No, software is not to be written to take advantage of it. The deal is that multitasking eats away of your memory. PAE is able to give all your multitasking applications more memory.
Performance hit? PAE is enabled by default in all editions. The small hit you get, you also get by running in 64bit mode.
????
PAE is in no way comprable to a real 64bit platform. Not in the least.
To actually make FULL use of 4GB of RAM or more, you need a 64bit OS.
Theres simply no way around the physical limitation of 32bit architecture when we're talking 4GB +
I don't think anybody here is comparing PAE to a 64bit OS. The talk is about 32bit OSes.
You're right, but my buddy pallesenw doesn't like to let these threads go with the proper answer...without throughing out tons of information on PAE. While not incorrect, all it does is confuse the OPs and make them briefly think there's a way to address all their memory on a desktop system with an x86 OS installed. The correct answer is, and always is...to just use an x64 OS.
I think this whole discussion may be interesting from an academic point of view - but it has little practical use. Whether Win7 has 3.2GBs or 4.0GBs at its disposal is pretty irrelevant for most users whilst the application of the PAE constitutes many risks that the average user cannot fathom. So why bother.
The original question was if there was a tweak to allow a 32bit OS to allocate 4GB of RAM or more.
The short answer is: No there is not, move to a 64bit OS. Its the only method that truly works as intended.
Theres no way around the physical limitation of 4GB total addressing space in a 32bit OS.
I could actually say the same thing back at you. The OP isn't going to care or use PAE. That's not what this thread was about. You're answering and discussing topics at a 10, and this thread calls for an answer around a 3. As mentioned by others, PAE would be a great discussion topic for academics, but let's just answer the OPs question.
I understand you do this in ever similar thread on [H]ardforums, and that's why they usually end up in a flamefest. I'm not trying to say you are wrong, nor am I trying to flame you. The point is, let's follow the K.I.S.S. idea and just answer the OPs question that no, there's no patch or quick fix to use more memory than his system is set up. Discussing PAE for this topic is like discussing triple-bypass surgery when the person was looking for a band-aid.
That's mearly showing you how much physical memory is installed...not what Vista is actually addressing. Microsoft had too many complaints about systems only showing 3.25 GB, even though more was installed, so it was patched.
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