# Memory size controlled by CPU?



## lordjohn (Oct 2, 2012)

from first gen i processors, intel states max memory size on the website for each processor, is that meaning max memory size is controlled by cpu not mainboard?

I have a x58 with i7 960, now have 6x4gb, mainboard can go up to 48gb, but i7 can go only 24gb, if so, why board manufacture make such 48gb for?

other from intel, I have a 990fxa with 8120, since amd does not say any max memory size, does it mean I can put 4x8gb on it to get 32gb according to the mainboard?

Thanks in advance.


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## Deleted member 3 (Oct 2, 2012)

The memory controller is on the CPU thus the CPU determines maximum addressable memory.


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## lordjohn (Oct 2, 2012)

*amd and intel both have MC on cpu?*



DanTheBanjoman said:


> The memory controller is on the CPU thus the CPU determines maximum addressable memory.



thanks
but if amd also have the MC on cpu why amd does not states max memory size, and why x58 board can hold up to 48gb since there is no 1366 cpu can go for 48gb


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## Aquinus (Oct 2, 2012)

Maybe? I've read a lot of people say if the board supports it, you're good to go.

I found this too.


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## FordGT90Concept (Oct 2, 2012)

There is a hardware limit to what CPUs will support because even though a processor may have x86-64, it does not necessarily have the capacity to address 64-bits worth of memory.  It might only be 40-bits (1.1 TB), for example.

Besides that strict limit, I think most mainboard/CPU manufacturers only give a tenative amount for "maxmium memory."  That is, they take the largest module size available to them (today, that is 8 GiB), test it, and then advertise it as such.  If you exceed the amount due to advancements in memory density, it may work but is officially unsupported for legal purposes.  They can't stand behind a claim they can't test when they launch the product.


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## lordjohn (Oct 3, 2012)

*Thanks*



Aquinus said:


> Maybe? I've read a lot of people say if the board supports it, you're good to go.
> 
> I found this too.
> http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9499/48gbonx58.jpg



Thanks
that means I can go for 48gb? very cool, thanks


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## cadaveca (Oct 3, 2012)

lordjohn said:


> Thanks
> that means I can go for 48gb? very cool, thanks



No ,what it mewans is that they do not support that configuration. Could be like PCIe 3.0 on X79..some CPUs support it, others, not so much.

Of cours,e we can overclock no problem, and technically, adding more memory might create a situation that requires a significant voltage boost to stay stable.


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## lordjohn (Oct 3, 2012)

*thanks*



cadaveca said:


> No ,what it mewans is that they do not support that configuration. Could be like PCIe 3.0 on X79..some CPUs support it, others, not so much.
> 
> Of cours,e we can overclock no problem, and technically, adding more memory might create a situation that requires a significant voltage boost to stay stable.



I think I will buy 4x8gb and try, if not working on my x58, I can use them for my 990fxa, I think 8120+990fxa can take 4x8gb, right?


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 3, 2012)

lordjohn said:


> I think I will buy 4x8gb and try, if not working on my x58, I can use them for my 990fxa, I think 8120+990fxa can take 4x8gb, right?



970/990 support 32 GB of ram


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## lordjohn (Oct 3, 2012)

*Thanks*



eidairaman1 said:


> 970/990 support 32 GB of ram



990fx can go for 32gb, does 8120 go for 32gb?

like x58 can go for 48gb, but 960 can only go for 24gb(on ask.intel)


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 3, 2012)

lordjohn said:


> 990fx can go for 32gb, does 8120 go for 32gb?
> 
> like x58 can go for 48gb, but 960 can only go for 24gb(on ask.intel)



i guess you didnt have your question answered, Yes it can, its board dependent actually


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## OneMoar (Oct 3, 2012)

generally the less DIMM slots in use the better


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## lordjohn (Oct 4, 2012)

*Thanks*



eidairaman1 said:


> i guess you didnt have your question answered, Yes it can, its board dependent actually





cadaveca said:


> No ,what it mewans is that they do not support that configuration. Could be like PCIe 3.0 on X79..some CPUs support it, others, not so much.
> 
> Of cours,e we can overclock no problem, and technically, adding more memory might create a situation that requires a significant voltage boost to stay stable.





FordGT90Concept said:


> There is a hardware limit to what CPUs will support because even though a processor may have x86-64, it does not necessarily have the capacity to address 64-bits worth of memory.  It might only be 40-bits (1.1 TB), for example.
> 
> Besides that strict limit, I think most mainboard/CPU manufacturers only give a tenative amount for "maxmium memory."  That is, they take the largest module size available to them (today, that is 8 GiB), test it, and then advertise it as such.  If you exceed the amount due to advancements in memory density, it may work but is officially unsupported for legal purposes.  They can't stand behind a claim they can't test when they launch the product.





