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Paul J

Well...I'll be.......I had 3 gigs of RAM, but was NOT USING IT!.....

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I was under the impression that XPSP2 Pro could USE and see up to ***3 Gigs*** of system RAM if you had it installed. I have had 3 gigs installed for months...I was reading around the forum and came across a post that stated:----------------------------For XP:disable hidden files and folder, then on the root C: you will find a file named: boot.ini Open it in notepad and add the following to the end of the OS boot line: /3GB/Userva=2560 multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professsional" /fastdetect /3GB /Userva=2560 :(I now obviously have 33 percent greater resources for my system to utilize, because the O.S. is seeing it. So...I guess that the STOCK SET-UP of XP PRO...does NOT SEE the third gig installed unless you set the new flag in the above instructions. I'll be damned! Here I was thinking all along that I had a 3 gig system...when in fact, my O.S. was only using 2!!!!Jeez.....That third gig of RAM opened up storage resources for textures that overflowed my VID RAM of 256 meg. The performance is now like night and day!Cheers,Mitch

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Mitch - you obviously do far too much flying and don't spend the required amount of time on this site! To properly support FSX one needs to spend at least four evenings per week here, plus any time available at work. EVERYONE knows this!!!;-)



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>Mitch - you obviously do far too much flying and don't spend>the required amount of time on this site! To properly support>FSX one needs to spend at least four evenings per week here,>plus any time available at work. EVERYONE knows this!!!>>;-)>-------------------LOL! I truly thought that XP could/would use 'up to' 3 gigs of RAM, if you had it in your system. I knew about that '4 gig' switch, but thought that only THAT switch was required to force XP Pro to 'see' the fourth. Well...anyway...since using the '3 gig' switch, what a difference to my whole system, let alone flight sim'ming!I would never have seen that post unless I was following a certain thread and it lay buried in it.RECAP...anybody else that has three gigs, you need to enable the boot.ini switch. You'll love the results! For myself, no more snapping in of ground textures, and frankly...I'm wondering if I really even need to upgrade from my P4 until FSXI shows its face. All I wanted was smooth fps performance and clear scenery. I'm now getting all that with my 'dated' lol, system...Life was good. Now, it's even better! :)

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Guest NoobPilot

I have four gigs, I can't wait to see what happens! thanks!

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Guest Zelensta

Do you need to do this in Windows XP home edition?I have 2 gigs and bad perfromance with a 512 mb card so...

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>Do you need to do this in Windows XP home edition?>I have 2 gigs and bad perfromance with a 512 mb card so...Uh, no. This is only if you have 3 and or 4 gigs of RAM installed.

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And what if you have XP SP3 installed?Cheers,Noel.


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>>Do you need to do this in Windows XP home edition?>>I have 2 gigs and bad perfromance with a 512 mb card so...>>Uh, no. This is only if you have 3 and or 4 gigs of RAM>installed.>>Uh NO! This is for 2 or 3 or 4 gigs of RAM and has NOTHING to do with actual physical memory. If you are going to start a post like this you should do your homework first...There have been SO MANY good informative articles on this subject, just do some searching.Primary RigLiquid CooledIntel C2D E8500 @ 3.8Asus P5N32SLI-Plus2 gigs Corsair XMS PC6400 4 4 4 12 @940Dual OC'd XFX 8800GTX @ 2 gigs24 inch Widescreen LCD 16XAA/16XAFDual 19 inch LCD'sRaid-0+1PCPower and Cooling 1k Quad SLIhttp://home.comcast.net/~psolk/3monitorsa.htmlBackup RigAMD 4000 San Diego @ 2.72 Gigs Kingston Corsair XMS CL2XFX 7900 GTX Raid-0psolk.jpg


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You mean homework like this?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328882 or this?http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/.../05/208908.aspxRead the article. There is no reason to delegate virtual address on a system with only 2 gigs of PHYSICAL memory. There is no payout. That was my recommendation after reading my 'homework'...On my 3 gig system, opening up more address space for application use gave me a huge boost on ground texture clarity, than what the Kernel had reserved for itself without the modifier.

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Guest Nick_N

Just so you are aware Mitch, you have now made Windows 3GB aware but FSX is not.There are only 2 ways to get FSX to be aware of and use the extra memory1. Mark the fsx.exe file using software that will allow you to set the >2GB marker2. install Sp2 which has the marker in the fsx.exe fileSince you do not like SP2, you must edit fsx.exe manually so it will use the memory. Download CFF Explorerhttp://www.download.com/CFF-Explorer/3000-...4-10431156.htmlStart CFF ExplorerGo to: File - Open browse and open FSX.exelook for " File Header" and in the right pane you will see "click here". Click it. A box will open. Look for "App can handle >2gb addressest" Check it. Save and close FSX will now use more than 2GB

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Not true... you can get OOM errors with 2 GB of real memory which can be cured by setting the /3 GB switch.Happy you are seeing benefits, but please recognize that this switch is of value, regardless of physical memory on the computer - including a 2 GB system !It is all about giving FSX more virtual address space to play with, or in.:-)


Bert

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Well, most people will be totally confused reading this whole thread now. Could someone, who has the definitive answer, please summarize this topic. Thanks,


Keith Sandford.

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Hi Nick!Nick, I only used the above switch recommendation, and POW...my ground textures were no longer snapping, but were just in focus no matter where I panned.I'll add your recommendations on top of that and see what results unfold.Over the past few weeks...well..actually since you published that XPSP2 Tune-Up, things have slowly just been getting better and better,...more fined tuned each day.The effect upon my 'dated' system is massive!FSX has been brought to life, for sure, and so VERY USABLE upon a P4 D0, 3.4GHz Prescott Core with HyperThreading enabled, and 3GB of System RAM.Thanks for all your forum contributions. They are very much appreciated by not only myself, but by all!Mitch

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Guest RichardL

Does the switch apply to Vista64?My sim computer is running Vista64 with 4GB physical ram. I also have FSX w/ SP1 only installed. SP2 causes constant crashes.Are there any adjustments I need to make?Regards,Richard

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Guest Nick_N

NoA 64 bit OS will use all the memory you can throw at it without the need for switches or cache edits which is why I run XP x64If FSX is SP2, you already have the >2GB marker in the exe file

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