# Any problems with 4GB in 32 bit Vista/XP besides only ~3.2GB?



## Water Drop (Jan 21, 2008)

I am gonna build a new system soon and I plan on dual booting XP Pro 32 Bit and Vista Ultimate 32 Bit (for now).  Eventually I will dual boot XP 32 bit and Vista 64 bit.  I am wondering if there is any problems having 4GB of ram in 32 bit Vista or XP.  I know that you can only see about 3.2GB or whatever it is in a 32 bit OS, but I want to know if any other issues will arise.  Is performance better with 4GB (2x2GB or 4x1GB) in 32 Bit Windows XP/Vista than with 2GB (2x1GB) or is it about the same?  Anyone have 4GB and running a 32 Bit OS that could let me know?

If anyone cares this system will be using a P35 board, a Core 2, and a 8800GT.


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## ShadowFold (Jan 21, 2008)

If you have to do 4gb do 2gb x 2.. 4x 1gb = less performance(no dual channel) and cant OC them very well.


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## erocker (Jan 21, 2008)

You certainly can run 4 x 1gb sticks in dual-channel!


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## Steevo (Jan 21, 2008)

When you excede the 2GB boundary for a 32bit OS like XP the page table double in size and it will cause a slowdown in access to the memory. You can however add a switch like "/burnmem 2000" to your boot command line and limit XP to 2GB of ram access, still allowing it 1GB for kernel addressable space, plus whatever is on your video cards.


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## ShadowFold (Jan 21, 2008)

erocker said:


> You certainly can run 4 x 1gb sticks in dual-channel!



Theres quad channel now??


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## Homeless (Jan 21, 2008)

It's not a problem with seeing 4gb of ram, it's allocating it.  As you already know, a 32 bit OS cannot handle 4 gigs of ram, but I don't think any issues should arise by having that much.  I believe it is better to run two sticks of ram opposed to four as four sticks is forced to run in 2T (my info may be a little dated)


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## erocker (Jan 21, 2008)

No the two sticks in channel A will run dual channel, and the two sticks in channel B, will run dual channel.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 21, 2008)

It's not quad channel, it's symmetric and asymmetric dual channel. Quad channel won't be out until Nehalem IIRC.


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## Water Drop (Jan 21, 2008)

Well yes I plan on doing 2x2GB most likely so I can keep the other slots free for 8GB later on


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## Water Drop (Jan 25, 2008)

Is 32 Bit Vista much better at handling 4GB of ram then 32 bit XP?


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## Solaris17 (Jan 25, 2008)

JrRacinFan said:


> It's not quad channel, it's symmetric and asymmetric dual channel. Quad channel won't be out until Nehalem IIRC.



though quad channel is currently available on workstation boards.


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## strick94u (Jan 25, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Theres quad channel now??



Some boards can run dual channle with all slots filled my 680i says it can my old 939 will only run dual channle with 4 sticks of ram that match if you use 2 it will run single. It depends on the board.


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## JrRacinFan (Jan 25, 2008)

Solaris17 said:


> though quad channel is currently available on workstation boards.



Thanks for the correction. Sometimes I do need to be smacked around ... LOL


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## CrackerJack (Jan 25, 2008)

i once had 4gb (4x1gb) on my sapphire board. which it made a little bit of a difference. they ran i dual channel. i couldn't oc the ram no more than 215. I had to run the cpu at 220 and just the ram to 200. but even then the ram would run at 215. i would crashes about every 2 to 3 hours. but at stock speeds there was no big difference in performance. I ran 3dmark05 and performance test.


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## Hitsugaya_Toushirou (Jan 26, 2008)

Well, theoretically a 32-bit OS does support 4GiB of RAM (2^32 = 4*1024^3) and from what i remember reading on another forum about this topic, people were able to allocate 4GiB of physical address space and get all 4GiB of RAM detected. My memory isn't too great so i don't remember in great detail but i do remember that you just had to turn on (or was it off) memory remapping (from the BIOS, i think it was). This allowed the people on that forum to get access to all 4GiB of RAM from 32-bit Windows XP/Vista and Linux OSs. If you wan't more than 4GiB of RAM you'll either have to get Windows 2003 Server Edition (which is 36-bit) or Windows XP/Vista 64-bit (Though 64-bit XP/Vista only support 128GiB of RAM even though the maximum capacity is much high, 2^64 bytes of RAM).

