Windows XP Pro SP2 - RAM 1gb limit

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KuJaX

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I have always heard that Windows XP Pro SP2 (and probably earlier version other than win2k and server) do not take into effect any systems that have more than 1gb of system memory. Is this true? Where did this rumor come from if it is not?
 
I had from three to three and a half gigs working on my XP SP2 rig, but that was with four gigs in the slots. That's why I upgraded to XP x64. But yeah, when I had two gigs it saw it and used it just fine.
 
I have limited experience with this, but after being bored for too long and reading just about every sticky on this site i've seen the 3 GB number thrown around alot. Windows XP (32 bit) runs out of memory location names around there and tehrefore cant even comprehend that you have that extra gig when you do go for 4x1GB ram. It is most definitly NOT 1 GB though, i know that :)
 
2 gigs will actually help. You'll notice a difference if you're running newer games. A game will chew up as much RAM as you can throw at it.

The theoretical limit is 4GB, but XP32 won't address more than 3.5GB. I'd say the sweet-spot right now is 2GB. Since that can be had for ~$150-$200 I'd say it's cost effective as well.
 
I agree about 2 gigs being a sweet spot for current gaming rigs. I without question noticed an improvement in some of the latest games...how they run, when I upped my ram from the prior 1.0 gigs it had. Run task manager when you're gaming...you'll see some current games suck up to a gig themselves...and it's nice to have breathing room for your OS and services to run in the background.

4 gigs in the limit...but Windows sees that as EVERYTHING combined...addresses for your hardware, your video RAM, your pagefile.sys (swapfile..virtual RAM). So if you stick 4 gigs in there..subtract all of the above...and that's roughly how much RAM will show up as beeing seen, and used, by the OS.
 
Don't forget about virtualization apps. Any time you create a virtual machine it needs RAM dedicated to it. 2 gigs gives you on average 1gig for VMs and 1gig for the host os to pork out on.
 
The_Mage18 said:
Don't forget about virtualization apps. Any time you create a virtual machine it needs RAM dedicated to it. 2 gigs gives you on average 1gig for VMs and 1gig for the host os to pork out on.
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I think that VMWare takes an additional 200-250MB of memory for VM info (addressing and device settings, stuff like that). Its not that much, but it may come into play when running more than 2 or 3 VMs (I personally need to watch out with my server, as 3-4 512MB VMs take up most of the 2.5GB of memory in the system)

I think 2GB is a sweet spot. Even with multitasking, I see far fewer PF hits with my 2GB than my 1GB (I ran 2gb, then RMA'd it, so I fell back to 1GB and did see a difference both in use and in task manager).
 
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