Will a Gfx card limiy windows memory?

Sweetloaf

Sweetloaf

Sweetloaf

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If XP 32 bit can only cope with a total of 4Gb will having a 1Gb Gfx card lower the available RAM for windows?

I have 4Gb system memory (currently seen as 3Gb due to a 512Mb pagefile and a 512mb Gfx card.)

Or is video RAM taken out of the equation?

Noobish I know but I have no idea how this works.:D
 
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If you currently see 3GB with a 512MB card then you will only see 2.5GB with a 1GB card
 
Kennysevenfold said:
cant you go x64.?
Click to expand...

I feel that may be more trouble than it's worth, I could reduce the pagefile to 100mb or so and allow it's size to be controlled by window upto 512mb I don't think the pagefile would see much action and 100mb less system memory really won't be noticable.
 
if you have vista you dont have to pay for another licence, your licence will cover you for both x32 and x64 :p

and with 4gig of ram and a 1gig graphics card i think it would be well worth it, especially if you back up your data and do a clean install, will be super fast :p
 
wait, so your video RAM is affected by the limitations of the 32 bit OS in that it includes it in the 3gb of RAM that is recognised by windows 32 bit?

i thought 2gb of RAM in sli gtx 280s would have been independent from the 3gb RAM i have for the system... so are you guys saying that even if i have 3GB of RAM and 2GB of GPU then windows will still only recognise 3GBs overall and the 2GBs in my GPU are lost?? or am i getting the wrong end of the stick??
 
As far as I can tell, Windows XP 32bit is capable of seeing 4GB total RAM.

So I have a 512mb pagefile, a 512mb Gfx card and 3Gb of my physical 4Gb RAM available foe use.

If I disabled the Pagefile I think I would see 3.5Gb etc etc.

I have been known to be wrong in the past though :)
 
That makes no sense.
I had 4Gb, a 512Mb PCI-e card and 6Gb of pagefile.... yet Windows could see 3.25Gb
I did have a 256Mb aperture size..... 4Gb - 512Mb - 256Mb = 3.25Gb???
 
Got to remember the cache memory on the cpu and hdds/optical drives, but combined they will probably be less than a 100mb, unless you have lots of hdds.
 
damn, so with sli gtx 280s and 3gb of triple ddr3, the 2gb in my GTXs is wasted?

edit: damn, i knew about this issue with 32 bit but i didnt think the RAM in sli would chew into the address space.... i guess im gonna have to upgrade to Vista 64 soon :(

how would it work with sli-GTX 280s and 3gb or RAM in vista 32? would it just use 2gb of onboard RAM and 1GB of GPU? im gutted!

EDITII: does anyone know how you go about upgrading Vista 32 to 64? my disk does say 'includes windows anytime upgrade' but then says 'this disk only contains 32 bit software'....
 
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arghh, i thought it would be easy to claim my free copy of 64 bit vista!! nightmare... seems quite hard to find out how to get it!

i guess i could try and find someone with Vista 64, im told the key is the same for both versions... if anyone knows how i can claim my free copy of Vista 64 bit please let me know.
 
It doesn't affect your graphics RAM at all. It eats into the system RAM. Thus, with two 280s, and 3GB of RAM, on a 32-bit OS, you will only see 1GB of system RAM.

I'd quite like to see what would happen on a 4GB system with two 4870X2s, both with 2GB of RAM each. Would the OS even boot, with no system RAM available?
 
Keltik THC said:
im gutted, i thought getting my 'free' upgrade from Vista 32 to 64 would be easy... i dont want to use Vista 64 but it seems a bit pointless having 2x GTX 280s and 3gb of DDr3. without it...
Click to expand...

I'd rather drop from 3GB to 2.5GB than go anywhere near Vista, just my preference because of my needs mind you.
 
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