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Vista 32 bit SP2, Bug or correction?

NagelFireNagelFire Member Posts: 409
in Hardware

As anyone who has vista knows, if you start up Vista and log in you will be presented with a "Wecome Center" screen.  This welcome center shows your specs, like you Vid card, Ram, Processor. 

When I had vista SP1 it was reading that I had 4 gigs of available RAM.  After overclocking and upgrading to Vista SP2, It says that I have 3.25 gigs.  I was wondering if this is a bug on microsofts part, or is this was a correction so that it accounts for the amoount of RAM vista takes up on its own.

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Comments

  • terrantterrant Member Posts: 1,683

    No, SP2 is just being honest.

     

    32-bit OSes cannot actually utilize a full 4 gigs of RAM without monkeying with the registry. And even then they won't go above 4.

     

    3.25 is about right. For more information, look at support.microsoft.com/kb/929605 

  • GruntyGrunty Member EpicPosts: 8,657

    With any 32 bit operating system it can only use 4gb of system RAM. This includes any graphics card memory. Graphics card memory is assigned before system RAM. Your 3.25 gb of RAM is pretty much standard accessible memory with a 512 mb graphics card in a 32 bit OS.

    "I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone.  It's not.  The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone."  Robin Williams
  • SheistaSheista Member UncommonPosts: 1,203

    In other words, it's time for a 64-bit upgrade.  As someone else mentioned in another thread about Vista recently, you don't need a new product key.  Your product key for 32-bit should also work for a 64-bit installation of the OS.  You just need an installation disc.

  • noquarternoquarter Member Posts: 1,170

    Originally posted by NagelFire
    As anyone who has vista knows, if you start up Vista and log in you will be presented with a "Wecome Center" screen.  This welcome center shows your specs, like you Vid card, Ram, Processor. 
    When I had vista SP1 it was reading that I had 4 gigs of available RAM.  After overclocking and upgrading to Vista SP2, It says that I have 3.25 gigs.  I was wondering if this is a bug on microsofts part, or is this was a correction so that it accounts for the amoount of RAM vista takes up on its own.


    It's a correction of sorts, but not quite what you're thinking - 32bit Vista can only access ~3.25GB of RAM as a limitation of 32 bit memory addressing. However to make things look nice Vista would report 4GB RAM installed depending on where you looked - even though it could still only use 3.25GB of it. If you looked in the task manager it should say 3.25GB memory available yet if you look in the computer hardware summary it would say 4GB available.


    Apparently in SP2 they changed all the UI elements to display the actual usable RAM rather than total installed RAM. It's worth it to switch to 64 bit Vista because even though 64 bit Vista uses about 200mb more memory, it gains access to ~800MB more through 64 bit memory addressing.

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