Computers & Electronics

What happens when you install XP on a machine...

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  • Feb 9th, 2013 9:20 am
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Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2011
539 posts
24 upvotes

What happens when you install XP on a machine...

What happens when you install Win XP (32-bit) on a machine with >4GB RAM. Will there be any performance loss?
10 replies
Deal Addict
Oct 31, 2012
4547 posts
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London
If your motherboard supports that much it'll still work, but Win XP will only be able to use ~3.3 GB of the RAM.
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Apr 4, 2009
7698 posts
794 upvotes
North York
To answer OP, it will be as if your PC only had 3.3GB. That is the limit of a 32-bit Win XP. It just ignores the extra memory ... no lost of performance.

Win XP 64-bit is not actually Windows XP. It is more closely related to Windows 2003 server. It was ment to be a workstation OS.

Windows 7 64-bit is a much more advanced OS. (Or Windows 8 64-bit.) These are better choices for > 4GB.
Deal Addict
Oct 31, 2012
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george__ wrote: Don't bother with XP 64bit :)
^ +1, XP 64bit wasn't really well designed, lots of program incompatibilities amongst other stuff.
Sr. Member
Aug 12, 2011
539 posts
24 upvotes
Scycotic wrote: ^ +1, XP 64bit wasn't really well designed, lots of program incompatibilities amongst other stuff.
Eh? I thought there are two vers of XP 64 (XP 64 originl and XP 64 Pro that can handle both 32 &64 bit apps w/o performance loss)... So, which XP 64 r u referring to?
Deal Addict
Oct 31, 2012
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pattern39 wrote: Eh? I thought there are two vers of XP 64 (XP 64 originl and XP 64 Pro that can handle both 32 &64 bit apps w/o performance loss)... So, which XP 64 r u referring to?
The only one that matters is xp 64-bit pro...the other one is for Itanium and won't even run on our computers. But IIRC, even the Pro version had issues, mainly not enough software support as it was released rather late. This might help a bit.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2006
31271 posts
17295 upvotes
I love how everyone rips on XP64 but has never ran it.
I'm running it right now and have zero issues.
It's not so hot on modern hardware in terms of drivers, but for hardware built around it's time it was (and still is) awesome.

I've had fewer incompatibility issues with programs on XP64 than I have on 7.
Deal Addict
Apr 14, 2007
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Montreal
XP64 is based on Windows server 2003 it actually isn't based on anything XP but maybe the modified gui.

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