PC Entusiast, Listen up!

[Niels Bohr 72]

The Intel Core i7 is a 64 bit processor. This means it should be able to support upto 1.844x10^19 byte of memory. That's a whole lots of memory. However, the Physical Address Extension is only limited to 36-bit. Therefore, you are maxed out at 24 GB of memory.

On the 32-bit machines, you can access about 4 GB of memory because you can take advantage of all the bits in the 32-bit. With the 64 bits machine, you cannot use all the 64 bits because of the PAE restrictions. So, you are essentially getting ripped off. This isn't to say that the memory controller is limited to only 36-bit. The CPU doesn't really generate physical address to access memory. It generate logical addresses which will tell the memory controller how much space to allocate. It has a page table, and segment tables inside the memory controller.

The dissappointing thing is that you're getting ripped off that your CPU isn't fully performing as it should.

[Darnell 8,480]

maybe with all that extra register space I can hardwire in some remote controlled Cylons ?

[Ban Hammer 14,571]

what's an Entusiast?

[natty bumppo 297]

what's an Entusiast?

assisted suicide?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

The Intel Core i7 is a 64 bit processor. This means it should be able to support upto 1.844x10^19 byte of memory. That's a whole lots of memory. However, the Physical Address Extension is only limited to 36-bit. Therefore, you are maxed out at 24 GB of memory.

On the 32-bit machines, you can access about 4 GB of memory because you can take advantage of all the bits in the 32-bit. With the 64 bits machine, you cannot use all the 64 bits because of the PAE restrictions. So, you are essentially getting ripped off. This isn't to say that the memory controller is limited to only 36-bit. The CPU doesn't really generate physical address to access memory. It generate logical addresses which will tell the memory controller how much space to allocate. It has a page table, and segment tables inside the memory controller.

The dissappointing thing is that you're getting ripped off that your CPU isn't fully performing as it should.

Aren't Macs suppose to be more efficient in terms of using the most processing power of what it has?

[Otto 83]

It would be nice to leave the 32-bit world behind and move completely into the 64-bit world but there's that darn backward-compatible issue holding up the line.

[Niels Bohr 72]

You are so right!

That is pretty much why 64 bit is still isn't 64 bit. Did anybody know that Windows 7 Home Premium only supports a max of 16 GB of memory? And, Windows 7 Ultimate supports a maximum of 192 GB of memory? (both 64 bits)

However, it is very much limited by the microprocessor as the latest Intel Core i7 960 processor that sells for 550 bucks USD does not support memory sizes above 24 GB!!!!! This makes me very furious!

It would be nice to leave the 32-bit world behind and move completely into the 64-bit world but there's that darn backward-compatible issue holding up the line.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Who uses 24gb in their machine?

[Niels Bohr 72]

Not now.

However, the movement to HD video, audio, high speed internet will make 24 GB used up very quickly!

If editing a 1 hour 1080p content from a camcorder, the more memory the better. Especially if you're recording 60GB of 1080p worth of video. Yes, the OS can use paging schemes as to not use all the memory so there's a memory overflow error, but, it does help if you have 24 GB of memory.

But, you won't use it now. Bill Gates in the 70s said, who needs more than 640k of memory. Took a decade. Then, in the 90s with FPM and EDO memory with 128 MB. Took 5 more years to get to 1 GB DDR....Then 2 years to DDR2 with 4 Gigs.....on and on....soon! The end of the world is near!

Who uses 24gb in their machine?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Its probably capped because the average user won't notice a difference and because it will require users to upgrade their machines sooner than they wouldn't if it wasn't.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

You are so right!

That is pretty much why 64 bit is still isn't 64 bit. Did anybody know that Windows 7 Home Premium only supports a max of 16 GB of memory? And, Windows 7 Ultimate supports a maximum of 192 GB of memory? (both 64 bits)

However, it is very much limited by the microprocessor as the latest Intel Core i7 960 processor that sells for 550 bucks USD does not support memory sizes above 24 GB!!!!! This makes me very furious!

How about the i7 975? Is that still maxed at 24GB? And what about the upcoming i9, any word on that?

[K and L 27]

Who uses 24gb in their machine?

My work computer has 24gb of RAM and I would be happier if it had another 8gb.

ETA: But I deal with large 3D video images, and have to do lots of image processing on them. The images I deal with, uncompressed, are typically 512 MB - 1.5GB in size, and I do a significant amount of manipulation with them. So I'm an oddball case - we use server grade systems to get as much RAM as we can.

Edited January 27, 2010 by K and L

[spookyturtle 9,466]

My work computer has 24gb of RAM and I would be happier if it had another 8gb.

What do you use it for?

[natty bumppo 297]

What do you use it for?

porn?

[K and L 27]

What do you use it for?

Work

Edited January 27, 2010 by K and L