Windows XP 32 bit support more than 4 GB RAM?

[Anayo]

Lately I put a new PC together. I had to learn a lot in the process of doing so (hooray for "Dummies" how-to books.) The machine is up and running and serving its purpose very nicely so far, but there's one little issue.

The motherboard I got supports 8 GB of RAM. Naturally I thought that meant I could just buy 8 GB and continue on my merry way. Well, I have Windows XP 32 bit on this machine, and apparently this only supports 4 GB.

I'm not into getting a 64 bit operating system that supports more RAM, partially cause I don't want to spend the money when my current OS works splendidly, and partially cause I'm not even sure my CPU supports that. However, I've heard rumors that there's some way to get XP 32 bit to support more RAM. Does anyone know about this?

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Lately I put a new PC together. I had to learn a lot in the process of doing so (hooray for "Dummies" how-to books.) The machine is up and running and serving its purpose very nicely so far, but there's one little issue.

The motherboard I got supports 8 GB of RAM. Naturally I thought that meant I could just buy 8 GB and continue on my merry way. Well, I have Windows XP 32 bit on this machine, and apparently this only supports 4 GB.

I'm not into getting a 64 bit operating system that supports more RAM, partially cause I don't want to spend the money when my current OS works splendidly, and partially cause I'm not even sure my CPU supports that. However, I've heard rumors that there's some way to get XP 32 bit to support more RAM. Does anyone know about this?

Its already expanded at 4gb. Normally it would only see 2.5 or so GB.

Sorry you are out of luck without a 64bit os.

Most games wouldn't use all 8gb anyway. 3 or 4gb is good enough. Also most games are only 32bit anyway.

Also if your processor is decent and from the last 3 or so years its pretty much garunteed 64bit capable.

[Hatta]

Not with XP. It's theoretically possible(and can be done in 32bit linux), but according to Wikipedia "desktop versions of Windows (Windows XP, Windows Vista) limit physical address space to 4 GiB for driver compatibility reasons."

You don't need more than 4 gigs of RAM in XP anyway. Also note that video memory is included in the 4 gig total limit. So if you have a 512MB video card, you'll see something like 3.5gig physical memory.

[fastbilly1]

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... erver_2003

If there is a way, I doubt it is stable

[Hobie-wan]

Here's a wonderfully verbose explanation of what happens to memory between 3 and 4 G on a 32 bit XP machine. Dan's Data is a great site for computer and gadget nerds and If Lord of Duct enjoys reading things as verbose as he likes to spew out, he'll probably be right at home there assuming he doesn't already read it.

[Gnashvar]

Good topic. Although I was aware that there was a 4GB limit WinXP I did not know of the video ram counting to those 4GB. It's good to know. I'm sure there are quite a few game rigs that have wasted ram out there.

[Anayo]

Here's a wonderfully verbose explanation of what happens to memory between 3 and 4 G on a 32 bit XP machine. Dan's Data is a great site for computer and gadget nerds and If Lord of Duct enjoys reading things as verbose as he likes to spew out, he'll probably be right at home there assuming he doesn't already read it.

That article you linked says the following:

64-bit processors used to be weird server-class stuff, but ordinary desktop processors from the AMD Athlon 64 and Intel Core 2 onward (and even late model P4s) can run in 64-bit mode.

My processor is an Intel Core 2, so I can probably get 64 bit windows XP if I feel the need to utilize the two extra RAM sticks on my motherboard.

[MrPopo]

Good topic. Although I was aware that there was a 4GB limit WinXP I did not know of the video ram counting to those 4GB. It's good to know. I'm sure there are quite a few game rigs that have wasted ram out there.

Also your PCI devices use that space. However, compared to your VRAM their footprint is miniscule.

[Majors]

Lately I put a new PC together.
...
Well, I have Windows XP 32 bit on this machine, and apparently this only supports 4 GB.

So, you get brand, spanking new hardware (read: 8 GB of RAM) but you're using some eight year old OS? Do you see were I'm going with this?

As for your CPU, someone got 7 to install on a Pentium II 266Mhz:

[Hobie-wan]

As for your CPU, someone got 7 to install on a Pentium II 266Mhz:

Haha, that's great, but I find getting more modern (relatively speaking) games running on old hardware a bit more interesting than just the OS itself.