Topic: Vista 32Bit SP1 RC rumor

[FEVER]

 Im reading around the net people running 4GB RAM with Windows Vista 32Bit, after installing SP1 RC, are able to see all 4 GB.
 IE:
   QUOTE: "before i had a 4gb and PAE enabled in vista and i never saw 4gb, but just today i installed the vista sp1 rc and i can see all 4gb. Again my problem was solved alone with sp1 (and i have vista 32 bit)"

  http://vistarewired.com/2007/03/29/how-to-enable-more-than-35-gb-of-memory-in-32-bit-windows-vista

 UPDATE:

 QUOTE: "With SP1, Windows Vista will report the amount of system memory installed rather than report the amount of system memory available to the OS. Therefore 32-bit systems equipped with 4GB of RAM will report all 4GB in many places throughout the OS, such as the System Control Panel. However, this behavior is dependent on having a compatible BIOS, so not all users may notice this change. "

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2553601&SiteID=17

 http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/005f921e-f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx?mfr=true

[Fujitsu]

So basically windows is going to lie to you, lol

Sounds like a great Microsoft inovation

[MegaHz]

I was in chatting with some of my old buddies at futureshop in red deer, and they pointed out the machine below, it registers all of its ram even without SP1. Vista home premium, 8GB of ram.

http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10097962&catid=

[Zeus]

That's because it's running a 64-bit OS.

This model comes equipped with Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit and a software bundle that includes NTI CD-Maker Gold, Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 and Acer-exclusive applications.

Obviously 64-bit OS's can read more RAM - up to 128GB at this point I believe.

[FEVER]

speaking of which, im getting conflicting answers on installing a 64bit upgrade version of vista onto a 32bit version of XP. Seems the answer from microsoft is no, but yet, im hearing if you do a clean install from the "upgrade anytime disk", its ok......??...

[Zeus]

Clean install, means it will be clean.  It won't bring your data across.  It's basically, the annual "Format & Re-install" windows thing.

[VE6JHC]

There are some utilities to let 32 bit OS see more of the mathematically available memory.

[FEVER]

 Vista SP1 released yesterday. I did check ms DL site & updates mid-afternoon yesterday, but wasnt available. Just ran MSUpdate this morning & DL'ing as I type. 
 
 Installed smoothly & restarted once between parts 2 & 3.
 After an additional "manual" restart upon loading into windows, still feels like needs a defrag.
 System Info shows 4GB

[Zeus]

Glad to hear that more RAM is listed as available. . . time will tell if it is actually useful though.  Thanks for the update though!

[VE6JHC]

So any reports on any performance gains after installing SP1? Time for some bench marking I think.....

[FEVER]

 I wouldn't have expected any speed improvememnts (not that I read the whitepaper)
 But Yesterday, while checking the net to see if SP1 was released yet, I did come across a few people "claiming" speed improvememnts with programs opening and games loading faster. 
 

[VE6JHC]

I read some stuff on line....They are showing benchmark scores increasing approx 2-3%. Nothing earth shattering....more of a maturing of the OS.

[Zeus]

Isn't it true that basically SP1 is all of the hotfixes and updates previously released online?  Why would there be performance gains if all of these were previously available (if you had installed them)?  My rule of thumb is there is a 3-5% margin of error on benchmarks. . . we post the actual percentages, but 3DMark, Cinebench and others can vary by a few % each time they are ran.

[VE6JHC]

I read that around 25% was of SP1 was wrap ups of fixes already released while the rest is new updates. On a side note I read a tip about getting rid of a bunch of unneeded files after the update....warning if you remove these file you will not be able to roll back the SP.

Just type vsp1cln.exe (short for Vista SP1 Cleaner) at the command prompt.

[Fujitsu]

It will be interesting to see how well it works, I haven't had a chance to test it out personally, but hopefully it makes things work a bit smoother

I haven't had any major issues with Vista personally, but I know there are quite a few major issues that need to be resolved, I'm just hoping that fixing a bunch of issues doesn't end up causing a bunch more issues