Vista RAM limitations

MacDoc · Sep 5th, 2007, 10:52 PM

Anyone following the Vista 3 gig RAM cap?

Friend of mine today went on for an hour about it impacting servers and his clients in a really negative way.

One client with a RIP server did a standard update and his RAM dropped to 3 gig from 8.
MS responds - go back to the earlier version but lose and future security updates.
There is no 64 bit app for his need.

WHAT was MS thinking???

What an opportunity it opens for Apple it would seem.

I'd like to hear from those more knowledgeable about the implications.

guytoronto · Sep 5th, 2007, 11:30 PM

I sell Toshiba notebooks, and original Toshiba specs said 4GB RAM max. After two different machines only showed 3GB, we finally got Toshiba to admit that their hardware supports 4GB, but the OS limits it to 3GB. Wonderful.

Paradime · Sep 5th, 2007, 11:42 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by guytoronto
	I sell Toshiba notebooks, and original Toshiba specs said 4GB RAM max. After two different machines only showed 3GB, we finally got Toshiba to admit that their hardware supports 4GB, but the OS limits it to 3GB. Wonderful.

Did you try enabling Memory Remapping from the BIOS? Also, Google the term Physical Address Extension (PAE) and see what you come up with. That should get your full 4 GB recognized.

hUssain · Sep 5th, 2007, 11:53 PM

Theoritically the 32bit version of Vista should have 4GB support, but as a lot of theories prove, it's BS. You should use the 64bit edition if you need that extra RAM, depending on the version it could be from 8GB-128GB (MS

)

ArtistSeries · Sep 5th, 2007, 11:54 PM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by MacDoc
	Anyone following the Vista 3 gig RAM cap? Friend of mine today went on for an hour about it impacting servers and his clients in a really negative way. One client with a RIP server did a standard update and his RAM dropped to 3 gig from 8. MS responds - go back to the earlier version but lose and future security updates. There is no 64 bit app for his need. WHAT was MS thinking??? What an opportunity it opens for Apple it would seem. I'd like to hear from those more knowledgeable about the implications.

It's not so simple but here is a fairly good explanation
Reader Question: Maximum Memory in 32-bit Windows Vista - Windows Vista help

MacDoc · Sep 6th, 2007, 12:26 AM

This seems a pretty good summary of the problem from the same thread.

Quote:

	Quote:
	“Well guess what? WINDOWS SUPPORTS THE SAME AMOUNT OF RAM UNDER PAE SINCE THAT IS THE PAE LIMIT! Since Linux runs on essentially the same damn hardware as Windows and since PAE is PAE, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.”

There is a BIG difference as it does not work IN VISTA!!!! Also, you contradict yourself in the following:

“There is no difference between Linux, Mac OS and Windows in this regard. 32 bit platform has PHYSICAL LIMITS.

There is a difference as PAE is not supported in Vista. Check the charts yourself.

So there you have it, a 36 bit virtual os running in a 32 bit kernel. So what if it works in XP!!! can you get it in Vista? WOW you get a downgrade.

Paradime · Sep 6th, 2007, 10:59 AM

PAE is supported in Windows Vista but has to be enabled by the user:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906211.aspx

Needless to say, it's not as savvy a solution as MacOS X. Actually, all of Windows isn't as "savvy" as MacOS X.

I guess we'll have to see what improvements are offered when Vista's first service pack is released.

It should be noted that even with certain Mac OS X app, there are memory limitations. I have a friend in the video effects industry who's always cursing Adobe After Effects and it's memory limitations. I don't use AE so I just have to take his word for it.

Sep 6th, 2007, 12:34 PM

Isn't this still the 1.5G per core issue we're hitting here? I know a few clients of mine that have done the PAE stuff with their 3D workstations but ran into so many problems using it with their application of choice (Cinema 4D) that they reverted lived with the 3G ram limit... they had the same issues with XP as well.

Abysmal · Sep 6th, 2007, 01:14 PM

Also one should take into consideration the chip set being used.. most machines that use Intel chip set will allow 4 gigs of ram on the board, but due to faulty manufacturing logic on lntel's part the top 768 megs of ram is used by the motherboard as resource memory.. Its the same problem on the intel macs, 4 gigs of ram installed but only 3.25 gigs is usable.. great way to **** away a gig of expensive ram..

Abysmal