"Ken Blake, MVP" wrote:

> On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:07:01 -0800, Scott Ehrlich <Scott
> Ehrlich@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> > I have a new 32 GB quad-core PC that I plan to install WinXP 32-bit on.
> > Since WinXP 32-bit only utilizes 4 GB RAM, will the remaining 28 GB be
> > wasted, or can it somehow be utilized?
>
>
> It will be wasted. Actually everything over something around 3.1GB
> will be wasted. All 32-bit versions of Windows (Vista as well as XP),
> even though they have a 4GB address space, can only use *around* 3.1GB
> of RAM. That's because some of that space is used by hardware and not
> available to the operating system and applications. The amount you can
> use varies, depending on what hardware you have installed, but is
> usually around 3.1GB.
>
> However, note that even if 32-bit Windows *could* use that much RAM,
> it's highly unlikely that your apps could make use of it. In fact,
> even 3GB is substantially more than RAM than most people running
> Windows XP can make effective use of. Chances are you would see no
> performance difference between 1GB and 3GB, unless you do very
> memory-hungry tasks, live editing large photographic images or videos.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>


What are the insights of adding /pae to the boot.ini? What does that truly
buy me?
From both the OS and application perspective, from programs such as matlab,
mathematica, adobe acrobat, photoshop, etc?

Thanks.

Scott