4gb RAM on vista home premium?

Dear all,

I have a question about my MSI GX623, wich i recently have bought..
The notebook has 4 gb RAM, but it runs on Windows Vista Home Premium(32-bits), i thought Vista Home Premium had a maximum RAM capacity of 3 gb? Does the 1 gb, wich is left, doesn't make any sence?
So i think i have to install windows vista ultimate(64-bits) on it, to make use of the 4 gb, am i correct? Just what i dont understand is why MSI sells the notebook with 4gb RAM, if it only uses 3...

Maybe someone can explain me, and answer my questions?

Thanks in advance!

Greets,

Jorn

 

It's not a limitation of Vista Home Premium, but a limitation of the 32-bit version of it. 32 bits means the system can address 2^32 bytes of memory, better known as exactly 4GB. Part of this is reserved for system stuff, so you only end up being able to use 3.2 to 3.4GB or so.

4GB of memory will work perfectly with a 64-bit version of Vista Home Premium. If you can get the 64-bit installation disk from MSI or somewhere, then your existing serial code will be able to activate Windows.

 

Get 64bit Vista Home Premium with 4GB memory. That is what I have and I have been an extremely happy camper.

 

There is a slight increase of using two identical RAMs (2x2GB), instead of two non identical RAM (2GB+1GB), even though only 3GB is usable in your case. It's called Dual Channel.

You are correct that you need 64bit OS to use all 4GB.

 

My system has 3.5GB available. Every bit helps. I'd choose 4GB over 3 anyway, because of dual channel mode. Most of the time 4GB isn't much more expensive than 3GB.

 

Ok, thanks all for your quick respond!
but i think 3,4 gb is enough to me, so i dont need the 64-bits..
Thanks anyway!

ps: does vista home has a 64-bits also?

greets and thanks all,

Jorn

 

dual channel does work with asymetric ram sizes btw (at least in the core2duo land, i think, without any exception..).

 

It's entirely your decision, of course, but it's a waste of money. You effectively have 600MB of RAM that you will never be able to use. There's really no good reason not to switch to 64-bit Vista.

And what do you mean by "Vista Home"? Are you asking about Home Basic or Home Premium? Home Premium has a 64-bit version (I'm using it right now), and Home Basic does not.

 

And, what about the software? all the software take advance of 4Gb if the SO is 64bits?, I mean, if the software was developed for 32bit SO.
and I heard about compatibility problems and lack of drivers for 64bits SO

 

I have not had a single problem with drivers or software compatibility in the 6 months that I've had 64-bit Vista.

Just because a program is natively coded in 32-bit doesn't mean it won't take advantage of more memory if it's available. And more and more programs these days are being made 64-bit, and on a 64-bit operating system, the performance boost becomes way obvious.

 

32-bit software will run just fine on 64-bit operating systems, including Vista.
The issue is that drivers need to be 64-bit, but any device manufacturer that doesn't have 64-bit drivers by now is either out of business or bloody morons (like Datel...stupid Action Replay DS...).

 

I mean Vista Home Premium, i didnt know it has a 64-bits version too. So windows vista home premium has a 32-bits OS version and a 64-bits OS version?
Cool, think i gonna take a look at my local pc-shop to find out the price, maybe ill buy it!

greets,

Jorn

 

There's no need to buy a retail 64-bit version - you can use your 32-bit key to acquire the 64-bit disc for a minimal fee.
Check this out.

 

I went to that link and filled in the product key and it said this:

We're sorry, the following error(s) have occurred:
No Offer Found

What is the problem?? how can I get the 64bit version of my OS

 

Call your OEM and ask them to send you a disc.

 

I think the Microsoft offer is meant for non-OEM version (in your case: MSI's) of Windows.


I'll just re-iterate what people have said, the number of 64-bit programs & drivers are growing fast nowadays, but there are still some hardware & software (most notably the archaic one) that lack of compatibility with 64-bit system.


For most people (and supposedly soon, all people) 64-bit is the best choice, I'm quite sure people won't stick with less than 4GB of RAM in the next couple of years.


Btw you can use the 'reserved by system' RAM portion as a RAMdisk. It'll work as temporary storage (the data will lost when you turned-off the computer). RAMdisk is ultra fast, owing to RAM data transfer rate & latency.

 

You might be better off at this point just waiting until October and buying a 64-bit version of Windows 7 if you are not have problems with your system running out of memory now.

 

I contacted HP and they said that they do not have anything they can send me, they told me to go to a local vendor and purchase a recovery disk with 64-bit on it