Source: Tom's Hardware UK – Keywords: Microsoft, Windows, Vista
Categories: Hardware
Windows Vista with 8 GB
Throughout the history of personal computers, RAM has always been something of a rare commodity, a luxury even. Only a few years ago, ever reaching the memory limit of 4 GB possible under a 32-bit operating system was completely unthinkable. But then, at one time 640 KB were considered enough for anyone. Times change. Right now, DDR2 memory is as cheap as it’s ever been, and equipping your PC with 8 GB will only set you back about €135.
The benefit of having 8 GB of system memory is that the OS has to access the hard drive far less frequently, making Vista feel much snappier. However, several settings in the BIOS and the operating system need to be changed in order for the system to be able to take advantage of that much RAM. Vista 64 still faces a few challenges, not the least of which is often a lack of drivers. At least most standard applications run without issues. On the other hand, none of the current generation of applications can come even remotely close to utilizing the maximum amount of memory installable.
Most users will have a sobering moment after equipping their systems with 4 GB of RAM. Only 3 GB are recognized by the BIOS and by Windows. This is neither a bug nor due to any hardware error. The explanation is simple. 32 bit systems can only address up to 4 GB of memory. Additionally, many add-in cards and on-board controllers require memory addresses in order to be accessible. This is called “Memory Mapped IO” (MMIO). Since this memory range has to lie within the 4 GB, it is subtracted from the installed and available RAM.
Thanks to a technique called memory remapping, it is possible to move around parts of the system memory in such a way that the full 4 GB are still available for use. The trouble is that this feature had to be deactivated in Windows Vista due to compatibility issues.
In order to be able to utilize the entire system memory, you will therefore need to use a 64 bit version of Windows Vista. In this article, we will take a look at memory usage under the 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows Vista and analyze how the operating system behaves with different amounts of RAM.
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if you have an Vista Key just get an Vista 32 dvd or an vista 64 dvd
I've been using 8GB with Vista for a while now. I can play Crysis or CoD4 whilst simultaeneoulsy video encoding in the background without a single stutter... very smooth. Well worth the money IMHO.
so the essence of the story is, 8gigs of ram makes your computer run faster. theres a surprise
There should be a bench marks showing how big a performance increase you get as opposed to 1gb, 2gb and 4gb. Sure it might be cheap to do, but is it worth the hassle of spending the money, waiting for the order, installing the ram and doing the necessary tweaks?
I like the charts on the max supported ram per OS, but you need to show the user why they may need 8gb of ram, instead of "because you can" being the reason.
I agree with joedastuff, what I'd like to know is why getting 8GB is worth it when compared to 4GB, not 2GB or less. 4GB has been proclaimed the "sweet spot" for Vista a while ago, so why would we go for the extra 4GB, especially considering we'll have to re-spend our money on DDR3 if we decide to upgrade a year or two from now?
tsebbens' comment is pretty encouraging though. Encoding and gaming are two things I do quite often. But the fact that you can do both at the same time really a consequence of the 8GB or RAM or is it due to the processor (I'm guessing it's a quad?)?
(It's joedastudd, obviously. Sorry, Joe, this was not intended as a low blow to your masculinity
)
Hello, I'm new to the forum but have read articles on this board for years.
My question is, where does readyboost fit in. I have vista home premium 32bit with a Q6600, and a 2 GB USB for ready boost. About to swap it with a 4 GB readyboost stick, will an 8 GB USB make a difference??
there be no speed boost haveing more ram
what more ram does is prevent Slow downs due to running low on ram so pageing happens
allso one other Point that is an small error about going past 4gb on an 32bit program it cant happen
if it gets correted an 32Bit program can only allocate 4gb of VM space even with 8gb of ram No page file would be used at all as the program can only use 4gb of space (in games i have only seen this happen on Supreme commander when there is an High amount of units on the map can use quite alot of ram or allacate alot of Vm space taht can be fixed by patching the game.exe file to make it support Large mode so it can use upto 4gb {default is norm only 2gb})
readyboost sucks once you got more then 1gb of ram (2gb installed or more) as it does nothing to speed things up as ram is faster then Flash and allways will be the Readyboost can give slower performace
as an test on my pc readyboost makes my games judder when ever the flash drive is accessed
note for toms Please add an edit button, you gone as far as make this look an little more usefull with quotes and reporting bad posts but Cant you Re link this to the fourms agane as no one realy uses this comment system much, allso some USA content is missing on the UK web site as well i have to switch between USA and UK to get both content