Just as a note in case you might not understand the 36-bit thing; Before Intel and AMD started producing 64-bit CPUs the CPUs before were in actual fact 36-bit CPUs, which had a maximum RAM of 64GiB (2^36 = 64*1024^3), which was used in the server editions(All 64GiB was detectable).


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## Deleted member 3 (Jan 26, 2008)

I'm running 4GB with 6 DIMM's currently, quad channel and on a 32bit OS. No issues here. Though hardware support is of course a requirement. The required PAE does include a performance hit though.


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## Morgoth (Jan 26, 2008)

JrRacinFan said:


> It's not quad channel, it's symmetric and asymmetric dual channel. Quad channel won't be out until Nehalem IIRC.



Nehalem desktop cpu's wil only support dual channel and triple channel (talking abouth Highend CPU's with intergrated memmory controller *LGA 1366*)
the server version wil support quad channel *Beckton*
DDR3 and higher


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

So would you guys say its worth going with 4GB if I'm mostly gonna run 32 Bit Vista?  Or should I stick with a 2GB kit for now?

Basically I want to know if 4GB of ram will be faster in games under Vista 32 Bit then 2GB of ram will be.  I plan on getting probably an E8400, a P35 chipset based board, and a 8800GT.


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## Morgoth (Jan 26, 2008)

go for 4gb if you use programms that use large amount of ram like game tools ect
i'm getting soon another 1gb for my system now i have 3gb but it wil limit me to around 3500mb
cus of 32bit only support 4gb maxium  inc videocard memmory


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## tzitzibp (Jan 26, 2008)

Morgoth said:


> go for 4gb if you use programms that use large amount of ram like game tools ect



I agree.... go for 4gb, prefferably 2x2gb. 

speed depends on memory timings and fsb....and voltage tolerance.


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## candle_86 (Jan 26, 2008)

ShadowFold said:


> Theres quad channel now??



if there is 4 slots on a dual channel board in effect yes if you want to think of it that way. There is 1 dual channel controller per 2 slots so with 4 you get 2 controllers. its still 128bit and as for problems with it that hasnt been an issue for intel ever and AMD after the E6 revision chips in 2005


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

Ok, thanks guys.  I will be going 2x2GB then.  I'm considering DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) kits.  I'm gonna try and get CAS4, but if its DDR2-1000 or so then I can see going CAS5 possibly.  I will be OCing the E8400 to hopefully around 4Ghz (unless I go for a Quad, which probably won't hit as high.  So what do you guys think?  OCZ Reapers, Patriot Vipers, G.Skill, or what would you recommend?  It's gotta work on a Gigabyte P35 board or possibly a Abit IP35/Pro, not sure quite yet.


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## tzitzibp (Jan 26, 2008)

Water Drop said:


> Ok, thanks guys.  I will be going 2x2GB then.  I'm considering DDR2-800 4GB (2x2GB) kits.  I'm gonna try and get CAS4, but if its DDR2-1000 or so then I can see going CAS5 possibly.  I will be OCing the E8400 to hopefully around 4Ghz (unless I go for a Quad, which probably won't hit as high.  So what do you guys think?  OCZ Reapers, Patriot Vipers, G.Skill, or what would you recommend?  It's gotta work on a Gigabyte P35 board or possibly a Abit IP35/Pro, not sure quite yet.



go for a 8400.... and oc the crap out of it....


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

Yeah that's what I was planing on.  Not sure about what kind of ram to get now.  

Patriot Viper DDR2-800 CAS4 (4GB, 2x2GB)
http://clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A4354088

What about these two OCZs?  Also same specs as the Patriots
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227270
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267

Theres some Geils that have the same specs too, the Estorias or something like that.  What's the best out there.  What do you recommend?


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## tzitzibp (Jan 26, 2008)

try to find Transend AXE 1200Mhz, or at least AXE 1066Mhz


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## trog100 (Jan 26, 2008)

i am running 4 gig with 4 sticks.. XP with no problems.. it only sees 3.2 gig but thats way more than it would see if i only had 2 gig..

its cheap so grab some.. 

trog


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

Can't find any good Transcend, here in the states, its all like 1GB sticks and such.   Seems I keep finding mostly Patriot, Geil, G.Skill, OCZ, and also a few Corsair kits.


