Windows XP support 4 gig RAM

Hybrids

Hybrids

Hybrids

Associate
Joined
2 Oct 2003
Posts
937
Location
Cymru
Hi,

A work mate told me today that windows XP does not support up to 4 gig of ram. I thought XP does support 4 gig of ram, does anyone have good proof if it does or doesn't.

Thanks for any help,

Hybrids
 
Windows XP 32-bit supports 4GB of RAM but the amount that Windows will be able to address when you have 4GB of RAM is around the 3GB mark. The physical memory addresses are sub-divided to manage both the PCI memory address range also known as Memory Mapped I/O Device (MMIO) as well as the physical memory that you have installed in your system and this is the reason why windows always reports less than 4GB even though you have 4GB of physical RAM installed in your system.

The PCI memory addresses, which are assigned from a top to bottom manner, are used for things like the BIOS, network cards, PCI-Express and graphics cards. The largest chunk of addresses is used up by the graphics card which needs addresses for at least the amount of memory that is on the graphics card.

The result of this is that the system may allocate 512MB to as much as 1 GB maybe even more depending on your hardware configuration purely for the PCI memory addresses before any RAM (Physical Memory) addresses have even been allocated.
 
basically it will work fine, but won't use all the ram, usually uses between 3-3.5 gb of it max

same goes for vista 32bit
 
Fire Wizard said:
Windows XP 32-bit supports 4GB of RAM but the amount that Windows will be able to address when you have 4GB of RAM is around the 3GB mark. The physical memory addresses are sub-divided to manage both the PCI memory address range also known as Memory Mapped I/O Device (MMIO) as well as the physical memory that you have installed in your system and this is the reason why windows always reports less than 4GB even though you have 4GB of physical RAM installed in your system.

The PCI memory addresses, which are assigned from a top to bottom manner, are used for things like the BIOS, network cards, PCI-Express and graphics cards. The largest chunk of addresses is used up by the graphics card which needs addresses for at least the amount of memory that is on the graphics card.

The result of this is that the system may allocate 512MB to as much as 1 GB maybe even more depending on your hardware configuration purely for the PCI memory addresses before any RAM (Physical Memory) addresses have even been allocated.
Click to expand...

very helpful, thanks.
 
Ross1234 said:
whats the point in being here if your going to be lazy and not answer peoples questions.
Click to expand...

Actually he provided all the information the guy needed to know, all it required was the OP taking 5 minutes of his time to use his inititative and read said info on a quesiuton that has been answered 10'000 times on 1'000 forums that can be answered with a 2 second Google search. Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. :p.
 
This is what my XP Pro (Build 2600 +SP1) server registers with 4Gb (4 x 1Gb Corsair 800Mhz @ 900Mhz).

4gbxppc3.png
 
Richdog said:
Why haven't you installed SP2 on that mate?
Click to expand...

Don't need it mate, SP2 is pretty bloated imo and I'm perfectly capable of creating a secure network.
This server has been on 24-7 for a good few years without any problems.
(Obviously any serious security hotfix's are applied individually)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom