[PC World] Vista SP2: Big Increases in Free Disk Space - Page 4 - Overclock.net

HondaGuy · 06-01-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Licht

Explain why you have 4GB of RAM wasting away under an x86-based OS.

I have 3 HDD, others are Windows 7 RC 64 bit, and Vista 64. other for wifey is Vista 32 bit...

K10 · 06-01-09

When I used Vista it said the amount of RAM in my system then I went to 7 and it said the same thing except it was like:
ie. 4.00 GB(3.25 GB Usable)

So if you were to run 7 32 bit with 8 gigs wouldn't it say 8.00 GB(3.25 GB Usable)?

Pagoda_Man · 06-01-09

The only time I see that much HD space free up is when I clean up my pr0n collection...

SkillzKillz · 06-01-09

I turned the automatic restore point off the week I got my computer. I wouldn't stand for losing 5GB per day.

Quote:

Originally Posted by chickeneaterguy

When I used Vista it said the amount of RAM in my system then I went to 7 and it said the same thing except it was like:
ie. 4.00 GB(3.25 GB Usable)

So if you were to run 7 32 bit with 8 gigs wouldn't it say 8.00 GB(3.25 GB Usable)?

No it would be just over 7GB.

0rion · 06-01-09

I went from 86 used to 55 used, on my velociraptor raid (300gb total free space). 10% of that space freed up is quite nice.

Squeeker The Cat · 06-01-09

well just updated both computers to SP2. after install and cleaning out the old restores i gained 12.8GB on the laptop and basically stayed the same on the desktop.....

not too shabby especially for the laptop!!

Gen · 06-01-09

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkillzKillz

No it would be just over 7GB.

I'm not entirely sure if this was sarcasim, if so ignore me, if not here why you can only have a max of 4GB in 32-bit OS's (including video memory, caches on processors, etc).

1) A 32-bit OS has just that, 32 bits of addressable memory.
2) 8 bits creates 1 byte, therefore we have 4 bytes.
3) 1 byte can create a decimal number from 0-255, total of 256 numbers.
4) 256^4 bytes = 256*256*256*256 = 4,294,967,296 addresses.
5) The smallest amount of memory an OS can address is 1 byte.
6) 4GB of memory * 1,024MB = 4,096MB * 1,024KB = 4,194,304KB * 1024bytes = 4,294,967,296 bytes that can be addresed.

Your video card, processors cache, bios memory, everything takes from that 4,294,967,296 addresses. Then what addresses is left is for your system memory.

Hope this helps anyone that doesnt understand why you loose some of your 4 GB of ram and why a 32 bit OS can have anymore ram, really not a matter of a 32 bit OS not being able to have more than 4 GB, just cannot address it.

Edit: Now imaging how many bytes a 64-bit OS can address, 256^8

Trying to find a calculator that can give me a number that big lol

A 64-bit OS can address 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 bytes.