Does anyone know what the max amount of memory Windoze XP SP2 can utilise?

afaik 4GB for 32 bit

4gb

Cheers

As I thought

One slight aside- it is 4GB for 32 bit but this includes any video ram you have – so it you have a 512MB Graphics card you need to deduct that from the ram total.

I can’t get XP on my pooter to see beyond 2GB 🙁

and from what I’ve read, the limit for 32bit XP is 3GB

The maximum amount of memory that can be supported on Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 is also 4 GB.

Microshaft website

Simon, perhaps your motherboard and or bios can only use 2 gb of ram.

No 32bit OS (or processor) can use more than 4GB of RAM as this is the limit of memory addresses that can be written to with 32 bits.

However, your motherboard/bios etc may not be able to use this much (although all modern ones should be fine).

If you need more than 4GB, then you have to go for a 64 bit system.

Simon, perhaps your motherboard and or bios can only use 2 gb of ram.

no, the motherboard is fine and the BIOS reports the full amount

I set the /3GB flag in boot.ini, but it made no difference to the RAM reported in task manager

got to crucial.com and run their app – it will tell you the max ram you can fit.

You can add more than 3gb to your PC and it will be shown in the PC general details screen (window key + break), but if your using a 32 bit OS (i.e. windows xp) the maximum it will actually make use of is 3gb.

No 32bit OS (or processor) can use more than 4GB of RAM as this is the limit of memory addresses that can be written to with 32 bits.

Sorry, but that’s bolx. Physical Address Extension 😉

It isn’t bolx. PAE uses 36bits.
Admittedly it does allow an OS to use more the 4GB of memory, but no process can use more than 4GB.
The OS and processor need additional capability above ’32bit’ (even if they are ostensibly working in 32bits).

You said “32bit OS (or processor)”, not process 😉
Almost all recent “32-bit” cpu’s have PAE & most O/S’s support it.

There is hardware out there that is designed to only address 3GB because of limitations with Windows (and who would want to run anything but Windows ?). My T60P thinkpad has this “feature” & it’s really really annoying.