Please help me pick upgrades! also win XP 3gig ram limit Q's

[Effex]

Currently running:
2gig ram
256mb onboard gfx 6100
So 1.75gig ram after GPU takes its bit

looking to upgrade to:
4gig ram
Geforce 8400GS (256onboard 512mb shared)

Heres my queries...

1) working on a limited budget of £40 is this GFX a good buy ?
2) will 2x2gb DD2 ram sticks work with XP limiting me to 3gb ?
3) if so will the GPU takes its memory before or aftre the limit. so either win limits to 3gb then minus 256mb from gfx or gfx takes 256 to 3.75 then win XP limits to 3gb.
4) pretty sure but theres no work around to getting XP to get over the 3gb limit right ?


Much thanks in advance

Effex

[Wilbur]

1) That GPU is crap to be frank. Your best option is to get a decent one as it will only limit you.
2) The Two RAM sticks will work fine
3) Dont get a GPU that uses system RAM, ever.
4) Upgrade to XP 64 bit.

[Thedonsquad]

Aye, never use onboard.

i have a PCI express 7800gt sitting in a box that i'll never use again... PM'd
(it's never been OC'd)

[Effex]

Aye, never use onboard.

i have a PCI express 7800gt sitting in a box that i'll never use again... PM'd
(it's never been OC'd)

Thanks mate

Have replied

[marvein]

to make sure XP can see the most amount of memory possible requires a simple file change.

First open up my computer and go to the tools>folder options setting. in there find the entry that says "hide protected operating system files" and uncheck the box
Next browse to the root of the C drive and find boot.ini Open it with any text editor like notepad and look for the line that looks like this

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect 

At the end of that line put /3GB so it looks like this

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /3GB 

if you dont have the /noexecute or /fastdetect in there dont worry about it, those settings vary from computer to computer and dont ahve any bearing on this. Now just reboot and as long as your motherboard can detect all 4GB of RAM (watch as it boots up) windows should now be able to use around 3.4-3.7GB of it.

[Effex]

much thanks marvin

thats just what I needed. popping out later to getmy extra ram

[jdpatt]

to make sure XP can see the most amount of memory possible requires a simple file change.

First open up my computer and go to the tools>folder options setting. in there find the entry that says "hide protected operating system files" and uncheck the box
Next browse to the root of the C drive and find boot.ini Open it with any text editor like notepad and look for the line that looks like this

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect 

At the end of that line put /3GB so it looks like this

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /3GB 

if you dont have the /noexecute or /fastdetect in there dont worry about it, those settings vary from computer to computer and dont ahve any bearing on this. Now just reboot and as long as your motherboard can detect all 4GB of RAM (watch as it boots up) windows should now be able to use around 3.4-3.7GB of it.

Is there a similar workaround for Vista?

Thanks,
Dave

[Sarduci]

Vista support up to 4GB out of the box.

Operating system Physical memory limit without /3GB Physical memory limit with /3GB
Windows Vista 4 GB 4 GB (no effect)

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms791558.aspx

[Suvega]

To have more then 4gb you need a 64 bit version of windows. I woudl recommend vista premium.

any 32 bit system has access to only 4gb of ram TOTAL. That means any memory address on any component in your machine is accessed in that 4gb.

Translation:
Your mobo can take anywhere from 256-512mb of address space
Every bit of memory on any video card subtracts from your total system memory.

Therefore with the system you provided, the very MAXIMUM you can get in 32bit mode is 3.5gb of system meory, with 512 on the card.
If your mobo has any address space, it would probably come down to 3gb.

L2Vista

[wowphreak]

WinXp does not have a 3 gig limit it has a 4 gig limit http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294418
with one caveat any ONE application can only use up 2gigs of memory unless its been specifically compile to allow for 3gigs then yeh have to use the /3gb to enable it

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294418


vista32bit has the same limitation