Hey all. Ive done some digging about and it seems common enough.

Just bought an extra 2GB of mem (had 2GB previously) for a Dell machine running Vista Premium.

Seems unless running 64 bit I have to live with this loss of 1GB? Is this correct? Are there any MS updates or configuration changes to be able to use the lost 1GB?

Cheers

Yes, it can only see 3. There are updates to let it see all 4GB, but you still cant use the extra GB.

Run Vista 64.

I just installed Vista SP1 and it now reports 4GB correctly. As you say though while reporting it, it doesnt mean its using it.

I dont think running Vista 64 is an option unfortunatly. Out of interest though, do you? How do you find it with everything you need to do? Compatibility etc.

Quote from: saynorI just installed Vista SP1 and it now reports 4GB correctly. As you say though while reporting it, it doesnt mean its using it.

I dont think running Vista 64 is an option unfortunatly. Out of interest though, do you? How do you find it with everything you need to do? Compatibility etc.

Yes, Vista 64 here, for quite a while now. Everythings perfect as far as stability and driver support is concerned. One or two programs have to be run in XP SP2 compatibility mode, but again - they run perfectly after that. If you were looking to upgrade, Id recommend researching your systems compatibility thoroughly, but if its all good then just go for it.

But then again, unless youre running a bunch of VM systems or 3dStudio Max, 64 bit and 4Gb+ wont make a blind bit of difference.

Dont worry about it for the next 9 months and just go about your business as usual.

Quote from: Porch MonkeyBut then again, unless youre running a bunch of VM systems or 3dStudio Max, 64 bit and 4Gb+ wont make a blind bit of difference.

Dont worry about it for the next 9 months and just go about your business as usual.

Have you actually experienced the difference for yourself? I have, and its noticeable.

Bottom line is, if youve got 4GB you might as well upgrade to 64bit now (if you can) - its the future. Why delay?

Windows XP and vista use certain areas of memory for storing variables and such like, they arent accessible as normal memory. TBH Im surprised they havent sorted this out as yet by a get around, or using it as hard disk cache or ramdisk. Paging memory over lower areas would also be an obvious solution.

Ive got farms currently running mem trackers for 32 and 64 bit machine on WIndows xp, vista, Redhat, suse and solaris.

In my opinion there still arent enough programs that can actually usefully use the extra memory.

Beyond 3Gb Vista does nothing with the extra memory, SP-1 (from the Microsoft notes) doesnt change the memory usage it only changes the reporting. It also maps video card memory into the same registers so if youve got 512 Mb ram on your graphics card youll lose that much from the top end of your 4Gb.

Even Adobe has gone on record to say they arent focusing on 64 from their packages as the extra memory handling doesnt make a difference for the time being.

64Bit memory registers currently allow you to run your 32Bit apps in dedicated 32-bit environment, but its effectively an emulated environment.

I agree 64 bit is the future but Id argue that the future is also not Vista therfore Id save the headache (and again my experiance is there are many) and go with a 32Bit os.

Assume youve got a 1GB video card or 2 512mb ones.

Youre stuck due to the memory mapping issues.