newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2005
- Messages
- 28,473 (4.07/day)
- Location
- Indiana, USA
| Processor | Intel Core i7 10850K@5.2GHz |
|---|---|
| Motherboard | AsRock Z470 Taichi |
| Cooling | Corsair H115i Pro w/ Noctua NF-A14 Fans |
| Memory | 32GB DDR4-3600 |
| Video Card(s) | RTX 2070 Super |
| Storage | 500GB SX8200 Pro + 8TB with 1TB SSD Cache |
| Display(s) | Acer Nitro VG280K 4K 28" |
| Case | Fractal Design Define S |
| Audio Device(s) | Onboard is good enough for me |
| Power Supply | eVGA SuperNOVA 1000w G3 |
| Software | Windows 10 Pro x64 |
i know this is an ancient thread, but still i haven't seen anybody giving a proper answer to the guy. first let me start by saying that sometimes there are legitimate reasons why you'd want to stick to the win32-bit version. two of the tools i use for work do not work with win7 64bit, no matter what you try. the only way i managed to make them work was by installing a windows xp virtual machine within win7 64 bit. talk about performance hits
secondly, and more importantly, there IS a way to let your 32-bit win7 use more memory - allegedly up to 64GB, but i only use 8, so i can only confirm it definitely works up to 8 GB, with each inidividual application still being limited to 4 GB. once you install this patch (even though your antivirus will probably report is as a virus and advise you not to install it), you will be able to see (in system properties, task manager) the full amount of your memory.
http://www.bcastell.com/tech-articles/enabling-more-than-4-gb-of-ram-under-windows-7-32-bit/
i have not witnessed any performance losses, my machine works just as good as it did when i only had ~ 3GB of memory enabled... the only difference is that i can feel and see that it's been using the hard drive virtual memory page file much less... the reason has to be that now i have the full 8 GB of memory at my disposal
Yes, that patch will allow you to use more then 4GB of RAM, it also causes issues with some drivers. It is a use at your own risk thing, but by default PAE won't enable more than 4GB in desktop versions of Windows without using a patch like this. Microsoft did this, obviously, to prevent all the support calls from peoples hardware not working.
I'd just leave PAE on, but the difference will be negligible.