22moondune

Hello all. I just upgraded the RAM in my PC to 4Gb from 2Gb and the difference is very noticeable. My motherboard states it can support up to 8Gb of RAM, so I have been considering upgrading to 8Gb. My question is this: I have the 64-bit Ubuntu Linux. From what I have heard, the 64-bit Linux distros have no max limit for RAM, but will the OS actually be able to utilize 8Gb? I appreciate your comments.

hal8000

A 32 bit CPU can only address 4GB of ram, thats a hardware limitation based on the number of address lines (32) availableto the CPU. With a 64bit CPU you the addressable memory is now 2^64 or 16.8 million terabytes. If you look on the Ubuntu forum you will see many people already using machines with 8GB of memory- but what you have to rememer is that not every application is written with a 64bit CPU's. In addition, memory usage depends on what functions youre running. Memory and resoucrce hungry tasks like compiling a new kernel, video editing, running multiple makes will happily eat up your ram, but youre probably not likely to notice much improvement in performance unless you perform labour intensive tasks.

22moondune

Thanks a lot hal8000. That answers my question. cheers!