Vista 32bit Ram question

dousland70

dousland70

dousland70

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Hi

I currently have a Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit , 4gb ram and a 3870x2 1gb graphics card.

Now i know that the 32bit os only address's 3gb ram max but where does that leave my 1gb of ram on my graphics card ? does that mean that my graphics card is not using the full 1gb of ram ?
 
Your GFX card RAM will still be used as normal, only system RAM available to the system is affected by the 32bit limitation which is why if you add a GFX card with more ram then the available system ram decreases to accommodate this and gfx card ram remains constant.

It’s worth noting that if you have 4GB RAM and wish to go 64bit to make use of that extra 4GB RAM then you will also need to get more RAM to see the benefits in real world use since 64bit is larger in general it uses more RAM in general over 32bit so any gains on 4GB going from 32 to 64bit are quickly lost due to the extra RAM 64bit accommodates.
 
Just so you're aware, you're only utilising under 3GB of your RAM. I seriously suggest you go x64.

Edit Ahh, I thought there were two cards in crossfire.

Burnsy
 
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dousland70 said:
Now i know that the 32bit os only address's 3gb ram max
Click to expand...

Hello dousland70, just a small clarification from what you have said above. A 32-bit system isn't in definite limited to being able to only address 3GB, it depends very much on the systems hardware configuration that ultimately decides how much physical memory the system will be able to address.
 
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thanks for your replys , the info is very helpful.

I guess il be upgrading to Vista 64bit before i even think about upgrading
graphics card
 
dousland70 said:
thanks for your replys , the info is very helpful.

I guess il be upgrading to Vista 64bit before i even think about upgrading
graphics card
Click to expand...

You do realise that if you have a Vista licence, you are entitled to both 32 and 64 bit versions (although not at the same time)

Burnsy
 
Nope you don't. Just borrow a friend's retail Vista DVD and install using your OEM product key. It will install 64bit of whatever version you had on 32bit.

I did this with Ultimate 32bit OEM this week.
 
As has been said, no you don't need to by a new licence. Get a copy off a friend or look in the sticky for details of how to order media from Microsoft.

Burnsy
 
just 'get' a 64 bit disc, choose HP when installing and it'l work fine (and be legal)

download 64bit drivers for everything before hand to make it smoother :)
 
home premium

took me a while to work it out, thouhg everyone had hewlard packard vista discs for a bit :p
 
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