can win7 handle 32gbs of ram?

A

AndreRio

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Nov 23, 2011
Messages
1,240
the truth is I only have 8gbs of memory on my computer right now, 1x 8gb stick of ram. at $75 each, I was plaining on buying the remaining 24gb later on. so can windows 7 home premium 64bit handle 32gbs of ram?
 
Here..

The following table specifies the limits on physical memory for Windows 7.
Version Limit in 32-bit Windows Limit in 64-bit Windows
Windows 7 Ultimate
4 GB
192 GB
Windows 7 Enterprise
4 GB
192 GB
Windows 7 Professional
4 GB
192 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium
4 GB
16 GB
Windows 7 Home Basic
4 GB
8 GB
Windows 7 Starter
2 GB
2 GB


And personally, i Run 48GB in my rig. It usually uses about 6.6 GB with an average number of programs open.

edit: sorry the table doesnt copy well. Top is 32 bit, bottom is 64 bit.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...cal-memory-limits-windows-7?forum=w7itproperf
 
Yes, but think do you really need it right now..

i have 64G and i use my work rig for alot, like above i am usually around 6-8Gig usage with no VM's running.
 
AndreRio said:
the truth is I only have 8gbs of memory on my computer right now, 1x 8gb stick of ram. at $75 each, I was plaining on buying the remaining 24gb later on. so can windows 7 home premium 64bit handle 32gbs of ram?
Click to expand...

No the most that W7HP can handle is 16GB. This is a built in artificial limit, upgrading to W7 Pro will allow use of more RAM.
 
the question is can your processor handle that much ram?

The current limit for the top of the line Intel i7 Extreme is 64GB, well below Win 7 pro/ultimate/enterprise capacity but well above home's 16GB limit
 
Even x58 i7 processors, which were rated to 24gb, can handle 48gb (6x8gb sticks), so the processor is hardly a concern.
 
I like having as much ram as i possible can afford. some of you guys have 48 or 64gbs, you understand. the system does runs healthier the more ram you have imo. thanks.
 
AndreRio said:
...the system does runs healthier the more ram you have imo...
Click to expand...

That is true up until a point. I think the sweet spot for most users is in the 4-8GB range for Win7/8.

When you're talking about going to 32GB -- if you're not going to use it for something, like Virtual Machines, or some other memory intensive process, I'd say a good 24GB of that 32GB is going to be wasted... the system will never use it as it's just more than it needs to function.
 
By the way, Tom Hardware had a great article showing the benefits of more ram for SSD's lifespan

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ram-endurance,3475.html

TomsHardware said:
In this case, however, we were able to observe fewer writes to our old Samsung SSD with 16 GB of memory installed. Writes are what chip away at a solid-state drive's endurance, so anything you can do to minimize them is going to stretch out the useful life of the NAND flash inside. In just the three quick little tests we ran using Autodesk's 3ds Max 2012, Adobe Photoshop CS6, and Microsoft Visual Studio 2010, we saw an average reduction of 45%. That's a lot of information living in main memory that never gets written to the SSD.
Click to expand...
 
Demon10000 said:
That is true up until a point. I think the sweet spot for most users is in the 4-8GB range for Win7/8.

When you're talking about going to 32GB -- if you're not going to use it for something, like Virtual Machines, or some other memory intensive process, I'd say a good 24GB of that 32GB is going to be wasted... the system will never use it as it's just more than it needs to function.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Just can't see needing more than 16gb personally and that's with multimedia multitasking.
 
Demon10000 said:
That is true up until a point. I think the sweet spot for most users is in the 4-8GB range for Win7/8.
Click to expand...


...and as of now I'd say 8GB is that point. Once you get to 8GB and beyond you really have have to go out and find ways to make your system push near that. Also one side effect of adding more RAM is your OS will naturally use more. This is normal. My laptop with 2GB (huge back in 2006) uses 1GB running idle after booting up. My old 8GB rig used 2GB and now that I have 16GB it uses nearly 3GB. Which is probably why some of these people with 32-64GB are seeing their systems sit at 6.6GB. It doesn't mean it's all being used, just the system has more RAM to allocate immediately when necessary.
 
I have 16GB in my i7 Ivy Bridge rig and no matter how many tasks I throw at it, it never breaks a sweat. Right now I'm looking at Firefox with 12 tabs opened, Photoshop with twenty 16MB RAW files opened, iTunes playing, Aptana with about 50 files opened, Star Trek Online running, and who knows how many other background tasks going on.

I've gotten to the point where I very rarely bother closing anything anymore.
 
AndreRio said:
I like having as much ram as i possible can afford. some of you guys have 48 or 64gbs, you understand. the system does runs healthier the more ram you have imo. thanks.
Click to expand...

The more ram you install, the pickier your motherboard can come with it. Adding huge amounts of ram for nothing may lead to instability problems you wouldn't experience using a 'normal' amount of ram.
 
B00nie said:
The more ram you install, the pickier your motherboard can come with it. Adding huge amounts of ram for nothing may lead to instability problems you wouldn't experience using a 'normal' amount of ram.
Click to expand...


Most problems really seem to pop there ugly head when overclocking is added into the mix. If you plan on overclocking you might run into issues sooner than later.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top