Aquinus said:


> Maybe? I've read a lot of people say if the board supports it, you're good to go.
> 
> I found this too.
> http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/9499/48gbonx58.jpg





DanTheBanjoman said:


> The memory controller is on the CPU thus the CPU determines maximum addressable memory.





OneMoar said:


> generally the less DIMM slots in use the better



Thanks everyone for help. I will wait a bit for ram to drop more, and go get 4x8gb to try on x58, if it works, go get another 2x8gb, and it will be 48gb, if the first try failed, i can use the 4x8gb on my 990fxa.
Thank you very much.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 4, 2012)

lordjohn said:


> Thanks everyone for help. I will wait a bit for ram to drop more, and go get 4x8gb to try on x58, if it works, go get another 2x8gb, and it will be 48gb, if the first try failed, i can use the 4x8gb on my 990fxa.
> Thank you very much.



x58 platform is a triple channel configuration, youd need 3/6/9/12


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## newtekie1 (Oct 4, 2012)

lordjohn said:


> and why x58 board can hold up to 48gb since there is no 1366 cpu can go for 48gb



There are probably 1366 Xeon CPUs that work with that board that support 48GB.


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## lordjohn (Oct 5, 2012)

*cool*



newtekie1 said:


> There are probably 1366 Xeon CPUs that work with that board that support 48GB.



That maybe the answer, I never think of that, thanks


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## lordjohn (Oct 5, 2012)

*thanks*



eidairaman1 said:


> x58 platform is a triple channel configuration, youd need 3/6/9/12



x58 works with both dual channel and triple channel


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## btarunr (Oct 5, 2012)

eidairaman1 said:


> 970/990 support 32 GB of ram



No, it depends on the CPU installed, and later, the number of DIMM slots there are. Zambezi IMC supports 32 GB. Future Vishera IMC could support 64 GB. Trinity IMC already supports 64 GB.

As for LGA1366 platforms, I think Bloomfield IMC supports up to 24 GB, and Gulftown IMC up to 48 GB.


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## Aquinus (Oct 5, 2012)

btarunr said:


> As for LGA1366 platforms, I think Bloomfield IMC supports up to 24 GB, and Gulftown IMC up to 48 GB.



I've read cases where the 920 will run 6 sticks of 1333 and will sometimes do 48Gb. It's not supported but there are reported cases that it works.


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 5, 2012)

btarunr said:


> No, it depends on the CPU installed, and later, the number of DIMM slots there are. Zambezi IMC supports 32 GB. Future Vishera IMC could support 64 GB. Trinity IMC already supports 64 GB.
> 
> As for LGA1366 platforms, I think Bloomfield IMC supports up to 24 GB, and Gulftown IMC up to 48 GB.



you have proof of that cuz 890fx boards only supported 16 gb.


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## Pehla (Oct 6, 2012)

unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache i have no clue why u want so much memory instaled!!
i think 16gb i waaay more then enough!!! 
what ur rich or something ??u dont know how to spend ur money??


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 6, 2012)

Pehla said:


> unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache i have no clue why u want so much memory instaled!!
> i think 16gb i waaay more then enough!!!
> what ur rich or something ??u dont know how to spend ur money??



ya know dude ease off


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## Aquinus (Oct 6, 2012)

Pehla said:


> unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache i have no clue why u want so much memory instaled!!
> i think 16gb i waaay more then enough!!!
> what ur rich or something ??u dont know how to spend ur money??



The other day I was using 14Gb out of 16Gb. :shadedshu


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## btarunr (Oct 6, 2012)

Pehla said:


> unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache i have no clue why u want so much memory instaled!!



Because for people whose rigs run 24x7, there's no such thing as too much RAM. Eventually, Windows caches everything it reads from the disk onto the memory (memory caching), until an application needs its space. So with say 48 GB of memory, you're practically running Windows, a couple of your favourite applications, and one or two big games completely off your RAM.


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## Frick (Oct 6, 2012)

I want more RAM.


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## Pehla (Oct 7, 2012)

btarunr said:


> Because for people whose rigs run 24x7, there's no such thing as too much RAM. Eventually, Windows caches everything it reads from the disk onto the memory (memory caching), until an application needs its space. So with say 48 GB of memory, you're practically running Windows, a couple of your favourite applications, and one or two big games completely off your RAM.


"unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache"


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 7, 2012)

An os loads data into ram cuz its faster. 





Pehla said:


> "unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache"


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## newtekie1 (Oct 7, 2012)

Pehla said:


> unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache i have no clue why u want so much memory instaled!!
> i think 16gb i waaay more then enough!!!
> what ur rich or something ??u dont know how to spend ur money??



The Xeons that support 48GB are workstation and server processors.  If you don't know why you need that much memory in those situations you should be on a tech website posting about why you would need that much memory.

Also, if you run virtual machines they eat up memory very quickly.  The server I just built for a local school that they are using to run virtual machines on for the students to practice setting up servers on runs 64GB of RAM, and provides 48 virtual servers each dedicated 1.25GB of RAM, so it sits at 60GB of uses memory at all times.


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## Derek12 (Oct 7, 2012)

Pehla said:


> "unles ur going to use ramdisk,or ramcache"



Or virtual machines, or a server or, running many heavy apps altogether or heavy professional video editing, there are many more reasons besides that.
I would like to have that RAM I hate disk thrashing


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## eidairaman1 (Oct 7, 2012)

With ram being a commodity item now why not max a machine out?


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## johnspack (Oct 7, 2012)

Nothing wrong with extra ram!  I do use disk caches,  and I run multiple virtual machines ect,  and 24gbs is actually not enough for what I do.  And ram is dirt cheap,  so why not?


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## Pehla (Oct 7, 2012)

newtekie1 said:


> The Xeons that support 48GB are workstation and server processors.  If you don't know why you need that much memory in those situations you should be on a tech website posting about why you would need that much memory.
> 
> Also, if you run virtual machines they eat up memory very quickly.  The server I just built for a local school that they are using to run virtual machines on for the students to practice setting up servers on runs 64GB of RAM, and provides 48 virtual servers each dedicated 1.25GB of RAM, so it sits at 60GB of uses memory at all times.


 look.. for all u arguing!!...the guy didnt mention any server or havy duty apps!! i know that profesional video and graphic editing need much ram!! i gues that is why intel maye extreme cpu...with quad chanel!!all i say for normal user u could spend money on other piece of hardware...,but then again..,he did mention in reply that money aint prob to him so  of u chill out!!peace..


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## newtekie1 (Oct 8, 2012)

Pehla said:


> look.. for all u arguing!!...the guy didnt mention any server or havy duty apps!! i know that profesional video and graphic editing need much ram!! i gues that is why intel maye extreme cpu...with quad chanel!!all i say for normal user u could spend money on other piece of hardware...,but then again..,he did mention in reply that money aint prob to him so  of u chill out!!peace..



We aren't arguing, we are telling you what usage situations would need large amounts of RAM. He didn't saying anything about his usage, so that is why assuming he doesn't need that amount of RAM is just as bad as assuming he does. We aren't assuming he does need that amount of RAM, we are just saying what it could be used for, you are assuming he doesn't need that amount of RAM. I say leave it up to him to decide that for himself.


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## lordjohn (Oct 18, 2012)

*Thanks*



newtekie1 said:


> We aren't arguing, we are telling you what usage situations would need large amounts of RAM. He didn't saying anything about his usage, so that is why assuming he doesn't need that amount of RAM is just as bad as assuming he does. We aren't assuming he does need that amount of RAM, we are just saying what it could be used for, you are assuming he doesn't need that amount of RAM. I say leave it up to him to decide that for himself.





eidairaman1 said:


> An os loads data into ram cuz its faster.





Aquinus said:


> The other day I was using 14Gb out of 16Gb. :shadedshu





Frick said:


> I want more RAM.





btarunr said:


> Because for people whose rigs run 24x7, there's no such thing as too much RAM. Eventually, Windows caches everything it reads from the disk onto the memory (memory caching), until an application needs its space. So with say 48 GB of memory, you're practically running Windows, a couple of your favourite applications, and one or two big games completely off your RAM.





eidairaman1 said:


> you have proof of that cuz 890fx boards only supported 16 gb.



Thanks for the help and understanding, I just ordered 16gb and now it is total 32gb, 8x2, 4x4. it is working both in bios and windows. will try some more and let you know the result.

BTW: I use it for Machine Learning. so ram is never enough. I hope to get a xeon 5500 and get 144gb of ram but don't have that money.

new updates, now it is 40gb, 8x4, 4x2, it works, pass mem test 86, no extra heat for cpu. all 40g recognized in windows.


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