Hello Everyone, I purchased a new PC a month ago. It has the following spects - -Windows XP Media Center Edition (SP3) -Core 2 DUO 3GHZ -Gigabyte EP435-UD3L motherboard -4GB RAM (DDR2)(2 Sticks) -1TB HDD -Geforce GTX 275 graphics card -Sound Blaster Audi 2 -coolermaster power supply -so on... Now when I goto windows xp and see properties of my computer or when I run dxdiag, then the system shows 3.25GB RAM. But why is it showing that? I have 4GB of RAM. Is it okay or what can I do to rectify this ? (I have not many any bios changes or so.) Thank You, GR
Its cause your XP copy is 32bit and can only see a max of 4GB TOTAL Now you have 4GB ram then 868MB off your video card. So that means you can only see 3.25 as your video card is taking up the rest. If you want to solve this i would just wait a bit and switch to windows seven 64bit.
surprised Oh man I am surprised. Does this mean that a 32 bit OS whether its Win XP or Windows 7, the max RAM supported is 3.25GB. So if someone puts 6GB or 8GB or more RAM in his pc, then only 3.25/4GB will be used and rest is a waste. Is it true?
32-bit Vista/Windows 7 will show that you have 4GB of RAM install but I don't believe it will use it all. And yes if you put in 6GB or 8GB of RAM it is a waste on 32-bit OS. You need a 64-Bit OS You can enable PAE on your computer I believe it will show that you have 4GB installed
great Thanks a lot guys for your reply. Well I better stick to 32bit. 64bit os might be a problem as several applications do not run on that. I am sure of that. So then 3.25GB it is. Kool... learnt something new. Cheers...:banana:
greatchap - where do you get your information that some apps won't work in x64? I've been using x64 since my switch from XP and haven't found a single application or game that won't work... Fact is, x64 is the norm now, and x128 is the future - get used to it, because Windows7 is the last operating system to offer a 32bit choice. If you'd list the programs that you 'think' won't work, I'll look around (I have pretty vast resources including testing them myself) and see what I can come up with. Psychlone
The NT Compatible site has always been a good place to find out about x64 compatibility. You do have to be a bit careful there though, as some incompatibilities posted there were discovered early on, but have since been fixed, but their incompatibility listing not updated. The one and only game I ran into that wouldn't work was Dark Messiah. At the time, it's Starforce DRM was incompatible with x64. Perhaps there's now a patch for it that corrects that, but I have no idea. Luckily, I had already played the game under XP and was just looking to do a replay one day. The only application problem I've run into is Microsoft's (formerly systernal.com's) "PortMon" application which is software that lets you monitor traffic on the PC's serial ports. I use that at the office for some embedded software development. PortMon doesn't work under 64-bit at all. Can't really complain, as it's free. I'm surprised it's not been updated, though, as it's very popular amongst the engineering and embedded development crowd that need such a tool. The only x64 alternative Ive found is a particular software application from a 3rd party that costs something like $70, which is a bummer since the software is kinda bloated and doesn't work as well as the portmon freebie.
99% apps are compatible x64-x86 (i mean, you can use 32bits apps in 64bit OS), and the other 1% has alternatives . i would switch to 64bits INMEDIATLY.
Many of my games work in 64bit as well (mind you ive only installed 5 lol), the only problem I've seen so far is the patches for Splinter Cell Chaos Theory wont install. But I fixed that by copying the registry keys out of Windows 7 and inserting them into XP's registry (Dual boot), then applying the patch, then going back to Win7 to play the game. So keep 32bit Windows Dual booted to overcome these glitches. Just remember that in 64bit Windows, 32bit apps use the Wow6432Node registry path: 64bit OS = HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Ubisoft\[Insert game name here] 32bit OS = HKLM\Software\Ubisoft\[Insert game name here] and 32bit apps are installed in: 64bit OS: C:\Program Files (x86)\ 32Bit OS: C:\Program Files\
Do you get better gaming performance with 64 bit I am also running a 32 bit op system with 4 gigs of memory and I understand that it does not see it, So I was Thinking of a Quick and Cheap fix here . Would getting the 64 bit OS Help the Gaming performance of the system that I have now. or should I just save my money and wait and get a new MOBO and CPU later on ? Thank You for youre Time.
u have a good equipments so u better have a good system and win7 64-bit is the one 4 ya DX11- good performance - etc. and don't use the media center for a gaming reg use the ultimate hope i helped
I should make a quick note: The version of SC:CT that can be downloaded from Ubisofts site works on Vista64 (due to the removal of Starforce copy protection). The game itself works, just not the copy protection. But there are some programs that hate 64-bits due to various reasons. Also note that starting with Vista, 16-bit apps won't run at all in the 64-bit versions (I don't know about 32-bit 7 yet), which for some people makes such an upgrade unattractive. Worst case, keep a 32-bit XP Partition around.
Wile windows is limited to 4gb applications are not if PAE is enabled, If PAE is enabled then ram above 4gb is seen as virtual memory as PAE mode is 36bit and not 32bit virtual memory = ram >4gb & page file (swap file) If you disable your page file (swap file) then the only virtual memory you will have will be ram >4gb I use 6gb on XP32bit with PAE quite happily with most of my applications able to address ram above 3.25gb as virtual memory (how windows reports it) however the applications know its physical ram.
