What limits the amount of ram on a computer?

Question

Is the amount of ram bottlenecked the most by the bus, the board, the space confines, or the operating system?

I'm just wondering whats stopping me from adding rediculous amounts of ram.

Answer 1

The amount of RAM allowed in general terms is determined by several different parameters of your motherboard, but the biggest physical limiter would be the chipset. Since the chipset is what interprets data between all the components via the buses, the memory controller integrated within is only designed to address so much. Furthermore, you may also find that to maintain certain memory bus speeds, you have to limit your sizes or quantity of chips even further. For example, My Athlon XP board will take 4GB of RAM, 4-1GB sticks. However, if I exceed two single bank chips or one dual-bank chip, my memory controller will throttle down from 333MHz to 266MHz.
Sound confusing? Here's the bottom line. You need to contact the manufacturer of your name brand computer or the motherboard manufacturer if it is a custom job to find out just what it takes. If you exceed the limit, one of two things will happen. One, the computer will ignore anything past the limit, or two, the computer will refuse to operate at all.
And, finally, the Operating Systems do have limits as well. However, they will usually ignore any extra memory they can't handle. Windows 9x started ignoring much past 256-384 MB, and single-processor versions of Windows NT/2000/XP stop at 4GB. Multi-processor versions of these and higher-end Linux/Unix distros can handle up to several terabytes. Try fitting that into your box.
I hope this info has been useful to your question.

Answer 2

It's actually a combination of the processor and motherboard. If a processor is "32 bit", that means it can process memory addresses that are 2^32 (that is 2 to the 32nd power) large. For 32 bit processors this is in the 4 billion range (which is why 32 bit processors have a 4GB RAM limitation).

Answer 3

i will respond to your first question to start, the working equipment is the limiter mind-blowing subsequent to the motherboard, a 32 bit equipment purely sees as much as 4GB of reminiscence (RAM) as for it does not know a thank you to effectively use and allocate something bigger. A sixty 4 bit OS will know much extra, as for it may effectively use and allocate the reminiscence. And for the 2d question, that's not properly worth upgrading, it makes use of DDR RAM (which immediately we use DDR3) so which you will not see lots distinction in overall performance. On the terrific option of that that's too previous and your extra advantageous off paying for a sparkling computing gadget.

Answer 4

Usually its the available space you need to plug in the RAM. In normal PCs very few people will be using more than a Gig so most manufacturers only give you like two slots for RAM. Specialist hardware like servers on the other hand can accomodate more RAM because they need to use it. My friend just upgraded his server to 12 Gigs... because it was needed. RAM is expensive, buy only what you need because the rest will be useless

Answer 5

Usually it's the chipset or the operating system. Older OS's didn't know how to handle large amounts of memory.

Answer 6

Other than the number of slots, and the motherboard type, the maximum you can have is 4gb per possessor. It is possible to get more Ram than that, but there arn't enough addresses for more than 4gb per processor. It wouldn't know what to do with it.

Answer 7

It depends on the motherboard. You want to add lots of RAM - check out the good motherboards like Asus, etc.

Answer 8

It is restricted by the motherboard. If the mobo has only 4 slots, and only allows a max of 1GB sticks, then you are limited to 4 GB. Look at your mobo secifications.

Answer 9

The chipset only recognizes a certain amount. Check http://crucial.com to find out how much your's will accept.

Answer 10

all of the above, for older systems. now adays tho it's jsut the notherboard's limitations in memory addressing