Vista and upgrades in RAM I've upgraded to 6gb please help ?

My point is that there is nothing in Windows that precludes use of any part
of the 4GB of installed ram. If the mobo manufacturer decided to write the
BIOS to use the 3rd GB range of absolute addresses instead of the 4th,
Windows would happily use the 1st, 2nd, and 4th GB's instead of the 1st,
2nd, and 3rd. The urban legend that Windows cannot use all 4GB is not true.

"jorgen" <na@invalid> wrote in message
news:OO%23BezpXIHA.4828@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>> Yes it can unless the BIOS is reserving addresses for something else like
>> device buffering, which on today's mobos is usually the case.
>
> Yes, but that is not realistic in the real world. All systems will use up
> some of the address space for MMIO.

Colin Barnhorst wrote:
> My point is that there is nothing in Windows that precludes use of any
> part of the 4GB of installed ram. If the mobo manufacturer decided to
> write the BIOS to use the 3rd GB range of absolute addresses instead of
> the 4th, Windows would happily use the 1st, 2nd, and 4th GB's instead of
> the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The urban legend that Windows cannot use all 4GB
> is not true.

You just make it sound like Vista can use all 4GB RAM. It cannot. It's
true, if you move the MMIO space, then another part of the RAM will be
unavailable, but the end result will be the same.

You also use the term "user programs", I'm not sure if that includes
things like the kernel, because it does.

Dwarf wrote:
> Hi Rick,
>
> Unless you are planning on moving to the 64-bit version of Vista, then I'm
> afraid you have wasted your money. A 32-bit system cannot access more than
> 4GB of RAM due to address limitations.

I just got Vista Ultimate on DVD where I can choose to install any
version, 32-bit or 64-bit. What are the advantages of 64-bit Vista? Can
it use mor RAM? Any drawbacks?

If you are unfamiliar with 64-bit OSs then install 32-bit. Vista x86 can
address up to 4GB of ram. Vista x64 can address up to 128GB.

The real answer to your questions lie in what software you use. You haven't
said anything about that. I use Vista Ultimate x64 and enjoy it very much.

"Dag Korsnes" <dkorsnes@start.no> wrote in message
news:6079p5F1os9nbU1@mid.individual.net...
> Dwarf wrote:
>> Hi Rick,
>>
>> Unless you are planning on moving to the 64-bit version of Vista, then
>> I'm afraid you have wasted your money. A 32-bit system cannot access more
>> than 4GB of RAM due to address limitations.
>
> I just got Vista Ultimate on DVD where I can choose to install any
> version, 32-bit or 64-bit. What are the advantages of 64-bit Vista? Can it
> use mor RAM? Any drawbacks?

yes it can, it's just not supported in this version of windows


"jorgen" <na@invalid> wrote in message
news:OFm9IipXIHA.3652@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Colin Barnhorst wrote:
>> Not true. Windows can address it but the BIOS is hiding address ranges
>> set aside by the BIOS for memory-mapped I/O. Vista SP1 changes the
>> reporting to show the amount of addressable ram installed (4GB) instead.
>>
>
> Yes Windows can address the whole 4GB "address space", but not all the 4GB
> RAM