Question regarding my system memory

This Side Up · 3 Mar 2009 at 20:57

Hi guys,

A weird one here I think, although hopefully easy to answer!!

My PC has 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, but in Windows, it only registers 3.5 GB of RAM. I am running Windows XP Home if that helps...

Could it be that Win XP Home can only see a certain amount of memory?

Cheers.

setter · 3 Mar 2009 at 21:01

Yep windows xp 32 bit or visa 32bit will only show up 3.25-3.5gb of ram, you need a 64 bit os to address all 4gb.

baldzone · 3 Mar 2009 at 21:03

My Vista 32 shows the full 4Gb. It was only after I installed service pack 1 iirc

Angst · 3 Mar 2009 at 21:08

baldzone said:
My Vista 32 shows the full 4Gb. It was only after I installed service pack 1 iirc

yeah its a patch they put in because they were fed up of explaining to people that it was only seeing that much but the rest of the memory was still there

This Side Up · 3 Mar 2009 at 21:19

setter said:
Yep windows xp 32 bit or visa 32bit will only show up 3.25-3.5gb of ram, you need a 64 bit os to address all 4gb.

Ah. That makes sense!

I'm in no real hurry to get me a 64 bit OS. I mean, there isn't going to be that much performance increase from 3.5 GB and 4 GB... right?

ekam · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:03

yh there cud be in my opinion with vista the more memory the better