Bootcamp windows RAM limit

[whitedragon101]

I have read on the forums the limit on the amount of RAM that Windows XP and Vista 32bit can recognise is only 2gb and maybe 3gb with a dodgy sounding patch. So I have a couple of questions:


http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/09/03/road_to_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html


1) Is this an issue only on bootcamp OR every normal windows PC too. As the above article seems to indicate every Windows PC with XP 32 or Vista 32 suffers from this. If this is so how come PC users have not been jumping up and down demanding their 4gb of RAM.

2) Does anyone know if there is light at the end of the tunnel on this or is this just something to accept and cry about later . (given that no one runs the Windows 64bit op systems as they are about as stable as peg leg the no legged pirate ).

thanks

 

[dukebound85]

yea you are correct, xp will only see 2 gigs

there is xp 64bit. remember how old xp is though

however, if you bought vista 32bit, you can upgrade for free to vista 64 bit

 

[whitedragon101]

Doesn't Vista 64 fall over a lot especially for games?

 

[cathyy]

I thought all Windows computers should be able to address at least 3GB of RAM.

 

[theLimit]

I used Windows XP 64-bit for a couple years and it was very stable, it only lacked third-party driver support. I now use Windows Vista 64-bit on my MBP and it is the most stable and compatible version of Windows I have ever used. To take advantage of newer hardware, a 64-bit OS is a requirement.

 

[whitedragon101]

I used Windows XP 64-bit for a couple years and it was very stable, it only lacked third-party driver support. I now use Windows Vista 64-bit on my MBP and it is the most stable and compatible version of Windows I have ever used. To take advantage of newer hardware, a 64-bit OS is a requirement.

how does it cope with games?

 

[nikhsub1]

yea you are correct, xp will only see 2 gigs

Sorry this is just wrong. 32 bit OSes can utilize 4GB or ram max. However, this includes ALL ram including the video card etc. You will never see 4GB in a 32 bit OS but you will see more than 2GB. In my MBP I have 4GB of ram and in XP 32 bit I see 3.2GB of ram.

 

[jalagl]

I used Windows XP 64-bit for a couple years and it was very stable, it only lacked third-party driver support. I now use Windows Vista 64-bit on my MBP and it is the most stable and compatible version of Windows I have ever used. To take advantage of newer hardware, a 64-bit OS is a requirement.

IIRC, XP 64-bit is based on the Windows Server 2003 SP1 x64 codebase, at least for the core OS. In my experience it has always been rock-solid, but yes, it lacks drivers for many things. Sometimes the Windows 2003 x64 drivers work, though.