Why 4gb of Ram

Richiev4 · 14 Mar 2008 at 09:20

Hi All

As I understand it, 32bit OS's cannot see more than 3gb of ram, So why do Dell put/offer 4gb Ram in there laptops?

It is possible that you may want to upgrade to a 64bit OS but the vast majority of people probably won't.

Just wanted to know if there is any benefit?

Thanks

Rich

craptakular · 14 Mar 2008 at 09:45

People who want 4gb ram will choice a 64 bit os. I noticed the difference on my desktop, especially with bf2 and encoding tasks. It means I can encode an avi and play bf2/css/cod4 at the same time no problem, having a quad core is great too.

Richiev4 · 14 Mar 2008 at 09:47

Thanks Oxy, are you running a 64bit OS?

Edit: How well does 32bit software tun in a 64bit OS?

Thanks

Rich

craptakular · 14 Mar 2008 at 13:15

linux and windows are fine, avoied xp 64 bit

BruceLee · 15 Mar 2008 at 15:11

Richiev4 said:
Thanks Oxy, are you running a 64bit OS?

Edit: How well does 32bit software tun in a 64bit OS?

Thanks

Rich

My desktop dual core system is Vista 64bit and my laptop until today was Vista 32bit, I installed pretty much the same apps on both and never had any issues (bar a few very old games).

If you need the larger memory footprint 64bit allows then go for it, I just installed it on my laptop now as I never had any issues with it on the desktop system. It will install 32bit apps into their own folder, and any 64bit ones as normal.

I cant say I see any real performance differences between the 2, but being able to use more ram is always good.