Re: 32-bit programs on Windows x64

"Peter Olcott" <NoSpam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Can two 32-bit programs each have access to 4.0 GB of RAM,
if there is 8.0 GB of RAM on the system?

On a 32-bit system, each process gets a 4GB virtual memory space. At
any time, bits of this space are in physical RAM, or on disk, or
noplace (since they haven't been allocated yet). The OS keeps track of
where everything is.

If you've got 8GB of RAM, then you must have a 64-bit system. I'm not
sure what the virtual memory space for each process is on a 64-bit
system, but I'm sure it's much larger than the 4GB, 32-bit limit.

Either way, the amount of physical RAM is *not* a limiting factor.
Since with more physical RAM you can have more bits of the VM spaces
in RAM, things will run faster. But things will continue to run even
with small amounts of physical RAM, just more slowly.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(Shell/User)
Slattery_T@xxxxxxx
http://members.cox.net/slatteryt
.

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