how much ram i have?

As far I know 32bit OS can't access more than 3GB RAM. It has tat much address space only.

May b ur OS is 32 bit.


Wait for othr members 2 confirm.

ya its 32bit but as far i know 32bit support upto 4gb and if am wrong will windows 7 32bit support 4gb ram?

dare_devil said:

i just got my new dell studio 15 laptop with 4 gb ram, vista home premium, core 2 duo 2.1gh
now in system properties it show 4gb ram but in task manager, under performance tab it shows 3065 mb of physical memory, i have no idea what it is?
is there any problem with my system or dell gave me just 3gb ram and i paid for 4gb?

Click to expand...

Doubt DELL would make such a mistake, but yes it could happen. Before you start the RMA procedure, I would suggest...

1. Do a right-click on my computer and see the addressing BIT length of your OS. Vista is available in 32 and 64 bit variants. As mentioned above, if you have 32 BIT OS, it can only allocate ~3.2GB RAM. So technically you have 4GB of hardware, but the system will utilize ~3.2GB. The rest of memory is used else where. Since you have an original OS, you should be easily able to upgrade to 64BIT. I just read on the website, If you took the 'default' OS, you will get 32 BIT Vista. Read this.

You system will detect/use less then the 4GB installed because some critical components, also need to be assigned memory...being..

- System BIOS (including motherboard, add-on cards, etc..)
- Motherboards resources
- Memory mapped I/O
- Configuration for AGP/PCI-Ex/PCI
- Other memory allocations for PCI devices

2. Download CPU-Z from here. The 'memory' tab will show how much memory is available to the OS, and the 'SPD' tab will show the exact module size.

..By the way..great laptop...!

^^His system properties shows 4GB RAM.

Ths means he's nt a victim of hw spec cheating.

He actually hav 4GB of RAM.

But his task manager shows 3GB. Ths may b bcoz of 32bit OS.

@Dare Devil
Yes u r rite. Therotically 32bit OS can recognize upto 4GB RAM.

64 bit OS can use 8GB, actually it can use a hell of a lot more. From a technical standpoint, a 64 bit OS can use 16 exabytes (16 billion GB).

So in case of 32bit OS the limit is 4GB(theoritically). May b its not getting possible practically. Thats y he can see only 3GB of RAM.

According to Microsoft's own knowledge base article 929605, all 32-bit versions of OS support up to 4GB of memory, but the actual usable address space will be less than 4GB. The reason for this is that a section of the memory is set aside for memory map interfaces. This is generally a space that is set aside to ensure driver compatibility and the amount used will vary depending upon the devices installed in the system. Typically, a system with 4GB of RAM will report only 3.5GB of addressable space.




vista 32 bit can see up to 4GB installed
windows 7 32 bit will see up to 8GB
Stupid thing is both can only utilize 3 GB(As in this case)

k, so if get 64bit how much ram it can use? and is moving to 64bit good idea as i heard that 64bit still new and many software and games, drivers don't work on them, is it true?

With 64bit OS u can utilize upto 8GB of RAM. Ya u r rite. Many s/w r developed for 32bit OS. Its nt a gud idea to move to 64bit OS atleast for now until and unless u hav a 32bit Emulator installed.


Correct me if I'm wrong.
-----------------------------------------
Posted again:
-----------------------------------------
2^32 = 4,294,967,296 bytes
4,294,967,296 / (1,024 x 1,024) = 4,096 MB = 4GB


It’s different for 64-bit:
2^64 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,616
18,446,744,073,709,551,616 / (1,024 x 1,024) = 16EB (exabytes)


The problem with telling customers that with a 32-bit OS they can access 4Gb of memory, is that they take memory to mean RAM, and this can lead to some expensive mistakes as people buying PCs loaded with 4GB or RAM and a 32-bit OS, only to later realize they can’t make use of all the RAM they bought. I normally tell clients they can access about 3Gb of real RAM on a 32 bit OS. 3.0 to 3.5 GB is common. And with 64Bit OS practically u can use only upto 8GB of RAM.

krishnandu.sarkar said:

With 64bit OS u can utilize upto 8GB of RAM. Ya u r rite. Many s/w r developed for 32bit OS. Its nt a gud idea to move to 64bit OS atleast for now until and unless u hav a 32bit Emulator installed.

Click to expand...

64BIT applications come with 32BIT emulators.

"WoW64 (Windows-on-Windows 64-bit) is a subsystem of the Windows operating system that is capable of running 32-bit applications and is included on all 64-bit versions of Windows — including Windows 2000 Limited Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, IA-64 and x64 versions of Windows Server 2003, 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, as well as 64 bit editions of Windows 7. WoW64 is designed to take care of all the differences between 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows, particularly involving structural changes to Windows itself."

I am using a 64BIT OS. No issues so far. Only could not find drivers for my Sony Cyber shot....!

I think, you can move to a 64BIT OS, and utilize the complete RAM.

asigh said:

64BIT applications come with 32BIT emulators.

"WoW64 (Windows-on-Windows 64-bit) is a subsystem of the Windows operating system that is capable of running 32-bit applications and is included on all 64-bit versions of Windows — including Windows 2000 Limited Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, IA-64 and x64 versions of Windows Server 2003, 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, as well as 64 bit editions of Windows 7. WoW64 is designed to take care of all the differences between 32-bit Windows and 64-bit Windows, particularly involving structural changes to Windows itself."

I am using a 64BIT OS. No issues so far. Only could not find drivers for my Sony Cyber shot....!

I think, you can move to a 64BIT OS, and utilize the complete RAM.

Click to expand...

Thnx buddy...!! Didn't knew.....!!

Me too learned sumthng.


Well can u hlp me??
I hav Intel Pentium D 925 processor. Is it 64bit processor??
I searchd on intel it shows sumthing like supports Intel 64bit. But I'm not sure.

Does mobo meed nything to do with 64bit??

As far I know to run 64bit OS u need a 64bit Processor. Mobo has nothing to do with it.

Plz correct me if I'm wrong. And plz hlp regarding my processor query

krishnandu.sarkar said:

Thnx buddy...!! Didn't knew.....!!

Me too learned sumthng.


Well can u hlp me??
I hav Intel Pentium D 925 processor. Is it 64bit processor??
I searchd on intel it shows sumthing like supports Intel 64bit. But I'm not sure.

Does mobo meed nything to do with 64bit??

As far I know to run 64bit OS u need a 64bit Processor. Mobo has nothing to do with it.

Plz correct me if I'm wrong. And plz hlp regarding my processor query

Click to expand...

You can run 64BIT OS..yes, on you processor.