I have a 32 bit Win 7. What is the max RAM limit? 3GB or 4GB?

Question

My PC shows 3GB while it has 4GB installed. But websites show 4GB is the limit.

Answer 1

While the practical limit for 32-bit systems is 4 GB for RAM, the "working limit" is closer to 3.75 GB as there's some operational overhead for management & well as some other stuff that I can't remember that prevents the full 4 GB to appear.



If you have an integrated graphics card (instead a discrete, standalone graphics card), the amount of RAM reported by your OS will go even lower as it separates the Video RAM (whatever you have dedicated for it) from the System RAM. This can cause your system to show 3 GB instead of 4 GB as a result.

Answer 2

The limit on 32-bit addressing is 4 GB.



BIOS limitations typically reduce that to 3 - 3.5 GB. Windows design limits individual processes to 2 GB, but can still use all memory since many processes can run at the same time. Features like PAE allow for more than 4 GB to be used, but not all at once (extra memory is paged in/out) and also requires the app to be written to take advantage of it.

Answer 3

the limit is 4gb but in practice you're never going to get access to that full amount because the operating system and whatever programs you have running in background will be using some of that 4gb for their overhead. 3.5 gb is about typical for what's actuallly available. I guess you must have some stuff installed and running.

Answer 4

Its 3 - if you want to upgrade to 64 bit its a complete reload not an upgrade so back up ALL your stuff inc favourites / bookmarks and game files. 64 bit will allegedly allow up to 64gb of RAM depending on your machine.