Using more than 3gb of ram with 32 bit windows vista/ 7

Simple Answer. Nope. The 32-bit version of all OS'es were designed long ago when 3.5GB of RAM was like what 128GB of RAM is today, i.e., unthinkable of. So, soon enough, all OS'es will move to the 64bit platform only to make use of a growing number of PC's with 4GB+ of RAM. Whatever you do, the 32bit OS wil at the most detect you RAM to be 4GB, but only 3.5GB max will be usable (although I think that the limit is 3.25GB). My advice : have both 32bit and x64 OS on your PC. Use x64 for resource heavy apps, while keep 32 for daily usage.

Have you heard of physical address extension(PAE)

Yes, I have heard of PAE, but I personally don't like the idea of it when 64bit OSes are available. Its not supported on Vista anyway.
*www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/platform/server/PAE/pae_os.mspx

XP x86 supports no more than 4GB on PAE
*msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms791485.aspx

My question is : x64 OSes have good driver support now. Also, many apps come in x64 mode and most games run in x64 mode, then why bother with x86 and PAE?

The only reason i'm bothering is cause the laptop i'm buying has 4 gb of ram and windows vista 32 bit. So with pae enabled i can use 4 gb of ram?

I don't know how exactly to answer your question. First, no single process in windows can use more than 2GB of RAM (at least thats what applies for 32bit OS, not sure about x64).
I think you can use 4GB RAM with PAE enabled in vista although it is not officially supported by M$. Anyway, here are some links to help you out.

*www.vistarewired.com/2007/03/29/how-to-enable-more-than-35-gb-of-memory-in-32-bit-windows-vista

*www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic93761.html

*forums.techarena.in/tips-tweaks/979407.htm

Read these too :

*forums.techarena.in/windows-vista-performance/983028.htm

*forums.techarena.in/vista-setup-install/614077.htm

I hope you understand what I mean. Best way is to get 64bit OS. You can get the OS *you know where*.

Ok so from whatever i have read i understand that pae is not a good option. So if i use 64 bit windows 7 will i be able to run games like fifa 2010( * you know from where i'll get these games *), nfs , cs, etc. So will these 32 bit games run without any problem in 64 bit os. And i will also be doing programing so i should be able to run dos stuff like turbo c3. Basically i want to know whether i will have any issues running my 32 bit programs mainly games on windows 7 64 bit.

I cannot guarantee anything man, that is just why I advised you to have a dual boot with the x64 OS being the secondary one. I think the games should be running fine, but just in case, keep a dual boot. If you are using resource heavy apps, use the x64 OS. Sounds good?

OFFTOPIC: Get PES 2010, instead of FIFA. I'm playing the PES2010 demo and it rocks.

ssk_the_gr8 said:

Ok so from whatever i have read i understand that pae is not a good option. So if i use 64 bit windows 7 will i be able to run games like fifa 2010( * you know from where i'll get these games *), nfs , cs, etc. So will these 32 bit games run without any problem in 64 bit os. And i will also be doing programing so i should be able to run dos stuff like turbo c3. Basically i want to know whether i will have any issues running my 32 bit programs mainly games on windows 7 64 bit.

Click to expand...

If we know that from where you will be getting the games then we also know that from where you can get a 64bit os .

@all.. take a look at this..

*2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEeIAMPyejQ/SQh2vInHcMI/AAAAAAAAAGw/WLgOdeiE_1U/s1600-h/Win7+Ram-1.jpg

Mere display AFAIK. I doubt if all the RAM is usable. In my friend's Win7, its displayed as 4GB Ram (3GB usable)

ssk_the_gr8 said:

The only reason i'm bothering is cause the laptop i'm buying has 4 gb of ram and windows vista 32 bit.

Click to expand...

Whatever brand u'r buying, ask the salesperson whether they'll upgrade u'r OS to a 64-bit OR whether the same model comes with a 64-bit OS option.
It shouldn't be too hard since the price difference in 32-bit and 64-bit isn't much.
Maybe, they'll charge u some extra and change u'r OS to 64-bit...
DELL does...

@g.goyal2000
Hp does not provide an option of 64 bit windows
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vamsi_krishna said:

@all.. take a look at this..

*2.bp.blogspot.com/_nEeIAMPyejQ/SQh2vInHcMI/AAAAAAAAAGw/WLgOdeiE_1U/s1600-h/Win7+Ram-1.jpg

Click to expand...

it displays the installed ram and not the usable ram. Check out the task manager to know the usable amount of ram.
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Techalomaniac said:

I cannot guarantee anything man, that is just why I advised you to have a dual boot with the x64 OS being the secondary one. I think the games should be running fine, but just in case, keep a dual boot. If you are using resource heavy apps, use the x64 OS. Sounds good?

OFFTOPIC: Get PES 2010, instead of FIFA. I'm playing the PES2010 demo and it rocks.

Click to expand...

i will be dual booting with linux. Now i'll have to triple boot . And i dont like the idea. And i will give pes a try once i buy the laptop.

My final doubt is whether ms dos stuff like turboc3 will run in 64 bit windows?