Windows 7: Should I or Shouldn't I?

I just got a new Advent Roma 3001 a budget laptop.
It has 4GB ram, with Windows 7 32-bit with an integrated intel mobile 4 series.

As you can see Im only getting 2.93gb of my 4gb ram usable


Now i've read (on this forum ) that this is down to me being on 32-bit windows as 32 bit only shows 4gb ram.
Now I'm wondering, if I format my laptop with 64 bit windows, will I get my full 4gb ram and is it safe too, and is it worth it because my harddrive is already packed with all my files so should I or shouldn't I?

Thanks

Just worked on this yesterday for another member

Only 2.93Gb usable of my 4Gb RAM?


There are several screen snips that might help you in these 4 pages

That person has 64-bit already though.. Im on 32 bit and I tried going into advanced options and max memory is already unchecked and ive tried checking it and rebooting and still same so I unchecked it again

Some Bios have a setting that needs to be looked at for memory allowcation.
You will never get the full 4gb because of a laptop on board video card.

But wouldn't installing 64-bit allow me 4gb? or am I getting it all wrong :P?

32bit allows 4gb & 64bit allows :

While the maximum RAM limit for 32-bit Windows 7 editions is 4GB, when it comes to the 64-bit editions, the amount of memory that the OS can address depends on which edition you are running.
Here are the upper RAM limits for the different editions of Windows 7:

• Starter: 8GB
• Home Basic: 8GB
• Home Premium: 16GB
• Professional: 192GB
• Enterprise: 192GB
• Ultimate: 192GB

maximum ram that can be used for 32 bit is 3.25gb

the other amount is being used for video memory this is why 2.93 is showing usable

Actually its addressing space.

32bit allows 4Gb of address space.

So, in a nut shell (assuming 4Gb are installed) its 4GB minus Video memory = approx amount of RAM useable by the OS.


To hopefully better explain:
Lets assume you have a dedicated graphics card that has 512MB RAM.

With a 32bit system, you have 4Gb of address space.
This means that you have 4GB of space to map everything to. (RAM, Video cards etc).

So, 4GB RAM + 512MB Graphics Card= 4.5 GB total adress space.
The system doesnt not have the room to address it all.
So it will address all periphials first, in this case a 512MB GPU, then assign what space is left to map physical RAM, leaving you a useable 3.5GB approx out of 4GB installed.

With a 64bit OS, that address space is significantly more as DocBrown has shown above.

So the system is able to address the 4GB of physical RAM installed, as well as your dedicated graphics card on board RAM (in this case 512MB) leaving you 4GB of useable system memory out 4GB installed.
And a total of approx. 4.5GB of address space assigned.


However, as DocBrown also pointed out, you will still have less 4GB of useable RAM however with a 64bit OS.

The reason is, onboard video does not have its own RAM.
So it must borrow memory form somewhere. So it does so from the installed system RAM at whatever value it is set at in the bios.

In your case, it is not an issue of needing more addressing space to assign everything.
The integrated GPU itself must borrow its RAM from the system itself.
Even with a 64bit OS, you will still have less RAm useable than is installed in the system.

With a integrated GPU, how a 64bit system can help is amount of RAm it can adress.
So if you were to put 8Gb into a 32bit OS, youd have the useable RAM you do now.
If under 64 bit, it would raise, minus the set value your integrated GPU uses (if set to 512MB it would show 7.5GB useable out of 8GB)

no wishmaster you are incorrect

the maximum 32 bits could possibly use including the total addressable memory is 4gb, so if u had a 512mb portion going to video the most ram thats possible is 3.5gb not 4.5gb. and in pretty much every case the most ram 32bit windows will ever recognize is 3.25gb

Kirspy I have seen with my own eyes 32-bit windows address 3.5GB. 3.25 is an average.