# How much memory is in your Windows machine?



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Take 2 on expanding my memory... thank goodness for lifetime warranty... I had some problematic Patriot memory, and ended up RMAing it. Patriot took less time in replacing it than my procrastinating in actually shipping it back.  

My home box, which was already expanded from 2 GB to 4 GB earlier this year, got bumped up to 8 GB last week. It feels that my copy of Vista 64-bit is finally more usable now than at 2 GB. Of course, my primary OS is still XP, and my box can't recognize more than 3.5 GB under XP. 

As for my laptop... it was already maxed out at 1 GB for years.

So, the question becomes... how much memory is in your primary Windows box?


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## Tom Robertson (Nov 15, 2005)

Laptop 2gb (win7-64), desktop (less used, Vista 32) 4gb.

Cheers,
Tom


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## Sixto (Nov 18, 2005)

2GB is just right.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

Main desktop 6GB - Windows 7 RC 64-bit
Desktop 4GB - Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Laptop 4GB - Windows Home Premium 64-bit


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

I've found that each successive release of Windows cries out for double the RAM of the previous version. Windows 2000 Professional on my daily driver seems to be pretty happy with 750MB. My high-zoot XP Pro box is seems a little thin with 2GB in comparison. Putting in a super-fast hard drive helped quite a bit with XP Pro. The Athlon 750 running Debian 5 moves very nicely with 256MB of RAM.


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## naijai (Aug 19, 2006)

Laptop 2GB (Vista & Win 7)
Desktop 3GB (Vista & Win 7)


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## roadrunner1782 (Sep 28, 2008)

I didn't vote, only because 3gb wasn't an option.


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

home laptop - 2G 32b Vista Ultimate
home PC - 3G 32 XP SP3
work laptop - 4G 64b Vista Ultimate


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

My Desktop -- 8GB Win 7 RC 64-Bit
Husband's Desktop - 8GB Vista Ultimate 64-Bit


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## barryb (Aug 27, 2007)

2 gigs in this computer, 8 in my water cooled monster at work.


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## Hansen (Jan 1, 2006)

8 GB on circa 2008 desktop 
4 GB on circa 2009 laptop 
2 GB on circa 2004 laptop


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## Grentz (Jan 10, 2007)

2GB on my C2D Laptop with Vista x64
2GB/Soon to be 4GB (Coming tomorrow) on my C2D desktop with Vista x64

I have seen a lot of benchmarks, tests, and comparisons and 4GB is the sweet spot. There is a gain over 2GB still while going from 4GB to 8GB really does not yield too much advantage unless you have applications taking up a good chunk of it (most, even power users, do not). The latency on most 8GB RAM will lead to decreased performance over 4GB for most tasks and even when it is fast 8GB RAM, it is usually just on par with 4GB.


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## Steve615 (Feb 5, 2006)

6GB DDR3 in my new HP HDX18 laptop. 
I will have to check the HP Slimline s3220n later to see what is in it.

UPDATE: 4GB DDR2 in the HP Slimline.


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

I am using 64 bit Windows 7 RC with 12 GB of RAM. I have rarely needed more than 3 GB. If I am taxing the system I can get it to use all of it. Usually that is by using the [email protected] software, which can also use my GPU for a total of 9 processors running at once to do calculations. I have yet to find another program to tax my memory as high, even when I tweak Windows. My system is blazing fast and I load all DLLs into RAM (not the page file).


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## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

2GB in laptop

4GB in desktop


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## jerry downing (Mar 7, 2004)

2 GB now, but if I decide to go with 64 bit Win 7, I will add as needed. More than that now with 32 bit Windows Vista will only serve to generate heat.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

Maxed it out at 4gb


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## Caddo-Miller (May 17, 2007)

My wife's Desktop -- 2GB XP
My wife's Laptop -- 3GB Vista
My Desktop -- 4GB Vista
My Laptop -- 2GB XP


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

Game machine 1 - 16GB
Game machine 2-4 - 8GB
Laptop 4GB
Media PC - 16GB

All running 64bit Vista Ultimate or Windows 7 RC1


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

harsh said:


> I've found that each successive release of Windows cries out for double the RAM of the previous version. Windows 2000 Professional on my daily driver seems to be pretty happy with 750MB. My high-zoot XP Pro box is seems a little thin with 2GB in comparison. Putting in a super-fast hard drive helped quite a bit with XP Pro. The Athlon 750 running Debian 5 moves very nicely with 256MB of RAM.


Wow, system requirements for XP are 64MB. My XP desktop runs great at 1GB and while running distributed computed software in the background.

To the OP, my primary machine is my laptop with 4GB.

Mike


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

Primary Desktop: Windows 7 64bit 8GB
Secondary Desktop: Windows 7 64bit 4GB
Laptop: Vista 64bit 4GB


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## dave29 (Feb 18, 2007)

"Main" Laptop and Desktop are 4gb each.


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## gfrang (Aug 30, 2007)

2 gb on my Acer laptop.


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## solmakou (Mar 6, 2009)

Gaming rig 8GB win7 x64
Laptop 2GB win7 x64 (will go back to xp 32bit next year though)


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Grentz said:


> I have seen a lot of benchmarks, tests, and comparisons and 4GB is the sweet spot. There is a gain over 2GB still while going from 4GB to 8GB really does not yield too much advantage unless you have applications taking up a good chunk of it (most, even power users, do not). The latency on most 8GB RAM will lead to decreased performance over 4GB for most tasks and even when it is fast 8GB RAM, it is usually just on par with 4GB.


