Windows XP and Vista (32 Bit) Have a 3 GB Ram Limitation

After receiving my shiny new Dell Dimension 9200 desktop with 2 GB of ram pre-installed, I decided to look up the specs and see how much was the maximum amount of memory it could hold. It turns out to be 8 GB, which was impressive since my laptop's max is 2 GB.

So, after running into some lag in opening my web designer cocktail of applications (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Fireworks, and DreamWeaver all at the same time), I went up to my local computer store and purchased an additional two sticks of 1 GB ram to boost my total memory to 4 GB. I took a look at the bios after installation and everything seemed to be fine - 4 GB being reported. However, when I booted into Windows XP and checked the system properties, it was only reporting 3GB! Excuse me? What happened to my extra gig of memory?

After about an hour of adjusting things and rebooting, I decided to give good ol' Google a try. In doing some research I discovered that both Windows XP and Vista (at least the standard 32 bit versions) only support 3 GB of ram. It is funny, because a lot of computer manufacturers know this but will happily sell you extra ram above 3 GB so they can make their money. Supposedly the 64 bit versions of both operating systems support up to 8 GB, but there is not a lot of driver support for the 64 bit environments yet.

I thought I would write this article to give people forewarning that purchasing anything above 3 GB for your XP machine is a waste of money.

If you want all of the technical reasons why or a more detailed explanation, I found a good article located at http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00015.htm

- Presario

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