Somehow I must have missed this. What is this "3 GB Patch" that everyone is talking about? Thanks jerrycwo4

I also

bump

There's the 3GB switch and a patch that will allow an application to handle more than 2GB.To which of those are you referring?*Edit*BTW, did you try the "search" function? There had been plenty of discussions about either.

Windows XP only recognizes 3GB of RAM when more than 3GB of RAM is installed. E.G. if you install 4GB, Windows XP will only recognize and make available 2GB of RAM for programs and 1GB for address space while the last 1GB of RAM goes unused.What the 3GB patch does is allow Windows to utilize 3GB of RAM for programs an the last 1GB for address space for a total of 4GB of RAM. Therefore you are not wasting your investment in 4GB of shiny new RAM. Also this makes another 1GB of RAM available to MSFS which can help OOM errors and generally makes things smoother and faster as it were.Of course if you have >4GB in any version of Windows besides 64-Bit then you have wasted your money because it will not be recognized.Take note that if you are running Vista Ultimate Edition you do NOT need this patch because it already regonizes 4GB of RAM and uses it accordingly.HTH,Mike T.

A fine explanation, but I have yet to see anyone say where the "patch" can be obtained.

http://ntcore.com/4gb_patch.php - read the directions!DJ

>Windows XP only recognizes 3GB of RAM when more than 3GB of>RAM is installed. E.G. if you install 4GB, Windows XP will>only recognize and make available 2GB of RAM for programs and>1GB for address space while the last 1GB of RAM goes unused.>>What the 3GB patch does is allow Windows to utilize 3GB of RAM>for programs an the last 1GB for address space for a total of>4GB of RAM. Therefore you are not wasting your investment in>4GB of shiny new RAM. Also this makes another 1GB of RAM>available to MSFS which can help OOM errors and generally>makes things smoother and faster as it were.>>Of course if you have >4GB in any version of Windows besides>64-Bit then you have wasted your money because it will not be>recognized.>>Take note that if you are running Vista Ultimate Edition you>do NOT need this patch because it already regonizes 4GB of RAM>and uses it accordingly.>>HTH,>>Mike T.Mike, I'm afraid you made a bit of a mish-mash.WinXP (32 bit) can recognize up to 4GB of physical RAM. This doesn't relate to switches or patches. Recognizing the last gig may be problematic but again, this isn't related. Any "losses" from that last gig stem from the mobo, vid card, bios, peripheral devices the Os or what have you. This won't be remedied by any patches.Regardless of how much physical RAM you have, the system "sees" 4 gigs(uses a virtual address space of 4 GB if you prefer a more technical lingo) By default the system will allocate 2 for the applications and 2 will go for the OS (so called kernel mode processes). If you wish to change that ratio you need to "tell" the OS to do so. That's where your 3GB switch comes into play. It says 1 gig for the OS and 3 for the app's. You can further fine tune it using the "userva" option to set the ratio differently.So much for the switch. Now the patch...Not every application can handle more than 2 gigs - FS9 can't. So, even if your system allocates,say, 2.9 gigs for applications through the switch - FS9 still can't use more than two...Here's where the patch comes in to "tell" the application this time it can handle more than those two gigs.So the switch and the patch should be combined - first to allocate the memory, then to enable the application to use it.

I missed this also, but then I have the following question. How much does FS9 use at the most? Does this really help at all or is it just one of those things, a placebo if you will.I use XP with 2GB of memory. Sure, I can add another 2, but will that make a difference for XP or FS9? A real difference? Me, I don't think so. I have never had out of memory errors either, which seems to be another "new experience" these days.

Hi Mike,If you have never had a out of memory error then dont worry about it. I never had issues until I bought a much faster computer and started adding very complex scenery addons. It seems to cause issues for people running UT terrain GEPRO etc while flying from addons like Aerosoft EGLL to Mega Frankurt in framerate hungry aircraft. The patch seemed to fix my issues. FSX and FS9 want raw CPU power so I would only suggest going to 4 Gig or more if/when you upgrade to Vista.Rob

Did I read all of this correcty? Is this patch only to be used on computers that use 64 bits and not the older 32 bits? I bought my last computer with 64 bit and of course this does NOT help FS2004 any !!! jerrycwo4

No, this patch is intended for 32 bit applications like FS2004 - it has nothing to do with the bitwidth of the computer. If you do a search in the forum you will find interminable discussions on the subject. The bottom line is that, properly applied and configured, it will allow FS to grab a bit more memory and pretty much put an end to the dreaded out of memory exceptions that have plagued many of us.DJ