I agree with this statement. The improvement from going from 1 GB to 2 GB is greater than going from 2 GB to 4 GB because there is less swapping to the hard drive.

The only reason why I upgraded from 4 GB to 8 GB was that the memory was so damned cheap now. I do have Vista 64-bit on one of my removable hard drives, so I can take advantage of the additional memory. XP, however, caps out at 3.5 GB.

What I find especially humorous is that, at the time of XP's release in October, 2001, that hitting 4 GB was considered a pipe dream. I remember building my first XP box, and I thought 256MB was considered the minimum required at the time. Of course, years and years ago, I had expanded the memory of my Win95 machine from 4MB to 16 MB, and people thought I was nuts. 

Of course, one has to consider how sophisticated the software is now compared to 2001.


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## smiddy (Apr 5, 2006)

Mark Holtz said:


> I agree with this statement. The improvement from going from 1 GB to 2 GB is greater than going from 2 GB to 4 GB because there is less swapping to the hard drive.
> 
> The only reason why I upgraded from 4 GB to 8 GB was that the memory was so damned cheap now. I do have Vista 64-bit on one of my removable hard drives, so I can take advantage of the additional memory. XP, however, caps out at 3.5 GB.
> 
> ...


I was looking thru my old CDs last night and noticed I have Windows 95 (and NT, 98, 2000 Pro & Server, XP Home & Pro) sitting there...I may have to try this out with my new machine.


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## solmakou (Mar 6, 2009)

Just to clarify
32bit will address around 4gb of RAM
64bit will address a cubic s*** ton of RAM

Doesn't matter if it's windows xp or window 7.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

32bit will address normally only 3GB, some bios seem to be able to up that slightly to 3.2 or 3.24GB, but not 4.



solmakou said:


> Just to clarify
> 32bit will address around 4gb of RAM
> 64bit will address a cubic s*** of RAM
> 
> Doesn't matter if it's windows xp or window 7.


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## elaclair (Jun 18, 2004)

My only Windows box is one of my laptops running XP SP3...maxed out at 2Gig.

My main desktop is at 4gig as is my firewall (both running Debian)
My other desktop and laptop are Macs with 4gig each running Leopard.

My web/mail server is at 8gig also running Debian.


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## phat78boy (Sep 12, 2007)

Main laptop - 4GB
Main desktop - 16GB


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## braven (Apr 9, 2007)

Laptop 4gb.


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## FHSPSU67 (Jan 12, 2007)

Gateway Desktop Vista Ultimate 64-bit 8GB
Gateway Laptop Window XP Media 1GB
HP Desktop Windows XP Home Edition 1GB


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## solmakou (Mar 6, 2009)

LarryFlowers said:


> 32bit will address normally only 3GB, some bios seem to be able to up that slightly to 3.2 or 3.24GB, but not 4.


It addresses that much but much of it is used for other purposes, if I'm not mistaken it truly is 2^32 and then subtract for various , but this is way off topic, I'll try to post something a bit more concrete when I get home.

(assuming I didn't forget about this thread, mandatory overtime makes me quite tired :< )


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## Zellio (Mar 8, 2009)

32 bit can only address 4 gig TOTAL, from ram+video memory. So the amount of ram is deducted from how much your video card is currently using.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

Zellio said:


> 32 bit can only address 4 gig TOTAL, from ram+video memory. So the amount of ram is deducted from how much your video card is currently using.


also lok up pae mode for windws 32 bit


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

LarryFlowers said:


> 32bit will address normally only 3GB, some bios seem to be able to up that slightly to 3.2 or 3.24GB, but not 4.


From what you can see below, in my XP 32-bit configuration, I have 3.5 GB available on a system with 8 GB installed. That's slightly more than 3.2 GB. :grin:

Of course, addressing all 8 required 64 bits.


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## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

Didn't Microsoft release an update where it's 32 bit OS would show up to 3.5-4.0GB of RAM, but it doesn't actually use any of it?


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Here is what my machine looks like under Windows 7-32 bit. Only two things have changed: The hard drive and the operating system.


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## JcT21 (Nov 30, 2004)

8gb - main desktop, vista business 64 bit
4gb - alienware m17 laptop win 7 rc
1gb - acer one netbook xp home
2gb - old test machine running win 7 rc


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Desktop = 2
Laptop = 4


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

ncxcstud said:


> Didn't Microsoft release an update where it's 32 bit OS would show up to 3.5-4.0GB of RAM, but it doesn't actually use any of it?


windows XP SP3


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## Steve Mehs (Mar 21, 2002)

8GB on my main computer (Vista Ultimate 64 bit), HP with an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor at 2.83 GHz

2GB on my secondary computer (Vista Ultimate 32 bit), Compaq with an Intel Pentium 4 Processor at 3.20 GHz


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## -Draino- (May 19, 2008)

Sig says it all


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## kfcrosby (Dec 17, 2006)

I'd like to see the stats for 32 bit vs. 64 bit winders OS software...


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## ncxcstud (Apr 22, 2007)

kfcrosby said:


> I'd like to see the stats for 32 bit vs. 64 bit winders OS software...


Both of my computers (laptop and desktop) have 64bit Windows 7 on it (the laptop also has 64bit Vista Business).

Laptop - 2GB - Windows 7 RUNS GREAT on it (Compaq Presario F572US - not a power laptop by any means)

Desktop - 4GB


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

2 gb on year-old Vista laptop
1 gb on 3-year-old XP desktop
256 mb on 5-year-old XP laptop -- pretty slow and upgraded to 1 gb a year ago.


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