Vista memory upgrade.

GaryS

I am running Vista Home Premium with 3GB of memory on my laptop.

Is it worth adding another 1GB or not as I have read conflicting reports regarding using over 3.5GB of memory on a 32 bit OS.

Some say a 32 bit OS will not recognise or use over 3.5GB, whilst others say they will use and see up to 4GB.

culpepper

My computer manual says if you use a 64bit operating system it can see over 3 and a half gigabytes but a 32bit operating system cannot,so I would think if your vista is 32bit,then it wont recognise it.

BillScarab

It won't use it although it will recognise it and if you have SP1 it will report it as there. A 32 bit OS can address a maximum of 4Gb of memory but that includes any memory on your video card and some reserved for the BIOS. That is why you can't use the full 4Gb, you may be able to use up 3.4-3.5 Gb though.

GaryS

Thanks for that, I do have Vista SP1 and have noticed that the amount of ram present is now correctly reported.

My graphics card uses some ram in addition to the dedicated card so it might be worth removing 1GB and putting another 2GB chip in to give 4GB in total.

BillScarab

Well memory is very cheap these days and it won't break anything by having more memory in there than Vista can address.

I've just ordered another 2Gb for my system to take it up to 4Gb. I'm currently investigating the options for moving to 64bit Vista, not that Mocrosoft seem to make it easy.

GaryS

A chap has work is running Vista 64 bit on his Asus laptop, for some reason he seems to be having no end of problems.

He has just backed out the SP1 update due to numerous blue screens.