Solved Windows 8 RAM

So here's the deal. I want to install windows 8 on my 4GB RAM laptop. I use it mostly for browsing the internet,watching movies and some small programs. Should i install the 32bit. version? I must say that i don't plan to upgrade RAM memory in the future,4GB are more than enough for me right now.i want some feedback and advised support Thanks.

I don't think it really would matter for you at 4GB of Ram as you are at the cutoff point of 32 bit Windows and when using it you would probably not notice any difference.

With 32 bit Windows you get a bit better compatibility as you can run very old 16 bit Windows Programs. Also some older hardware has 32 bit but not 64 bit Drivers.

With 64 bits you can use the full 4GB of RAM (with 32 bit you normally get something like 3.5GB) and it should be slightly faster.

But if you only run modern programs and your printers etc come with 64 bit drivers, I would say go with that for the slight speed improvement.

I would put 64bit on simply to make use of all of the RAM that you already have. From a performance difference, I highly doubt you will be able to see any quantifiable difference.

yeah..most of the new computers on the market have at least 4GB RAM installed and good specs.everything is going to 64.bit arhitecture. i will go with 64. Thanks for your time.

I would agree on installing the 64 bit version if your laptop supports it. What make and model is your laptop?

Asus X54C

There's no difference from the driver perspective. They have drivers for Windows 7 and 8 both x64 and x86.

What you have to take into account is the upgrade process. You can't upgrade x86 to x64, and neither you can transfer settings with Windows Easy Transfer.

Otherwise, x64 is the way to go.

64 bit operating systems have a number of important advantages over 32 bit versions. One advantage, and the one most often quoted, is the ability to access more RAM. The RAM limits range from 8 GB on Windows 7 Home Basic to 4 TB (4096 GB) on some editions of Server 2012. In most cases the hardware imposes the practical limit.

But the biggest advantage, and the reason they were developed in the first place, is the much larger virtual address space provided to native 64 bit applications. This is 8192 GB as opposed to 4 GB in a 32 bit OS. And that is not a theoretical limit but one imposed for practical reasons. Note that this value is completely independent of how much RAM you have. For some types of applications this is an enormous advantage.

There can be little doubt that 32 bit operating systems will eventually become obsolete, just as 16 bit systems have been for some time. Microsoft has not released a 32 bit server OS since 2008.

A 64 bit OS can run most (but not all) 32 bit applications. A 64 bit OS must use 64 bit drivers, no exceptions. If there are no 64 bit drivers available the device cannot be used. A 32 bit OS has zero capability to run 64 bit applications and there is no add-on to make this possible.

pparks1 said:

I would put 64bit on simply to make use of all of the RAM that you already have. From a performance difference, I highly doubt you will be able to see any quantifiable difference.

Click to expand...

I go with mr. pparks here.

The thing is that 32bit will work fine but you won't be seeing all the RAM, you'll be getting 3GB or 3.1 or 3.5 usable out of 4GB. If this is an issue to you, install 64bit and you'll have 4GB usable memory.

If the above is not an issue and you can live with 1 GB less (it's still 25% out of the total consider this) install the 32bit version.

That's all.

Just a side note. If you want to give an older laptop new life. install a SSD. I did and it boots in 20 seconds and all the programs run super fast. I also have 4 gig of RAM, but I am running Linux and win7.

If your Video card has its own dedicated RAM I would recommend going 64 bit for sure. Otherwise that dedicated RAM is going to subtract from your usable RAM.
10 second boot time here on my ASUS K75DE with a Crucial M4 SSD.

I would vote for the 64bit version too. Windows 8 uses actually less RAM than Windows 7. So 4GB will be ample.