Does vista 32 bit support 4gb RAM now?

[Darte]

I recently reformatted my laptop (go go keylogger -_-)

anyways

I noticed something odd, when i got this laptop i upgraded it from the standard 1gb ram to 4gb in total knowing well that 32 bit vista doesn't support 4gb but 3 gb will be fine for me. I checked the computer properties and sure enough it only recognized 2.87 gb or so with the rest bieng eaten up by gfx card.

Fast forward to getting all updates, SP1 etc etc, i check my computer properties again and now it shows 4GB ram.

So does my computer recognize and utilize 4gb ram or is it just showing the 'installed' modules and in reality still utilizing only 3gb?

[Isiolia]

It's the latter. Vista will now show 4GB of RAM is installed, if your BIOS provides the information correctly. The actual ability to use it hasn't changed.

[Cephius]

Short answer: No it does not.

No update or patch will allow a 32 bit system to use more than 3GB of RAM. What SP1 does is take how much RAM Vista sees (ie it can see that there's 4 from what is passed from the bios, but can only use 3 of it) and then lists that in your computer properties. If you actually look at the task manager or in some widgets that show ram usage, you'll see how much you really have available.

[Darte]

Ah i see, well thanks for clearing that misconception up

[Vyvian]

As far as I can tell, in both XP and Vista, it uses 3.5, not 3, when you have 4 installed.

My taskmgr reports 3581 mb physical memory, and my properties sheet says 4gb, but it still doesn't use it.

[Grandcross]

4GB RAM subtract your video memory is what 32bit Operating systems can address.

[Viena]

4GB RAM subtract your video memory is what 32bit Operating systems can address.

False