What limits the amount max amount of ram for a intel i5

[spark17]

Hello,
the gateway DX4860-EF31P uses a intel I5 core with 4 memory slots. Why would it be limited to a max of 8g of ram

 

[Raiddinn]

Usually it is the motherboard that can't recognize RAM bigger than a certain size.

New boards can often recognize 8 GBs per slot, old boards can sometimes only recognize 1 or 2 GBs per slot.

 

[spark17]

thanks

 

[DeadRam]

Here is a link to the Gateway site. It state that 8GB is the maximum memory.
http://ca.gateway.com/gw/en/CA/content/model/PT.GCPP2.007

 

[xtreme5]

because that mobo is old stuff and old stuff doesn't support more than 8gb or 4gb.if you have 4 slots then every 1 slots recognize only 2gb stick.

 

[spark17]

Best answer selected by spark17.

 

[tsnor]

Aside: Usually manufacturers stop TESTING motherboards with new, higher density memory. Sometimes they work fine with the higher capacity dims. Sometimes they don't. Not many workloads benefit from more than 8 GB or ram, but if you have one then start googling to see if someone tried it out and to see if it worked for them.

The i5 - 2320 has an integrated memory controller that addresses 32 GB so it's possible that more than 8GB will work.... There is a similar model number, dx4860-ur20p, that is also an i5-2300 that is listed as an 8gb max, but places have listed upgrades to 16gb... http://www.memoryupgradecompany.com/memory/GatewayDX4860UR20PMemoryUpgrade.html

 

[inthedark1980]

I have a DX4860-EF31P and I have installed 12gb of RAM and the BIOS and the board are reading properly. I believe when you look at the stats from the site, thats what you can purchase from Gateway for that particular model. I have even used almost all 12gb without my pagefile set (no virtual memory) and thus far have not had the smallest problem in high def gaming or even multitasking for that matter. I mean I had 72 programs running and once it got to 9gb usage, it told me that it recommended shutting down startcraft 2, but then I opened like ten more programs just to see what would happen and the computer held out fine. I am using 4gb of RAM that came with the computer and I am using 8gb Hyper-X prototype RAM. Nothing real special. I have the gt520 Nvidia Geforce 1gb card and I have not had any difficullties running high demand programs like Skyrim or Startcraft 2 on ultra. Please tell me if Im wrong in saying that sometimes the system is better than whats stated online...just like I see sometimes virtual memory is listed as a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. I see it as both. Good for comps with little physical RAM and useless for computers with lots of RAM, although I relize some programs need this stuff to run properly, I have yet to find one that relies on it. Let me know if you have...