64 Bit Windows has come a long way since Win Xp 64 Bit. Yes there are still some issues but it's a much better alternative then sticking with 32 Bit if your wanting to "use" more then 4 Gigs Ram. The casual internet user won't ever use 4 gigs unless they have like 10 things going at once and even then you still might not hit 4 gigs. I have 8 gigs on this computer i just built you think i even use close to half? Not even close. So, if your wanting to stick with 32 bit, install 2-3 gigs ram your not going to need much more.
Good time to start migrating to x64! I have yet to come across a program that works in 32bit and not in 64 bit. And even when i do, there is usually a new version i can download from the web. if the rumors are correct, Windows 7 will be the final OS with a 32bit equivalent. Which means 32bit will be phased out.
I read somewhere that Microsoft would prefer people to use x64 over x86, it would make the eventual migration to x64 only Windows 8 easier. No doubt many manufacturers will still stick to x86, and many people will still insist on getting x86!
Physical Address Extension has been around for a long time, its really only properly enabled on Server variants as it can cause problems with certain programmes and drivers. Servers main role is 'to serve' (hence their name), not really a workstation platform. Server can be used for a workstation, but generally the programmes used are pretty limited in number and they are still have the same limitations as on a desktop Windows. Truthfully speaking, in the scenario where the problem affects you ideally you'd be running Windows x64 in which case it wouldn't be an issue in the first place! Microsoft should not have made x86 Windows 7 at all, as there are an increasing number of people affected by this issue. Many people do not realise the limitations and buy 1gb+ video cards which can easily restrict you to much less than even 3gb on a 4gb machine. I believe if you have a (for instance) 4870x2 which has 2gb of memory for example, then you are potentially limited to 1.8gb or even less!
There's more to it than PAE PAE is not the whole story. While the processor and OS might well support more than 4GB of physical memory, the memory controller needs to have the appropriate number of address lines. In all but the latest Intel CPUs, the memory controller was a par of the chipset. Latest chipsets have more than 32 address lines, but some older ones (which were still used in new models some 2 years ago or even less, i.e. Intel 945PM) have only 32 (which amounts to 2^32 bytes or 4GB of physical address space). Those address lines need to be shared with other hardware (mainly the GPU), so there's no way you can address 4GB of physical RAM on those chipsets, no matter the OS.
That's not true. 32bit versions of windows use 64 bit physical addresses since NT 4. It can't use more than 4GB in a single virtual address space, but there are always multiple virtual address spaces, one per process actually.
Windows 7 is yes supposedly the final x86/x64bit OS, but considering your going to need a fairly recent machine to run Windows 8. This should prove almost no issue as 95% of the machines built in the past oh say 3 or 4 years are 64bit compliant...
Hi all i am running windows 7 ultimate 32 bit with 16 gig of memory , and i am using all of the 16 gig of memory , ill post a pic of the system info if you need to see it .. there is a kernel patch program for 32 systems well i know it works on windows 7 , it will run up to 64 gig of memory if you install it .. it doesnt seem to work on laptops with shared memory ..do a google search for this app 4GB-RAMPatch-Multilingual-12.7.2010 install it , it will give you a new startup option of windows 7 or windows 7 ddr memory thing i cant remember it will have a lil watermark on desktop in the app it says remove watermark plus a few other lil apps .. regards