Will Windows SP3 support 4GB or more ?

[jslegers]

Hello,

Wouldn't it be nice if SP3 for Windows XP support 4 GB of memory or more. I have now 4 GB of ram in my PC and SP2 only sees 3.3 GB. It would be nice if Microsoft could solve this problem.

John

[Kelsenellenelvian]

Its a core architecter problem I really don't see as how the could easily fix it with a SP, otherwise we would been able to make a hack or 3rd party patch for it...

[bunneh]

you need i think windows xp 64 bit

[fizban2]

Hello,

Wouldn't it be nice if SP3 for Windows XP support 4 GB of memory or more. I have now 4 GB of ram in my PC and SP2 only sees 3.3 GB. It would be nice if Microsoft could solve this problem.

John

it isn't a glitch in windows, it is a maximum addressable space that a 32bit OS can handle, there isn't a problem it is just a limitation, 64 bit will be what you need if you want to utilize the full 4 gig of ram

[TravisO]

Its a core architecter problem...

He's correct, there's no easy fix for it, you'll need to move on to 64bit in order to fully make use of 4GB or more ram.

[cluberti]

Search before posting - this has been answered before (it's even stickied somewhere).

The short answer is no, as this is a hardware limitation that x86 OSes are not able to easily overcome. The solution, if you're going to stay x86, is to use a server-class OS that supports PAE - otherwise, go x64.

Again, this isn't a Windows problem, it's an architecture limitation.

[arctirus]

it isn't a glitch in windows, it is a maximum addressable space that a 32bit OS can handle

Yes and no, Server 2003 enterprise and datacenter x86 can handle much more ram than that. That said, it's almost certain that this will not be changed in sp3 and not vista x86 either. You need an x64 os.

[cluberti]

Yes and no, Server 2003 enterprise and datacenter x86 can handle much more ram than that. That said, it's almost certain that this will not be changed in sp3 and not vista x86 either. You need an x64 os.

They handle it because their kernels were compiled with PAE support - able to address memory over the 4GB boundary imposed by the BIOS. It's a hack, at best, and originally meant (by intel) to bridge the gap between 32bit and 64bit (didn't happen as fast as they had hoped ).

[S.SubZero]

FYI - This is a hardware limitation. Every OS on x86 has this issue, even Linux. They just do a better job of hiding it.

http://www.spack.org/wiki/LinuxRamLimits

The decision for workstation-grade Windows to not do PAE was probably a good idea. PAE is not foolproof and has its own limitations. It is better to lean everyone towards x64 rather than try to kludge fake 4GB+ support.

[cluberti]

First and biggest limitation? App developer using PAE to address memory above 4GB has to map that RAM into a memory window (of configurable size) into the app's process, and do all of the memory management for RAM in that window on it's own (no OS help) - needless to say, lots of apps do this poorly.