Thread: How much ram do 32 bit programs have access to?

I was wondering because I upgraded to win 7 64 bit after i lost my hard drive. Most of the programs i use have install in the x86 program files folder. Right now, i believe, the only 64 bit program i have installed is adobe Photoshop. Does it matter, what the program is natively will i still see the use of my 6 gigs of ram if i am mostly using 32 bit programs.

32-bit programs can only address a maximum of 4GB of memory in a 64-bit OS (they can only access 2 or 3GB of memory in a 32-bit OS). So a single 32-bit program won't be able to use all of your 6GB of memory.

But you will be able to, for example, run five 1GB programs at once and have they all fit into memory. And even if you're not running that many programs the extra memory will still be used for file caching.

Are you sure about that? A 32bit windows OS has sufficient address space for 4GBs of ram, but each program is limited to 2GBs. The 3GB switch I believe limits windows to 1GB of space, but I don't think the extra GB goes to a single program. I don't know of any program limit in win x64.

How can i set the large address? Is it just entering the command in the shortcut?

The exefile must be altered. Edit bin from Microsoft can do it. There is a small risk to it, if the developer of the application hasn't set it already. There is a small risk that it will crash when it tries to access memory above 2G - depending on how it is programmed.

I'll assume, then, that you're using an ASUS motherboard. You might try checking the ASUS website for newer versions of the drivers. Drivers on included discs are almost inherently out of date, an effect of the time it takes once the product is manufactured and its driver disc written and packaged to the point that you receive it. Maybe your WD drives are more picky about the raid drivers than your friends Seagate’s, though this seems unlikely (though it's worth checking). Of course, there's always a chance you have a bad motherboard.