you.

 

[mariomario]

Thanks I might have additional questions as I work with this new setup, I will let you know. Thanks again for all your help.

 

[mariomario]

Here is another question, when my computer hybernates, the screen comes on showning the screen of which user to login as. How do I get rid of this screen from coming on?

 

[Kewlx25]

"Graphics cards with more than ~256MB RAM do not map VRAM into processor address space on a 1:1 basis. Typically, they reserve a 256MB window for each GPU, and implement techniques such as bank-switching to reach all the RAM. See:[...]"

So, when I see this in my friends comp
Memory Address 0x9FFFFFFF-0xDFFFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

which so happens to be a 1gig memory range that corresponds to his 1gig of video memory and his computer only reports 3GB of his 4GB

Any other articles that I google say video memory is directly mapped and don't use a "window"

 

[tcsenter]

So, when I see this in my friends comp
Memory Address 0x9FFFFFFF-0xDFFFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

which so happens to be a 1gig memory range that corresponds to his 1gig of video memory and his computer only reports 3GB of his 4GB

Straight-away we know this could not possibly be correct, since you are claiming that the entire 1GB 'lost' memory is being used by the graphics card, which would leave exactly ZERO memory address space for any other devices in the system.

So what is being used by the storage controllers, USB controllers, LAN or ethernet controllers, chipset DMI, PCI bus and PCI bridges, HD audio bus, system BIOS and option ROMs, so on and so forth?

It cannot possibly be nothing, or the computer would not function.

Any other articles that I google say video memory is directly mapped and don't use a "window"

Well there is a lot of misinformation out there, I can't help that. A thousand wrong people are still wrong.

This blog by Mark Russinovich shows the memory address space that is being reserved for his 2 x 1GB GTX 280 cards in SLI:

Pushing the Limits of Windows: Physical Memory

You made a mistake somewhere when interpreting the address ranges reported by your "friends comp". If you need someone who understands what they are doing to interpret those address ranges for you, run MSINFO32 (System Information), expand the hardware category, then click "Memory", as shown here:

http://s89934018.onlinehome.us/images/msinfo32.png

From the file menu, click Export (make sure "Memory" is selected else you'll be exporting a lot of information that you don't care about) and save to a text file. Then upload the text file somewhere for me and I'll have a look at it.

 

[mikrev007]

tscenter is right.

0x9FFFFFFF-0xDFFFFFFF NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280

says that you have MMIO at 0x9FFFFFFF. That means that you cannot have RAM anywhere from here up to 0xFFFFFFFF.

So there cannot possible be more than 2.5 GB usable RAM below the 4G address line.