No - the problem isn't a question of OS "features", so much as a simple characteristic of 32-bitness.
In your system there are (in simple terms) two kinds of memory: system (motherboard) memory and device memory. That memory (again, hugely simplified) becomes one big coalesced pool of RAM, and with 32-bit addressing that pool cannot be more than 4GB (the address limit of a 32-bit pointer). So, if you have 4GB of RAM installed your CPU could not address the memory in your graphics card, for example (let's say you have 512MB of GFX RAM, so a simplified total of 4.5GB - that 0.5 GB can't be reached). So, in a 32-bit system, a portion of the 32-bit address range is allocated to the video card, meaning that an equally sized "window" of memory is no longer addressable in your motherboard installed RAM. So 0.5 GB of your address range is set aside for access to the GFX memory, meaning that the addressable system memory is 4GB less the 0.5GB "window" used to access the GFX RAM, i.e. system memory appears to be only 3.5GB And bear in mind your graphics card isn't the only device with RAM that has to be mapped into that 4GB range. In a 64-bit system the address range is much wider so that video card RAM can simply be addressed "on top" of the system RAM, hence you get access to ALL your system RAM no matter how much device memory is also in your system. From: delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz] On Behalf Of Jeremy Coulter Sent: Friday, 7 August 2009 10:29 To: 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List' Subject: Re: [DUG] to Vista 64bit or not? does windows 7 see all the RAM? Jeremy _____ From: delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz] On Behalf Of Jolyon Smith Sent: 7 August 2009 10:27 To: 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List' Subject: Re: [DUG] to Vista 64bit or not? The real question though is how much benefit you actually got from that extra 0.5 - 1GB ? I'm guessing not much. Not really. But if you've got a system equipped with 6GB or 8GB. at that point 64-bit makes perfect sense (and if you're the sort of user that is loading a 4GB system so heavily that the extra 0.5-1GB *does* make a difference, you're probably the sort of user that would like 6-8GB of RAM anyway and you've already long since moved on to 64-bit). But at 4GB I really don't think there's much in it, so whilst there may not be a specific reason to use 32-bit, there's also no great compelling reason to use 64-bit either, and a few *potential* reasons not to (lack of 64-bit support for XYZ, where XYZ varies from individual to individual) potential complications when running (some) 32-bit software etc etc. +0.02 From: delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz] On Behalf Of Sean Cross Sent: Friday, 7 August 2009 10:12 To: NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List Subject: Re: [DUG] to Vista 64bit or not? Vista 32 will never see all 4 gb due to mapping issues with the video card etc. Under Vista 32, I got between 3 and 3.5 gb available on my laptops. Vista 64 got the lot. How much you lose depends on your video card memory. Regards Sean Cross CIO Catalyst Risk Management From: delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz [mailto:delphi-boun...@delphi.org.nz] On Behalf Of Jolyon Smith Sent: Friday, 7 August 2009 10:01 a.m. To: 'NZ Borland Developers Group - Delphi List' Subject: Re: [DUG] to Vista 64bit or not? aiui if you've only got 4GB of RAM then I don't think 64-bit is going to make that much of a difference. Of course, if you have the capacity to go beyond 4GB of physical RAM and the intention to do so, then 64-bit might be worthwhile.
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