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What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?


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Posted

Excel 2007 is limited to 2 Gigabytes of working set memory for the Excel

process under Windows XP. Can I break this limitation by installing more DDR

RAM into Motherboard? My computer currently install 2 GB DDR RAM. Does XP

have any limitation on the Virtual Memory address space?

Thank in advance for any suggestions

Eric

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Posted

Re: What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?

 

 

"Eric" <Eric@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:A5677FC8-C346-40D1-B478-10ED5981B66D@microsoft.com...

> Excel 2007 is limited to 2 Gigabytes of working set memory for the Excel

> process under Windows XP. Can I break this limitation by installing more

> DDR

> RAM into Motherboard? My computer currently install 2 GB DDR RAM. Does XP

> have any limitation on the Virtual Memory address space?

> Thank in advance for any suggestions

> Eric

The limitation of the application (in this case, Excel) is fixed. You can

install more RAM which may help your overall system performance but cannot

overcome the limits imposed by the applications themselves. Two GB is

probably the limit for XP applications anyway.

Guest Ken Blake, MVP
Posted

Re: What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?

 

On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 11:26:40 -0500, "Allan" <mu8ja0i@earthlink.net>

wrote:

 

> "Eric" <Eric@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

> news:A5677FC8-C346-40D1-B478-10ED5981B66D@microsoft.com...

> > Excel 2007 is limited to 2 Gigabytes of working set memory for the Excel

> > process under Windows XP. Can I break this limitation by installing more

> > DDR

> > RAM into Motherboard? My computer currently install 2 GB DDR RAM. Does XP

> > have any limitation on the Virtual Memory address space?

> > Thank in advance for any suggestions

> > Eric

> The limitation of the application (in this case, Excel) is fixed.

 

 

Yes.

 

> You can

> install more RAM which may help your overall system performance

 

 

Highly unlikely. It's a very rare XP user who can make effective use

of that much memory.

 

> but cannot

> overcome the limits imposed by the applications themselves. Two GB is

> probably the limit for XP applications anyway.

 

--

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User

Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Posted

Re: What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?

 

 

"Eric" <Eric@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message

news:A5677FC8-C346-40D1-B478-10ED5981B66D@microsoft.com...

> Excel 2007 is limited to 2 Gigabytes of working set memory for the Excel

> process under Windows XP. Can I break this limitation by installing more

> DDR

> RAM into Motherboard? My computer currently install 2 GB DDR RAM. Does XP

> have any limitation on the Virtual Memory address space?

> Thank in advance for any suggestions

> Eric

2 to the thirty second power is the absolute max. That is close enough to

4GB. However, the normal installation reserves half of the virtual address

space for mapping of the operating system.

This leaves 2 GB for the user. You can increase the 2 GB to 3 GB with the

/3GB switch, but the application must be written to take advantage of this

switch.

 

Sorry, the amount of RAM has no effect on virtual address space. More RAM

will only reduce paging (which may make quite a difference in processing

speed).

 

If your spreadsheet needs more virtual address space than 2 GB, you should

be looking at a 64 bit processor.

Jim

Guest Tim Slattery
Posted

Re: What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?

 

"Allan" <mu8ja0i@earthlink.net> wrote:

>The limitation of the application (in this case, Excel) is fixed. You can

>install more RAM which may help your overall system performance but cannot

>overcome the limits imposed by the applications themselves. Two GB is

>probably the limit for XP applications anyway.

 

As Jim said, in 32-bit XP, apps are limited to 2GB or 3GB if you use

the "/3GB" switch (which starves the OS). In 64-bit XP with 64-bit

applications, the limit would be much higher but I don't know exactly

where.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(DTS)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

Posted

Re: What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?

 

 

"Tim Slattery" <Slattery_T@bls.gov> wrote in message

news:ibn0e3d0ajucomaj64v574fetmvt5rmtqb@4ax.com...

> "Allan" <mu8ja0i@earthlink.net> wrote:

>

>>The limitation of the application (in this case, Excel) is fixed. You can

>>install more RAM which may help your overall system performance but cannot

>>overcome the limits imposed by the applications themselves. Two GB is

>>probably the limit for XP applications anyway.

>

> As Jim said, in 32-bit XP, apps are limited to 2GB or 3GB if you use

> the "/3GB" switch (which starves the OS). In 64-bit XP with 64-bit

> applications, the limit would be much higher but I don't know exactly

> where.

>

> --

> Tim Slattery

> MS MVP(DTS)

> Slattery_T@bls.gov

> http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

 

 

How does the '/3GB' switch starve the OS?

 

Marc

Guest Tim Slattery
Posted

Re: What is the limit on the Virtual Memory address space?

 

"marc" <bogus@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

>How does the '/3GB' switch starve the OS?

 

It restricts the OS to 1GB of virtual memory in each address space.

I'm sure that if MS thought that the OS could consistently run well in

that space they would have made it the default. Since they didn't, I

have to assume that 1GB really isn't quite enough for the OS.

 

--

Tim Slattery

MS MVP(DTS)

Slattery_T@bls.gov

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt


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