Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8 • Hacker News Board

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#11

Post by yuhong » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:18 AM UTC

_ea1k wrote: post #7

LeeLorean wrote: post #5

You will make Microsoft angry if you do this. They have various versions of Windows 8, and some are more crippled than others. It enables PAE which is 36bit addressing Microsoft brought in for their server product line. You still only have 4GB per process, though. I've been using this one for Windows 7. Gives me 64GB http://www.adminsehow.com/2011/03/windows-7-32-bit-pae-patch...

Don't the 32bit and 64bit versions cost the same amount? I'm not sure why this would make MS angry.

Yea, I think the licensing mechanism was used for this limit just because it was convenient to do so.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#12

Post by shinratdr » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:23 AM UTC

yuhong wrote: post #10

stephengillie wrote: post #8

Why is there a 32bit variant of win8? Are there people who actually use win8 on non-64bit systems?

I think it is used on Clover Trail tablets (with 32-bit EFI!), as one example.

Are there any Clover Trail tablets with more than 4GB of RAM?

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#13

Post by xtrumanx » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:26 AM UTC

LeeLorean wrote: post #5

You will make Microsoft angry if you do this. They have various versions of Windows 8, and some are more crippled than others. It enables PAE which is 36bit addressing Microsoft brought in for their server product line. You still only have 4GB per process, though. I've been using this one for Windows 7. Gives me 64GB http://www.adminsehow.com/2011/03/windows-7-32-bit-pae-patch...

How safe is it to use? Have you heard of people having issues with the patch? If things don't work, would it be as simple as removing the patch or would a fresh Windows install be required?

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#14

Post by yuhong » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:26 AM UTC

shinratdr wrote: post #12

yuhong wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is used on Clover Trail tablets (with 32-bit EFI!), as one example.

Are there any Clover Trail tablets with more than 4GB of RAM?

I think most if not all of them only have 2GB.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#15

Post by ck2 » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:28 AM UTC

Wish they'd backport it for XP, I am determined to get another year out of this machine.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#16

Post by zdw » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:28 AM UTC

Note that this doesn't enable you to run 64-bit applications, or for any single process to address more than 4GB of memory.

As a result, it's of extremely limited utility today - you'd need a 32-bit application that needs to run on bare hardware (ie, not a 32-bit OS running under a 64-bit VM), and needs a ton of memory, or a pre-64-bit system with > 4GB of memory, which would be both rare and inefficient, as that would be single core/socket systems that are at least 6 years old at this point.

I guess if you had some system you were trying to keep alive that needed a lot of RAM, PCI-X card slots, and 32-bit software it might be handy, but that seems very rare/esoteric at this point.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#17

Post by yuhong » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:32 AM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #15

Wish they'd backport it for XP, I am determined to get another year out of this machine.

Sadly it is not trivial to do. See Geoff Chappell's article: http://geoffchappell.com/notes/windows/license/memory.htm You'd be better off with Server 2003 Enterprise, which is also supported until July 2015 unlike XP.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#18

Post by yuhong » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:33 AM UTC

zdw wrote: post #16

Note that this doesn't enable you to run 64-bit applications, or for any single process to address more than 4GB of memory. As a result, it's of extremely limited utility today - you'd need a 32-bit application that needs to run on bare hardware (ie, not a 32-bit OS running under a 64-bit VM), and needs a ton of memory, or a pre-64-bit system with > 4GB of memory, which would be both rare and inefficient, as that wou…

I think the only typical real world example of a "pre-64-bit system with > 4GB of memory" that have the NX bit required for Win8 is the Xeon Sossaman.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#19

Post by zdw » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:34 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #8

Why is there a 32bit variant of win8? Are there people who actually use win8 on non-64bit systems?

Long hardware maintenance cycles, especially in businesses.

The last 32-bit NetBurst (Pentium 4) systems with 2GB of RAM aren't that bad to work on, when given a video card that supports Windows 7/8 video features and a decently fast disk.

You don't need a whole lot more to run a greenscreen terminal emulator or a basic web browser.

Re: Use up to 64GB of RAM on 32 bit Windows 8

#20

Post by wycx » Fri, Jul 19, 2013, 2:37 AM UTC

stephengillie wrote: post #8

Why is there a 32bit variant of win8? Are there people who actually use win8 on non-64bit systems?

Sure. I have a scanner that is now useless because Canon never released a 64-bit driver. (The useful lifetime of a scanner is longer than the life of an individual PC or the time a manufacturer will support it.) Lots of scientific and industrial equipment will not have 64-bit drivers.