4GB of ram in vista

[Mr. Switch]

I know vista can recognize more then 2GB of RAm, unlike XP, but would I need to use vista 64 bit, or does my vista 32-bit support more then 2GB?

Reason I ask is because when i'm in lightroom or photoshop at the same time, my RAM usage is through the roof, and when I built my system, 2GB was alot.

 

[saltynay]

Start from scratch the difference of ram visibitity and usability is related to the way it has been configured. There are currently 2 different configs common to vista and xp these are 32bit and 64bit.

Xp is generally sold as 32bit as the 64bit was a flop due to thirdparty software designers being slow to utilise it. Xp 32bit can see 3.2gb of ram if there is 4gb of physical ram plugged in, there is a system allowance calculated that means 800mb is reserved for add-on cards like gfx. Xp 64bit has a limit of 128gb+ IRC.

The same rukes follow onto Vista with a 3gb system ceiling when in 32bit. There is really no reason not to go 64bit now unless a specific program can't run in the 64bit environment which are normally few and far between. You should be looking at 6gb of ram if using media editting a lot. You can upgrade to 64bit with the same serial as a 32bit version providing you have the retail edition, a disk can be found through the usual methods or you can call windows and pay a minimal charge for them to post you a disk.

 

[Trotter]

3.5GB is the ceiling of what your 32-bit Vista will be able to use. You can drop 4GB in it and lose the .5GB, but the additional 1.5GB will be a welcome addition with Photoshop.

 

[Mr. Switch]

ok, cool. Good to know.

Photoshop, lightroom, capture one, the three programs I use most, I know work on 64-bit systems, but what about games?

I don't play games much, but the ones I do play are pretty old.

 

[Kharn]

How old is old?

 

[Mr. Switch]

Unreal tournament, UT2004, Flight sim X (this one i'm not worried about), FEAR sometimes, Americas Army once in a blue moon, SCCT, umm, i dunno, most of the games I play are made around or prior to 2006.

 

[KSoD]

You can run that with no issues. I have run most of those games personally with 3GB of RAM with no issues at all.

 

[Mr. Switch]

Awesome, thanks

 

[pablo09]

or just w8 for the much better win 7 and stick with xp for now ha....