Maximize Vista's RAM to 4Gb

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

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:5B242E42-D831-444B-AC0D-5A3FDA9B180E@microsoft.com...
>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

This thread can be closed since i have opened up the same thread in the
hardware section. Thank you.

"David" wrote:

> 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

Hello,

> 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.

read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929580/en-us

> 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 read a newsgroup discussion about your argument, and it seems that a
part of memory is used from user space, but the memory is completely
used.
You can find the discussion that I have named in this group, the title
is: "4gb RAM not showing up" .

--
Regards,

Marco Mangiante

for me the issue came before vista loaded
while the system read all 4 gigs of ram
the Bios was preset Factory NOT to show it all
I would bet dollars to donuts this is common

I am not an expert ( but I read many posts & then did this )
& the issues was fixed 1st try... !! : ' )

enter Bios
Advance chipset features
memory hole for PCI MMIO
enable feature!

this feature is to remap to address above 4G of ram

its all there now! from 3070 to 4gigs plus!

if your bios does not support this remapping function
I would hate to think you might need to get a more recent version
and flash your bios?? I hate flashing nios it always makes me nervous

"David" wrote:

> 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