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## tzitzibp (Jan 26, 2008)

Water Drop said:


> Can't find any good Transcend, here in the states, its all like 1GB sticks and such.   Seems I keep finding mostly Patriot, Geil, G.Skill, OCZ, and also a few Corsair kits.



G.Skill are great in terms of combatibility and not expensive


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

Does anyone know if any/which 4GB (2x2GB) ram use Micron chips?


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## krull (Jan 26, 2008)

mmmm
any one whith crush k8 (9??) 16gb adreseavle memmory s775 can say his cpu support.
xp64 & 16gb info? same 32bit prob? any knows?

other board whith 16gb adreseable (800 ddr2) no fb, and pci-e and latest cpu sup?

(recently look at 4gb kits and put 2....)


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## largon (Jan 26, 2008)

*Water Drop*,
Like any Micron DDR2 such as D9GMH/GKX (512Mbit), D9HNL (1Gbit) which can be found on some 1GB sticks are to be avoided as plague.


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

largon said:


> *Water Drop*,
> Like any Micron DDR2 such as D9GMH/GKX (512Mbit), D9HNL (1Gbit) which can be found on some 1GB sticks are to be avoided as plague.



Really?  I was always told to go with Micron D9 chips.  Why do you say to avoid them?


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## largon (Jan 26, 2008)

Just the exceptional rate of failure. 
Prolonged OC'ed operation even at vDIMM as low as 2.1v are known to cause Micron D9GMH/GKX based modules to degenerate to a point that each restart would require higher vDIMM.


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

Ok, so which 4GB (2x2GB) ram kits would you recommend?


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## largon (Jan 26, 2008)

Given the fact that all 2GB sticks are pretty lousy OC'ers there's only one quality to consider: 

_price_

G.Skill F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ
2x2GB for $115

And these sticks are performing quite nice indeed...


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## zCexVe (Jan 26, 2008)

32bit cant handle 4GB.U have to go 64bit for 4GB IIRC.I got 2 x 2GB OCZ Sli ready Edition DDR800 for 108$.from Frys.


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## Water Drop (Jan 26, 2008)

largon said:


> Given the fact that all 2GB sticks are pretty lousy OC'ers there's only one quality to consider:
> 
> _price_
> 
> ...


I was considering those for a while, but wasn't sure.


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## trog100 (Jan 27, 2008)

buy a cpu with a decent multiplier then u wont need super expensive ram and a super mobo to put it in.. 

it always amazes me when i see folks buying 40 dollar cpus then spending a fortune on a motherboard and over priced ram just to get the clocks they want..

its also very easy for all these forum advisor's to waste other peoples money..  its par for the course.. buy the best is easy when it aint coming out of your own pocket..

dream buyers is what i call em.. what they would buy "if".. 

trog


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## Water Drop (Jan 27, 2008)

trog100 said:


> buy a cpu with a decent multiplier then u wont need super expensive ram and a super mobo to put it in..
> 
> it always amazes me when i see folks buying 40 dollar cpus then spending a fortune on a motherboard and over priced ram just to get the clocks they want..
> 
> ...


Well I'm pretty much thinking $130 max on the ram, and $150 to $160 max on the mobo, and I'll be try and getting a E8400 (9x multi I believe).  

9x400 = 3600mhz , so if I do get DDR2-1000 then, 9x500 = 4500mhz 

Or I could run the ram at 450mhz and do 450x9 for a clockspeed of 4050mhz, a much more reasonable temp and speed.


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## trog100 (Jan 27, 2008)

yes the e8400 kinda breaks the rules it clocks that well. but by the time it gets held back by the ram or mobo the extra volts it needs to get anything out of the faster ram isnt much use..

mine on half decent but still cheap 800 ram hits 4.5 gig.. but it takes tooo many volts for anything other than quick benching.. 

i have settled on a nice 450 x 9 = 4 gig for 24/7 running..

so the 1000 ram aint gonna a help much..  its vcore that is gonna hold the e8400 back.. . 

if i had some faster ram and was prepared to bung 1.7 volts thru my e8400 i might hit 4.7 gig.. not a lot of real world use.. 

basically once u hit the 4.2 gig mark the volts need to go up big time for each little speed again.. once u hit 4.4 it gets silly.

trog

ps.. u dont need a super huge cooler  for the e8400 either.. heat isnt a problem just volts.. even without the heat i recon volts could kill the chip..


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