is there a way to make windows 7 use more than 16 gigabytes of ram

[Statharas]

Also, did I mention about a hard drive
yeah
bottleneckdrive
This is why my laptop runs an SSD.

 

[Geries]

back to your original question about making windows 7 home premium use more than 16 gb ram, yes its possible(kind) if you can make a ramdisk from that 8 gb which you couldn't utilize and set that new drive for swapping.. The rest: figure it out yourself.

 

[Dr Super Good]

i dont believe that 32 bit software is limited to only 4 gigabytes of ram.

It is due to how paged memory systems work. Each process is given a unique address space for security and management reasons that runs from 0 to whatever the OS supports. 32 bit processes only support allocating 4 GB as that is what the instructions they are executing supports. Running in 64 bit mode obviously supports larger processes but it also supports a lot of other stuff like tons of new registers and 1 instruction 64 bit operations.

windows 7 64 bit needs to emulate that anyway because a 64 bit system cant directly run a 32 bit program.

It can run 32 bit processes natively. People at Intel and AMD have made them fully backwards compatible. In fact to run 32 bit instructions (original x86) it takes a processor flag change, that is all. This flag is set by the scheduler when it changes from the 64 bit kernel level process scheduler back to the individual threads which are either 64 bit or 32 bit related.

The only thing 64 bit cannot do is run in legacy 16 bit mode. Most legacy 16 bit code is emulated natively by modern processes anyway as running them using an advanced microcode engine results in enough performance and any intensive task should have migrated to x86-64 + addon instruction sets anyway by now. The CISC 16 bit instructions are so cumbersome that implementing them natively with hardware and not microcode would slow down processor clock back to sub GHz speed. 64 bit operating mode does not support 16 bit because they want to phase it out eventually as it still adds a development cost to modern processes and operating systems no mater how small.

minimum requirements isnt always right and for the sims 3 they are clearly wrong when adding all expansions and stuff packs.

That is true, but it should still work perfectly with 4-6 GB of memory as the game can at most allocate 4 GB (will use more like 100 MB due to how slow memory is, the rest is seldom used) and the rest is ample for file caches.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

what the fuck you think 32 bit stands for(2^32 is exactly 4294967296 which is exactly 4gb.. such sorcery).. also, its MINIMAL REQUIREMENTS. theres the fucking word MINIMAL. y u make ppl cry.

That's a windows limitation, see PAE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

Anyway, I have a diagram to help explain for OP what's going on internally.

Regular windows computers have only two connectors for the RAM blocks (technical term, bare with me)

As you can see, your ALU supports more RAMblocks but your windows can't instantiate them.

Now see a computer with windows 64 KB addition:

As you can see, much moar RAMblock connectors.

 

[Dr Super Good]

That's a windows limitation, see PAE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

The problem is with virtual memory and not physical addressing... Unless the process is built or runs in a x86-64 based process it cannot allocate more than 4 GB of virtual memory due to limitations with the instruction architecture.

Now see a computer with windows 64 KB addition:

It is 64 bit because it uses the x86-64 instruction set, not 64 Kilobytes of um... something...

He is already using x86-64 version of windows. His problem is that they put a software limit on the amount of memory it will address to encourage you to buy more expensive versions for certain purposes.

It has nothing to do with RAM connectors. It is to do with the OS refusing to instantiate more memory due to a software limit in the memory page system (probably related to page depth).

 

[Cokemonkey11]

The problem is with virtual memory and not physical addressing... Unless the process is built or runs in a x86-64 based process it cannot allocate more than 4 GB of virtual memory due to limitations with the instruction architecture.

No, essentially all processors since pentium 2 support PAE.

It is 64 bit because it uses the x86-64 instruction set, not 64 Kilobytes of um... something...

He is already using x86-64 version of windows. His problem is that they put a software limit on the amount of memory it will address to encourage you to buy more expensive versions for certain purposes.

It has nothing to do with RAM connectors. It is to do with the OS refusing to instantiate more memory due to a software limit in the memory page system (probably related to page depth).

