32 bit vs 64 bit Comparison

Ztruker said:

I run with Win 7 Pro X64. I installed Win 7 Pro X86 under Oracle VirtualBox. After 30 days it expired and would no longer function and I could not activate it, so the answer is no, you cannot legally do this. It's a shame as it would make great test environment for doing research for posts here and on other forums.

I wonder why t's not allowed, since it would always be running on the same computer.

A VM is NOT seen as the same hardware as the actual PC it is running on.

I have 4 PCs here, all multibooting, two of them have had both 32 + 64 bit Win 7 running and activated for months. It HAS to be the same hardware to work, even though it is strictly against the licence terms.

Dil

I have Windows 7 with 4GB memory upgraded from XP.

So I know under XP the 4GB of space was segregated into 2GB for XP, 2GB for user, unless you specify the /3G boot switch.

Does 32 bit Windows 7 overcome this or is there stall a partitioning of the memory between Windows 7 and user space? If so than this is an advantage of 63 bit over 32 bit: system and user sharing the space equally.

In any case I see this as a big advantage over XP 32 bit at least - more efficient sharing of the memory between the OS and user space.

- Gene

Lordbob75 said:

GeneO said:

I have Windows 7 with 4GB memory upgraded from XP.

So I know under XP the 4GB of space was segregated into 2GB for XP, 2GB for user, unless you specify the /3G boot switch.

Does 32 bit Windows 7 overcome this or is there stall a partitioning of the memory between Windows 7 and user space? If so than this is an advantage of 63 bit over 32 bit: system and user sharing the space equally.

In any case I see this as a big advantage over XP 32 bit at least - more efficient sharing of the memory between the OS and user space.

- Gene

I have never heard of that. Do you have any documentation about it?

~Lordbob

Never heard of what? 32 bit XP reserving space for itself? There is plenty of documentation out there about windows 32 bit XP reserving 2GB of memory for itself and limiting processes to 2G unless you use the /3G boot switch.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...8VS.85%29.aspx

Lordbob75 said:

GeneO said:

Lordbob75 said:

I have never heard of that. Do you have any documentation about it?

~Lordbob

Never heard of what? 32 bit XP reserving space for itself? There is plenty of documentation out there about windows 32 bit XP reserving 2GB of memory for itself and limiting processes to 2G unless you use the /3G boot switch.

Memory Limits for Windows Releases (Windows)

Oh, this. Actually, you are incorrect.

What this refers to is the x32 limitation shared by ANY x32 OS. Each application can only use up to 2Gb of memory, and the OS can only recognize up to 4Gbs.

XP (or any other x32 OS) never reserved space "for itself" (not including hardware addressing), nor for the user (besides what the HDD can hold).

To get around this, you must use a x64 OS (be it XP, Vista, Seven, Linux, OSX, etc).

~Lordbob

Maybe I wasn't clear in my terminology. What I meant was that the available virtual address space of 4Gb for 32 bit OS is carved up between kernel space and user space 2GB and 2GB by default. If you want to increase the virtual address space of a program on a 32 bit OS, you need to use the boot 3G switch. That will give user space 3GB but at the cost of the system getting only one. In addition on the 32 bit, the OS can only use 2GB max. That is what I meant by partitioning. Giving a program access to 3GB hamstrings the OS to 1GB. Even for a machine with only 4GB of memory, with 64 bit OS and hardware, nether the OS or user space is limited in this way. In your original post you don;t touch on this or that on a 32 bit OS, you can give a program access of up to 3GB ( not just 2GB). It is at a cost.

- Gene

CyberZeus said:

Sorry GeneO, but you are incorrect. There is no OS memory and user memory. There is only memory. The documentation you specified has nothing to do with this: it clarifies what the memory limitations are.

Cheers

No I am not wrong. There is OS virtual and User space virtual address space and that article does list the limitations on each of these, which are much different for 32 and 64 bit OS. You obviously don't know the rudiments how an operating system manages memory.

Boy did I make a mistake coming to these forums. A bunch of know-it-alls that know next to nothing. I had hoped I would learn something here.