When adding more RAM won’t help
One of the time-honored mantras about how to improve computer performance is “add more RAM”. Over the years, I have said this many times. These days, however, the amount of RAM in systems is often near or at the usable limit. I previously posted about the limits imposed on 32-bit systems by the 4 GB address space and noted that 64-bit systems have a much larger theoretical limit. However, both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems may be constrained by RAM limits imposed by other hardware on the PC. The chipset and CPU can put a limit on how much RAM can be installed. Many older systems can only handle 2 GB or 4 GB. There are other possible hardware bottlenecks as well.
So, even if you have a 64-bit version of Windows, you may not be able to use more than 4 GB of RAM (if that). For example, my HP Pavilion dv9000 laptop with 64-bit Vista can only use 2 GB of RAM because of the chipset in the machine. (I was not pleased when I found out I couldn’t add another 2 GB.) If you are thinking of adding RAM to a system that has 2 GB or more already on board, you should consult your PC manufacturer to see what RAM limits may exist for your PC model.
For some explanation about hardware limits on RAM, see this MSDN reference. Also, this Microsoft Knowledge Base article has information.
References via Raymond Chen’s blog.
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