No, the guy at the shop told me you need 64 GB windows to make instructors instantiate more ram, especially if you want to play high performance games like sims.

 

[Dr Super Good]

No, essentially all processors since pentium 2 support PAE.

Physical Address Extension (PAE) is the feature of the Intel 32-bit architecture that expands the physical memory (RAM) address to 36 bits. PAE does not change the size of the virtual address space (which remains at 4 GB), but just the volume of actual RAM that can be addressed by the processor.

So this also does not help him. Especially seeing how he is already using a x86-64 built OS which is using an enhanced version of PAE and is just limited due to Microsoft licencing.

No, the guy at the shop told me you need 64 GB windows to make instructors instantiate more ram, especially if you want to play high performance games like sims.

Microsoft does not make a version of windows that uses a 549755813888 bit instruction architecture. The largest they currently support is x86-64 which is a 64 bit instruction architecture. You seem to be getting confused with kilobytes, gigabytes and bits, all units of data but multiple orders of magnitude apart as far as quantity.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Microsoft does not make a version of windows that uses a 549755813888 bit instruction architecture. The largest they currently support is x86-64 which is a 64 bit instruction architecture. You seem to be getting confused with kilobytes, gigabytes and bits, all units of data but multiple orders of magnitude apart as far as quantity.

And you seem to be confused about the idea of Cokemonkey11 currently trolling you for your sustained seriousness in this thread.

But I marked the things for you that might give it away:

No, the guy at the shop told me you need 64 GB windows to make instructors instantiate more ram, especially if you want to play high performance games like sims.

Andreas is clearly either a troll or a retard. Both is equally fine considering this is THW.


PS: Giggled at the "GPU (long and pointy)"

 

[gorillabull]

hes either a troll or a retard. . . L. O. L.

 

[Cokemonkey11]

So this also does not help him. Especially seeing how he is already using a x86-64 built OS which is using an enhanced version of PAE and is just limited due to Microsoft licencing.

Right, that's what I said:

That's a windows limitation, see PAE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

 

[GhostWolf]

@Cokemonkey11 you literally made me laugh out loud with those images, thanks.

 

[Adiktuz]

wait you can't play Sims3 with a computer using i7 and 12GB ram?

I can run Sims3 with almost all expansions up to Seasons on my old laptop that uses i3 (2nd gen I think) with 3GB RAM (GPU is an integrated ATI I think with 1 or 2 GB of memory) just fine...

 

[Geries]

wait you can't play Sims3 with a computer using i7 and 12GB ram?

I can run Sims3 with almost all expansions up to Seasons on my old laptop that uses i3 (2nd gen I think) with 3GB RAM (GPU is an integrated ATI I think with 1 or 2 GB of memory) just fine...

SSSHHHH :C He obviously needs a 4 way crossfire of R290X and a quad xeon configuration with 128 gb ram to run this sims3

 

[Cokemonkey11]

If you don't want your ALU to get stuck on naïve Bayesian Bell-LaPadula optimizations during cache partitioning, you'll definitely want 128 GB RAM for the Cross-Site Script Forgery benefits.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i havent had any problems with the the release version on any pc but as i added some of the later expansions i got issues. i really want the expansion content so maybe you could tell me how i can get the latest expansion working perfectly.

 

[LordDz]

What kind of issues?
FPS drop?
Lack of content?
Game crashing?
Sims running to the toilet?

 

[andreasaspenberg]

all sims just stop while all background animations still run.

 

[LordDz]

Sounds like you're pausing the game?

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i dont pause the game when that happens nor can i because the menus dont work while that issue is present.

 

[Dr Super Good]

That has nothing to do with memory, if it did then the game and computer would lock up due to pageing.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

i believe that that is what is happening.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Sounds more like a bug in the game. EA is notorious for making buggy rubbish.

Try raising the priority of the game process to maximum. You could also try restricting the number of cores the process executes on in case it is a threading problem.

 

[LordDz]

Post screenshots! I demand screenshots!

