I think I made a mistake.

[RepliCarter]

I bought a 2gb stick of Corsair memory the other day on Newegg. It was $45 and had free shipping, a real deal.

Can a 32bit Vista system handle a single 2gb stick and lesser sticks that form 2gb?

If not, can I return it to Newegg and buy something else? :|

[Stormcrow]

It'll be fine, it just won't utilize all of the memory. 32-bit has a 4GB memory total, from the system RAM, to even the RAM in your video card if knowledge serves. If you add more, it just won't use it all, no problem as it'll be there if you go to 64-bit.

[RepliCarter]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

It'll be fine, it just won't utilize all of the memory. 32-bit has a 4GB memory total, from the system RAM, to even the RAM in your video card if knowledge serves. If you add more, it just won't use it all, no problem as it'll be there if you go to 64-bit.

Ohh, I see. Phew, thanks a lot. I actually kinda lost a little sleep over this matter. :p

Anyway, now I have another question. Will Vista run well on 4gb?

[[Dr. V]]

A rather solid cardinal rule that can be applied in this situation is anything that's Microsoft: more RAM = only better.

Vista even more-so than XP. I've had many different setups all running Vista Ultimate 32-bit and one customer's computer running 64-bit. They've included many combinations of 1-4GB RAM, an E2140 to a QX6850, and a 7200 all the way to a 8800 Ultra. Patterns clearly show that Vista is simply raw power hungry. Give it more RAM, it will definitely take it and love you for it. Give it a faster CPU (and/or with more cores), and it will take IT and love you for IT as well.

[Capper]

The only real problem you'll run into in using a single stick is that it'll only run single channel, not dual channel, although the difference isn't too much.

Always try to use matching sets of memory, in dual channel.


As to memory usage, 32 bit systems can only recognize 4GB total, and that includes everything in your system that requires a memory address....which typically leaves 2.8 to 3.2 GB available for physical memory

[Athildja-x64]

Dual channel seems to show better results in x64 than in x32. Also you will seem a bigger gain from Dual Channel running Vista over XP (Vista is a memory hog)

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by RepliCarter

Anyway, now I have another question. Will Vista run well on 4gb?

If you run 4GB in 32-bit Vista, or any OS for that matter, it won't see it all (It'll see about 3GB). But there's no hurt in having all 4 sticks in the system.