Graphic Card's RAM

[alexsdu]

I've been told that for a 32-bit PC, your RAM can only goes up to 4GB, no more than that, even if your RAM is higher than 4GB.
Does this rule apply to graphic card's RAM as well?

I'm asking this coz I'm planning to buy me a new graphic card that can play Battlefield 3, and beyond.

 

[orisa]

It depends on your Motherboard.
Check first how much your motherboard can hold. If it doesn't support any decent graphic card, you will have to replace your motherboard along with the graphic card.

 

[rarely_upset]

Graphics card memory is different from system memory. You can have 2x2GB RAM and a 2GB graphics card, for example.

 

[alexsdu]

Well...FYI, my motherboard can support up to 16GB RAM.
The problem is that my Win7 is 32-bit. So currently, my PC RAM is just 4GB.
The graphic card that I saw have 8GB.

 

[Checkmate]

The graphic card that I saw have 8GB

As of now no single graphic card on the market has 8GB of memory :/

Aside, why would you use 32-bit? There's no reason for anyone to use 32 bit anymore

 

[KingArturia]

I thought Win-7 32Bit support up to 8GB RAM Max, anything beyond that still register as 8GB RAM, but to my knowledge surely that's nothing to do with the GDDR, is completely separate and dependent on whether your motherboard support the G-card. And like Checku-sama said, there is no single G-card out in the market that have 8GB, highest I've seen is 3 or 4GB single card (I think is the nVidia GTX580)

 

[alexsdu]

There's no 8GB graphic card?! Then what the heck did I saw?
I gotta go there again to confirm it.

[MENTION=3]Checkmate[/MENTION] When I bought the Win7, it didn't cross my mind to check whether it's 32 or 64 bit.
Well, you could say that it was an impulse buy.:P


Thanks for all the info and advises, guys.

 

[KingArturia]

Alex, I'm sorry I lied, the normal Windows 7 32-bit only support up to 4GB according to microsoft :3

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7

Here is the link to the information, the RAM support up to 192GB if you're running on Ultimate 64-bit like me.

 

[IwantPedobearToo]

The VRAM is part of the 4GB limit of x86 system. click
So the usuable RAM plus the usable VRAM can not exceed 4GB.

PAE can solve this problem, but is being disabled on most Windows versions. PAE is the reason the server versions show up with much higher GB numbers on the Microsoft tables.
There seem to be programs to patch your normal Windows kernel to reenable PAE though, but I dont know anything about their reliablility.

 

[Checkmate]

Typically 32 bit OS can support more than 4GB of RAM (up to 64GB, with PAE) but Microsoft want extra money, although they would be slower.

Main problem is that you have a processor that support x64, and you use windows x32, you're purposefully hammer your computing power by a large gap. All general Intel and AMD CPU as of 5 years ago are all x64 CPUs.

Though, x64 tends to consume more RAM but it is marginal in desktop. The RAM consumption is only noticeable in pico application, such as cellphone, small router/network switches, printers, and otherwise, very small server and application computer. RAM is rather scarce in those devices (small router = 16MB - 64MB, cellphone = 128MB - 1GB, printers = 2MB - 128MB, switches = 1MB - 8MB, small application server = 128MB - 1GB)

Any PC can have a 16GB for under 100$ nowadays, comparing to just 3 years ago, it would cost you well over 1000$ for the same amount of RAM. Having each application consume about a few dozen MB more in 64 bit doesn't make a big difference when you have tons of RAM.

 

[Evac]

The VRAM is part of the 4GB limit of x86 system.

Actually, this is only applicable if you're using shared video memory.

As far as I know, there are no memory limitations for graphics hardware other than the total amount available on the device itself. The memory consumption in graphics hardware is implementation-dependent, meaning that, as long as your process doesn't go over the Virtual Address Space limits, you can upload up to 12GB of data to a Quadro Plex 7000 (which actually has two GPUs with 6GB VRAM each).
Your motherboard only has to fulfill the interface requirements of the new graphics card (which would be PCI-E 2.0 x16 for GF GTX up to 590 and 3.0 for the new 680).

 

[perrypig123]

well i took my laptop to my shop and asked them to check the max ram a computer can hold.. i think they used a program or something xD but they did it so quickly i didnt see D=. lol it was free too xDD

 

[alexsdu]

well i took my laptop to my shop and asked them to check the max ram a computer can hold.. i think they used a program or something xD but they did it so quickly i didnt see D=. lol it was free too xDD

I think they just check for your laptop's model series, then look for the motherboard that was installed on that series, then they check (online) how much RAM that motherboard can take.
But that's just my wild assumption.

 

[perrypig123]

well idk, they never actually connected to the wifi in the shop.. like you know how u normally have to type in a password.. they stuck in a memorystick and did something in like 10 secs and gave it back lol xD

 

[Uninstall]

Maybe they did a dxdiag? Though I don't know why they would need a stick for that, I'm probably wrong