 

[Adiktuz]

I do think you can try reinstalling them one by one, checking each one... so that you can check which one is faulty...

and from my experience (using my little bro's laptop which is older and lower spec'd than mine), if it's a RAM issue due to the amount of contents, you would experience a memory problem BSOD instead...

 

[andreasaspenberg]

the problem started after i upgraded to a gtx 650 ti graphics card.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Then that's a bug with Sims 3 and the Nvidia drivers running that specific graphic card (or maybe that generation of graphic card).

 

[Adiktuz]

Then you should check the list of compatible graphics cards with Sims3 and its expansions... You shouldn't really just blindly upgrade things then hope it all works out fine afterwards...

 

[Dr Super Good]

It should work as its hardly a ground breaking upgrade (its not like moving from no graphic card to a graphic card, its just a more modern graphic card).

Either EA wrote the game exploiting unintended hardware behaviour that Nvidia has changed or that the Nvidia driver itself has some bug which renders the game incompatible.

 

[Adiktuz]

Most EA Games that I played had a list of compatible cards and drivers, I've even encountered some that doesn't work on a card of the same generation...

or maybe something wrong happened when you changed cards, like pushed it too hard or things like that

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Man, just when I thought that this thread couldn't get more hilarious, he drops that "my sims just stand there doing nothing" bomb.

 

[Adiktuz]

yeah... I was thinking about that too... and I do think I know exactly why... but I'd like to believe that's not the cause... else it's just really hilarious...

 

[Statharas]

On a side note, can I have your old gear? Looks like you're pointlessly upgrading your computer all the time.

 

[Adiktuz]

I could possibly build a new one that is better than my laptop without dishing too much money if I get a hold of his old stuff

 

[Statharas]

I'm planning on making a server.

 

[Adiktuz]

or maybe make money from it...

anyway, I really do hope that it's not what I think Zwiebelchen thinks, else I might have just found my new laughing material (right now it's crybabies on different forums)...

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Seriously, why can't this guy just fooking GOOGLE IT UP?

He would have found out about this pretty common game glitch and how to fix it if he did.

 

[Adiktuz]

because he doesn't trust GOOGLE...

 

[gorillabull]

you said he is a troll or a retard thats why

 

[andreasaspenberg]

the problem with google based search engines is that they substitute words i search for with other words and search for them as well. that pc really needed an upgrade because it came with a weak graphics card.(550 ti.) why HP would build a pc with intel core i7, 12 gigabytes of ram and an geforce gtx 550 ti is beyond my understanding.

 

[Dr Super Good]

why HP would build a pc with intel core i7, 12 gigabytes of ram and an geforce gtx 550 ti is beyond my understanding

They built my shitty printer so it is no bloody surprise. I mean this printer some how wastes 99% of ink and never works when you want it to. HP is not the same company it was back in 1998...

 

[andreasaspenberg]

since most pre-built pcs these days come with ssd which is overpriced i prefer to build my own. i did it once before as a school project.(i had some classes in computer construction.) i work better with spectators though so i prefer to have people watching when i build a pc. if the sims 3 uses only specific addresses on the memory, is it possible to somehow make the system use entirely other areas of the memory.

 

[Dr Super Good]

since most pre-built pcs these days come with ssd which is overpriced i prefer to build my own.

I do not think they are overpriced seeing how complex they are to manufacture. I mean how many companies own a multi billion dollar printing plant with the technology needed for printing SSD devices? I think the number is more towards the half-dozen than anything. A block of SSD storage is smaller than the head of a pin, this is not something a guy with a hammer in a garage can make. Yes it is expensive but certainly not over-priced.

i had some classes in computer construction.

You need classes?! I mean building a computer is hardly rocket science, it is just installing components of the right size in a case of the right size without putting too much strain on them. The hardest part is the motherboard and cooling installation, the rest is easy.

I would have much rather taken a science instead of that course. That way I could still get into University since they have raised the entry requirements recently.

if the sims 3 uses only specific addresses on the memory, is it possible to somehow make the system use entirely other areas of the memory.

