4gb ram worth it?

[napoleon1769]

Right now I'm using Vista 32 bit and have 2 1gb sticks. Is it worth it to upgrade to 2 2gb sticks?

[goofball]

I would go to 3GB. 4GB might get you only around 3.2-3.5GB usable, depending on your video card and other I/O devices that need memory addresses. I have 4GB installed and it only shows 3318MB available (BIOS and Windows).

[Silver Bullet]

Also depends what you're doing, if you just gaming, probably not worth it. If you're doing ram intensive stuff (photoshop, video editing) then 3-4GB might be worth it.

[terrybear]

yeah if your a mega tasker & like to leave stuff open all over the place on your desktop then 4 gigs is what ya want then for shure

[bubble.tea]

I was told only 64bit can even READ beyond 2gb.

confirmation pls?

[Evil Baby]

I was told only 64bit can even READ beyond 2gb.

confirmation pls?

you mean beyond 4gb?

Check this link out to see what Vista 64 can handle

[carmaster]

Get the extra ram. The prices are so cheap it doesn't hurt to add another 2GB.

[weedb0y]

I was told only 64bit can even READ beyond 2gb.

confirmation pls?

32bit can only read upto 3gb. Anything higher and you are just wasting it.

[bubble.tea]

you mean beyond 4gb?

Check this link out to see what Vista 64 can handle

I'd like the same style of link for XP and XP pro etc...please?

[terrybear]

32bit can only read upto 3gb. Anything higher and you are just wasting it.

corrections 3.25 - 3.5 of the full 4 gigs is seen under the 32 bit os's

& with a 64 bit ya can go up to 32 gigs I beleive but I also read that with it your program chunks also become larger as well cause of the 64 bit data.

[TenzoR]

I'd like the same style of link for XP and XP pro etc...please?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/6...cts/top10.mspx

not as pretty but same idea

[hades]

I'd like the same style of link for XP and XP pro etc...please?

The limit is is not because of Vista/XP. It is because of the 32bit code. 2^32=4,294,967,296bytes or 4gigs. XP has the same limits.

hades

[Amourek]

Simple way to determine how much RAM you need. Fire up the most intensive task(s) that you do, open up the task manager and check your PF usage. If it exceeds the amount of RAM you have, then more will help. If not, then you'd be throwing your money away.

[hytong]

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s....php?p=6284524

[movieman]

The limit is is not because of Vista/XP. It is because of the 32bit code. 2^32=4,294,967,296bytes or 4gigs. XP has the same limits.

Per-application, yes. A single application only has a 32-bit address space so it's limited to 4GB (unless they do nasty things with segments).

However, recent 32-bit x86 chips can handle up to, I think, 32GB of physical memory. I think it was primarily a hack for 32-bit servers, so only the server versions of XP support it (not sure about Vista).

Edit: OK, it's 64GB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension