Vista - Maximize Vista's RAM to 4Gb

I posted this in the General Discussion, but I feel this is a better place

I just recently built a new machine with the latest components and installed
Vista Ultimate 32 bit edition on it. I have 4 Gb of RAM in the machine, but
Vista only displays 3.325 Gb of it. I have read that I can do a boot.ini
"hack" with /PAE to enable it to read all 4Gb but wanted to know a few things.

I am a gamer and really wanted the ram for this purpose. When playing
games, does it matter what the OS sees as usable RAM, or does the game use
all 4Gb that I have installed.

I also read that if I installed the 64 bit edition, Windows would recognize
all 4Gb. My only concern there is with driver issues and some software. Any
suggestions or answers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
David

"David" <David@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A8BA2FAC-3CBF-4612-B9E4-218A244D9B35@microsoft.com...
>I posted this in the General Discussion, but I feel this is a better place
>
> I just recently built a new machine with the latest components and
> installed
> Vista Ultimate 32 bit edition on it. I have 4 Gb of RAM in the machine,
> but
> Vista only displays 3.325 Gb of it. I have read that I can do a boot.ini
> "hack" with /PAE to enable it to read all 4Gb but wanted to know a few
> things.
>
> I am a gamer and really wanted the ram for this purpose. When playing
> games, does it matter what the OS sees as usable RAM, or does the game use
> all 4Gb that I have installed.
>
> I also read that if I installed the 64 bit edition, Windows would
> recognize
> all 4Gb. My only concern there is with driver issues and some software.
> Any
> suggestions or answers would be greatly appreciated.
>

Firstly... as has been done to death in this NG (and everywhere else for
this matter), 32-bit Vista can already see all 4GB, bust since some is
reserved for OS use only, it doesn't show it all to you. But rest assured,
all 4GB is in action.

Secondly, there are no games that need 4GB for RAM. There are plenty that
need a lot of RAM, and can compete with Windows for it, but at 4GB, they can
safely co-exist.

Whether you read it here or in the general news group, the answer is the
same.

Vista 32 bit edition will see somewhat less than 4 gig of RAM. The RAM is
being used by the operating system. It is just not visible or available for
use by your programs. It's the nature of a 32 bit operating system on an x86
motherboard.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!



"David" <David@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:A8BA2FAC-3CBF-4612-B9E4-218A244D9B35@microsoft.com...
>I posted this in the General Discussion, but I feel this is a better place
>
> I just recently built a new machine with the latest components and
> installed
> Vista Ultimate 32 bit edition on it. I have 4 Gb of RAM in the machine,
> but
> Vista only displays 3.325 Gb of it. I have read that I can do a boot.ini
> "hack" with /PAE to enable it to read all 4Gb but wanted to know a few
> things.
>
> I am a gamer and really wanted the ram for this purpose. When playing
> games, does it matter what the OS sees as usable RAM, or does the game use
> all 4Gb that I have installed.
>
> I also read that if I installed the 64 bit edition, Windows would
> recognize
> all 4Gb. My only concern there is with driver issues and some software.
> Any
> suggestions or answers would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> David
>

FSX can use quite a bit of RAM (given all the addon's and extra software to
go with it!), and with Vista taking a bit, 4 GB isn't such a bad idea!

--
Dustin Harper
dharper@vistarip.com
http://www.vistarip.com

--
"CJM" <cjmnews04@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:%23HqxSTRUHHA.4756@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "David" <David@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:A8BA2FAC-3CBF-4612-B9E4-218A244D9B35@microsoft.com...
>>I posted this in the General Discussion, but I feel this is a better place
>>
>> I just recently built a new machine with the latest components and
>> installed
>> Vista Ultimate 32 bit edition on it. I have 4 Gb of RAM in the machine,
>> but
>> Vista only displays 3.325 Gb of it. I have read that I can do a boot.ini
>> "hack" with /PAE to enable it to read all 4Gb but wanted to know a few
>> things.
>>
>> I am a gamer and really wanted the ram for this purpose. When playing
>> games, does it matter what the OS sees as usable RAM, or does the game
>> use
>> all 4Gb that I have installed.
>>
>> I also read that if I installed the 64 bit edition, Windows would
>> recognize
>> all 4Gb. My only concern there is with driver issues and some software.
>> Any
>> suggestions or answers would be greatly appreciated.
>>
>
> Firstly... as has been done to death in this NG (and everywhere else for
> this matter), 32-bit Vista can already see all 4GB, bust since some is
> reserved for OS use only, it doesn't show it all to you. But rest assured,
> all 4GB is in action.
>
> Secondly, there are no games that need 4GB for RAM. There are plenty that
> need a lot of RAM, and can compete with Windows for it, but at 4GB, they
> can safely co-exist.
>
>
>

"Dustin Harper" <dharper@vistarip.com> wrote in message
news:FF90C235-1792-4EBD-B1FE-2BFB7E080DC7@microsoft.com...
> FSX can use quite a bit of RAM (given all the addon's and extra software
> to go with it!), and with Vista taking a bit, 4 GB isn't such a bad idea!
>
>

After taking my BF2 experiences into account, I'd say that > 2GB is
essential for the serious gamer. I think 3GB is the safety threshold.

I have read that I can do a boot.ini
> "hack" with /PAE to enable it to read all 4Gb but wanted to know a few
> things.

That hack is for XP. Vista doesn't use boot.ini. If you use the freeware
VistaBootPro

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

You can turn on PAE without messy hacks. When I turn it on my motherboard
can't handle it and locks up so I'm limited to 3.5 GB. Changing your VGA
Aperture
size will also affect the available RAM.

Tom Lake

I will give that a try, thank you.

"Tom Lake" wrote:

> I have read that I can do a boot.ini
> > "hack" with /PAE to enable it to read all 4Gb but wanted to know a few
> > things.
>
> That hack is for XP. Vista doesn't use boot.ini. If you use the freeware
> VistaBootPro
>
> http://www.vistabootpro.org/
>
> You can turn on PAE without messy hacks. When I turn it on my motherboard
> can't handle it and locks up so I'm limited to 3.5 GB. Changing your VGA
> Aperture
> size will also affect the available RAM.
>
> Tom Lake
>
>
>

I'm not just looking for this machine to play todays games. I want it to
chug out next year, and maybe even make it a little longer (with a few
upgrades ;-) ). Crysis is coming out soon and that will eat RAM. I'm just
looking for a way to optimize my experience.
I'm going to give the /PAE option a try, and if not I'll give Vista 64 a go.

Thanks all
"CJM" wrote:

>
> "Dustin Harper" <dharper@vistarip.com> wrote in message
> news:FF90C235-1792-4EBD-B1FE-2BFB7E080DC7@microsoft.com...
> > FSX can use quite a bit of RAM (given all the addon's and extra software
> > to go with it!), and with Vista taking a bit, 4 GB isn't such a bad idea!
> >
> >
>
> After taking my BF2 experiences into account, I'd say that > 2GB is
> essential for the serious gamer. I think 3GB is the safety threshold.
>
>
>