If the Sims 3 uses direct mapping memory management you should probably shout at EA for being stupid. All modern games should be using virtual memory as should all non-kernel computer processes. This means that the addresses the process is aware of can be allocated anywhere in memory and can even have their physical memory address change with time depending on if paging occurs.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

in the class where i built a pc i did it from scratch without any components inserted. (prior to me starting the work.)ssd drives is expensive compared to the space they offer. virtual memory puts a lot of strain on the harddrive because it uses the harddrive to store stuff that doesnt fit in the memory.

 

[Dr Super Good]

ssd drives is expensive compared to the space they offer

Yes but they have no seek latency since they do not have mechanical components with speeds and positions. SSDs have near RAM random access times compared to mechanical drives which have good sequential transfer rates but slow random access times.

virtual memory puts a lot of strain on the harddrive because it uses the harddrive to store stuff that doesnt fit in the memory.

Yes however you have no choice in the matter as all modern OS and the processes they run use it. It just makes more sense than direct memory management, especially as far as security goes. PCSX2 used to use direct memory access to boost performance but they discovered that most computers encountered some sort of error trying to reserve the memory and the speed gained was negligible on modern processes thanks to caches.

in the class where i built a pc i did it from scratch without any components inserted.

It is hardly building a satellite though. I mean as long as you do not break, scratch or expose to large electric fields the components they are going to work. You even said you needed help in the form of people watching you.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

these days there is a lot of big programs so virtual memory is a requirement because of that. the sims 3 however should try to use as much non-virtual memory as possible due to it using so much space for data. i prefer to use the old harddrives that are longer lasting and capable of storing more stuff. they do require maintanance do to wear though but that is only once ever 10 years or so.

 

[Dr Super Good]

the sims 3 however should try to use as much non-virtual memory as possible due to it using so much space for data.

Which it does unless something else takes up a lot of memory (like a worm) in which case the OS will page out anything not classed as the working set of the process. If this happens game performance may drop a lot, however seeing how most of the game process is not the working set (just a cache to avoid I/O) this is not really a problem unless you really have no free memory (a worm allocating all the memory).

i prefer to use the old harddrives that are longer lasting and capable of storing more stuff.

"longer lasting" is dependant on use. SSDs could last longer than mechanical drives as they have no moving components. However if you are constantly performing I/O (server like environment) then it could wear out faster. Servers use smaller HDDs with faster RPM anyway since they need to lower the random access time (they do not care about capacity as they use huge RAID arrays, they only care about throughput).

they do require maintanance do to wear though but that is only once ever 10 years or so.

It is impossible to maintain a mechanical hard disk outside of a clean room as a single spec of dust will cover several MB of data and possible cause a head crash. Also the average life of mechanical drives is only 5 years at most (less if used 100%). Mechanical drives are one of the most likely to fail components of any computer due to the moving parts. Most likely being the optical drive if used 100% (lasers have a half life and so after so many half life periods the laser cannot read discs anymore, aka the Diablo II killed my disc drive problem) of the time and least likely probably being RAM (often given with life time guarantees now) or the motherboard.

 

[andreasaspenberg]

none of my pcs have suffered from a completely broken harddrive. one got lots of bad sectors because of a design flaw where the harddrive was right above the speaker. on another one something on the main board broke down. the memory broke on a third.(had to remove the chip because it caused a bluescreen.) the rest is still working.

 

[Geries]

why HP would build a pc with intel core i7, 12 gigabytes of ram and an geforce gtx 550 ti is beyond my understanding.

Because there might be applications where you don't need a (powerful) graphic card? Why would you buy a product which's setup is not statisfying for you is beyond my understanding. And then HP is the stupid.

 

[Zwiebelchen]

you said he is a troll or a retard thats why

Touché.

because of a design flaw where the harddrive was right above the speaker.

Excuse me; what? A laptop speaker is hardly creating sufficient bass response to cause any chassis resonation at all.

And if you are using laptop speakers to listen to music or games anyway, you are doing it wrong.

 

[Statharas]

Long lasting my ass. I've returned 3 HDDs to the shop (warranty) so far. My SSD is alive and kicking ass.