Old chestnut....more than 2 gig...32bit os.

tasslehoff

tasslehoff

tasslehoff

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11 Jan 2009
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Scouser in crappy Oldham
Firstly my specs...

Athlon64 x2 6000+
2gig pc6400 ddr2/800 (2x1gig)
Gainward gtx 260 gs

Winxp 32 bit
MSI k9n sli (nforce 570 chipset) mobo

Another 2 gigs of ram..is it worth it?? (I know about the memory mapping etc & how only so much of it will be used under a 32 bit operating system)....but newer games like GTA IV, seem to want a lot of memory for recommended spec...(over 2.5 gig)..

So I wondered if going over the two gig mark under a 32 bit system would make any difference with games like the above....(I know I could do with a quad core..but not replacing my mobo etc for the sake of a handful of games)

And assuming another couple of gigs may be better...

Also wondered if it would make any difference to speed etc as to HOW I got it to 4 gig? (4 banks of 1 gig or 2 banks of 2 gig?)



I did try putting 2x512mb of same spec mem along side my 2x1gig but the pc would'nt boot up.....so don't know whether it just didn't like the mix or the extra mem slots on my mobo are for another type of memory. (I doubt it as the pins are the same?) Mem slots..currently using orange slots...2 spare green slots.

TIA Andy.
 
If you put an extra 2gig in - atleast then applications that take a lot of memory have the full 2gig available - with the OS, etc. taking up some of the extra...

Its reccomended you put in matching sets i.e. 2x2gig or 4x1gig to keep dual channel, etc. happy even tho you won't see all of that memory - with memory so cheap it doesn't make sense to cheap out with 3gig and hope for the best.
 
I run with 4 1gb sticks and a 32 bit OS. Windows sees 3.5 of the 4GB. So for me although I am not getting the full benefit of 2GB, the extra sticks were worth it.
 
Tnx for the advice Rroff & Jeremy....May as well get round to buying some then...(have written down benchmarks for GTA IV so we shall see).

As I've 896megs of ram on my G-card..I suspect I'll see less than 3.5 gig as it will use more of the "4 gig" resources. What I read somewhere anyway.

Tnx again..Andy.
 
tasslehoff said:
Tnx for the advice Rroff & Jeremy....May as well get round to buying some then...(have written down benchmarks for GTA IV so we shall see).

As I've 896megs of ram on my G-card..I suspect I'll see less than 3.5 gig as it will use more of the "4 gig" resources. What I read somewhere anyway.

Tnx again..Andy.
Click to expand...
Hi on XP 32 & a GTX 260 Graphics card, I see 3.072 GB
It is worth getting for newer games & you can always get Windows 7 64 later this year to see all 4GB
 
If GTA IV is the game you are most concerned about, 4G of RAM won't make a huge difference. GTAIV is a bad console port, which relies heavily on CPU grunt. It is much faster on a quad core. Graphics wise, GTAIV would run very well on your GTX260 (if you have a quad core), in fact the 260 is overkill for GTAIV except for the shadow detail option, where you need at least 1G of VRAM for the higest setting.

As for the 2G vs 4 question, a single 32 process in windows can only be allocated 2G or RAM. However as the OS wants RAM as well, having 3G is good. Because you have a dual channel memory controller, it's normally easier to get 2 2G sticks, and accept that you will only see 3-3.5G of it.
 
Worth pointing out that windows 7 32bit (if they even make that) will still have the 4G upper limit on RAM...
 
Cheers for the replies all.....Got the ram today....shows up as 3 gig..(as expected...where's my extra .072???!! :) ). As for GTA....no not much difference there.....Oblivion...either the "loading area" bits seem more seemless...or it's my imagination. Apart from that...can't say how I would notice much difference (ok only tried two games) as most things run fine as is. But early days yet.

Windows 7...think I'll wait & see how games etc run on it first....especially 64 bit.

GTA again....yeah it did make me decide to get more ram...was thinking of just overhauling the mobo/cpu to a quad core, but most reviewers when commenting on their new quad core seem to comment on how fast it makes either gta or crysis...just seems a waste of time for a couple of games...

Currently running GTAIV on 1280*1024 (monitor restricted) all settings high....except no shadows (Can't stand the effect) distances notched up to a quarter or half...runs fine...benchmark was averaging 38 so can live with that...(gone off topic a bit here :\ )

Tnx again for input...Andy.
 
The amount of ram you get with 4GB of memory in a 32bit windows depends on many things, how much the GPU's frame buffer takes up (which isnt quite the same as the GPUs total ram), how much any PCI / PCIe cards reserve etc (Lan cards often take a few blocks), space reserved for ROM/EPROM/BIOS chips etc.

At the end of the day its a a random number between 2.5GB and 3.5GB left after the hardware has taken its requirements.

Except for Microsoft SQL server which is programed to make use of more than 2GB of "user space" ram, the vast majority of programs will never take more than 2GB of physical ram. However having >2GB does mean that the full 2GB is available more often, as windows / virus scanners / spyware :P can take some memory, while still leaving enough spare for a single app to grab 2GB for itself.

64Bit windows pushes the barrier, with 32bit applications being able to take 4GB without any additional coding (well there is a complier flag that needs setting to break the 2GB limit, but many apps have that), and 64bit "native" applications can basically use as much ram as you have installed. Windows 64bit "Ultimate" edition is limited to 128GB though, lesser versions having lower caps. But these are artificial caps put in by microsoft.
 
Oops I was only joking about the .072 bit if that's what prompted your reply..(but tnx for going into detail all the same :)

"limited to 128gb"....I remember my first pc..upgrading it from 4 meg to 8 megs....how huge it seemed at the time....Think we'll have no choice but to go 64 bit in the near future..else there is no further memory upgrade. Tnx again..Andy.
 
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