Just got a new laptop (Toshiba A300 21H) and its got 3 GB of ram and Vista 32 bit and am just wondering if its worth putting 4GB ram in, will it make any difference at all , I've got 2 x2GB layin round so wont cost me any thing but is it worth it ?
3Gb or 4BG in Laptop
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Soldato
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No as the 32 bit OS won't be able to access the extra 1GB. If you want to upgrade to 4GB and be able to use all of that 4GB you will have to upgrade to a 64bit OS.
Soldato
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32 bit OS's have never been able to access the whole 4GB, they may show the 4GB but will only use around 3GB of that. Even the 32bit XP has this problem. I assume retailers sell the 32bit option as I belive there are still some issues with 64bit vista (could be wrong in this assumption) but it does baffle me why they don't sell the 64bit version when selling a system with 4GB+ of memory. Or at least give you the option seeing as the price is the same.
Man of Honour
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If you have a 32 bit OEM Key, am I right in assuming that you can use a 64 bit disc with it? It may be worth putting in the extra memory anyway, if it doesn't cost you anything, you can then use it with a 64 bit OS if you upgrade to one in the future.
It actually depends on the machine as to how much it will see. 32 Bit XP/Vista has a maximum address space of 4gb, but other things count towards the addressable space (PCI devices etc) so that all reduces the total for RAM.
If you put the 4gb in, you will probably see about 3.3~3.7gb of it. Whether that is going to make a difference for you depends on your usage. I use 2gb in my Win7 laptop (was on vista) with no problem for general day to day stuff, but if you're doing something RAM intensive (photoshop etc) then you may benefit from a few 100 more mb.
I dont believe you can use the 64 bit with a 32 bit key as they are sold as different products - I may be wrong though.
If you put the 4gb in, you will probably see about 3.3~3.7gb of it. Whether that is going to make a difference for you depends on your usage. I use 2gb in my Win7 laptop (was on vista) with no problem for general day to day stuff, but if you're doing something RAM intensive (photoshop etc) then you may benefit from a few 100 more mb.
I dont believe you can use the 64 bit with a 32 bit key as they are sold as different products - I may be wrong though.
I've seen this on a few forums too, one of which points to this Microsoft page as a source for a 64 bit disc.
Afraid I can't say whether it works or not...
As I said previously, the benefit you see will depend on your usage but generally more ram = more performance.
As an example, I have some servers with 4gb RAM installed - they will probably have a much larger address space than the average laptop and they see 3.5Gb