will 32 bit win 7 public release support 8 GB ram?It would be nice cuz there are 32 bit games + lost's more nice things so I cant use 64 bit os if I wanna use 32 bit soft. If windows serve can handle 128G ram and more then why cant win 7 handle 8 G ram. if you (Microsoft) don't code 8 GB support in 2 bit win 7 u loose ur clients.me for example. I just downloaded 32 bit Ubuntu linux and installed server kernel on it, and now I can use my 8 GB ram :) And I won't buy next windows until these memory limits are 4 GB off topic: if u plan make 8 GB support I can be tester :P Title Submit Cancel Reason Title Submit Cancel Reason

The maximum RAM limit for 32-bit Windows 7 editions is 4GB.Carey Frisch

But Windows Vista for example has WOW64 subsystem to run 32bit application effectively (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOW64). Real trouble may be drivers for old devices.

But Windows Vista for example has WOW64 subsystem to run 32bit application effectively (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WOW64). Real trouble may be drivers for old devices. True The next quote is from wikipedia; what it says is (provided you understand memory issues) that in your case : in Ubuntu 32 bits you can adress more than 4Gb (contrary to Windows 32 bits, (Carey is right)but it slows down your Ubuntu.QUOTE"In traditional 32-bit protected mode, x86 processors use a two-level page translation scheme, where the control register CR3 points to a single 4 KB long page directory, which is divided 1024 4 byte entries that point to 4 KB long page tables, similarly consisting of 1024 4 byte entries pointing to 4 KB long pages. Enabling PAE (by setting bit 5, PAE, of the system register CR4) causes major changes to this scheme. By default, the size of each page remains as 4 KB. Each entry in the page table and page directory is extended to 64 bits (8 bytes) rather than 32 bits to allow for additional address bits; however, the size of tables does not change, so both table and directory now have only 512 entries. Because this allows only half as many entries as the original scheme, an extra level of hierarchy has been added, so CR3 now points to the Page Directory Pointer Table, a short table which contains pointers to 4 page directories. The entries in the page directory have an additional flag, in bit 7, named PS (for Page Size). If this bit is set to 1, the page directory entry does not point to a page table, but to a single large 2 MB page. The NX bit is another flag in the page directory, in bit 63, to mark pages as "No eXecute". Because the 12 least significant bits of the page table entry's 64 bits are either similar flags or are available for OS-specific data, a maximum of 51 bits can be potentially used in the future to address 251bytes, or 2 petabytes, of physical memory. On x86-64 processors, PAE is obligatory in native long mode; currently 48 bits are used out of 52 bits possible on AMD Phenom, older CPUs may use fewer bits." CPU support of PAE mode can be identified via the CPUID flag PAE."END OF QUOTERegardsRem

Rain - Please post using plain text. Your post is quite difficult to read when it's squeezed into a column that's 4 characters wide. GAA!! Trying to post HTML inside the editor does all kinds of whacky stuff. For the record, ALL 32 bit operating systems - Windows, Linux, OSX, OS/2, etc..., et al, ad nauseum - only support 4 GB of RAM. This is a function of the way memory is addressed in the operating system. There is one exception to this - and Zeus has given you an explanation on how and why. Secondly... The version of Windows Server that supports 128 GB of RAM is a 64 bit OS. The 64 bit version of Windows 7 likewise can generally handle 8 GB as well. Third... More bad news for you - Because of the way the hardware is addressed, even if you only had 4 GB of RAM, you're not likely to see a full 4 GB of available memory in Windows 7 32 bit. More often than not, video cards and other hardware take up some portion of that memory. The typical is somewhere around 3.25 to 3.5 GB.The bottom line - if you really want touse 8 GB of RAM, your best possible solution is to get the 64 bit version of Win 7. Fourth... And finally - you can be a tester...? Uh.. For what? In case you haven't been paying attention, Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing. That means they've sent the final code to the people who are going to be pressing the DVDs that are going to be shipped to the stores. The beta version is long expired (August 1st). The Release Candidate still works - but for what it's worth, testing is over and done with. You can't even get a legitimate copy of the RC any longer from the public sources any more - downloads stopped on August 20th.And Windows 8 is still a twinkle in Steve Sinofsky's eye...

Rain - Please post using plain text. Your post is quite difficult to read when it's squeezed into a column that's 4 characters wide. GAA!! Trying to post HTML inside the editor does all kinds of whacky stuff. Yes, agree here, looks like you copied the whole post editor into your post or something... For the record, ALL 32 bit operating systems - Windows, Linux, OSX, OS/2, etc..., et al, ad nauseum - only support 4 GB of RAM. This is a function of the way memory is addressed in the operating system. There is one exception to this - and Zeus has given you an explanation on how and why. If I heard right from one of my friends, the 32-bit systems have a max amount of memory they can address (4 GB) since the binary bits they can use/recognize runs out at around 4 GB. Secondly... The version of Windows Server that supports 128 GB of RAM is a 64 bit OS. The 64 bit version of Windows 7 likewise can generally handle 8 GB as well. Yep, that is the case. If I remember right, 64-bit OSs can use 32-bit apps, just not as well as a 32-bit OS can.Hello! Please reply back, promptly if possible with the results to solutions to your problem!Curious about Win7 min. system requirements?Readme: Older ATI, Intel onboard graphics, or NVIDIA graphics cards on Windows 7Windows 7 tips - JoelbX

Joel - It's not "around 4 GB"- it's 4 GB. Exactly...

question:U said that 4GB is max, now I ask, how can 32 bit ubuntu with server kernel recognize 8GB ram? (actially it's showing me 7.9 but still.... how?)

rain - It's called PAE - Physical Address Extension. It's a memory trick that allows the OS and some apps that are coded for it to go beyond the 4 GB limit...BUT... There's a trade-off. Drivers may not work properly. It may make your system run very badly, or not at all. Under Linux, it's probably a bit easier - you can tweak and recompile drivers to make things work properly (or find someone to do it). But under Windows, that's not likely to happen. Windows has supported this feature since XP SP2 in order to allow DAE to work- but the memory was capped at 4 GB to keep the system from self destruction.