Quote:
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Originally Posted by triangle
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Grey_Raven75
I've been thinking about getting some more RAM myself. My mobo can support up to 4 gigs, but I thought I read somewhere that more than 2 gigs on XP is useless. Is this true and if so, why?
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32-bit XP Pro and Home can handle up to 4gb of RAM and the 64-bit edition can handle up to 128gb, I think. |
XP, both Home and Pro, 32bit, can recognise up to 4GB RAM. However, except in certain setups, you will find XP will only show around 3GB. And in fact, will not really use more than 2GB. There is a boot.ini switch you can use (/3GB) that changes how much of your RAM is used by the kernel and how much by the userspace (where your programs run), that allows userspace to use up to 3GB RAM. However, a program has to be specifically written to take advantage of this, if not it will still be limited to 2GB RAM.
In my own experience, playing various games from STALKER to Supreme Commander, SH3(GWX) and SH4, and BF2 & 2142....I have never run out of physical memory with 2GB RAM and no page file.
My current machine has 3GB RAM in it, and I have ran different games with 2GB and 3GB RAM installed, with no difference at all (unlike going from 1GB to 2GB which can be huge performance gains). Generally I allocate 1GB as a RAM drive, leaving 2GB to my system. Then I copy part of the game installation into RAM to greatly improve loading times (note this has no effect on framerate). I did this with Sh3 GWX as well as with Battlefield 2.