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win 9x memory

Started by Hitchhiker90 Dec 11, 2001 at 4:35 AM 4 replies 350+ views

Original Post

Dec 11, 2001 at 4:35 AM

After reading another thread I thought about something a coworker told me. He said that win9x or at least in win95/98 was capped at either 128MB or 256MB (I can''t remember) on the amount of RAM it can use and windows would not utilize any memory above that. So we would sell machines with not more than 256MB RAM. I know it can recognize more, but will it use anything extra above 256MB? Does anyone know if this is true or know if it gets to a point where it doesn''t utilize memory? Hitchhiker90 "There''s one bitch in the world, one bitch with many faces" -- Jay "What are you people, on dope?" -- Mr. Hand

Pixel_Sticks

Dec 11, 2001 at 4:46 AM

i would also like to know, i have heard the same thing from several sources. It seems rather impossible but then again who knows?

Sand_Hawk

Dec 11, 2001 at 7:27 AM

This is true experience, the Windows 9x kernel has a maximum of 128 meg. Everything above this it will not utilized(Most Windows apps will utilize it.) If you have 256 Meg, lower it to 128 meg. Then play a game with HUGE levels(Deus Ex takes quite long to load). Then insert but back the other bank so you have a total of 256 meg and try to load the game, same level, again. See, it works faster. You can also set the limit of Windows mem to 256 meg so I will work a bit faster. How do I know this? Done lots with computer repairs and building!

Sand Hawk

Member of the Stupid Coders.
http://www.stupidcoders.cjb.net

-Earth is 98% full. Please delete anybody you can.

Martee

Dec 11, 2001 at 12:44 PM

Sorry, much of what has been said in this thread is incorrect.
1. Windows 9x can address up to 2 Gigs of physical RAM.
2. Due to a flawed VCache implementation, Windows 9x cannot use more than 512 Megs RAM without a small tweak.

For more info:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q253912
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q181594

Now having said that, Win9x has such poor memory management that you won''t see a major performance increase by adding more RAM.

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