Will Readyboost work over 4gb Ram?

[Husk]

I heard computers could only have 4gb ram, But would Windows ready Boost add to this?

[Lisandro]

As far I know, you can't pass through this limit (4Gb) with actual architecture (32 bits).
Windows Ready Boost won't help, as far I know.

[RejZoR]

There is no point in using ReadyBoost once you have 4GB+ of RAM.

[onlysomeone]

As far as I am concerned a computer with an OS with 32bit can only use about 3 to 3,5 GB of RAM.
Only a 64bit OS can use more...

If you have enough RAM Windows Ready Boost is not needed in my opinion... you won't notice any difference...
(I had 4 GB of RAM and didn't notice any change when activating Ready Boost on my USB Stick)

yours
onlysomeone

[Lisandro]

As far as I am concerned a computer with an OS with 32bit can only use about 3 to 3,5 GB of RAM.

Depends on the BIOS. You can have and use 4Gb of RAM (I have it on Vista).

Only a 64bit OS can use more...

Seems to be the future.

[Vladimyr]

Readyboost doesn't add to RAM, it is a parallel disk cache. Any speed gained will only be due to faster retrieval of cached data from flash memory rather than from the hard disk.
So the more RAM you have and the faster/larger your hard disk, the less useful Readyboost is.

[Husk]

Thanks guys. I did find a site somewhere about results of ready boost.

4Gb + Readyboost seemed to go faster in most cases but slower in some

[igor]

As far as I am concerned a computer with an OS with 32bit can only use about 3 to 3,5 GB of RAM.

Depends on the BIOS. You can have and use 4Gb of RAM (I have it on Vista).

I don't think so
Video memory, and other mapped stuff, eats the 4GB address space.

Actually, it's kind of a artificial limit - in XP SP1, it was possible to have&use more than 4GB RAM (OK, not for a single application, but in general), but since XP SP2, it's not available anymore.

[RejZoR]

That was PAE mode, which is basically a hack to use more than 4GB of memory on 32bit system. Works in general but may also cause severe problems. And was never officially supported by Microsoft.

[igor]

I'd say it certainly is officially supported on Server OSes:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778.aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_server_2003

The OS code is generally the same, server or not, they dropped it because of problems with 3rd party drivers (which are less likely on servers).


Btw, I've seen an application that claims to overcome the limitation, i.e. use more than 4GB even if the OS doesn't support it (they have some patents for that... and it's a RamDisk)
Didn't try it though (don't have any system to try it on anyway )

[Lisandro]

Video memory, and other mapped stuff, eats the 4GB address space.

But, won't they eat if I have less than 4Gb?
Are you suggesting I'm not using that 4Gb but less?

[igor]

Ah, Vista 
See the SP1 changelog: "With SP1, Windows Vista will report the amount of system memory installed rather than report the amount of system memory available to the OS."

I guess too many users were asking why Vista doesn't see all their memory, so they changed it to report the whole 4GB and avoid the questions

[Lisandro]

Sad to know that...
Is there any way for me to use the whole 4Gb then? :'(

[.: L' arc :.]

Sad to know that...
Is there any way for me to use the whole 4Gb then? :'(

-= Norton Antivirus while running Adobe Photoshop and Internet Explorer with tabs for finding web images for brushing up your photoshop skills while an Instant Messenger is on background..

-= It did happen to me, system crashed & restarted..

[DavidR]

Sad to know that...
Is there any way for me to use the whole 4Gb then? :'(

The thing is that 32bit windows is only able to address 4GB of RAM so if the total of your RAM including Graphics card exceeds 4GB it won't be able to physically give a memory address to it all and that I believe is the problem.